Peter Manseau

In Monday’s New York Times, I wrote a fairly innocuous sentence that was upsetting to some: “Islam is as American as the rodeo.” The comments I received would not surprise anyone who writes about…

In the dry red soil of Chimayo, New Mexico, there is a hole in the ground that some call holy. They intend no pun, no play on words. The hole is a serious matter; the locals who tend to it would no…

When Saint Francis Xavier attempted to bring Christianity to Asia in the middle of the sixteenth century, he believed for a time that his mission was going quite well. With the help of a former…