New Books in Catholic Studies
Episodes
Mother of All Nations: Immaculate Conception, Virgin Birth, Assumption, and Coronation of Mary
04 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Robert Fastiggi discusses Catholic doctrine about the Immaculate Conception, Virgin Birth, Assumption, and Coronation of Mary, the Mother of God. He a...
Mary, Full of Grace: Catholic Beliefs about Mary and How We Know
03 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Chris Padgett explains Catholic doctrine about the Virgin Mary and how both Sacred Tradition and Scripture inform the Magisterium. He talks about his ...
Joel Robbins, "Theology and the Anthropology of Christian Life" (Oxford UP, 2020)
03 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Anthropological theory can radically transform our understanding of human experience and offer theologians an introduction to the interdisciplinary na...
The Little Way: Making Friends with the Saints
02 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Lauren Nelson discusses St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Way, the communion of saints, which is really quite close. She also talks about her minis...
Divine Intoxication: A Discussion about Alcoholism, Grace, Sainthood, and Women in the Church
01 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Author Heather King discusses her journey from the alcoholic abyss to redemption and new life (which she described in her book, Parched, 2006), St. Th...
The Gospels in the Early Church: Evidence for the Chronology and Transmission of the Christian Scriptures
31 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Matthew Thomas returns to explain how we can place the Gospels in time and context using both internal clues (literary evidence) and the ext...
Catholic Movies, Part 1: "Silence" and "The Scarlet and the Black"
30 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jonathan Fessenden and I talk about two movies, Martin Scorsese’s Silence (2016) and Jerry London’s The Scarlet and the Black (1983) and what ...
The Silence of God: The Meaning of Our Suffering and Redemption
29 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Makoto Fujimura, world-famous contemporary painter with global cultural influence, talks about his art, his thinking and writing about Shūsaku Endō'...
Quo Vademus? The Pilgrim Church on the Road of Synodality
28 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For two years Sr Nathalie Becquart has been in charge of the Church’s Synod on Synodality, coordinating the responses of millions of Catholics from ...
Who Wrote the Bible? Sorting out the History of the Bible We Have.
27 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Matthew Thomas, theologian and biblical scholar, explains how the Bible got to be the Bible, how confident we can be in its historicity, and on what a...
How Do We Know There is a God? Rational Proofs for a Loving God
26 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
David Basile explains Thomas Aquinas's cosmological proofs for God. David is department chair of Theology at Archbishop Rummel High School in Metarie,...
Martyrs in Mosul: A Conversation on Christian Persecution with Father Benedict Kiely
20 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
With Christmas approaching, in this episode we reflect on Christian persecution in the Middle East, the historic cradle of Christianity and the birthp...
Richard Brian Miller, "Why Study Religion?" (Oxford UP, 2021)
20 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Can the study of religion be justified? Scholarship in religion, especially work in "theory and method," is preoccupied with matters of research proce...
Karma Ben-Johanan, "Jacob’s Younger Brother: Christian-Jewish Relations after Vatican II" (Harvard UP, 2022)
20 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jacob’s Younger Brother: Christian-Jewish Relations after Vatican II (Harvard University Press, 2022) by Dr. Karma Ben-Johanan presents a revealing...
Kathleen Sprows Cummings, "A Saint of Our Own: How the Quest for a Holy Hero Helped Catholics Become American" (UNC Press, 2019
17 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In A Saint of Our Own: How the Quest for a Holy Hero Helped Catholics Become American (University of North Carolina Press, 2019), Kathleen Sprows Cu...
Barbara E. Mattick, "Teaching in Black and White: The Sisters of St. Joseph in the American South" (Catholic U of America Press
07 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Teaching in Black and White: The Sisters of St. Joseph in the American South (Catholic University of America Press, 2022) discusses the work of the S...
Mary Channen Caldwell, "Devotional Refrains in Medieval Latin Song" (Cambridge UP, 2022)
07 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Channen Caldwell in her new book Devotional Refrains in Medieval Latin Song (Cambridge University Press 2022) opens up new avenues for invest...
Henni Alava, "Christianity, Politics and the Afterlives of War in Uganda: There is Confusion" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
01 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today I had the pleasure of talking to Dr. Henni Alava, postdoctoral researcher at Tampere University, on her fascinating new book published by Bloo...
