Elizabeth Bruenig Jesus, Mary, and Mary ‘Virgin Whore’ by Emma Maggie Solberg and ‘The Magdalene in the Reformation’ by Margaret Arnold November 21, 2019 issue
Marilynne Robinson What Are We Doing Here? Why teach the humanities? Why study them? November 9, 2017 issue
Malise Ruthven The Islamic Road to the Modern World Christopher de Bellaigue’s ‘The Islamic Enlightenment’ and Wael Abu-‘Uksa’s ‘Freedom in the Arab World’ June 22, 2017 issue
Anne Enright Of Angels, Saints, and Faith in Fiction “I am interested in metaphor, that is where I get my fix of transcendence,” says the novelist. February 20, 2021
Anne Enright Spirited Away What is the spark that makes a shared God not just real, but so present he talks back to you? March 11, 2021 issue
Gregory Hays Tune Out & Lean In The recent revival of Stoic philosophy has stayed surprisingly true to its ancient roots while gaining popularity among executives and tech-bros. March 11, 2021 issue
Richard A. Friedman Why Conspiracy Theories Are So Alluring The human preference for plausible meaning over stubborn facts makes us especially susceptible in a world constantly flooded with information. February 12, 2021
Jim Holt The Power of Catastrophic Thinking Should we value human lives in the distant future as much as present ones? February 25, 2021 issue
Miranda Seymour Promethean Women Both Mary Wollstonecraft, darling of twentieth-century feminists, and her visionary daughter Mary Shelley continue to influence us today. February 25, 2021 issue
Eamon Duffy Why Was There a Reformation? Though Steven Ozment’s The Age of Reform appeared amid a wave of critical thought about the Reformation, it rejected the new histories in favor of polemic. February 25, 2021 issue
Pamela Druckerman The Consolations of Philosophy My philosopher-therapist thought the ancient Greeks could lead me to the happy state of eudaimonia—literally, having good demons. But would mine play along? December 31, 2020
James Romm What Happened at Masada? We know the Roman conquest of Masada only through the account of the enigmatic Jewish historian Josephus, whose shifting allegiances make his motives hard to discern. January 14, 2021 issue
Sara Lipton Life, Death, and the Levys A new book traces the twentieth-century scattering of a Sephardic family through five continents. December 3, 2020 issue