From The National Interest, Alan Wolfe reviews books on God. Joshua Leach on Judith Shklar and materialist mercy: If appeasing God is what matters most, then our relations with one another seem insignificant at best. From Philosophy Bites, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong argues that God isn't necessary for morality (and more and more on Morality Without God). Imagine no religion: An article on sustaining morality without God. The language of morality has been hijacked by the Right and the religious — it’s about time those who value reason took it back. An interview with Scotty McLennan, author of Jesus Was a Liberal: Reclaiming Christianity for All. A review of William Donohue's Secular Sabotage: How Liberals Are Destroying Religion and Culture in America. Jay Michaelson writes in defense of spiritual vulgarity. Do shamans have more sex?: New Age spirituality is no more pure than old-time religion. An interview with Linda Harvey, author of Not My Child: Contemporary Paganism and New Spirituality. An interview with cult survivor Timothy Wyllie on The Process Church, and a review of Love Sex Fear Death: The Inside Story of the Process Church of the Final Judgment. What are the criteria for a cult and can they be meaningfully applied? Gregory Paul on the chronic dependence of popular religiosity upon dysfunctional psychosociological conditions.

A review of Race, Rights, and Justice by J. Angelo Corlett. Why did James Baldwin, the most incisive and prophetic observer of the painful complexities of race in America, spend most of the turbulent 1960s in Istanbul? An article on T.R.M. Howard, an unlikely civil rights hero. A review of Black Maverick: T.R.M. Howard’s Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power by David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito (and more). A patchwork history of hate: A rare KKK quilt becomes emblematic of how, over time, generations have left racial divisions behind. The race war that isn't: Media anxieties over "lynch mobs" and "brownshirts" demonstrate a telling lack of faith in contemporary America. Racism is not an either/or proposition: When did the R-word become as offensive as the N-word? From Swans, an investigation into the work of liberal foundations and anti-racism activism. In an era of US history marked by unprecedented strides in racial equality, suburban swimming pools seem to maintain time-warpish levels of racism. The Obama administration has told affluent Westchester County it can't continue to segregate low-income and minority housing — is it the end of the all-white suburb? The New Obama: You think you know "hope", "post-racial"? You ain't seen enough of the profound cheese from mogul Tyler Perry. The rise of the new Obamas: Must all black politicians be hailed as Obamas?

From Obit, Robert Roper argues that John O'Hara's Appointment in Samarra is about a time not unlike our own. The idyll memoir: Modern examples of the genre eschew light tales of grape-picking for suffering and adventure. God, living is enormous: How might the novelist reconcile fiction and faith — make-believe and must-believe? Benjamin Anastas investigates (and Bookforum hosts a panel on "Faith and Fiction" at the Brooklyn Book Festival this Sunday). Delia Falconer reviews Summertime by J.M. Coetzee. From Commentary, Algis Valiunas on The Naked Novelist and the Dead Reputation: Re-evaluating the storied career of Norman Mailer; and Terry Teachout on the crafty art of Alan Ayckbourn: Giving a remarkable comic playwright his due at long last. Sentences so good they sing: Robert Pinsky on the unexpected pleasures of George Herbert's sentences. From TLS, a review essay on Samuel Johnson at 300: Why it is time for Dr Johnson to be saved from cosy, clubby Johnsonianism (and more from Literary Review). Chick lit takes on the credit crunch: In hard times, sex-and-shopping sagas are being reinvented — welcome to the world of recessionista lit. A review of Novel Violence: A Narratography of Victorian Fiction by Garrett Stewart. Now we are 60: Andrew Johnson, Gemma Mcintosh and Russell Arkinstall find the literary world's former enfant terrible Martin Amis still dividing critical opinion (and more and more).

Elizabeth Anne Roodhouse (Penn): The Voice from the Base(ment): Stridency, Referential Structure, and Partisan Conformity in the Political Blogosphere. From Seed, a falling out over creationism at Bloggingheads.tv and muddled reactions to a report on geoengineering illustrate what’s at stake in the “framing wars”. Six degrees of trivia, and knowledge: Knowledge, shared, becomes synonymous with the act of sharing frequently leading to a deeper sense of connection, empathy, even love (and more). From Literary Review, dollar sign on his heart: A review of Joseph P Kennedy's Hollywood Years by Cari Beauchamp; and a review of An Infinity of Things: How Sir Henry Wellcome Collected the World by Frances Larson. A review of Why the Dreyfus Affair Matters by Louis Begley. Sea Change of Japan: A landslide victory for Japan's opposition party could have profound effects on regional security. The Soul of Japan: Japan's crisis is not political, but psychological. The man who invented health care's public option: Jacob Hacker reflects on the academic proposal he made a decade ago — and the political fixation it's become. Instead of seeking to justify policies on economic grounds, why don't politicians make "moral cases", or even "romantic cases" for their arguments?