The novel was reprinted in the Modern Library series in 1931.[5] It was included in Life Magazine's list of the 100 outstanding books of 1924–1944.[6] It was also included on Time's 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005[7] and Modern Library's list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century[8] and was chosen by the Western Writers of America to be the 7th-best "Western Novel" of the 20th century.[9]
James Paul Old of Valparaiso University uses Death Comes for the Archbishop as a literary example of the notion that religious faith is able to develop and maintain strong social bonds in nascent democratic political orders. He argues that even though Cather's early novels, such as My Ántonia, typically represent religious characters as closed-minded, her personal religious realignment at the time allowed her to alter her perspective and develop more positive religious characters, in this case Catholic ones. And while some of her contemporary critics found her out of step with the experiences of common people, later critics, such as Old, praised her for a "search for a basis of order and cultural stability beyond the confines of contemporary secular culture."[10]
