Reading as a Spiritual Practice
Reading for the Love of God: How to Read as a Spiritual Practice By Jessica Hooten Wilson. Brazos Press, 2023. Hardcover, 208 pages, $24.99. Reviewed by James E. Hartley. “Until very recent years, civilized folk took it for granted that literature exists to form the...
The Celebrity-Industrial Complex
Celebrities for Jesus: How Personas, Platforms, and Profits are Hurting the Church By Katelyn Beaty. Brazos Press, 2022. Hardcover, 208 pages, $24.99. Reviewed by James E. Hartley. “The celebrity,” opined Daniel Boorstein, “is a person who is known for his...
Beyond Black and White
The Man Who Lived Underground by Richard Wright. Library of America, 2021. Hardcover, 240 pages, $23. Reviewed by James E. Hartley Richard Wright’s most recently published novel is a cause célèbre. The Man Who Lived Underground, originally written in 1941, was...
Is the Religious Right Really so Incomprehensible?
Religion and the Rise of Capitalism By Benjamin M. Freidman. Alfred A. Knopf, 2021. Hardcover, 560 pages, $37.50 Reviewed by James E. Hartley Sometimes it seems like discussions in this country are taking place in two isolated camps. Every now and then, that suspicion...
"The first question, and perhaps the most pressing one when reviewing a book by @McCormickProf, is this: Even in the comparatively small world of intellectual conservatism, is there anything George isn’t doing?" - R. McKay Stangler in @ubookman
"Nonetheless, admittedly indirect evidence has been put forth, evidence which at least suggests that Hoover might have been inadvertently onto something when he successfully proposed replacing the notion of a relatively quick “panic” with something more drawn out, maybe even