Brett David Potter

Exegeting Pop Culture (and a call for writers)

If you are a regular follower of the Mediation blog, I (on behalf of myself, Brian, Thomas, Aaron and Kelly) have to apologize for a slowdown in posts, especially over the Christmas season. In all of the far-flung places we are found across this great continent (from Seattle to Atlanta to Toronto), things have been […]

Brett David Potter

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 raisesĀ  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 […]

Brett David Potter

Living in Culture: Poetic Theology and Situatedness

William Dyrness’ new book Poetic Theology (2011) is commendable for a number of reasons: its rehabilitation of a “positive” theology of desire (not just the negative spin on human eros we are used to in the Christian tradition), the importance it gives to symbols and symbol-making, as well as its careful concern for the aesthetic […]

Brett David Potter

Fear of a Mormon Planet

Another obscure evangelical pastor has made a controversial pronouncement which has been picked up by the mass media. Fortunately, there’s no Qu’ran-burning this time around… instead, one hitherto unknown Pastor Robert Jeffress has been quoted as saying that Christians should not vote for potential Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney because he is a member of […]

Brett David Potter

The MTV VMAs: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime

According to reasonably reputable sources, this year’s MTV VMAs (the annual Video Music Awards, broadcast live on Sunday night) were watched by over 12 million people. I imagine the majority of viewers tuned in to see what extravagant outfit Lady Gaga would turn up in, and were instead confounded and perhaps exasperated by her lengthy […]

Brett David Potter

Burning Cars and the Creative Impulse

                      After the Vancouver Canucks were defeated by the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup finals last week, the city of Vancouver turned into a full-fledged riot zone. Cars were flipped over and set on fire, windows were broken, and police with shields and batons […]

Brett David Potter

Season Finales and the End of Days

Several recent posts on both mediation and The Other Journal have focused on the apocalypse and spectre of eschatological judgment. Indeed, the End of Days seems to be in the air at the moment, especially considering our recent cultural experience of the “delay of the parousia” when to the ridicule of North American news media […]

Brett David Potter

Lady Gaga: Monstrous Love and Cultural Baptism

            Over the past few years, the enigmatic Lady Gaga has emerged as the ultimate pop icon. Her outrageous antics (such as arriving at the Grammys in an egg) and avant-garde fashion sense (a recent development seems to be prosthetic protuberances on her forehead) have made her the larger-than-life, symbolic […]

Brett David Potter

The Revelation will not be Televised

I may have to add a proviso or two to my earlier, Baudrillard-heavy reading of the Royal Wedding. Watching it on PVR the next day (having opted not to get up at 3 am for the talking heads) the whole production turned out to be – as one might perhaps reasonably expect from a wedding […]