William Marling, "Christian Anarchist: Ammon Hennacy, A Life on the Catholic Left" (NYU Press, 2022)
29 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ammon Hennacy was arrested over thirty times for opposing US entry in World War 1. Later, when he refused to pay taxes that support war, he lost his w...
The Future of Religious Studies: A Conversation with Russell McCutcheon
28 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Russell McCutcheon shares his views on the academic study of religion, and the path ahead for religion graduates and the field itself. McCutcheon is ...
Kathryn Dickason, "Ringleaders of Redemption: How Medieval Dance Became Sacred" (Oxford UP, 2021)
25 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In popular thought, Christianity is often figured as being opposed to dance. Conventional scholarship traces this controversy back to the Middle Ages....
Aidan Enright, "Charles Owen O'Conor, the O'Conor Don: Landlordism, Liberal Catholicism and Unionism in Nineteenth-Century Ireland" (Four Courts, 2022)
24 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Aidan Enright holds a PhD in History from Queen’s University Belfast and is an Associate Researcher and Part-Time Lecturer in History at Leeds Becke...
Mary Dunn, "Where Paralytics Walk and the Blind See: Stories of Sickness and Disability at the Juncture of Worlds" (Princeton UP, 2022)
17 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In our age of biomedicine, society often treats sickness and disability as problems in need of solution. Phenomena of embodied difference, however, ha...
Kathryn Gin Lum, "Heathen: Religion and Race in American History" (Harvard UP, 2022)
11 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Heathen: Religion and Race in American History (Harvard University Press, 2022), Kathryn Gin Lum shows how the idea of the “heathen” has been...
Anna von der Goltz, "The Other '68ers: Student Protest and Christian Democracy in West Germany" (Oxford UP, 2021)
08 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Anna von der Goltz’s The Other ‘68ers: Student Protest and Christian Democracy in West Germany (Oxford University Press, 2021) is a history of 1...
Kimlyn J. Bender and D. Stephen Long, "T&T Clark Handbook of Ecclesiology" (T&T Clark, 2020)
08 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The T&T Clark Handbook of Ecclesiology, edited by Kimlyn J. Bender and D. Stephen Long (T&T Clark: 2020), provides a wide-ranging survey and analys...
Joseph Valente and Margot Gayle Backus, "The Child Sex Scandal and Modern Irish Literature: Writing the Unspeakable" (Indiana UP, 2020)
03 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What can James Joyce, Kate O’Brien, Edna O’Brien, Keith Ridgway, Tana French, and Anne Enright tell us about Ireland’s culture of child sexual a...
Victor Stater, "Hoax: The Popish Plot That Never Was" (Yale UP, 2022)
31 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The extraordinary story of the Popish Plot and how it shaped the political and religious future of Britain In 1678, a handful of perjurers claimed tha...
Ron E. Hassner, "Anatomy of Torture" (Cornell UP, 2022)
26 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Does torture "work?" Can controversial techniques such as waterboarding extract crucial and reliable intelligence? Since 9/11, this question has been ...
Camilla Russell, "Being a Jesuit in Renaissance Italy: Biographical Writing in the Early Global Age" (Harvard UP, 2022)
21 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Society of Jesus was established in 1540. In the century that followed, thousands sought to become Jesuits and pursue vocations in religious servi...
Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall, "The Abbe Gregoire and the French Revolution: The Making of Modern Universalism" (U California Press, 2021)
20 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this age of globalization, the eighteenth-century priest and abolitionist Henri Grégoire have often been called a man ahead of his time. An icon o...
Randall Balmer, "Passion Plays: How Religion Shaped Sports in North America" (UNC Press, 2022)
20 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Randall Balmer was a late convert to sports talk radio, but he quickly became addicted, just like millions of other devoted American sports fans. As a...
Gina Zurlo, "Global Christianity: A Guide to the World's Largest Religion from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe" (Zondervan Academic, 2022)
14 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Christianity is now a majority-global South religion, with more believers living in Africa, Asia, and Latin America than in Europe and North America. ...
John D'Emilio, "Memories of a Gay Catholic Boyhood: Coming of Age in the Sixties" (Duke UP, 2022)
12 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of the Queer Voices podcast, John Marszalek interviews author John D’Emilio, one of the leading historians of his generation and a ...
S. Karly Kehoe, "Empire and Emancipation: Scottish and Irish Catholics at the Atlantic Fringe, 1780–1850" (U Toronto Press, 2021)
07 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Empire and Emancipation: Scottish and Irish Catholics at the Atlantic Fringe, 1780–1850 (U Toronto Press, 2021) by Dr. S. Karly Kehoe explores how ...
