New Releases by Garry Wills

New York Times Bestseller: A "remarkable and evenhanded study of Ronald Reagan" from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Lincoln at Gettysburg ( The New York Times). Updated with a new preface by the author, this captivating biography of America's fortieth president recounts Ronald Reagan's life—from his poverty-stricken Illinois childhood to his acting career to his California governorship to his role as commander in chief—and examines the powerful myths surrounding him, many of which he created himself. Praised by some for his sunny optimism and old-fashioned rugged individualism, derided by others for being a politician out of touch with reality, Reagan was both a popular and polarizing figure in the 1980s United States, and continues to fascinate us as a symbol. In Reagan's America, Garry Wills reveals the realities behind Reagan's own descriptions of his idyllic boyhood, as well as the story behind his leadership of the Screen Actors Guild, the role religion played in his thinking, and the facts of his military service. With a wide-ranging and balanced assessment of both the personal and political life of this outsize American icon, the author of such acclaimed works as What Jesus Meant and The Kennedy Imprisonment "elegantly dissects the first U.S. President to come out of Hollywood's dream factory [in] a fascinating biography whose impact is enhanced by techniques of psychological profile and social history" ( Los Angeles Times) .

The New York Times bestselling historian takes on a pressing question in modern religion—will Pope Francis embrace change? Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope and the first from the Americas, offers a challenge to his church. Can he bring about significant change? Should he? Garry Wills, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, argues provocatively that, in fact, the history of the church throughout is a history of change. In this brilliant and incisive study, Wills describes the deep and serious changes that have taken place in the church or are in the process of occurring. These include the change from Latin, the growth and withering of the ecclesiastical monarchy, the abandonment of biblical literalism, the assertion and nonassertion of infallibility, and the erosion of church patriarchy. In such developments we see the living church adapting itself to the new historical circumstances. As Wills contends, it is only by examining the history of the church that we can understand Pope Francis's and the church's challenges.

The New York Times bestselling historian takes on a pressing question in modern religion?will Pope Francis embrace change? Pope Francis, the first Jesuit pope and the first from the Americas, offers a challenge to his church. Can he bring about significant change? Should he? Garry Wills, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, argues provocatively that, in fact, the history of the church throughout is a history of change. In this brilliant and incisive study, Wills describes the deep and serious changes that have taken place in the church or are in the process of occurring. These include the change from Latin, the growth and withering of the ecclesiastical monarchy, the abandonment of biblical literalism, the assertion and nonassertion of infallibility, and the erosion of church patriarchy. In such developments we see the living church adapting itself to the new historical circumstances. As Wills contends, it is only by examining the history of the church that we can understand Pope Francis's and the church's challenges. From the Hardcover edition.

Shakespeare’s plays abound with kings and leaders who crave a public stage and seize every opportunity to make their lives a performance: Antony, Cleopatra, Richard III, Othello, and many others. Such self-dramatizing characters appear in the work of other playwrights of the era as well, Marlowe’s Edward II and Tamburlaine among them. But Elizabethan playwrights were not alone in realizing that a sense of theater was essential to the exercise of power. Real rulers knew it, too, and none better than Queen Elizabeth. In this fascinating study of political stagecraft in the Elizabethan era, Garry Wills explores a period of vast cultural and political change during which the power of make-believe to make power real was not just a theory but an essential truth. Wills examines English culture as Catholic Christianity’s rituals were being overturned and a Protestant queen took the throne. New iconographies of power were necessary for the new Renaissance liturgy to displace the medieval church-state. The author illuminates the extensive imaginative constructions that went into Elizabeth’s reign and the explosion of great Tudor and Stuart drama that provided the imaginative power to support her long and successful rule.

New York Times–bestselling author Garry Wills provides a provocative analysis of the theological and historical basis for the priesthood In a riveting and provocative tour de force from the author of What Jesus Meant, Pulitzer Prize winner Garry Wills poses the challenging question: Why did the priesthood develop in a religion that began without it and, indeed, was opposed to it? Why Priests? argues brilliantly and persuasively for a radical re-envisioning of the role of the church as the Body of Christ and for a new and better understanding of the very basis of Christian belief. As Wills emphasizes, the stakes for the writer and the church are high, for without the priesthood there would be no belief in an apostolic succession, the real presence in the Eucharist, the sacrificial interpretation of the Mass, and the ransom theory of redemption. This superb study of the origins of the priesthood stands as Wills’s towering achievement and will be of interest to all inquiring minds, believers and non-believers alike.

The story of the baptism of St Augustine by Bishop Ambrose in Milan at Easter 387 - and thereby the acceptance into the Church of one of the most important figures in Christian history. Beginning with the archaeology of Ambrose's Milan and the re-discovery of the baptistery after the Second World War, Garry Wills tells the story of the at times prickly relationship between Ambrose and Augustine and its importance for the future history of the Church. Heilluminaties the scene of the baptism itself, along with the sources of its ritual, and introduces us to the company of the relatives and friends who greeted Augustine as he emerged from the baptism pool.Appropriately, the book ends with a reflection on the later relationship between Augustine and Ambrose and the influence of the latter upon Augustine's later thought - which has been so seminal in the development of Christian thought ever since.

