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1 - 10 of 537 total
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Youth In Revolt (Miguel Arteta, 2010)
BY: Wesley Hill
Based on the irreverent coming-of-age novel by C. D. Payne, Youth in Revolt and directed by Miguel Arteta, doesn’t begin there—with the revolt. Instead it starts benignly, in the bedroom retreat of a teen who knows he’s a misfit. Literate, introverted, besotted by Italian cinema, Nick Twisp (played by Michael Cera) seems an unlikely candidate for a rebel. But at 16, he’ll do anything to get a girl.
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Bored By Life, By God
BY: Denis Haack
I’ve been thinking about what we Christians experience when we read Scripture. On the one hand, we believe it to be God’s revelation of himself, the Story of redemption in Christ that is unfolding in space and time. It is the telling of a gospel, Kevin Vanhoozer says, that “displays a goodness than which nothing greater can be dramatized.” On this creedal level, it’s dramatic.
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Learning Evangelism from Jesus (Jerram Barrs, 2009)
BY: Denis Haack
In Learning Evangelism from Jesus long-time L’Abri Worker and now Covenant Seminary professor Jerram Barrs walks through the Gospels to let us watch Jesus interact with people, some devout, some questioning, and all lost. His expositions are simple, direct, careful to honor the text, and always with an eye to letting us see Jesus more clearly so we can know what following him actually looks like.
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Souls in Transition (Christian Smith, 2009)
BY: Denis Haack
Scholarly, carefully researched, and clearly written, Souls in Transition should be read and discussed by Christians who are concerned for the spiritual welfare of the postmodern generation. If I had my way I’d make it required reading for parents, church elders, pastors, teachers, and youth workers.
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The Radical Disciple (John Stott, 2010)
BY: Denis Haack
Over the years, John Stott’s writings have nourished my soul. His faithful exposition of Scripture, always beguilingly simple, never fails to engage my heart and mind, and always spurs me on to greater obedience and fuller adoration. Now he comes to old age, and he ends his life as he lived it, namely, well.
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None Other Lamb, None Other Name: In a Broken World, a Quiet Confidence
BY: Denis Haack
It might seem paradoxical, especially today, that a hymn of such gentle sensitivity can be evoked by a vision of the unleashing of God’s final judgment. “None Other Lamb” contains no hint of pride or smirking triumph, neither the elation of one satisfied they are on the right side, or the glee of someone perversely anticipating the writhing of the damned. Instead Rossetti finds comfort in this One who can open the scroll, finding confidence not in her ability to believe but in the Lamb in whom her confidence rests, quietly certain that her Lord, not her suffering and the brokenness of the world, will have the final word.
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Avatar: A Review (James Cameron, 2009)
BY: R. Greg Grooms
Avatar’s unabashed nature-worship has already been round the block a few times in Hollywood in films from Star Wars to The Lion King. While pantheism’s box-office appeal has been proven, philosophically it’s still lite beer, as Ross Douthat explained in his New York Times review:
The question is whether nature actually deserves a religious response. Traditional theism has to wrestle with the problem of evil: if God is good, why does he allow suffering and death. But nature is suffering and death. Its harmonies require violence. Its “circle of life” is really a circle of mortality.
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Avatar: A Reflection (James Cameron, 2009)
BY: Steven Garber
Having ruined one world, a version of what Eisenhower in the 1950s presciently called “the military/industrial complex” brings unimaginable fire-power to Pandora for the purpose of removing the Na’vi, who in their cultural naïveté have no appreciation for what lies beneath their trees and mountains. Rather, with innocence they think that a life together in relationship to each other and to the birds and beasts, flowers and trees, is of more value.
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Glimmers of Light
BY: Denis Haack
Most often Light comes not as people would like—such as pure light spread sky-wide in bright neon dazzle— but refracted though an altogether different prism, one simultaneously more ambiguous and more personal, by means of touch or embrace, image or sign, glimpse or gaze, sound or music, beauty or horror, meeting or coincidence, forgiveness or blessing.
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Questions for Lost People
BY: Denis Haack
Often, Walker Percy says in Lost in the Cosmos, the sense of our predicament arrives in pangs of disappointment that stretch across our entire existence. That is, if we stop being distracted long enough to notice.
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Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart.
- Erma Bombeck
Last summer I went to Connecticut to visit the Fitzgeralds and smuggled three live ducks over Eastern Airlines for their children, but I have been inactive criminally since then.
- Flannery O'Connor
Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine.
- Thomas Aquinas
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On my desk is a little vase of flowers cut from our yard, a little reminder of the beauty that is all around if we only have eyes to see. I've needed that reminder after reading the latest news of the horrific oil spill in the Gulf. Such glory in this world, such brokenness. Such hope, such deep need for redemption. These are the realities of life and death we seek to explore on this web site. Thank you for visiting.
Denis & Margie
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