Joshua Busman

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 […]

Joshua Busman

CCM, Heavy Metal, and the Lure of Possibility

Just last week, I was reading Deena Weinstein’s landmark 1991 study Heavy Metal: A Cultural Sociology and I was nearly stopped in my tracks by the final chapter, which deals with metal’s “detractors” from across the political spectrum. While conservative criticisms of heavy metal are well-known through the work of groups like the Parents Music […]

Joshua Busman

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 of deconstruction […]

Brian Bennett

Christmas, Community, & Meaning

The search for meaning in Community’s Christmas episode is perhaps a model for Christian witness and sharing of the search for truth.

Jen Grabarczyk-Turner, Shimon Sakakibara

No Shelter (and other works)

This art exhibit from Shimon Sakakibara includes two-dimensional paintings, two installations, and a review by Jen Grabarczyk; it speaks to a loss of hope and a deceptive sense of life and meaning in individuals, specifically in regards to youth.