Benjamin Weiner

Why has the Catholic Church made so many controversial statements about Jews as it wrestles with a sexual abuse crisis? One could argue that, in the heart of a wounded Church, a play is being made for the shroud of the victim.

Doonesbury creator Gary Trudeau picks up an unfortunate thread in his latest cartoon, in which a character ponders the superiority of Jesus to the wrathful OT deity, and inferences are made regarding moneychangers and usury.

Two new books, one offering a vision of interfaith, universal religion, the other a model of a radically transformed Judaism, attempt to wrestle God into the everyday. Against the ascendancy of the so-called New Atheism, both writers argue for a God who transcends “god-management systems” and whose primary claim on us is through our own spiritual longing.