Martha Rampton, "Trafficking with Demons: Magic, Ritual, and Gender from Late Antiquity to 1000" (Cornell UP, 2021)
05 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Martha Rampton, Trafficking with Demons: Magic, Ritual, and Gender from Late Antiquity to 1000 (Cornell University Press, 2021) explores how magic ...
Maria Berbara, "Sacrifice and Conversion in the Early Modern Atlantic World" (Harvard UP, 2022)
30 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When Europeans came to the American continent in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, they were confronted with what they perceived as sacrificial p...
Sean Brennan, "The KGB and the Vatican: Secrets of the Mitrokhin Files" (CUA Press, 2022)
30 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
One of the greatest ironies of the history of Soviet rule is that, for an officially atheistic state, those in the political police and in the Politbu...
Writing/Reading the Bible in Postcolonial Perspective
27 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The intricacies of imperialism and colonialism within the context of the Bible are nuanced and varied. Understanding the legacy of European Imperialis...
Abigail Shinn, "Conversion Narratives in Early Modern England: Tales of Turning" (Palgrave, 2018)
22 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why did early modern people change their religious affiliation? And how did they represent that change in writing? In this outstanding new book, Conve...
Randall Balmer, "Passion Plays: How Religion Shaped Sports in North America" (UNC Press, 2022)
20 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Randall Balmer was a late convert to sports talk radio, but he quickly became addicted, just like millions of other devoted American sports fans. As a...
On How the Vatican Makes Saints
16 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Joe Drape is an award-winning sportswriter for the New York Times. He is the author of six books, including the New York Times bestsellers Our Boy...
Felicia Wu Song, "Restless Devices: Recovering Personhood, Presence, and Place in the Digital Age" (InterVarsity Press, 2021)
14 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We're being formed by our devices. Unpacking the soft tyranny of the digital age, Felicia Wu Song combines insights from psychology, neuroscience, soc...
The Future of the Jesuits: A Discussion with Markus Friedrich
06 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After its founding in 1540 by an aristocrat turned spiritualist turned intellectual, Ignatius of Loyola, the Society of Jesus—or the Jesuits—estab...
Emily Michelson, "Catholic Spectacle and Rome's Jews: Early Modern Conversion and Resistance" (Princeton UP, 2022)
29 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Starting in the sixteenth century, Jews in Rome were forced, every Saturday, to attend a hostile sermon aimed at their conversion. Harshly policed, th...
Jeroen Dewulf, "Afro-Atlantic Catholics: America's First Black Christians" (U Notre Dame Press, 2022)
26 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Black Christianity in America has long been studied as a blend of indigenous African and Protestant elements. Jeroen Dewulf redirects the conversation...
Jonathon L. Earle and J. J. Carney, "Contesting Catholics: Benedicto Kiwanuka and the Birth of Postcolonial Uganda" (Boydell & Brewer, 2021)
19 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Assassinated by Idi Amin and a democratic ally of J.F. Kennedy during the Cold War, Benedicto Kiwanuka was Uganda's most controversial and disruptive ...
Marc Roscoe Loustau, "Hungarian Catholic Intellectuals in Contemporary Romania: Reforming Apostles" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2022)
17 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Set against the backdrop of the rise of right-wing Christian nationalism in Eastern Europe, this book declares that Catholic theologians ought to be u...
Sarosh Koshy, "Beyond Missio Dei: Contesting Mission, Rethinking Witness" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2021)
12 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Beyond Missio Dei: Contesting Mission, Rethinking Witness (Palgrave MacMillan, 2021), Sarosh Koshy strives to go beyond the mission model of Chri...
Jordan Denari Duffner, "Islamophobia: What Christians Should Know (and Do) about Anti-Muslim Discrimination" (Orbis, 2021)
11 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jordan Denari Duffner is an author and scholar of Muslim-Christian relations, interreligious dialogue, and Islamophobia. Jordan is currently pursuing ...
Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brettler, "The Bible with and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently" (HarperOne, 2020)
03 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In The Bible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently (HarperOne, 2020), Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Zvi Brett...