Renaissance plays and poetry in England were saturated with the formal rhetorical twists that Latin education made familiar to audiences and readers. Yet a formally educated man like Ben Jonson was unable to make these ornaments come to life in his two classical Roman plays. Garry Wills, focusing his attention on Julius Caesar, here demonstrates how Shakespeare so wonderfully made these ancient devices vivid, giving his characters their own personal styles of Roman speech. Shakespeare also makes Rome present and animate by casting his troupe of experienced players to make their strengths shine through the historical facts that Plutarch supplied him with. The result is that the Rome English-speaking people carry about in their minds is the Rome that Shakespeare created for them. And that is even true, Wills affirms, for today's classical scholars with access to the original Roman sources.--From publisher description.

"One of the country's most distinguished intellectuals [and] one of its most provocative." -The New York Times Look out for a new book from Garry Wills, What the Qur'an Meant, coming fall 2017. Bookish and retiring, Garry Wills has been an outsider in the academy, in journalism, even in his church. Yet these qualities have, paradoxically, prompted people to share intimate insights with him- perhaps because he is not a rival, a competitor, or a threat. Sometimes this made him the prey of con men like conspiratorialist Mark Lane or civil rights leader James Bevel. At other times it led to close friendship with such people as William F. Buckley, Jr., or singer Beverly Sills. The result is the most personal book Wills has ever written. With his dazzling style and journalist's eye for detail, Wills brings history to life, whether it's the civil rights movement; the protests against the Vietnam War; the presidential campaigns of Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton; or the set of Oliver Stone's Nixon. Illuminating and provocative, Outside Looking In is a compelling chronicle of an original thinker at work in remarkable times.

Vergelijking van twee toespraken van de Amerikaanse presidenten Barack Obama en Abraham Lincoln, waarbij van beiden het retorische talent in het oog springt.

“A remarkable achievement—a learned yet eminently readable and provocative exploration of the four small books that reveal most of what’s known about the life and death of Jesus.” (Los Angeles Times) Look out for a new book from Garry Wills, What the Qur'an Meant, coming fall 2017. In his New York Times bestsellers What Jesus Meant and What Paul Meant, Garry Wills offers tour-de-force interpretations of Jesus and the Apostle Paul. Here Wills turns his remarkable gift for biblical analysis to the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Wills examines the goals, methods, and styles of the evangelists and how these shaped the gospels' messages. Hailed as "one of the most intellectually interesting and doctrinally heterodox Christians writing today" (The New York Times Book Review), Wills guides readers through the maze of meanings within these foundational texts, revealing their essential Christian truths.

The son of a pagan father and a Christian mother, Saint Augustine spent his early years torn between conflicting faiths and world views. His Confessions , written when he was in his forties, recount how, slowly and painfully, he came to turn away from his youthful ideas and licentious lifestyle, to become instead a staunch advocate of Christianity and one of its most influential thinkers. A remarkably honest and revealing spiritual autobiography, the Confessions also address fundamental issues of Christian doctrine, and many of the prayers and meditations it includes are still an integral part of the practice of Christianity today. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. From the Trade Paperback edition.

“If you think you knew Paul, get ready to have all sorts of cherished preconceptions exhilaratingly stripped away. If you've ever been vaguely curious, there is no finer introduction.” (Los Angeles Times) Look out for a new book from Garry Wills, What The Qur'an Meant, coming fall 2017. In his New York Times bestsellers What Jesus Meant and What the Gospels Meant, Garry Wills offers fresh and incisive readings of Jesus' teachings and the four gospels. Here Wills turns to Paul the Apostle, whose writings have provoked controversy throughout Christian history. Upending many common assumptions, Wills argues eloquently that Paul’s teachings are not opposed to Jesus' message. Rather, the best way to know Jesus is to discover Paul. In this stimulating and masterly analysis, Wills illuminates how Paul, writing on the road and in the heat of the moment, and often in the midst of controversy, galvanized a movement and offers us the best reflection of those early times.

Gary Wills has won significant acclaim for his bestselling works of religion and history. Here, for the first time, he combines both disciplines in a sweeping examination of Christianity in America throughout the last 400 years. Wills argues that the struggle now'as throughout our nation's history'is between the head and the heart, reason and emotion, enlightenment and Evangelism. A landmark volume for anyone interested in either politics or religion, Head and Heart concludes that, while religion is a fertile and enduring force in American politics, the tension between the two is necessary, inevitable, and unending.

