Why Comic Book Movies Stink (According to Salon)

Last updated on: May 13, 2010 at 6:20 pm By Owen Strachan

Salon’s Mott Zoller Seitz just wrote a fun piece deconstructing that most ubiquitous of modern cinematic offerings: the comic book movie. He ain’t a fan. Here’s what he has to say about the genre, currently exploding: The aforementioned moments are just that: moments. Dazzling fragments of films that tend to be visually adept and dramatically inert or vice versa. Even at the peak of their creative powers, big-budget comic book films are usually more alike than different. And over time,... Read more

Southern Baptists, the Gospel, and Ronnie Floyd

Last updated on: May 11, 2010 at 8:53 pm By Owen Strachan

Doug Baker of the Oklahoma Messenger just did an Insight vidcast with Ronnie Floyd, Senior Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Springdale, Arkansas. Dr. Floyd is a widely respected pastor in the Southern Baptist Convention and an architect of the Great Commission Resurgence. To learn more about the GCR and Dr. Floyd’s reflections on it, go here. You’ll enjoy Doug’s interview and will gain a deeper understanding of and appreciation for this exciting development in the SBC. Here’s hoping... Read more

Winston Churchill, Courage, and Other Unpopular Topics

Last updated on: May 8, 2010 at 4:56 pm By Owen Strachan

Recently ran across an excellent little HBO movie on Winston Churchill entitled Into the Storm (2009). Brendan Gleeson plays the British Prime Minister and won an Emmy for his work. The movie is not fanciful or complex, but it is compelling and worth your time. The movie seems to have flown largely under the radar, perhaps because it centers around such old-fashioned matters as courage, perseverance, marriage, and leadership. These aren’t the hottest subjects in some circles today. Ignorance of... Read more

Thom Rainer: Suffering and Sanctification in Nashville

Last updated on: May 6, 2010 at 4:56 pm By Owen Strachan

Thom Rainer, President and CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources in Nashville, has a noteworthy post up about his experiences in the recent flood in Tennessee. With many others, my heart goes out to Rainer and his fellow southerners who have suffered. He wrote the following in the wake of discovering much damage to his home and property: I am now looking at the television. I am seeing the stunning shots of the ongoing devastation of Nashville. I am seeing hundreds,... Read more

The Soul and Symphonies of Hip Hop

Last updated on: May 4, 2010 at 4:27 pm By Owen Strachan

Looking through the IVP catalog the other day, this title caught my eye: The Soul of Hip Hop: Rims, Timbs, and a Cultural Theology (IVP, June 2010). Here’s the book’s description from Amazon: “What is Hip Hop? Hip hop speaks in a voice that is sometimes gruff, sometimes enraged, sometimes despairing, sometimes hopeful. Hip hop is the voice of forgotten streets laying claim to the high life of rims and timbs and threads and bling. Hip hop speaks in the... Read more

Mohler on the “Metacities” and Their Massive Implications for Missions

Last updated on: April 28, 2010 at 9:19 pm By Owen Strachan

Theologian Al Mohler just wrote on the rise of “metacities”, stratospheric cities featuring around 20 million people with unvarying density, little infrastructure, and little sustained planning. The trend is highly noteworthy. Mohler comments as follows: As Stewart Brand argues, we are becoming a “city planet.” Vast populations are moving into huge international cities, drawn by the hope of a better life. As Brand notes, cities have always been wealth creators, and the exploding populations of the largest cities draw even... Read more

Sacrifice of the Fittest, Boys Being Girls, and Tim Tebow

Last updated on: April 27, 2010 at 6:43 pm By Owen Strachan

Andrew Lisi just wrote an excellent piece on sacrifice from Leviticus. I loved this paragraph: But as I was reading through today I came across Lev. 22:21 and immediately saw one of the countless threads rooted in that book of the Bible that’s woven throughout Scripture. In Leviticus the perfect animal sacrifice is called for. The demand is not for just any animal. It couldn’t be deformed or defected in any way. I can only imagine the “Best in Show”... Read more

Os Guinness in Chicago, Jonathan Edwards, and Baptist21 Events

Last updated on: April 23, 2010 at 7:59 pm By Owen Strachan

Socrates in the City is very cool. And it’s coming to Chicago on May 6, 2010. The program is “pre-evangelism”, aimed at cultural influencers interested in thoughtful conversation on matters of faith, the mind, and public life. Based in New York City and led by evangelical public intellectual Eric Metaxas, the program is utterly unique and highly exciting. It’s featured speakers like Sir John Polkinghorne, Francis Collins, Alister McGrath, and Robby George. Basically, it rocks. Here’s the info about the... Read more

An Essential Talk by Bruce Ware on Manhood

Last updated on: April 20, 2010 at 8:00 am By Owen Strachan

The following was just posted at the blog of The Gospel Coalition: Theologian Bruce Ware just gave a noteworthy talk on godly manhood at his church, Clifton Baptist Church of Louisville, Kentucky. The talk was entitled “Select Principles on Being a Biblically Faithful Man and Husband”. I heard the talk and commend the audio to you. The following is the handout given out at the talk. The handout alone is one of the most helpful documents I’ve seen on what... Read more

Free T4G Sessions, Liberating Black Theology, and the Sad Story of Jennifer Knapp

Last updated on: April 17, 2010 at 4:47 pm By Owen Strachan

In a stunning twist of irony, The Gospel Coalition blog has all of the Together for the Gospel sessions posted online, while the T4G site does not. And you thought the two did not interface. It’s great that they do. I don’t know why, but CJ Mahaney’s session is not up. I thought it was exceptional, and that it tied the whole conference together. You had Mohler and Sproul doing high-level worldview thinking, Dever and others working out of their... Read more

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