Yesterday, I noted that I just reviewed rapper Lecrae’s brand-new Gravity. Today, I wanted to link to the two songs I consider fresh to the point of heat-seeking. The first is “Falling Down,” produced by The Watchmen, which includes a Boyce College student named Alex Medina. It’s a staggering beat, gothic and weighty, and Lecrae and his guests tear it apart. The second is “Violence,” produced by the enigmatic Tyshane, whom I have heard exactly nothing about. I was stunned... Read more
Have you heard of the new album by Lecrae, probably the best-known Christian rapper today? Gravity debuted this Tuesday and immediately hit #1 on the iTunes charts. That’s a remarkable achievement, especially considering the history of gospel hip hop. Actually, it’s a remarkable achievement for a Christian artist of any musical genre. Over at The Gospel Coalition, I just reviewed Gravity. Here’s a snatch: Boasting outstanding production, honest and impressive lyricism, and cover art that mashes motorcycle outlaw with Prometheus, Gravity represents Lecrae’s bid... Read more
Excellent news from SBTS: Carl Trueman of Westminster Theological Seminary will deliver the prestigious Gheens Lectures at Southern Seminary next week. To say I am excited to hear Trueman speak on Luther would be an exercise in understatement. It gets better, though–Trueman is speaking on Luther as “theological pastor.” Sounds like some pastor-theologian material to me… Here’s the official announcement: Next Tuesday and Wednesday, September 11-12, Dr. Carl Trueman will deliver the Fall 2012 Gheens Lectures in Heritage Hall entitled... Read more
Jefferson Bethke, the Washington spoken-word poet who started a national conversation with his poem going after religion, has just released a new one entitled “Counterfeit Gods.” It’s deep, thoughtful, and beautifully shot. Here’s hoping for more efforts like this from Jefferson and a whole generation of slam poets, rappers, beatmakers, and other artists who love Christ and exalt him using gifts of performance. (HT: @drmoore, who impressed me by being the first to Tweet this–his country music bona fides notwithstanding!) Read more
What would it have like to have known John Calvin? Bruce Gordon tells us in his marvelous survey of Calvin’s life, Calvin (Yale, 2009). One picture emerges from his letters and sixteenth-century biographers: serious, though not without a sense of humour, intense and deeply spiritual. Discipline was not simply for the church; discipline was his way of life. Calvin believed that he lived each day in the presence of God and that every activity, great and small, was consecrated to... Read more
[bandcamp track=4230304246 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=venti] This song from Sovereign Grace Music, “Now Why This Fear,” is definitely worth a listen. The music, from the cd The Gathering, is powerful, and the lyrics by master hymnist Augustus Toplady, author of “Rock of Ages,” are theologically rich and meaningful. Here’s a snatch; this would be a great cd to download and play in order to build faith in God. Verse 2 Complete atonement You have made And by Your death have fully paid... Read more
The Atlantic has an interesting story by Derek Thompson and Jordan Weissmann in its September 2012 issue entitled “The Cheapest Generation.” It details how “Millennials” aren’t making major purchases that once served as benchmarks of personal maturity. Here’s a snatch about how Ford is trying to solve this problem and sell cars to young consumers: The company is trying to solve a puzzle that’s bewildering every automaker in America: How do you sell cars to Millennials (a k a Generation Y)? The... Read more
Here’s a great video on complementarianism (or biblical gender roles) from The Gospel Coalition featuring John Piper, Tim Keller, and D. A. Carson (HT: JT). I found all three panelists’s remarks stimulating (and I enjoyed Carson’s anti-Zwinglian militarism at around the 9-minute mark!). Piper, as Piper does, got ramped up in the first part of the video, and said some truly inspiring things about the need to guard this doctrine and not shrink back against the rushing tide of culture. ... Read more
Recently, I wrote about “your best image now” based on a WSJ essay on bragging and social media. The piece raised many good questions for me, including one I’ve been turning over in my mind for a long time: is it wrong for me to RT material about me? So you know, “RT” doesn’t “Remotely Tazer” or “Radically Transgress.” It means “re-tweet,” and so it applies to Twitter. If someone says something nice about you–“@collinhansen wrote a great story”–should you... Read more
I found this poignant. It’s from a touching memorial for the writer Christopher Hitchens that his wife, Carol Blue, wrote. As many will know, Hitchens was a ferocious atheist. That fact notwithstanding, his wife has this to say about his final months: The new world lasted 19 months. During this time of what he called “living dyingly”, he insisted ferociously on living, and his constitution, physical and philosophical, did all it could to stay alive. Christopher was aiming to be... Read more
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