Reviews by Jack Miles
The Unhumans - review by Miles of the book Unhumans: The Secret History of Communist Revolutions (and How to Crush Them), by Jack Posobiec and Joshua Lisec, published in ARC magazine December 2, 2024.
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.