Today marks the beginning of the last week of Advent the time of year that where the church enters into a time of expectation before Christmas. This time of year is filled with rituals and traditions for many people. As a student of rituals, not only do I love my own rituals, but also the rituals that others do. I thought that today I would share with you a few of the rituals and traditions that my family has adopted for Advent and Christmas.... Read more

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien My rating: 5 of 5 stars I first encountred the Hobit as a little boy. My father read it to me at bed time each night. As I grew older I read it for myself, reading it a half dozen times as a kid and I also gave it another read about 10 years ago but it had been a while since I last read the story. With the new Hobit movie now in theaters... Read more

This week me and the other doctoral students on the Crossed Purposes podcast talk about the end of the world and why people predict the end of the world every couple of years. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element Download it here Read more

Last last week me and the other doctoral students on the Crossed Purposes podcast  finally got around to talking about the Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon film The Cabin in the Woods. We bring up questions about sacrifice, roles, horror movies, and whether people are more important than a person. Also The Sword of Truth, and Kingdoms of Amalur come up. Warning: SPOILERS!. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element Download it here Read more

You Got To Be Kidding by Joe Wenke My rating: 1 of 5 stars So I recently read this book and I have to say is possibly the worst book on the Bible that I have ever encountered. There must have been some publisher who woke up in the middle of the night one day and said do you know what the world needs more of insipid nonsense and they tracked down Joe Wenke to create it. The author of... Read more

The problem with a lot of christian music is that it isn’t very good. and this in many ways is by design. Because of this I generally avoid most contemporary Christian music. That isn’t to say that I don’t listen to music that connects with my faith though. In fact a great deal of the music I listen to deals with spiritual themes. I have decided to craft a list of artists that have a great deal of spiritual themes in their music... Read more

 These quotes by Issac of Syria (perhaps my favorite saint) are things that are very good to keep in mind in places like this where talk about God comes freely and passions are not often tempered by love. I hope you are challenged by them as much as I have been. “God is reality. The person whose mind has become aware of God does not even possess a tongue with which to speak, but God resides in the heart in great serenity.... Read more

This last week me and the other doctoral students on the Crossed Purposes podcast discuss Eden, the Nile River, and C.S. Lewis…as always. We also consider the virtues of the Lord of the Rings, the fact that humanity has fallen, Gattica, and Bioshock. There’s also some debate on how to pronounce The Brothers Karamazov. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element Download it here Read more

This last week me and the other doctoral students on the Crossed Purposes podcast discuss the Atonement, Narnia, the Space Trilogy, the Matrix, Lord of the Rings, and Les Miserables There’s a general consensus that theories of the Atonement are like dates to the Prom, the more you have, the better. If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element Download it here Read more

This last week me and the other doctoral students on the Crossed Purposes podcast discuss Hell. Is it real? Why would it exist? Is Hell forever? We also examine it though the eyes of movies, art, authors and the church fathers. Tell me if you think I know what the Hell I’m talking about in the comments! If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element Download it here Read more