Religion & Spirituality

Philip Roth's new novel is about a 71-year-old multi-divorced, successful advertising man who is facing his physical deterioration and approaching death — without the aid of religion or philosophy. One reviewer called Everyman a "swift, brutal novel about a heartbreakingly ordinary subject."

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Rev. William Sloane Coffin, who died Wednesday at the age of 81 of congestive heart failure, was known as a civil rights activist and outspoken critic of the Vietnam War.

The musical band What I Like About Jew started out as a tongue-in-cheek cabaret act that sold out at New York venues such as The Knitting Factory and Fez. Now, the two-man act has a new CD, Unorthodox.

Book critic Maureen Corrigan reviews American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, And the Making of a Nation by Jon Meacham. His previous book, Franklin and Winston, was about the friendship between FDR and Churchill.

Nixon adviser Kevin Phillips' book The Emerging Republican Majority was hailed as a visionary work of political analysis. But in American Theocracy, he argues that the Republican Party — and the country — is headed for disaster.

A new tactic has emerged in the angry debate over cartoons depicting religious figures, as an Israeli artist launches a contest for the best anti-Semitic cartoon -- drawn by a Jew. Amitai Sandy says the Israeli Anti-Semitic Cartoons Contest is a response to an Iranian newspaper's competition for cartoons on the Holocaust.

The idea that priests, like all men, are not perfect might seem like a tame one. But NBC's effort to translate the premise into a TV series has brought protests that the show is anti-Christian. Jack Kenny is the creator and executive producer of The Book of Daniel.

Leisure suits, big hair and the Bee Gees are just part of the draw of a new book, Bar Mitzvah Disco. With essays from Jonathan Safran Foer, Sarah Silverman and others, the book documents bar and bat mitzvahs from the 1970s through the '90s.

Vatican reporter John Allen's new book is Opus Dei: An Objective Look Behind the Myths and Reality of the Most Controversial Force in the Catholic Church. The book is billed as the first serious journalistic investigation of the highly secretive organization Opus Dei, an international association of Catholics.

The Tulip and the Pope is the new memoir from Deborah Larsen. The story explores young women on the road to becoming nuns in the 1960s. Larsen's previous work includes the novel The White.

Blurring the line between church and state threatens civil liberties and privacy, says former president Jimmy Carter. That's the case he makes in his new book, Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis.

Peter Manseau's mother is a former nun; his father is a priest who remains under suspension. Manseau tells of their marriage — and his upbringing — in a new memoir, Vows.

Bill Manseau 's wife, Mary, left the convent in the late 1960s. But Bill Manseau believed then, as he does today, that he was called to be a married priest -- and his actions might help to end the requirement of celibacy. The church felt otherwise.

Editor and writer Walter Kirn's latest novel, Mission to America, is about a fictional quasi-religious group, the Aboriginal Fulfilled Apostles, seeking new converts to help them survive. The topic is one Kirn has experience with: When he was 12, Kirn's family became Mormons.

Father Joseph Fessio. He is Provost of Ave Marie University and Editor-in-Chief of Ignatius Press. He is a longtime personal friend and former student of the Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict.

A gay priest (who will go unnamed). His superiors have asked him not to give his name, though he has been given permission to speak about his work. He is in active ministry and works in a parish. In a few weeks the Vatican is expected to issue a ruling banning gay men from entering the seminary.

Historian Edward Larson has written extensively on the intersection of science, politics and religion. In 2004, Larson's Evolution: The Remarkable History of A Scientific Theory traced the contentious path the theory of evolution has followed.

Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Philip Roth has been a favorite of readers since his memoir Goodbye, Columbus emerged to help define the culture of postwar America. Now the Library of America is releasing Roth's books — a rare step for a living author.

Adapted from Jonathan Safran Foer's novel, the film follows a young man trying to decipher family history. Elijah Wood plays the fictional Foer, who traces his grandfather's life in a Ukrainian village.

It might surprise you to learn that a Los Angeles rabbi, Yaacov Deyo, invented Speed Dating -- a rapid-fire courtship concept in which singles spend just a few minutes getting to know each other. It started as a way to help Jewish singles meet each other, but it's spread beyond the Jewish community.