Desire Is the Human Condition
Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life by Luke Burgis. St Martins Press, 2021. Hardcover, 304 pp, $29. Reviewed by Thomas J Bevan “All are lunatics,” Ambrose Bierce once said, “but he who can analyze his delusion is called a philosopher.” And the...
Wild, and the Problem of Evil
All Things Left Wild: A Novel by James Wade. Blackstone Publishing, 2020. Hardcover, 304 pages, $28. Reviewed by Christopher Landrum Life in itself is neither good nor evil; it is the scene of good or evil, as you make it. And, if you have lived a day, you have seen...
‘God, If There Was a God’
Missionaries: A Novel by Phil Klay. Penguin Press, 2020, Hardcover, 416 pages, $28. Reviewed by Joshua Hren It isn’t surprising that Joseph Ratzinger’s Introduction to Christianity begins by immersing us in the rejection thereof, the highways of doubt and the...
A People’s History of Philadelphia
Philadelphia Stories: People and Their Places in Early America by C. Dallett Hemphill, edited by Rodney Hessinger and Daniel K. Richter. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021. Hardcover, 392 pages, $35. Reviewed by Addison Del Mastro Philadelphia Stories: People and...
The Place of Punctuation in Literary Art
Mark My Words: Profiles of Punctuation in Modern Literature by Lee Clark Mitchell. Bloomsbury Academic, 2020. Softcover, 166 pages, $15. Reviewed by Oliver Spivey Many literature professors have long expressed their embarrassment at simply professing literature. Not...
An Education for the Future
Glory in All Things: St. Benedict and Catholic Education Today by André Gushurst-Moore. Angelico Press, 2020. Paperback, 170 pages, $17.95. Reviewed by John C. Pinheiro Controversy in Catholic education did not begin with the 1967 Land O’Lakes Declaration. How best to...
Does Junior Know Best?
The Handsome Little Cygnet By Matthew Mehan. TAN Books, 2021. Hardcover, 48 pages, $19.95. Reviewed by Esther O’Reilly Once upon a time in the city, there was a handsome little cygnet whose parents loved him very much. So begins Matthew Mehan’s newest illustrated...
Books in Little: A Political Theodicy
The Theology of Liberalism: Political Philosophy and the Justice of God By Eric Nelson. Harvard University Press, 2019. Hardback, 232 pages, $31. Reviewed by Glenn Moots It would be unfair to say that Eric Nelson’s The Theology of Liberalism is incoherent; it is...
Thoughtless Mechanism
Rebooting AI: Building Artificial Intelligence We Can Trust By Gary Marcus and Ernest Davis. Pantheon Books, 2019. Hardcover, 288 pages, $29. Reviewed by Nicholas Meverel Some years ago, without fanfare, the phrase “artificial intelligence” began to refer no longer to...
Timely, for sure. Hope @realdonaldtrump is reading.