Browse Authors

POETRY ADVICE Wilma Spellman Every old lady should keep a hatchet handy. Lots to chop! Be sure the blade is sharp. It’s not about cherry trees. It’s those gnarly old entanglements that...

What do we mean by â€˜religionâ€™? (November 2019)

ARTICLE What do we mean by 'religion'? The Paradox of Pluralism Jack Miles Gods here? Who can know? Not I. Yet I sigh and tears flow tear on tear. —Saigyo Hoshi (1118-1190) on visiting the...

A Gentile's Philip Roth (July 2018)

SHORT TAKES Jack Miles A Gentile's Philip Roth WHAT THE NOVELIST HAD IN COMMON WITH ST. AUGUSTINE AJewish friend once told me, "Philip Roth is writing the story of my life. I wait for each new...

A Failed Apostle (March 2018)

REVIEW ESSAY A Failed Apostle The Gospel According to Emmanuel Carrère Jack Miles The Kingdom Emmanuel Carrère Translated from the French by John Lambert Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $28, 400...

California Burning (January 2018)

Jack Miles California Burning LESSONS FROM A CONSUMING FIRE Anyone who has ever watched the annual Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year’s Day, the parade that precedes the Rose Bowl, may have...

The Face of Water (July 2017)

BOOKS Jack Miles Shop Talk The Face of Water A Translator on Beauty and Meaning in the Bible Sarah Ruden Pantheon, $26.95, 232 pp. Somewhere in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Gertrude...

Trading Places (January 2010)

Trading Places A Once-Catholic Episcopalian Looks at Benedict’s Offer Jack Miles These are interesting times for AnglicanCatholic relations in the United Kingdom. Four and a half...

After 'the War on Terror' (July 2009)

Article After ‘the War on Terror’ Obama, Islam & Israel Jack Miles “What if they gave a war and no one came?” read a bumper sticker popular during the Vietnam War. Today’s version...

Anglican Disunion: What Lambeth means (September 2008)

Commonweal . September 12, 2008 10 short takes Anglican Disunion Jack Miles WhAT iS ROWAn WilliAMS TRYinG TO hOlD TOGEThER? Dmeeting of Anglican primates, the rector of St. Ed- ences, and...

A Stirring at the Border (April 2008)

Jack Miles A Stirring at the Border iMMiGRATion AS THE SLEEPER iSSuE of THE noVEMBER ELECTion I n the upcoming presidential election, the defining issues for the Democrats seem to be the...

LETTERS (November 2007)

Commonweal . November 9, 2007 Editor Paul Baumann Managing Editor Patrick Jordan Associate Editors Grant Gallicho, Matthew Boudway Production Editor & Webmaster Tiina Aleman Copy...

Judas & Jesus (June 2006)

ach Miles Judas & Jesus WHAT DID THE GNOSTICS REALLY BELIEVE? T he recently published,Gospel of Judas, writes biblical scholar Bart Ehrman, has a completely different understanding of God, the...

Jesus and Yahweh by Harold Bloom (March 2006)

seas human-rights abuses (many of the practices now resurrected by the Bush- Cheney administration). Furthermore, as the tone and temper of this book re- mind us, Carter was a decent, plain-spo- ken...

Border Lines (October 2005)

CEOs such as Costco's Jim Senegal for providing more health benefits and higher wages for his workers than those at WalMart. As Morris has eloquently demonstrated in Commonweal, economic...

Deep in the heart of Florida (December 2004)

THE LAST WORD DEEP IN THE HEART OF FLORIDA Jack Miles Interstate 4, bisecting Florida along a line running from Tampa-St. Pete in the southwest through Orlando to Daytona Beach in the northeast,...

The Iraqi dead Who's counting? (July 2003)

THE IRAQI DEAD Jack Miles Respect must be paid Silence and the mournful echo of remembrance...hang over this suffering land," wrote James Kitfield, who covered the war in Iraq for the National...

Avoidance by Michael Lowenthal (April 2003)

Avoidance Michael Lowenthal Graywolf Press, $16, 256 pp. The jungle of desire Jach Wiles The best novel that has come or is likely to come out of the Catholic sexual child-abuse scandal...

OUR LADY OF THE FREEWAYS (February 2003)

OUR LADY OF THE FREEWAYS Is Los Angeles's new cathedral worth the price? Jack Niles During the height of the Clinton impeachment ordeal, the president's identity as chief executive of the United...

