Touch thus emblematizes a Christian truth, one that is becoming increasingly evident in the technological era of human connectivity.
“A Piece of the Continent”: Touch, Providence, and Human Connectedness
May 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Once upon a Time and the Redemption of Fairy Tales
May 15, 2013 By Leave a Comment
On Sunday, ABC aired the second-season finale of its popular series Once upon a Time, with a third season confirmed for Fall 2013. Capitalizing on the recent vogue for updated fairy tale treatments, Once upon a Time is set in the quaint town of Storybrooke, Maine, a town with a curious secret: it is populated [...]
Vikings Are People Too
May 3, 2013 By Leave a Comment
On March 3, History Channel premiered its much-discussed miniseries The Bible, which proved to be thoroughly popular both on its original airdates and now on DVD. But what intrigued me more was the show that followed The Bible’s premiere, History Channel’s first original fictional series, Vikings. The series ended its inaugural season this Sunday but [...]
Melissa Harris-Perry Wants Your Kids! Or Does She?
April 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment
The past couple weeks have seen a firestorm of controversy surrounding a 30-second television promo by MSNBC anchor host Melissa Harris-Perry. Conservative commentators reacted sharply against what they perceived as the insinuations of the video that children are owned in some collectivist way by the community or, worse, by the government at large: Such concerns [...]
Philosophers for Hire? “Marketable” Majors and the Question of Christian Vocation
April 17, 2013 By 9 Comments
When people joke (usually good-naturedly) about the perceived irrelevance of English majors (or other liberal arts degrees) in the current national and global economy, I smile and laugh along, though I have to admit that such considerations have always seemed rather distant. I graduated as an English major at a small Christian college in 2001, [...]
“This Is the Time of Loves”: Innovative Christian Poets in the Easter Season
April 4, 2013 By 1 Comment
The most recent issue of Christianity Today includes a delightful little appreciation by Christopher Benson for George Herbert’s classic poem “Easter Wings.” As Benson notes, Herbert was a seventeenth-century priest in the Church of England who wrote poems throughout his life, though they did not see publication until his friend (religious reformer Nicholas Ferrar) saw [...]
“Call the Midwife” Celebrates Life from Beginning to End
March 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
It is perhaps appropriate that American PBS stations should be premiering the second season of the British drama Call the Midwife on Easter Sunday. As the commemoration of Christ’s resurrections, Easter carries with it connotations of the preciousness of life—embodied life—consonant with the beginning of the spring season. And Call the Midwife is a show deeply [...]
Saint Nicholas Strikes Back: Catholic Memes and Secularized Feast Days
March 22, 2013 By 4 Comments
I went to the kind of small Christian college that still required chapel attendance, and one morning, scheduled in the midst of all the pastors and inspirational or motivational speakers, we had a presenter who came dressed as Saint Patrick. He did nothing but recite Patrick’s autobiographical Confessio. He never broke character, even using his [...]
Does History Channel’s The Bible Live up to Its Promise?
March 14, 2013 By 3 Comments
Two competing emotions welled up inside me when I first learned that the History Channel would be making a ten-hour miniseries that followed the storyline of the Bible from Genesis to Jesus: hope and fear. The Bible, as it is straightforwardly called, is the brainchild of Touched by an Angel alum Roma Downey and her [...]
In Memoriam Arthur Machen: Celebrating 150 Years of Horror and Ecstasy
March 4, 2013 By 3 Comments
Yesterday marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of Arthur Machen (1863-1947), an author who penned several influential works of supernatural horror and fantasy in his almost fifty-year writing career. While hardly a household name today, Machen can count among his past and present admirers H. P. Lovecraft, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, Ray [...]
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