@paulelie.bsky.social
A next NYC event for THE LAST SUPPER: a reading and conversation next Tuesday, 10/21, at KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street, 7:30 p.m., hosted by Commonweal (@commonweal.bskysocial). Come and raise a glass to the crypto-religious in this spirit-haunted house! www.commonwealmagazine.org/crypto-relig...
Crypto-Religion & The City
It's often remarked that America has become less religious. But what if that religiosity hasn't disappeared, but just taken less visible forms?
www.commonwealmagazine.org
October 15, 2025 at 4:15 PM
A next NYC event for THE LAST SUPPER: a reading and conversation next Tuesday, 10/21, at KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street, 7:30 p.m., hosted by Commonweal (@commonweal.bskysocial). Come and raise a glass to the crypto-religious in this spirit-haunted house! www.commonwealmagazine.org/crypto-relig...
My latest: a personal essay, in Notre Dame Magazine, about the Roman sojourns of James Joyce and my grand-uncle, Bishop Robert F. Joyce, and the ways they intersect with each other's and my own magazine.nd.edu/stories/amon...
Among the Modernists in Rome | Notre Dame Magazine | University of Notre Dame
Tracing the overlapping paths of two Joyces — artist and cleric, skeptic and believer — who negotiated a new world in the Eternal City
magazine.nd.edu
October 3, 2025 at 3:20 PM
My latest: a personal essay, in Notre Dame Magazine, about the Roman sojourns of James Joyce and my grand-uncle, Bishop Robert F. Joyce, and the ways they intersect with each other's and my own magazine.nd.edu/stories/amon...
Looking forward to discussing THE LAST SUPPER with the first-class novelist Phil Klay (@philklay.bsky.social) at Fairfield University on Monday, November 17 -- an event in the university's really aptly named Inspired Writers series . . . events.fairfield.edu/event/paul-e...
Paul Elie's The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex and Controversy in the 1980s
events.fairfield.edu
August 23, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Looking forward to discussing THE LAST SUPPER with the first-class novelist Phil Klay (@philklay.bsky.social) at Fairfield University on Monday, November 17 -- an event in the university's really aptly named Inspired Writers series . . . events.fairfield.edu/event/paul-e...
Thrilled that THE LAST SUPPER is now out as an audiobook from Tantor Media, available on Apple, Audible, and other platforms -- and with a fresh cover featuring Bono, circa mid-eighties, in characteristic cruciform mode books.apple.com/us/audiobook...
The Last Supper : Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980's
History · 2025
books.apple.com
August 21, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Thrilled that THE LAST SUPPER is now out as an audiobook from Tantor Media, available on Apple, Audible, and other platforms -- and with a fresh cover featuring Bono, circa mid-eighties, in characteristic cruciform mode books.apple.com/us/audiobook...
Neat to see THE LAST SUPPER in among F. Scott Fitzgerald, Iris Murdoch, James Schuyler, Mary Gaitskill, Jamaica Kincaid, and Drake on Arts & Letters Daily, via Gerald Howard's n+1 review essay www.aldaily.com
Arts & Letters Daily
Philosophy, literature, ideas, criticism, history, art, music from The Chronicle of Higher Education.
www.aldaily.com
August 15, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Neat to see THE LAST SUPPER in among F. Scott Fitzgerald, Iris Murdoch, James Schuyler, Mary Gaitskill, Jamaica Kincaid, and Drake on Arts & Letters Daily, via Gerald Howard's n+1 review essay www.aldaily.com
Just posted: the video of a LAST SUPPER event at the American Writers Museum (@awmuseum.bsky.social) in Chicago -- really as stimulating a public conversation about my written work as any I can recall. I'm truly grateful for the care taken there www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0VD...
A conversation with Paul Elie, author of "The Last Supper"
YouTube video by American Writers Museum
www.youtube.com
August 9, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Just posted: the video of a LAST SUPPER event at the American Writers Museum (@awmuseum.bsky.social) in Chicago -- really as stimulating a public conversation about my written work as any I can recall. I'm truly grateful for the care taken there www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0VD...
THE LAST SUPPER in Smoky Mountain News: "A deep dive into the music and arts scene of the 1970s and 80s ...You’ll be transported back to that time, that music, those artists and authors and their more transcendental aspects in a kind of illuminating déja vu."
smokymountainnews.com/arts/item/40...
smokymountainnews.com/arts/item/40...
