An Evangelical Blog on Books and Film

The Serpent in Eden in Crossing to Safety

July 18, 2012 By Julia Polese

Review of Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner By JULIA POLESE Crossing to Safety is Pulitzer Prize-winning author Wallace Stegner’s final novel. It is a story of two couples coping with the loss of Eden. Told from the perspective of Larry Morgan, the novel begins with he and his wife, Sally, as a young couple living in a basement apartment in Madison, Wisconsin, during the Great Depression. Larry, a self-made man from a lower class family in New Mexico and a… Read more

Christian Cinema at Your Local Art House

July 17, 2012 By Christian Hamaker

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Review of The Kid With a Bike by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardennes By CHRISTIAN HAMAKER You know the situation in the first few minutes of the film. It’s all there, etched on the face of a young boy. If you’re a parent, you might pick up on his determination bordering on desperation. The young boy is Cyril (Thomas Doret), and he wants to talk to his father. He wants his bike. He’s in a group home, but he’s determined to… Read more

The Humanity of Christ

July 16, 2012 By Alexis Neal

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Review of The Jesus We Missed: The Surprising Truth About the Humanity of Christ by Patrick Henry Reardon By ALEXIS NEAL This is, or wants to be, a biography of Jesus. Or at any rate, a biography of his humanity, as it’s far from an exhaustive account of all his activities. Reardon walks through the life of Jesus from birth through his youth and pre-ministry adult years, on into his earthly ministry, to the cross, the resurrection, and beyond, explaining how he thinks… Read more

The Amazing Spider-Man

July 13, 2012 By Coyle Neal

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Review of The Amazing Spider-Man, Directed by Marc Webb By COYLE NEAL I went into The Amazing Spider-Man with two things in mind: the question of whether or not Martin Sheen’s still got it (he does); and a sense of entitlement. And as an American I know the feeling of entitlement like the back of my hand. Frankly, after Spider-Man 3: Peter Parker pansy-walks to awful disco music, Marvel owed me a good Spiderman movie. Fortunately, they delivered. Not that it’s a… Read more

The Brothers Karamazov

July 12, 2012 By Paul D. Miller

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By PAUL D. MILLER There are some books that, when you finish, you think, “How did I go through life so long without reading this book?” These are the books that strike you, often in a way you cannot immediately articulate, but remain with you for years. I found The Brothers Karamazov to be such a book. After I finished this book I could barely speak a coherent sentence—I had so many things to say but could hardly get a… Read more

Introducing “Mind Over Media”

July 11, 2012 By Paul D. Miller

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Welcome to “Mind Over Media,” a blog on books and film by a group of evangelical Christians. We are not artists, do not pretend to be professional critics, and have no pretension to Critical or any other kind of Theory. Among our contributors are an attorney, a professor of international relations, and a student at Yale Divinity. We have no methodology, no school of thought, and no official hermeneutic. We’re a group of over-educated Christians who love 1) Jesus, 2)… Read more