David Konstan, "The Origin of Sin: Greece and Rome, Early Judaism and Christianity" (Bloomsbury, 2022)
28 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Where did the idea of sin arise from? In The Origin of Sin: Greece and Rome, Early Judaism and Christianity (Bloomsbury, 2022), David Konstan takes ...
James P. Byrd and James Hudnut-Beumler, "The Story of Religion in America: An Introduction" (Westminster John Knox Press, 2021)
25 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Story of Religion in America: An Introduction (Westminster John Knox Press, 2021) presents the broad scope of the story of religion in the Ameri...
Chrysovalantis Kyriacou, "Orthodox Cyprus Under the Latins, 1191-1571: Society, Spirituality, and Identities" (Lexington Books, 2018)
22 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Medieval and Renaissance Cyprus was a fascinating place of ethnic, cultural, and religious encounters. Following almost nine centuries of Byzantine ru...
Philippe Denis, "The Genocide Against the Tutsi, and the Rwandan Churches: Between Grief and Denial" (James Currey, 2022)
17 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why did some sectors of the Rwandan churches adopt an ambiguous attitude towards the genocide against the Tutsi which claimed the lives of around 800,...
Travis W. Proctor, "Demonic Bodies and the Dark Ecologies of Early Christian Culture" (Oxford UP, 2022)
12 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Drawing insights from gender studies and the environmental humanities, Demonic Bodies and the Dark Ecologies of Early Christian Culture (Oxford UP, ...
Shannen Dee Williams, "Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle" (Duke UP, 2022)
11 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle (Duke UP, 2022), Shannen Dee Williams, provides the first f...
Annette G. Aubert and Zachary Purvis, "Transatlantic Religion: Europe, America, and the Making of Modern Christianity" (Brill, 2021)
05 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Annette G. Aubert and Zachary Purvis' edited volume Transatlantic Religion: Europe, America, and the Making of Modern Christianity (Brill, 2021) off...
Andrew Sneddon, "Representing Magic in Modern Ireland: Belief, History, Culture" (Cambridge UP, 2022)
21 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Representing Magic in Modern Ireland: Belief, History, Culture (Cambridge UP, 2022), Andrew Sneddon argues that Ireland did not experience a di...
Paul T. Murray, "Seeing Jesus in the Eyes of the Oppressed: Franciscans Working for Peace and Justice" (AAFH, 2022)
20 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Following World War II, the United States enjoyed unprecedented prosperity as the post-war economy exploded. While Americans pondered affluence, U.S. ...
Thomas Dixon and Adam Shapiro, "Science and Religion: A Very Short Introduction" Second Edition. (Oxford UP, 2022)
16 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Debates about science and religion are rarely out of the news. Whether it concerns what's being taught in schools, clashes between religious values an...
Virginia Reinburg, "Storied Places: Pilgrim Shrines, Nature, and History in Early Modern France" (Cambridge UP, 2019)
10 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Virginia Reinburg about her book Storied Places: Pilgrim Shrines, Nature, and History in Early Modern France (Cambridge UP, 2019)...
Paul Pearson, "Spiritual Direction from Dante: Yearning for Paradise" (Tan, 2022)
09 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Many people search for heavenly bliss on earth, allured by all the world has to offer. In Paradiso, the third volume of his masterpiece, the Divine ...
Robert Chao Romero, "Brown Church: Five Centuries of Latina/o Social Justice, Theology, and Identity" (InterVarsity Press, 2020)
03 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For five hundred years, Latina/o culture and identity have been shaped by their challenges to the religious, socio-economic, and political status quo,...
John K. Roth and Carol Rittner, "The Memory of Goodness: Eva Fleischner and Her Contributions to Holocaust Studies" (NCCHE, 2022)
01 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today I talked to Carol Rittner and John K. Roth about their edited volume The Memory of Goodness: Eva Fleischner and her contributions to Holocaus...
James Clark, "The Dissolution of the Monasteries: A New History" (Yale UP, 2021)
26 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In a mere four years, England’s monastic tradition—one of the richest in all of Europe—came to an end. The Dissolution of the Monasteries, as it...
Peter Kreeft, "Three Philosophies of Life: Ecclesiastes, Job, and Song of Songs" (Ignatius Press, 2016)
20 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"I've been a philosopher for all my adult life and the three most profound books of philosophy that I have ever read are Ecclesiastes, Job, and Song o...
