Reviews by Jack Miles
The Lord of Auschwitz Asks to See a Priest - a review of James Bernauer’s Auschwitz & Absolution, published in the Los Angeles Review of Books March 4, 2024.
Getting to grips with God - Miles reviewed God: An Anatomy by Francesca Stavrakopoulou for the Catholic Herald, published on September 2, 2021. [Free registration required to read.] The review was also published in the Los Angeles Review of Books on January 12, 2022 with the headline God's Body Up Close.
In a brief letter to the editor of The New York Times, Miles comments on Annalisa Quinn's review of John L’Heureux’s The Heart Is a Full-Wild Beast, published January 16, 2020 (scroll down to the section titled "A Memorable Woman").
Review of David A. deSilva's The Jewish Teachers of Jesus, James, and Jude: What Earliest Christianity Learned from the Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, published in Common Knowledge April 1, 2019 [registration required].
A Feast for Polymaths - Miles' review of Gabriel Said Reynold's The Qur’ān and Its Biblical Subtext for the Los Angeles Review of Books, published December 17, 2018.
Inventing the Pogrom: Miles reviews Steven J. Zipperstein's book of the same name for the LA Times Review of Books, published April 9, 2018.
A Failed Apostle - A review of Emmanuel Carrère's The Kingdom, from Commonweal, published March 12, 2018.
A Roadmap to Qur’ans in English - a review of The Koran in English: A Biography, by Bruce B. Lawrence, from the Los Angeles Review of Books, October 23, 2017.
Shop Talk - a review of The Face of Water by Sarah Ruden, published in Commonweal, June 21, 2017.
‘The Schooldays of Jesus’: Coetzee’s Teasing New Parable - A review of J.M. Coetzee's novel The Schooldays of Jesus, from The New York Times, February 24, 2017.
A Coin and Its Other Side: Janet Sternburg Photographs of an Interpenetrating World - A review of Janet Sternburg: Overspilling World, by Janet Sternburg, from The Los Angeles Review of Books, December 20, 2016.
Conversion and Its Discontents - A review of Strange Gods, by Susan Jacoby, from The Los Angeles Review of Books, March 27, 2016.
Legions of Faiths, Girded for Battle - An interview feature on The Norton Anthology of World Religions, edited by Jack Miles, reviewed by The New York Times, November 3, 2014.
Preaching to the unconverted - Review of god is not great, by Christopher Hitchens, from the L.A. Times, October 11, 2009. Hitchens responded during a Charlie Rose interview (minutes 3:30-4:30 of this video.)
Tilting Against Naïve Materialism - On Thomas Nagel's Mind and Cosmos, from The Los Angeles Review of Books, February 22, 2013.
God of the Living - Review of God of the Living, by Professors Reinhard Feldmeier and Hermann Spieckermann. Published online on Patheos' Bible and Culture blog, January 14, 2012.
The Believer - Review of Practicing Catholic, by James Carroll. Published in The New York Times on April 12, 2009.
Faith and Belief - Review of The Evolution of God, by Robert Wright and The Case for God, by Karen Armstrong, from The Los Angeles Times, April 29, 2007.
The Da Vinci Coda - Retrospective Reflections on a Pop Culture Phenomenon. Published on Arts Journal's Arts Watch, August 14, 2006.
A Scientific Approach to Atheism - A review of Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, by Daniel C. Dennett. Published in The Washington Post on June 29, 2006.
Jesus: The All-American Jew? - Review of Jesus in America: Personal Savior, Cultural Hero, National Obsession by Richard Wightman Fox and American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon by Stephen Prothero. Published in The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles on April 16, 2004.
Mysticism, Mind Alteration, and Jesus' Son - Review of Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson, and the film of the same name, from Beliefnet, March 2004.
Mel Gibson's 'Passion' - What makes this film different? Cover story from Beliefnet, February 25, 2004.
The Myth of the Suppressing Church - A Comment on Walter Wink’s The Human Being, from Cross Currents, Summer 2003.
You Won't Believe Who I Just Saw! - Review of The God of Old by James L. Kugel, from The New York Times, May 11, 2003.
The Historic Rushdie - Review of Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction, 1992-2002, by Salman Rushdie, from The Los Angeles Times, April 13, 2003.
The Human Zoo: Adversaries and Alliances in the Psalms - Review of Alicia Ostriker's essay "Psalm and Anti-Psalm", from The Society of Biblical Literature Newsletter, April 2003.
The Loyal Opposition - Review of Why I am a Catholic by Garry Wills, from The New York Times, July 14, 2002.
A Sling and a Prayer - Review of King David: A Biography by Steven L. McKenzie, from The New York Times, June 18, 2000.
Death in Venice - Review of Mistler's Exit by Louis Begley, from The New York Times, September 20, 1998.
A Crime of Passion - Review of The House Gun by Nadine Gordimer, from The New York Times, February 1, 1998.
Foreword to Mark Taylor's Hiding - "How To Read This Book: A Note to the Reader from a Concerned Friend," the foreword to Hiding, was published in 1997.
Heaven Is Hell - Review of The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick, from The New York Times, June 15, 1997.
On a Mission From God - Review of The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch, from The New York Times, January 5, 1997.
Supreme Regrets - Review of The Life of God (As Told by Himself) by Franco Ferrucci, from The New York Times, July 14, 1996.
Imagining Mayhem: Fictional Violence vs. "True Crime" - Miles reviews a number of different "criminal" works, from The North American Review, Vol. 276, No. 4 (Dec., 1991), pp. 57-64.