On Praise and Worship Music: An Essay to its Cultured Despisers
“Praise and worship” music is one of the most oft-evoked and heavily contested markers of evangelical Protestantism in the United States. Its most vocal advocates herald praise and worship and its meteoric rise since the 1960s as nothing less than the rebirth of Western Christianity, citing its unique ability to attract an entire generation of “lost sheep” into... Read More
Theologians Don’t Know Nothing: A Thought for the Day from Wilco
Now that I have a daughter, I can look forward to some day standing in front of a puzzled class of Grade One students on Career Day explaining that I am not a doctor, lawyer or carpenter but a “theologian.” (Or better yet, a “theologue.”) I’m the first to admit that it’s a strange career choice. It sounds like I spend each day meditating on obscure... Read More
“Living Into Focus”: Recovering Clarity in the Age of Technology
Technology is an integral part of the human cultural “envelope.” Once we used stone implements to kill mammoths and sabretooth tigers; now we have iPads. Marshall McLuhan famously called the media the “extensions of man”; but in a sense, all technology could be described by this phrase. Our tools, as is manifestly evident in the twenty-first century, have... Read More
James Blake and Marks of Specters
The idea of “deconstruction” has achieved a somewhat surprising ubiquity in our current culture. In addition to relatively long-standing applications in literary and cultural criticism, deconstruction has also found a home in political punditry and haute cuisine (what does it mean to “deconstruct” a meatloaf anyway?). But perhaps most enamored with the idea... Read More
Are Artists the High Priests of Culture? Part II
Do artists take themselves too seriously? Do we take artists seriously enough? These are the questions I’ve had coming out of my post last week, where I offered a few preliminary thoughts (in response to a well-intentioned but generally frustrating video from the Gospel Coalition) on the question of whether artists serve some kind of “priestly” role in contemporary... Read More
Are Artists the High Priests of Culture? Part I
In his seminal Art in Action (1980), Reformed philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff emphasized the way in which the artist, “when he brings forth order for human benefit or divine honor,” participates in “man’s vocation to master and subdue the earth” (77). Such a creationally-grounded ‘job description’ applies equally to artists inside and... Read More
The Brave New Digital Publishing World: An Interview with David Wheeler
David Wheeler is the author of Contingency Plans and a fair number of essays around the internet. He’s been selling books for the last few years, currently at the Elliott Bay Book Co in Seattle. He works on the events team to introduce authors and sells books during any number of the 500 readings we put on throughout the year, in addition to his work on the floor in customer... Read More
Attack of the Clones
The documentary The People vs. George Lucas, with all its jokes about Ewoks and midi-chlorians, is perhaps destined to be enjoyed most by Star Wars superfans. However, it raises a series of intriguing questions about creativity and control which extend far beyond a certain “galaxy far, far away.” Who “owns” a film or work of art, especially in this digital... Read More
Falling in Love with Digital Publishing: An Interview with L.L. Barkat
There are those whom you would describe as enthusiastic, and then there is L.L. Barkat. She has an energy and laugh that is absolutely contagious. And some of her ideas are contagious, too! Mediation staff writer Thomas Turner chatted briefly with L.L. Barkat on the subject of digital publishing and electronic media, something she knows well as a managing editor and point person... Read More
Drawing in a Digital World: An Interview with Breena Wiederhoeft
Breena Wiederhoeft is the graphic artist behind Easel Ain’t Easy, a quirky and witty comic blog. Breena has been working hard on her debut novel Picket Line, which is now available for pre-order. Thomas Turner sat down digitally to chat with Breena to discuss how the digital, technologically advanced world we live in intersects with a vocation that is focused on a tactile,... Read More
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