The Hebrew God by Bernhard Lang (October 2002)

FOLLOW THAT WINNEBAGO The Hebrew God Portrait of an Ancient Deity Bernhard Lang Yel University Press. $32.50, 246 pp. Jack Miles Imagine yourself on vacation. Ahead of you on the road to Mount...

Thinks... (August 2001)

HAPPILY EVER AFTER Thinks... David Lodge Viking, $24.95, 342 pp. Jack Miles Why does anyone ever write a novel? When a novelist asks himself that question, watch out: the answer may take...

The Gospel according to the Son Mailer's attempt to reimagine the Gospel is not nearly as awful as his critics would have you believe But neither is it very illuminating by Norman Mailer (July 1997)

Velcro man meets Teflon story The Gospel according to the Son Norman Mailer Random House, $22,242 pp. Jack Miles What is the opposite of a Tef-Ion personality? A Velcro personality? Whatever...

Correspondence A long-time subscriber renews once more; a one-time defector sends cash and good wishes (May 1997)

CORRESPONDENCE And the same to you Note: This letter accompanied a one-year subscription renewal. Sandra Smith manages Commonweal's circulation and signs our renewal/expiration reminders. Dear...

Critics' choices for Christmas Traveling widely, reading closely (even eccentrically), and judging perspicaciously, our panel of Christmas critics has put together a list of titles that includes everything from an obedient Lassie to God's brilliantly wayward "biographer" And then there's the poetry and the theology Please share the good words (December 1995)

BOOKS Critics' choices for Christmas Jack Miles Jack Miles is director of the Humanities Center at the Claremont Graduate School, Claretnont, California, and author of God: A Biography...

God: A Biography (May 1995)

WHAT A CHARACTER! GOD A Biography Jack Miles Alfred A. Knopf, $27.50,424 pp. Luke Timothy Johnson Should we think of the Bible as a kind of novel, with God as the story's protagonist? And if we...

A literary reading of the Book of Proverbs: (March 1995)

A LITERARY READING OF THE BOOK OF PROVERBS GOD AS ONE HALF OF A TWO-CAREER HOUSEHOLD JACK MILES The Bible is the great repository of the sacred rather than the secular wisdom of our culture, or...

The book of B (November 1990)

THE BOOK OF B BLOOM, BATHSHEBA & THE BOOK Harold Bloom has a lot of nerve, but then again he may not have nerve enough. The Book of J, Bloom's commentary on David Rosenberg's punning, experimental...

From the council to the synod (October 1985)

From the council to the synod Raymond Flynn RAYMOND FLYNN holds a Master's degree from Harvard University School of Education. He worked as a probation officer before entering politics. He was a...

The End of Catholicism?: Responses (September 1984)

The end of Catholicism? The discussion continues- responses from readers and Thomas Sheehan I N ITS August I0 issue, Commonweal carded responses by David Tracy and Andrew M. Greeley to an...

Nun, A Memoir/Seminary, A Search (May 1983)

Searching for God-& adulthood NUN. A MEMOIR Mary Gilligan Wong Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, $15.95, 390 pp. SEMINARY, A SEARCH Paul Hendrickson Summit, $14.95, 330 pp. Jack Miles MARY GILLIGAN...

The university press and the American mind: (May 1979)

Savage), whom the movie turns into a cowboy from Ok- to "What a Piece of Work Is Man," with lyrics by William lahoma. The car is, however, on its way to rescue Bukowsky ...

The supper of the lamb: (April 1979)

A PRIMITIVE RITUAL & CHRISTIAN TOTEMISM i I UM The supper of the...

Visions of Glory (December 1978)

leaves one man dead, Linda's narrative resumes in the same dry, philosophical vein as before. "Nobody's perfect," she comments. "'There was never a perfect person around." The loss of innocence...

UNIVERSITY PRESS BOOKS: Critics' Selections (May 1978)

Some Outstanding Books of the Year OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO UNIVERSITY PRESS BOOKS Jack Miles The Old Religion in the Brave New World:Reflectionson the Relation Between Christendom and...

Miles, John A. Jr.

Miles, Margaret R

Miles, Margaret R.

Miles, Steven H.

Milhaven, John G.

Milhaven, John Giles

Millar, Margaret R.

Millar, Moorhouse F. X.

Miller, Alastair

Miller, Alastair W. R.

Miller, Alastalr W. R.

Miller, Barbara