Diving into the spirit of ’70s and ’80s music
For all of you ’70s and ’80s hipsters, I’ve got one for you. In his new book, acclaimed author Paul Elie (“The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex and Controversy in the 1980s,” Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 20...
smokymountainnews.com
August 7, 2025 at 2:49 AM
THE LAST SUPPER in Smoky Mountain News: "A deep dive into the music and arts scene of the 1970s and 80s ...You’ll be transported back to that time, that music, those artists and authors and their more transcendental aspects in a kind of illuminating déja vu."
smokymountainnews.com/arts/item/40...
smokymountainnews.com/arts/item/40...
This "journey among the believers & those who were trying, in their imperfect & individual ways, to accommodate and harness symbols of belief towards artistic ends, left this one-time believer engaged & troubled & in fresh perplexity in the best possible way." www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
Among the Blasphemers | Gerald Howard
For at least a year, the mail room in Penguin’s New York headquarters utilized a bomb-sniffing dog—named, for some unknown reason, Yalta—to screen packages. On one especially unnerving Saturday the fe...
www.nplusonemag.com
July 29, 2025 at 11:00 AM
This "journey among the believers & those who were trying, in their imperfect & individual ways, to accommodate and harness symbols of belief towards artistic ends, left this one-time believer engaged & troubled & in fresh perplexity in the best possible way." www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
"THE LAST SUPPER really hits its stride & strikes thematic gold in its climactic crypto-religious coverage of two of the central agons of the decade: the AIDS crisis & the publication of THE SATANIC VERSES & the resulting fatwa against Salman Rushdie." www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
Among the Blasphemers | Gerald Howard
For at least a year, the mail room in Penguin’s New York headquarters utilized a bomb-sniffing dog—named, for some unknown reason, Yalta—to screen packages. On one especially unnerving Saturday the fe...
www.nplusonemag.com
July 27, 2025 at 6:42 PM
"THE LAST SUPPER really hits its stride & strikes thematic gold in its climactic crypto-religious coverage of two of the central agons of the decade: the AIDS crisis & the publication of THE SATANIC VERSES & the resulting fatwa against Salman Rushdie." www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
"As a critic and historian Elie has clarity, depth, and range—qualities that serve him well as he navigates the stormy and turbid high/low waters of his chosen decade’s cultural output" -- from Gerald Howard's review of THE LAST SUPPER in @nplusonemag.com
www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
Among the Blasphemers | Gerald Howard
For at least a year, the mail room in Penguin’s New York headquarters utilized a bomb-sniffing dog—named, for some unknown reason, Yalta—to screen packages. On one especially unnerving Saturday the fe...
www.nplusonemag.com
July 26, 2025 at 8:08 PM
"As a critic and historian Elie has clarity, depth, and range—qualities that serve him well as he navigates the stormy and turbid high/low waters of his chosen decade’s cultural output" -- from Gerald Howard's review of THE LAST SUPPER in @nplusonemag.com
www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/...
"Accomplishes something remarkable and necessary: foregrounds the extraordinary & ineffable in the popular arts, demonstrating how the 'religious point of view' is deeply entwined with the artistic desires to make sense of the world, or subvert it." www.washingtonexaminer.com/premium/3477...
The God that Failed Up: Review of ‘The Last Supper’ by Paul Elie - Washington Examiner
The real thesis of the book is an argument that everyone who approaches the past or the present of art without looking to religion is simply mistaken.
www.washingtonexaminer.com
July 25, 2025 at 11:46 AM
"Accomplishes something remarkable and necessary: foregrounds the extraordinary & ineffable in the popular arts, demonstrating how the 'religious point of view' is deeply entwined with the artistic desires to make sense of the world, or subvert it." www.washingtonexaminer.com/premium/3477...
Randy Boyagoda in @FinancialTimes.com: THE LAST SUPPER "challenges reductive perceptions of religion’s place in contemporary American life — as either all-powerful ... or altogether absent ... — while revealing the 1980s as the decade when these perceptions set in place." www.ft.com/content/21f8...
The Last Supper — how religion shaped pop culture in the 1980s
From Madonna to Martin Scorsese, Paul Elie makes the case for spirituality’s influence on American musicians, writers and artists in the decade of materialism
www.ft.com
July 23, 2025 at 8:36 PM
Randy Boyagoda in @FinancialTimes.com: THE LAST SUPPER "challenges reductive perceptions of religion’s place in contemporary American life — as either all-powerful ... or altogether absent ... — while revealing the 1980s as the decade when these perceptions set in place." www.ft.com/content/21f8...