Maria Chiara Rioli, "A Liminal Church: Refugees, Conversions and the Latin Diocese of Jerusalem, 1946–1956" (Brill, 2020)
13 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The history of the Palestine War does not only concern military history. It also involves social, humanitarian and religious history, as in the case o...
Katherine Dugan, "Millennial Missionaries: How a Group of Young Catholics Is Trying to Make Catholicism Cool" (Oxford UP, 2019)
10 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Millennials in the U.S. have been characterized as uninterested in religion, as defectors from religious institutions, and as agnostic about the role ...
Piotr H. Kosicki, "Catholics on the Barricades: Poland, France, and 'Revolution,' 1891-1956" (Yale UP, 2018)
09 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Poland in the 1940s and '50s, a new kind of Catholic intended to remake European social and political life--not with guns, but French philosophy. P...
Sarah Walsh, "The Religion of Life: Eugenics, Race, and Catholicism in Chile" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2021)
05 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Religion of Life: Eugenics, Race, and Catholicism in Chile (U Pittsburgh Press, 2021) examines the interconnections and relationship between Cath...
Stanley Bill, "Czesław Miłosz's Faith in the Flesh: Body, Belief, and Human Identity" (Oxford UP, 2021)
04 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Czesław Miłosz’s Faith in the Flesh: Body, Belief, and Human Identity (Oxford University Press, 2021), Cambridge professor Stanley Bill offer...
On Mary Magdalene in the Reformation
02 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Margaret Arnold is the Associate Rector of Grace Episcopal Church in Medford, Massachusetts. She received her PhD in Religious and Theological Studies...
Jennifer K. Seman, "Borderlands Curanderos: The Worlds of Santa Teresa Urrea and Don Pedrito Jaramillo" (U Texas Press, 2021)
25 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Recent global events have unmasked inequitable healthcare systems that disproportionately affect poor Latinx populations along the U.S-Mexico border. ...
Charly Coleman, "The Spirit of French Capitalism: Economic Theology in the Age of Enlightenment" (Stanford UP, 2021)
25 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Charly Coleman's latest book, The Spirit of French Capitalism: Economic Theology in the Age of Enlightenment (Stanford University Press, 2021) is at...
Michael Graziano, "Errand Into the Wilderness of Mirrors: Religion and the History of the CIA" (U Chicago Press, 2021)
22 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Graziano’s intriguing book fuses two landmark titles in American history: Perry Miller’s Errand into the Wilderness (1956), about the re...
James C. Ungureanu, "Science, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition: Retracing the Origins of Conflict" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2019)
12 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The story of the “conflict thesis” between science and religion—the notion of perennial conflict or warfare between the two—is part of our mod...
Patrick J. McDonagh, "Gay and Lesbian Activism in the Republic of Ireland, 1973-93" (Bloomsbury, 2021)
08 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ireland’s 2015 Marriage Equality referendum is often framed as an incredible achievement just twenty years after sex between men was decriminalized ...
Shawn Michael Austin, "Colonial Kinship: Guaraní, Spaniards, and Africans in Paraguay" (U New Mexico Press, 2020)
07 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Colonial Kinship: Guaraní, Spaniards, and Africans in Paraguay (U New Mexico Press, 2020), historian Shawn Michael Austin traces the history of ...
Mark Newman, "Desegregating Dixie: The Catholic Church in the South and Desegregation, 1945-1992" (UP of Mississippi, 2018)
01 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Desegregating Dixie: The Catholic Church in the South and Desegregation, 1945-1992 (UP of Mississippi, 2018), Mark Newman draws on a vast range ...
Lucy Donkin, "Standing on Holy Ground in the Middle Ages" (Cornell UP, 2022)
01 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Lucy Donkin’s Standing on Holy Ground in the Middle Ages (Cornell University Press, 2022) illuminates how the floor surface shaped the ways in...
Elayne Oliphant, "The Privilege of Being Banal: Art, Secularism, and Catholicism in Paris" (UChicago Press, 2021)
25 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
France, officially, is a secular nation. Yet Catholicism is undeniably a monumental presence, defining the temporal and spatial rhythms of Paris. At t...
Michael D. Breidenbach, "Our Dear-Bought Liberty: Catholics and Religious Toleration in Early America" (Harvard UP, 2021)
24 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Here is a fun quiz question. What distinction does Charles Carroll (1737–1832) hold in American History? Answer: he was the longest-surviving signer...
On Medieval Christianity and Monastic Worlds
23 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Rabia Gregory’s primary research interest is the history of Christianity in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. She approaches the study of ...
