“When an overly institutionalized form of Christianity is, or ever has been, battered into pieces and opened to the air of the world around it, that faith-form has both itself spread and also enabled the spread of the young upstart that afflicted it”1 claims Phyllis Tickle in The Great Emergence. Believing that we are...
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But it is true, they fear it more than death, beauty is feared more than death, more than they fear death. - William Carlos Williams Theology seeks the particulars of how God works in the world and who He is, how the Infinite interacts with we the limited. Aesthetics pursues a strikingly similar aim:...
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I tend to be cautious about movies produced and directed by their stars. Turning the camera on oneself begets temptations to egotism that few can completely resist. The worst of such films fetishize their leading men, and even the best, like Braveheart, feel a bit top-heavy. Mel Gibson might have been manly and epic...
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“Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.” Matthew 4:11 When indie folk artist Elliott Smith committed suicide in 2003, his restless ghost stayed behind. A vacancy opened in music, awaiting a new poet-savant of introspection. In life, Smith’s imprint on acoustic music was unique. On record, his most memorable contribution...
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The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Tim Keller. Dutton Adult, 2008. “Doubt and belief are each on the rise,” claims Dr. Timothy Keller, author of The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. As the title suggests, Keller’s new book is an open invitation for rational dialogue...
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WARchild by Emmanuel Jal. Sonic360, 2008. Anger. Hatred. Bloodshed. Violence. Perversion. Corruption. The true nature of evil. Innocence defiled, tossed to the ground and trampled by those who should know better. A broken childhood, no time to appreciate the sun streaming through the trees, no spirit to laugh and sing. Only death and attempted...
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Culture Making by Andy Crouch. InterVarsity Press, 2008. There are many things wrong with this world of ours. Licentious sex and violence are seen as great entertainment, time for eating and sleeping is swallowed up by time spent working, and personal success, defined by fortune or fame, takes precedence over the well-being of the...
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