On Ian Fleming as Craftsman

On Ian Fleming as Craftsman

by Jordan M. Poss According to Ian Fleming, writing in 1963, “the craft of writing sophisticated thrillers is almost dead.” This provocation, the opening line of his essay, “How to Write a Thriller,” may be evergreen. It was difficult then and is difficult now to find...
Lawyers, Natural Law, and the Problem of Pride

Lawyers, Natural Law, and the Problem of Pride

The Decline of Natural Law: How American Lawyers Once Used Natural Law and Why They Stopped by Stuart Banner. Oxford University Press, 2021. Hardcover, 264 pages, $50. Reviewed by Bruce P. Frohnen This important book picks up where R. H. Helmholz’s groundbreaking...
Democracy and Iniquity

Democracy and Iniquity

We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy by Robert Tracy McKenzie. IVP Academic, 2021. Hardcover, 304 pages, $28. Reviewed by Casey Chalk As U.S. troops continued their exit from Afghanistan this summer, a former high-school history...
Gazing Into the Abyss with Charles Taylor

Gazing Into the Abyss with Charles Taylor

Avenues of Faith: Conversations with Jonathan Guilbault by Charles Taylor, trans. by Yanette Shalter. Baylor University Press, 2020. Hardcover, 92 pages, $30. Reviewed by Jeffrey Wald I love short books. I love long books too; completing War and Peace a few years back...
Desire Is the Human Condition

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...
‘God, If There Was a God’

‘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...