“Garry Wills brings his signature brand of erudite, unorthodox thinking to his latest book of revelations. . . . A tour de force and a profound show of faith.” (O, the Oprah Magazine) Look out for a new book from Garry Wills, What The Qur'an Meant, coming fall 2017. In what are billed “culture wars,” people on the political right and the political left cite Jesus as endorsing their views. But in this New York Times-bestselling masterpiece, Garry Wills argues that Jesus subscribed to no political program. He was far more radical than that. In a fresh reading of the gospels, Wills explores the meaning of the “reign of heaven” Jesus not only promised for the future but brought with him into this life. It is only by dodges and evasions that people misrepresent what Jesus plainly had to say against power, the wealthy, and religion itself. But Wills is just as critical of those who would make Jesus a mere ethical teacher, ignoring or playing down his divinity. An illuminating analysis for believers and nonbelievers alike, What Jesus Meant is a brilliant addition to our national conversation on religion.

In the Catholic Church, with the election of a conservative pope, Benedict XVI, it has led to a doctrinal zealotry, the alienation of large numbers of American Catholics, and an increased intrusion of the Church into politics."

Moving beyond the recent revisionist debate over Jefferson's own slaves and his relationship with Sally Hemings, Wills instead probes the heart of Jefferson's presidency and political life, revealing how the might of the slave states remained a concern behind his most important policies and decisions.

Bestselling author Wills showcases Henry Adams little-known but seminal studyof the early United States, and draws from it fresh insights on the paradoxesthat roil America to this day.

Wills's "Saint Augustine," which has had 11 printings, was a "New York Times" Notable Book. Now comes his third volume of "Saint Augustine's Confessions."

The author blames American's long-standing mistrust of government on a misreading of history, and a fundamental misunderstanding of the Founding Fathers.

The pivotal volume of the Christian philosopher's seminal work is translated and interpreted by Pulitzer Prize winner Garry Wills.

Kritisch historisch onderzoek naar de wijze waarop pausen in de negentiende en twintigste eeuw invloed hebben uitgeoefend op de besluitvorming omtrent omstreden kwesties als het celibaat, geboortebeperking en de openstelling van het priesterschap voor vrouwen.

Look out for a new book from Garry Wills, What The Qur'an Meant, coming fall 2017. The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lincoln at Gettysburg and Papal Sin captures the many dimensions of one of the twentieth century's most influential writers. Part of a literary circle that included H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Hillaire Belloc, and Max Beerbohm, G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) wrote essays of social criticism for contemporary journals, literary criticism (including notable books on Browning, Dickens, and Shaw), and works of theology and religious argument, but may have been best known for his Father Brown mysteries. Chesterton's interest in Catholic Christianity, first expressed in Orthodoxy, led to his conversion from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism in 1922. His classic Saint Francis of Assisi and the equally acclaimed Saint Thomas Aquinas confirmed his reputation as a writer with the rare ability to simultaneously entertain, inform, and enlighten readers. This revised edition of Garry Wills's finely crafted biography includes updates to the text and a new Introduction by the author.

Biografie van de Latijnse kerkvader (354-430).

Durante séculos, os escritos de Agostinho comoveram e fascinaram seus leitores. COm o olhar perspicaz de um escritor cuja análise intelectual conquistou o Prêmio Pulitzer, Garry Wills examina a vida do famoso bispo e pensador fecundo cujo embasamento em filosofia clássica concebeu sua interpretação das doutrinas cristãs da mente e do corpo, sabedoria e Deus. 'Santo Agostinho' explora a figura tanto do grande pensador da condição humana, quanto do homem comum que se pôs a escrever. NEsta biografia breve, Garry Wills desafia várias interpretações enganosas - entre elas o mito dos excessos sexuais cometidos por Agostinho na juventude. UM texto revelador que ilumina tanto o homem quanto a época.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Lincoln at Gettysburg" brings his eloquence, his wit, and his on-target perceptions of American life and politics to this fascinating, well-drawn portrait of John Wayne, a true 20th-century hero. "Deeply satisfying at every level".--Michael Stern, "San Francisco Chronicle". of photos.

This book reinterprets Macbeth by returning it to the context of its own time, recreating the theological and political crises of Shakespeare's era.

"For more than a decade, The Kennedy Imprisonment has stood as the definitive historical and psychological analysis of the Kennedy clan and its crippling conception of power. Written in 1981 on the heels of Edward M. Kennedy's embarrassing 1980 presidential candidacy, this book by Pulitzer Prize winner Garry Wills contends that Edward's failure was not a reversal of the Kennedys' bright history, but its ironic fulfillment. In it Wills reveals a family who enjoyed public adulation but provided pale leadership; who experienced both stunning fame and tragic failure; whose core values ensnared its men - particularly JFK - in their own myths of success, toughness, and masculinity. How the Kennedys' sense of power played out in their private and public lives - in their relationships with women and world leaders - provides the unifying principle of this fascinating study." "Now available with a new introduction by the author, this insightful and prescient analysis of the venerable yet vulnerable Kennedy family remains as relevant and accurate of ever."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The distasteful questions we ask our presidential hopefuls serve a real purpose.