An Iron Lady Recast

Margaret Thatcher: Shaping the New Conservatism by Meredith Veldman. Oxford University Press, 2016. Paperback, 232 pages, $16.95. CHRIS BUTYNSKYI The clock is counting down in England. Brexit (the exit of Britain from the European Union) is set to officially begin at...

The Evangelical Political Mind

American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism by Matthew Avery Sutton. Belknap Press, 2014 (2017). Paperback, 480 pages, $23. MATTHEW STOKES So much of the recent scholarly work done on evangelicals has focused on correlating characteristics of evangelicals:...
A Coat of Varnish

A Coat of Varnish

The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson. W. W. Norton & Company, 2017. Hardcover, 592 pages, $40. Reviewed by John Byron Kuhner Genius, said Goethe, reveals itself under conditions of constraint; great minds gather strength from limitation, be it the keys...

Zuckerberg’s Philosopher

The Orange Trees of Marrakesh: Ibn Khaldun and the Science of Man by Stephen Frederic Dale. Harvard University Press, 2015. Hardcover, 400 pages, $31. JAMES KALB This book, written, by an emeritus professor at Ohio State, is a useful and quite readable companion to...

Sparring Theists

Five Proofs of the Existence of God by Edward Feser. Ignatius Press, 2017. Paperback, 336 pages, $20. CASEY CHALK Almost fifteen years ago, Sam Harris’s best-seller The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reasoninaugurated what became known as the New...

A Liberal Pope for a Conservative Church

To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism by Ross Douthat. Simon & Schuster, 2018. Hardcover, 256 pages, $26. Lost Shepherd: How Pope Francis Is Misleading His Flock by Philip F. Lawler. Regnery Gateway, 2018. Hardcover, 256 pages, $27....

The Bible Refreshed

The Face of Water: A Translator on Beauty and Meaning in the Bible by Sarah Ruden. Pantheon Books, 2017. Hardcover, 232 pages, $27. ELIZABETH BITTNER “I have no formal qualifications whatsoever as a biblical scholar—not one degree, not even a single course credit.”...

On Aristotle: Impressive Interpretations

Aristotelian Interpretations by Fran O’Rourke. Irish Academic Press, 2016. Hardcover, 376 pages, $75. JAMES V. SCHALL, S. J. “The power of symbolic signification is possible only because the human mind has an unlimited openness to the entirety of reality, and can thus...

What’s Good for GM is Good for Marcuse

Conservatives Against Capitalism: From the Industrial Revolution to Globalization by Peter Kolozi. Columbia University Press, 2017. Hardcover, 250 pages. $60. GRANT HAVERS Right-wing opposition to capitalism is well-known in European politics. As Marx once noted, the...

What Punishment? Whose Community?

The Machinery of Criminal Justice by Stephanos Bibas. Oxford University Press, 2012, 2015. Paperback, 320 pages, $29. CHARLES FAIN LEHMAN It is rare to see, especially from the right, a critique of the modern American criminal justice system that focuses not just on...