“If prominent Catholic leaders had taken a pastoral approach akin to the one Francis took a third of a century later, the situation of Catholicism in our society would be very different today.” My interview with OutReach's @MikeOLoughlin.bsky.social on THE LAST SUPPER outreach.faith/2025/07/inte...
Interview: “The Last Supper” includes struggles of gay Catholics in 1980s New York - Outreach
Michael O'Loughlin interviews Paul Elie, author of "The Last Supper," exploring the stories of struggle for gay Catholics in 1980s New York.
outreach.faith
July 21, 2025 at 1:54 PM
“If prominent Catholic leaders had taken a pastoral approach akin to the one Francis took a third of a century later, the situation of Catholicism in our society would be very different today.” My interview with OutReach's @MikeOLoughlin.bsky.social on THE LAST SUPPER outreach.faith/2025/07/inte...
Up and out (all this week, it happens): a conversation about THE LAST SUPPER --and its New Orleans episodes, especially -- with the great Susan Larson, for @wwno.org's The Reading Life: www.wwno.org/podcast/the-...
The Reading Life: Paul Elie
www.wwno.org
July 17, 2025 at 9:05 PM
Up and out (all this week, it happens): a conversation about THE LAST SUPPER --and its New Orleans episodes, especially -- with the great Susan Larson, for @wwno.org's The Reading Life: www.wwno.org/podcast/the-...
From @thbevilacqua.bsky.social: "With THE LAST SUPPER, Paul Elie has cemented his place as one of the preeminent examiners & historians of art & religion in the modern world & has shown how the latter half of this century is robust with voices speaking to the lived experience of believers . . ."
July 7, 2025 at 7:53 PM
From @thbevilacqua.bsky.social: "With THE LAST SUPPER, Paul Elie has cemented his place as one of the preeminent examiners & historians of art & religion in the modern world & has shown how the latter half of this century is robust with voices speaking to the lived experience of believers . . ."
THE LAST SUPPER, reviewed by Rebecca Bratten Weiss in the National Catholic Reporter (@ncronline.bsky.social): "Elie's exploration of the struggle between art and faith in the 1980s offers valuable insights for anyone seeking clarity on faith in public life today" www.ncronline.org/culture/book....
sky.social
July 6, 2025 at 2:36 PM
THE LAST SUPPER, reviewed by Rebecca Bratten Weiss in the National Catholic Reporter (@ncronline.bsky.social): "Elie's exploration of the struggle between art and faith in the 1980s offers valuable insights for anyone seeking clarity on faith in public life today" www.ncronline.org/culture/book....
On the Dishcast, Andrew Sullivan and I talk about THE LAST SUPPER & crypto-religious art, carrying forward a 3-decade exchange--this time from "... Sinead O'Connor’s refusal to get an abortion" to my "gobsmacking omission of the Pet Shop Boys" andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/paul-elie-...
Paul Elie On Crypto-Religion In Pop Culture
His book explores the religious roots of some of the biggest artists of the 1980s. Listen now on the Dishcast.
andrewsullivan.substack.com
June 28, 2025 at 11:26 AM
On the Dishcast, Andrew Sullivan and I talk about THE LAST SUPPER & crypto-religious art, carrying forward a 3-decade exchange--this time from "... Sinead O'Connor’s refusal to get an abortion" to my "gobsmacking omission of the Pet Shop Boys" andrewsullivan.substack.com/p/paul-elie-...
Now posted: a full episode of The Russell Moore Show devoted to THE LAST SUPPER - and to THE LIFE YOU SAVE MAY BE YOUR OWN, which Moore (@drmoore.bsky.social) says he has read three or four times . . . www.christianitytoday.com/podcasts/the...
Paul Elie on Culture Wars in Music and Art - Christianity Today
What do Andy Warhol, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Flannery O’Connor, and Bono all have in common? According to writer and cultural historian Paul Elie,
www.christianitytoday.com
June 25, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Now posted: a full episode of The Russell Moore Show devoted to THE LAST SUPPER - and to THE LIFE YOU SAVE MAY BE YOUR OWN, which Moore (@drmoore.bsky.social) says he has read three or four times . . . www.christianitytoday.com/podcasts/the...
'Elie’s book seeks to demonstrate just how consistently slanted toward the “crypto-religious” and mystic the American public imaginary has been, even throughout “secular” postmodernity, even by the most rebellious of its rebels for artistic causes.' www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture...
