“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 […]
From personal faith to social critique, Marilynne Robinson’s When I Was a Child I Read Books presents an incisive, hopeful approach toward understanding culture and loving others.
The International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture has just listed two new CFPs for conferences in 2012. The Society’s annual conference, hosted in Copenhagen in 2012, will focus on “Cultures in Transition: Presence, Absence, Memory.” Here is the link to the Society’s new webpage where all the CFP info is located: http://isrlc.org/. The 8th […]
Contrary to what you might think, this is not a picture of princess-to-be Kate Middleton trying on her wedding dress before her upcoming nuptials on Friday. Despite its verisimilitude, this is the work of Alison Jackson (check out her website), an […]
George Nolfi’s recently released film (March 2011), The Adjustment Bureau, has brought the philosophical-theological question of free-will to the big screen in an engaging way. Based on the short story, Adjustment Team (by Philip K. Dick), The Adjustment Bureau tells the story of David Norris (Matt Damon) and Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt) – two driven […]
Actor Charlie Sheen has made headlines this week with his no-longer-exclusive ABC interview on 20/20 in which his extremely odd behavior was sort of funny, mostly pathetic, slightly frightening. Sheen appeared with his two “goddesses” (girlfriends) and spoke about a variety of self-involved topics, such as “winning” and being on a drug called “Charliesheen.” Awesome–literally, “so […]
William T. Cavanaugh effectively challenges contemporary treatments of religion and its culpability in violence, but his study raises other questions about what occurs theologically behind the church’s disordered politics.
In 1991, the Academy Award for Best Picture went to the disturbing psycho thriller, The Silence of the Lambs. Movie-goers were left wondering what meaning lies behind awarding such an horrific, grotesque, and arguably evil tale about serial killers with cinema’s highest honor, the Oscar. In the volleying commentary between art and culture, what does […]
The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart made a pointed critique on the “corruption” he found in the media. His critique creates a segue into the provocative notion that the Church, under the influence of the media, has also engaged in such “corruption.” What is the “corruption” of which Stewart speaks? And is mainstream American Evangelicalism guilty of such “corruption” itself? Maybe…maybe not. You decide.