The Purity Culture of Christmas: Commercialism is Bad. So?

Last updated on: December 16, 2018 at 7:16 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

Let’s kill the Purity Culture of Christmas. Our family fought Christian Gnosticism (“purity culture”) as best we could in the Nineties, given the Church’s teachings. As a result, we fight Christmas hypes who would deny us a party out of their worry about someone else’s motives. If there is one thing secular and religious Americans agree on, it is that “commercialism” ruins Christmas. This is true, but what is not true is the weird belief that “commercialism” has ruined Christmas. Nonsense.... Read more

Our Thoroughly Smug Thought Leaders and Us

Last updated on: December 11, 2018 at 11:44 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

O generation of the thoroughly smug and thoroughly uncomfortable, So begins a Salutation from Ezra Pound* and we should all pause. Those of us blessed with a decent education have a problem: a lazy moral certainty sets in, because all of us think like all of us. We are sure of who is wicked, what is right, and what should be done about it all. We have moral panics and no mercy on those who transgress our laws. That any power... Read more

The Commute to Bethlehem: Getting There on Time

Last updated on: December 11, 2018 at 11:21 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

Every so often a commuting college student will realize his final (“Don Rags” here) is in twenty minutes. The difficulty is that he is one hour away and traffic is bad. He is still not late, but he surely will miss the final nobody should miss. This is an odd position: failing before failure. Sometimes to be on time for Christmas (or even Epiphany) we have to start early. So it was with the magi in a distant land who would come... Read more

Problems and Solutions: Physical, Spiritual, and Psychological

Last updated on: December 11, 2018 at 12:11 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

People are complex immortal souls, consciousness, in an animal body. We are not angels, we have bodies. We are animals, but not merely animals, because we have eternity in our hearts. When we want to eat, we are animals. When we imagine a dish that has never been, then we are souls. When the bread and wine in the Eucharist are seen in the True Light, the outer symbol of bread and wine becoming the Body and Blood of Christ, then... Read more

Designated Survivor (the Equivalent of a Christian Movie for the Resistance)

Last updated on: December 12, 2018 at 3:22 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

Great entertainment will often contain a message, but it takes great entertainment to do the job well. Hacks who try to send a message end up making a mess that is neither entertaining nor helpful for the message. Handel gave us the Messiah and that was wonderful, but the 1980s’s gave us the Young Messiah and that was wonderfully woeful. Christians need not despair, everyone makes this mistake. Genius can do two things at once (entertain and educate), the rest of us should... Read more

Mary was born to get the Christmas we got, because she consented. Thank you, Mary.

Last updated on: December 9, 2018 at 9:04 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

Mary was born, raised by good parents, decided to say “yes” when she could have said “no,” and so we got Christmas. We should be thankful. Christmas showed for the first time the True Light. Every Christmas tree, each candle light service, all the house lights are an outer sign of this inner reality. The True Light came when a woman gave her consent to God. I am thankful. Thankfulness is not worship. I venerate my grandparents for standing in... Read more

Looking for Good Shepherds (Thoughts from Dad)

Last updated on: December 6, 2018 at 5:41 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

My Dad has a pastor’s heart. He set a high standard for ministry and he has written some thoughts on the need for good shepherds. He was and is a good shepherd. Here are his thoughts: The people of God are called ‘the salt of the earth’, lights in a dark world, the Body of Christ, and the temple of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the advance of His Church.... Read more

An Unexpected Journey: Michael Ward and Answering a Question

Last updated on: December 6, 2018 at 11:11 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

From a brief retrospective here: In an issue honoring a remarkable scholar, I have been asked to do two things: honor Michael Ward and tell how he and Apologetics came together at Houston Baptist University. This requires saying something about why cultural apologetics was (with cinema and new media) such a priority for me during my time at HBU. Michael Ward was a major part of answering a question I had all my life about education: how can we continue... Read more

For the Humanities PhD: Some Sort Of Advice

Last updated on: December 5, 2018 at 10:32 pm By John Mark N. Reynolds

I get questions.* For a person who teaches by asking questions, these are always tricky for me. Should I answer them? Maybe. The American academy is not so welcoming to Christians just now, especially if you are rooted in the global and historical faith. If African or Asian Christianity matters to you, as it should, then you are not going to do well in secular American academics. That’s nothing compared to what our sisters and brothers face in nations like... Read more

Fantastic Beasts: Rowling Vindicates (Some of) Her Critics

Last updated on: December 4, 2018 at 9:10 am By John Mark N. Reynolds

JK Rowling (JKR) did sub-creation splendidly in the Harry Potter series. She had seven books, with increasing editorial freedom in each one, and told the story she wanted to tell. She could have said more than she did, but chose not to do so. Dumbledore has two siblings and is not gay or heterosexual in the books. Nagini? A snake. Rowling wrote her books, gave us a cosmos, and now that completed work is ours to enjoy. We can write all... Read more

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