Killing the Buddha

Editors’ note: This essay was first published in April 2001, long before Oprah’s Book Club chose Night as its latest selection. Yet especially in light of doubts concerning the reliability of Oprah’s previous pick, the question raised here remains relevant: In making the Holocaust a matter of theological concern, does Elie Wiesel’s classic memoir court historical revisionism?

Can a psychedelic rock band conjure real transcendence?

A Christian realist for the reality-based community.

On Friday nights, God likes to watch.

The almost-breaking point of Will Oldham.

How Mel Gibson turned the blood of Christ into a marketing plan.

Still strange, but different: Three new books look at the changing shape of religion in America.

A black hat diaspora in the city on the hill.

Melvin Jules Bukiet is the worst writer alive.

How many one true religions can dance on the head of a pin?

Critic James Wood’s sanctified blasphemies take fictional form in his new novel.

The new neocons ask: What would Abraham do?

A new biography of America’s most godless woman.

What did Pauline Kael really think about Jews on film anyway?

“Are you talking to me?” and other tough-love questions from the Church.

Pogroms, plagues, Jesus books… ‘Tis the season.

In Adaptation, the evolution of art occurs in fits and starts — and is never free of the hand of its creator.

Find me a find, catch me a catch, make me an anthology.