Review: The Catholic fragments of art, faith and sex in 1980s pop culture
Paul Eli'e's 'The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex and Controversy' investigates pop culture’s crypto-religious, uncanny symbols of immanence and transcendence.
www.americamagazine.org
June 20, 2025 at 4:43 PM
'Elie’s book seeks to demonstrate just how consistently slanted toward the “crypto-religious” and mystic the American public imaginary has been, even throughout “secular” postmodernity, even by the most rebellious of its rebels for artistic causes.' www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture...
In @newyorker.com: THE LAST SUPPER "parses not just art works but the uproar that they incited. Conflicts over 'authority and individual conscience' ... didn’t fade with the decade; they helped set the terms of the culture wars that continue into the present." www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Briefly Noted Book Reviews
Short reviews of recent releases.
www.newyorker.com
June 16, 2025 at 3:49 PM
In @newyorker.com: THE LAST SUPPER "parses not just art works but the uproar that they incited. Conflicts over 'authority and individual conscience' ... didn’t fade with the decade; they helped set the terms of the culture wars that continue into the present." www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
"Elie makes the point that the 1980s culture wars help explain wherever it is that we are today ... In our time of oversimplicity, he reminds us that tearing up a photo of the pope on TV...can have multiple complicated, enigmatic meanings." www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/bookreview/t...
The Last Supper: Art, Faith, Sex, and Controversy in the 1980s | Washington Independent Review of Books
The Independent is an important voice in the community of readers and writers dedicated to book reviews and writing about the world of books.
www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com
June 11, 2025 at 3:19 PM
"Elie makes the point that the 1980s culture wars help explain wherever it is that we are today ... In our time of oversimplicity, he reminds us that tearing up a photo of the pope on TV...can have multiple complicated, enigmatic meanings." www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/bookreview/t...
"Where the clerics couldn't speak, the artists stepped in." A conversation with the grandmaster interviewer Chris Lydon for Open Source (@radioopensource.bsky.social) is up now -- an afternoon well spent at his home library and studio in Boston radioopensource.org/the-last-sup...
The Last Supper
radioopensource.org
June 10, 2025 at 3:29 PM
"Where the clerics couldn't speak, the artists stepped in." A conversation with the grandmaster interviewer Chris Lydon for Open Source (@radioopensource.bsky.social) is up now -- an afternoon well spent at his home library and studio in Boston radioopensource.org/the-last-sup...
In Rome today I'll have the privilege of leading the keynote conversation in this spring's Georgetown Global Dialogues -- with Cardinal Tolentino, head of the Vatican's Dicastery for Culture and Education globaldialogues.georgetown.edu/events/liter...
Literature, Social Friendship, and the Culture of Encounter
How do Pope Francis's call to a "culture of encounter" in "Fratelli Tutti" and his recurring emphasis on literature as a means of encounter point to/open up ways forward in a divided world?
globaldialogues.georgetown.edu
June 9, 2025 at 5:46 AM
In Rome today I'll have the privilege of leading the keynote conversation in this spring's Georgetown Global Dialogues -- with Cardinal Tolentino, head of the Vatican's Dicastery for Culture and Education globaldialogues.georgetown.edu/events/liter...
An invigorating conversation about THE LAST SUPPER and "crypto-religiosity" with old-and-new-friend Dominic Preziosi on the @commonweal.bsky.social podcast . . .
www.commonwealmagazine.org/podcast/cryp...
www.commonwealmagazine.org/podcast/cryp...
Crypto-Religiosity
What if American religiosity hasn’t disappeared, but just taken less visible forms?
www.commonwealmagazine.org
June 8, 2025 at 10:29 AM
An invigorating conversation about THE LAST SUPPER and "crypto-religiosity" with old-and-new-friend Dominic Preziosi on the @commonweal.bsky.social podcast . . .
www.commonwealmagazine.org/podcast/cryp...
www.commonwealmagazine.org/podcast/cryp...
Unerringly thoughtful . . . This is an essential read for those interested in how art can take a stand when spirituality takes the form of a repressive ideology." That's Douglas C. MacLeod, in The Arts Fuse (#ARTSFuse), on THE LAST SUPPER artsfuse.org/310999/june-...
June Short Fuses — Materia Critica - The Arts Fuse
Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.
artsfuse.org
June 1, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Unerringly thoughtful . . . This is an essential read for those interested in how art can take a stand when spirituality takes the form of a repressive ideology." That's Douglas C. MacLeod, in The Arts Fuse (#ARTSFuse), on THE LAST SUPPER artsfuse.org/310999/june-...