Erich Wolfgang Korngold came to Hollywood from Vienna, bringing with him his own unique style born from a context shaped by Richard Strauss in particular. What you know as the typical sound of Hollywood film scores is in fact the style of Korngold. If you don’t know his music, you should! Read more
Tony Rossi has reposted some of his reflections on the show and its religious themes on the blog Christopher Closeup. Of course, there is a lot of blogging at Exploring Our Matrix about LOST, although, since most of it is from before the move to Patheos, it doesn’t have the convenient tags to help you find it. See also the recent post about J. J. Abrams’ “rules” regarding time travel at IO9. Why is it worth thinking about LOST at this... Read more
To all God’s people in Rome, who are loved by God and called and sanctified, Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and Jesus his appointed king. Let me introduce myself. I am Paul – enslaved by Jesus the divinely-appointed king, and called to be an emissary of God’s good news. You’ve heard about that good news, promised beforehand by prophets in sacred writings. It is about God’s son – who (from a human perspective) is of the... Read more
The “Spotlight on Teaching” section of the latest issue of Religious Studies News is focused on online education. It includes interesting articles such as: Sandie Gravett, “Rethinking Online Education” Erica Andrus, “Introducing Religion to Cyberstudents” John Strong, “Hybrid or Blended Teaching Formats” John Baumann, “The Challenge of Online Education” Annie Blazer and Brandi Denison, “The Internet is Not a Classroom” If you teach online or expect that you might, the articles are worth a look. I’m currently in the third day... Read more
I received an invitation on Facebook to attend WHOcharist. It is apparently a discussion of Doctor Who at a church called South Wedge Mission in Rochester. Who knew? In honor of this creative event title, here is “The Penultimate Supper” by Ray Friesen: Read more
I am a democrat because I believe that no man or group of men is good enough to be trusted with uncontrolled power over others. And the higher the pretensions of such power, the more dangerous I think it both to rulers and to the subjects. Hence Theocracy is the worst of all governments. If we must have a tyrant a robber barron is far better than an inquisitor. The baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point... Read more
I had it drawn to my attention that the original background notes for the TV show Doctor Who, written by Cecil E. Webber and Sydney Newman, is available on the BBC website (I’ve embedded the entire thing below). The document sets forth a vision for where the show would go. It appears that the Doctor’s identity was intended to be a mystery, with possible resolutions offered throughout only to be undercut – and eventually, it was intended that more would be... Read more
A Facebook friend asked me the following: I’m sure this is an extremely broad question but I’m really curious! How do you combine a love for scripture and a respect for it’s authority whilst still acknowledging the non-historical nature of it? I responded by saying that I thought the question deserved a long reply, and might be of interest to others, and that I would answer it on my blog. Let me first rephrase the question, since I think there... Read more
Do you want to know the Doctor's name? I'm not asking whether you want to watch a leaked copy (more information here) of “The Name of the Doctor” early after downloading it, assuming you have found a torrent that doesn't lead to a fake copy. I'm asking whether you actually want to know the Doctor's name. While some fans have been adamantly answering in the negative, isn't 50 years long enough for a show to make its fans wait before... Read more
Ian Millington recently drew my attention to an article about NASA’s Mars rover, and pointed out to me an interesting implication for young-earth creationism. If young-earth creationism is correct, and geological strata we see on Earth result from a global flood, then why do we find such strata in rocks on Mars? Of course, one can always come up with some sort of ad hoc “explanation” for anything if one is determined to. Indeed, feel free to propose outlandish suggestions for... Read more
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