The new decade was ushered in by a disturbing headline: “Ireland’s New Blasphemy Law Goes into Effect.” New blasphemy law? Don’t those belong in some earlier century? The unfortunate answer is no—blasphemy laws are making... Read More

The publication of Robert Coover’s audacious 1977 novel, The Public Burning, almost never happened. The book uses the circumstances surrounding the 1953 execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (sentenced to death for allegedly providing the... Read More

Author and philosopher Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s new novel, 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction (Pantheon, 2010), follows the past and present of one Cass Seltzer, a professor of the philosophy... Read More

On April 27, 2007, Kurt Vonnegut was scheduled to speak in Indianapolis as part of the city-proclaimed Year of Vonnegut (he was born and raised in Indianapolis where his family had long-established roots). I was... Read More

A 140-year-old organization in London called the “Catholic Truth Society” has published a new “Prayer Book for Spouses,” containing among other things a prayer to be recited by couples before engaging in sex. The prayer... Read More

With the death Saturday of the conservative lion of the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Antonin Scalia, we revisit David Niose's analysis of his jurisprudence and Joan Biskupic's 2009 biography, American Original: The Life and Constitution of... Read More

In 2004 I began speaking at rallies and forums around the country on issues of peace and justice, something I’ve done off and on ever since. Up through 2008 it was extremely unusual for questions... Read More