Joanna Mishtal, "The Politics of Morality: The Church, the State, and Reproductive Rights in Postsocialist Poland" (Ohio UP, 2015)
21 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the fall of 2020, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal decreed that the country’s near-total ban on abortion was too liberal; henceforth, pregnanci...
Wendy E. S. North, "What John Knew and What John Wrote: A Study in John and the Synoptics" (Fortress, 2020)
18 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In What John Knew and What John Wrote: A Study in John and the Synoptics (Fortress, 2020), Wendy E. S. North investigates whether or not the author ...
On Jesuits and Zen
17 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Robert Kennedy, S.J. is one of several practicing Catholic men and women who are recognized by the Buddhist community as zen teachers. He is the autho...
Katherine D. Moran, "The Imperial Church: Catholic Founding Fathers and United States Empire" (Cornell UP, 2020)
16 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Through a fascinating discussion of religion's role in the rhetoric of American civilizing empire, The Imperial Church: Catholic Founding Fathers and...
Sophie Cooper, "Forging Identities in the Irish World: Melbourne and Chicago, 1840-1922" (Edinburgh UP, 2022)
14 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Forging Identities in the Irish World: Melbourne and Chicago, 1840-1922 (Edinburgh UP, 2022,) explores the shifting influences of religious demograph...
Carl R. Weinberg, "Red Dynamite: Creationism, Culture Wars, and Anticommunism In America" (Cornell UP, 2021)
10 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Red Dynamite: Creationism, Culture Wars, and Anticommunism In America (Cornell UP, 2021), Carl R. Weinberg argues that creationism's tenacious ho...
Jadwiga Biskupska, "Survivors: Warsaw under Nazi Occupation" (Cambridge UP, 2022)
04 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Survivors tells the harrowing story of life in Warsaw under Nazi occupation. As the epicenter of Polish resistance, Warsaw was subjected to violent pe...
Konrad Schmid and Jens Schröter, "The Making of the Bible: From the First Fragments to Sacred Scripture" (Harvard UP, 2021)
03 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Bible as we know it today is best understood as a process, one that begins in the tenth century BCE. In The Making of the Bible: From the First F...
Lu Ann Homza, "Village Infernos and Witches' Advocates: Witch-hunting in Navarre, 1608-1614" (Pennsylvania State UP, 2022)
02 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today we talk to Lu Ann Homza about her new book, Village Infernos and Witches' Advocates: Witch-Hunting in Navarre, 1608-1614 (Penn State Press, 20...
Jon Butler, "God in Gotham: The Miracle of Religion in Modern Manhattan" (Harvard UP, 2020)
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Gilded Age Manhattan, Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant leaders agonized over the fate of traditional religious practice amid chaotic and multiplyin...
Darian R. Lockett, "Letters for the Church: Reading James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, and Jude as Canon" (InterVarsity Press, 2021)
23 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Catholic Epistles often get short shrift. Tucked into a few pages near the back of our Bibles, these books are sometimes referred to as the "non-P...
Sarah Shortall, "Soldiers of God in a Secular World: Catholic Theology and Twentieth-Century French Politics" (Harvard UP, 2021)
21 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Soldiers of God in a Secular World: Catholic Theology and Twentieth-Century French Politics (Harvard University Press, 2021), Sarah Shortall exam...
Nicholas Orme, "Going to Church in Medieval England" (Yale UP, 2021)
16 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For people in medieval England, the parish church was an integral part of their community. In Going to Church in Medieval England (Yale University P...
Phillip A. Cantrell, "Revival and Reconciliation: The Anglican Church and the Politics of Rwanda" (U Wisconsin Press, 2022)
10 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In recent years, the media has depicted Rwanda as a model of unity, development, and recovery. Dr. Cantrell II argues that not all is as it seems in ...
Margaret M. Scull, "The Catholic Church and the Northern Ireland Troubles, 1968-1998" (Oxford UP, 2019)
08 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Until surprisingly recently, the history of the Irish Catholic Church during the Northern Irish Troubles was written by Irish priests and bishops and ...
Tracy Collins, "Female Monasticism in Medieval Ireland: An Archaeology" (Cork UP, 2021)
04 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Female Monasticism in Medieval Ireland: An Archaeology (Cork UP, 2021), Dr. Tracy Collins writes the first archaeological investigation into fem...