The University Bookman

Reviewing Books that Build Culture

Join friends of the Bookman in New York City on December 8, 2025 for the Gerald Russello Memorial Lecture.

Defending the Christian Faith

“In 100 Tough Questions For Catholics: Common Obstacles To Faith Today… David G. Bonagura, Jr. gives bite-sized answers to dozens of big questions about the faith.”

How to Love What is Permanent

“Throughout the book, Gibbs pleads with his readers that we not only think of the soul in terms of salvation but also in terms of health. Good taste won’t save one’s soul. But it will nourish the soul and incline the soul towards virtue much more than the bad taste we will acquire from mediocre things.”

Personalism in the Age of AI

“Personalism is a philosophical movement that places the human person at the center of inquiry, affirming the inherent dignity, value, and uniqueness of each individual. While it spans both religious and secular traditions, its common thread is a commitment to defending the irreducible reality of the person in an age increasingly shaped by systems, technologies, and abstractions.”

Christopher Dawson and Pluralism

“In particular, I want to examine three aspects of Dawson’s thought: his conclusion that cultures, especially Western culture, historically have been pluralist; his contention that a pluralism of cultures preserves a sphere of freedom from dominant modern ideologies that would eliminate that freedom; and finally, Dawson’s conviction that a pluralist world represents a new opportunity for evangelization.”

Diagnosing the Immodest Republic

The Culture of Immodesty in American Life and Politics: The Modest Republic, edited by Michael P. Federici, Richard M. Gamble, and Mark T. Mitchell. Palgrave MacMillan, 2013. Hardcover, 236 pages, $95. Reviewed by Gracy Olmstead In times past, the word “modesty” spoke...

The Pink Police State and Risk

James Poulos, whom the Bookman interviewed in 2009 about “postmodern conservatism,” recently wrote a series of pieces for The Federalist on what he describes as the “pink police state,” a kind of totalitarian regime that neither contemporary liberalism nor...

The Worseness Accelerating

James Poulos, whom the Bookman interviewed in 2009 about “postmodern conservatism,” recently wrote a series of pieces for the Federalist on what he describes as the “pink police state,” a kind of totalitarian regime that neither contemporary liberalism nor...

A Theological Reflection on Virtual Religion

Virtually Sacred: Myth and Meaning in World of Warcraft and Second Life, by Robert M. Geraci. Oxford University Press, 2014. Hardcover, 368 pages, $35.Reviewed by Matthew C. MillsapAs individuals living in the twenty-first century, we find ourselves unable to deny the...

Making Meaning in Virtual Worlds

The Bookman speaks with Robert Geraci on findings from his new book on virtual religious practices and faith alternatives among users of online role-playing games.

Playing for Virtual Transcendence

Virtually Sacred: Myth and Meaning in World of Warcraft and Second Life, by Robert M. Geraci. Oxford University Press, 2014. Hardcover, 368 pages, $35. Reviewed by Kevin Schut In Virtually Sacred, religious studies scholar Robert M. Geraci tackles the topic of...

Playfulness and Profundity

Virtually Sacred: Myth and Meaning in World of Warcraft and Second Life, by Robert M. Geraci. Oxford University Press, 2014. Hardcover, 368 pages, $35.Reviewed by Daniel J. HolmesIt requires a certain sense of academic playfulness to take a theological approach to...

Navigating a Secular Age

How (Not) to Be Secular by James K. A. Smith. Eerdmans, 2014. Paper, 152 pages, $16.In early August I went backpacking in the Glacier Peak Wilderness of the North Cascades. The terrain was unfamiliar to me, and I knew very little of what to expect other than what I...

No More Idols: Taking Measure of a Modern Prophet

No More Idols: Taking Measure of a Modern Prophet

Solzhenitsyn and the Modern World by Edward E. Ericson, Jr. Regnery Gateway 1993. Cloth, xi + 432 pp., $24. As breathing returns after our swoon, as a glimmer of consciousness breaks through the unrelieved darkness, it is difficult for us at first to regain our...

The Book Gallery

A collection of conversations with Bookman editor Luke C. Sheahan and writers and authors of imagination and erudition.

How to Love What is Permanent
Sarah Reardon on "Love What Lasts: How to Save Your Soul From Mediocrity" by Joshua Gibbs.
@CirceInstitute

Personalism in the Age of AI Grant R. Martsolf on "Personalism for the Twenty-First Century: Essays in Honor of David Walsh" Edited by Thomas W. Holman and Richard Avramenko.
@RLPublisher

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