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.”

A Philosopher of Ordinary Language

Wittgenstein: From Mysticism to Ordinary Language by Russell Nieli. SUNY Press 1987, 261 pp., $32 paper. One of the persistent themes of the Enlightenment was the need to simplify philosophy, to disentangle it from the rhetoric and methods of scholasticism, and to...

chords of wonder

All great systems, ethical or political, attain their ascendency over the minds of men by virtue of their appeal to the imagination; and when they cease to touch the chords of wonder and mystery and hope, their power is lost, and men look elsewhere for some set of...

Christopher Lasch, Conservative?

Hope in a Scattering Time: A Life of Christopher Lasch by Eric Miller. Eerdmans, 2010. Cloth, 394 pages, $32. Christopher Lasch (1932–1994) has often posed a categorical problem for conservatives despite his insightful criticisms of liberalism. On many issues,...

The Household Gods of Freedom

John Randolph of Roanoke: A Study in American Politics by Russell Kirk. Third ed., with select letters & speeches. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1978. [Fourth edition, 1997, cloth $24, paper $14.50.] For Southerners of my antique persuasion, Russell Kirk’s John Randolph...

The Kind of Man Modernity Can Afford

Adventures of an Accidental Sociologist: How to Explain the World Without Becoming a Bore by Peter L. Berger. Prometheus Books, 2011, 264pp, hardcover, $26.A good friend studied sociology at Boston University where Peter Berger spent much of his career. He recalls...

What Is Happening to History?

In 1979 millions of Americans will have spent twenty-three to twenty-six years (about one-third of their expectable lifespan) in schools without having had a single history course. During the late Sixties the majority of colleges and universities abandoned all history...

Freedom Complex

On the Road to Emmaus: The Catholic Dialogue with America and Modernity by Glenn W. Olsen. The Catholic University of America Press, 2012. 303 pp., $70. The Gospel account of the disciples meeting Christ on the road to Emmaus has long been understood as a metaphor for...

Belloc’s Social Thought

Hilaire Belloc, Edwardian Radical by John P. McCarthy. Liberty Press, 1978 [IHS Press, 2009, 373 pages.] To have known someone very intimately and loved him very dearly is not a good qualification for making a useful judgment of his work. Under these limitations, not...

Charles W. Colson

Charles W. Colson

The Russell Kirk Center is sad to hear of the death of Chuck Colson. He will mostly be remembered for the wonderful work he did with prisoners, giving their lives dignity and meaning. After his time in prison, Colson devoted himself to cultural renewal, which he saw...

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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