Film/Music/TV
The Law and Gospel (of Lent) according to Chocolat
Film / Food / Grace in Practice / Religion

The Law and Gospel (of Lent) according to Chocolat

by Matt Schneider on Feb 22, 2012 • No Comments

Much like the nation of Greece, the season of Lent is characterized by “austerity measures.” And while such devotion can be beautiful, Lenten observance can also border on piety for piety’s sake, or what we might call works righteousness. Please do not misunderstand me: I enjoy and value the season. Who of us wouldn’t benefit from setting aside time to reflect on the grace and mercy of God (and our need to repent)?

The tension between the need for mercy that defines Lent (in theory) and the works righteousness with which it has all too often become synonymous is the theme…

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Film

Oscar Watch: Law, Love, and Cuba

by Ethan on Feb 22, 2012 • No Comments
PZ’s Podcast 95-97: Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Strack-Billerbeck, and Surprise (Symphony)
Art / Books / Film / Grace in Practice / Philosophy

PZ’s Podcast 95-97: Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Strack-Billerbeck, and Surprise (Symphony)

by Mockingbird on Feb 20, 2012 • No Comments

Episode 95: Bedknobs and Broomsticks

But this cast is really about causes and activisms.

The problem with attaching your personal cry for reparation and “just desserts” to larger symbolic passions and concerns is that when you’ve finally righted the wrong, and leveled the playing field, you can still find yourself unsatisfied. “Yes, we won. (Thank God.) Then why do I feel so bad?” The reason may be that you short-circuited the inward healing you needed in favor of a conceptual healing you didn’t.

John Sturges, the director of The Magnificent Seven, said that the problem with filming the novel By Love Possessed was…

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Another Week Ends: More Linsanity, IMonk Grace, TechnoSabbaths, Defending Nic Cage, DFW on Corrosive Illusions, Cougarton Abbey and GNR Rumors
Film / Grace in Practice / Humor / Literature / Music / Religion / Sports / Technology / Theology / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: More Linsanity, IMonk Grace, TechnoSabbaths, Defending Nic Cage, DFW on Corrosive Illusions, Cougarton Abbey and GNR Rumors

by David Zahl on Feb 17, 2012 • No Comments

1. Just in case you haven’t overdosed on Linsanity yet, David Brooks offers a sympathetic big-picture perspective in his column in The NY Times, highlighting how the culture of achievement and glory in professional sports conflicts with ethical framework espoused by most of the major religious traditions. Some will certainly say that Brooks going overboard, but I’m not so sure. Of course, there are plenty of valid, non-religious ways to rationalize competition, but attempts to do so on the basis of Christianity have always struck this blogger as particularly unconvincing, ht TB:

The moral ethos of sport is in tension with…

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Batman: The Agony of Loss and the Madness of Desire, Part 4c
Comics / Film / Identity / TV

Batman: The Agony of Loss and the Madness of Desire, Part 4c

by Mockingbird on Feb 17, 2012 • No Comments

You guessed it, Bat-Fans: this time The Riddler is our subject. As always, to start with, er, year one of Jeremiah Lawson’s soon-to-be-definitive exploration of Batman mythology, go here. Or to simply catch up on the current arc, the villain-themed The Wounds of Discovery, go here.

PART FOUR: THE WOUNDS OF DISCOVERY

3. The Life and Death of the Mind

All this I tested by wisdom and I said, “I am determined to be wise” — but this was beyond me. Ecclesiastes 7:28

Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.
Proverbs…

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Didn’t We Almost Have It All: Whitney Houston’s Life as Impasse
Addiction / Celebrity / Film / Music / Suffering

Didn’t We Almost Have It All: Whitney Houston’s Life as Impasse

by Jeff Hual on Feb 17, 2012 • 3 Comments

My wife and I were watching Saturday Night Live when NBC broke the news that Whitney Houston had died. Other than the time and place of her death, no other details were given. And, truthfully, we didn’t need any other details to have an inkling of what had happened. Just as with the announcement of Michael Jackson’s passing, we had all watched Whitney slide into her downward spiral.

I was in High School when “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” started airing on MTV. I’m sure everyone has seen it. Think about what we see there: one can’t help but see the…

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Songs of the Outlaw: Yours, Mine, and Billy Joe Shaver’s “Serious Souls”
Forgiveness / Music / Suffering

Songs of the Outlaw: Yours, Mine, and Billy Joe Shaver’s “Serious Souls”

by Ethan on Feb 16, 2012 • No Comments

Kris Kristofferson is known to have said that Billy Joe Shaver may be the greatest living songwriter, the Hemingway of songwriting, but also that, if life were TV, he’d be on at 4 A.M. He has written songs for Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, George Jones, Patty Loveless, the Allman Brothers; Waylon Jennings used his songs for most of Honky Tonk Heroes, Willie Nelson has made a name with his songs. He’s legendary, but paradoxically hidden. As if he had a knack for it, some privately premeditated scheme to lay low–like Jesus or something–he managed to work behind the…

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Book Review: The Meaning of Marriage by Tim Keller
Books / Relationships / Reviews / Theology

Book Review: The Meaning of Marriage by Tim Keller

by Bryan J. on Feb 16, 2012 • 3 Comments

Two things led me to pick up Tim Keller’s new book on marriage, both of which were pressing. The first: I needed a “marriage book” for Pastoral Care class at seminary. The second: I had an engagement ring burning a hole in my pocket, and it was gonna be there for another week before I could “unload it.” So you might say matrimony has been on my mind, for both academic and personal reasons. Seeing as I also happen to contribute on occasion to Mockingbird, the question quickly took on a larger scope: where does a grace-dependent Gospel junkie like me…

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Film / Humor

Damsels in Distress Trailer!!!

by David Zahl on Feb 14, 2012 • 1 Comment

“We’re also trying to make a difference in people’s lives. And one way to do that is to stop them from killing themselves.”

Homina homina homina… To read our interview with writer-director Whit Stillman, go here. Or to figure out why we’re so excited about this film, dig into some of these posts. And don’t forget, yours truly will be leading a first-ever Mbird group outing to see the film in NYC on April 18th, the night before the Spring Conference. Once we get closer to the event, we’ll be taking names.

My Friend of the Last Moment: Love and Sacrifice in Of Gods and Men
Film / Grace in Practice

My Friend of the Last Moment: Love and Sacrifice in Of Gods and Men

by Jeff Hual on Feb 14, 2012 • 1 Comment

A lot of what Mockingbird seeks to do is to locate everyday echoes of eternal truths. We keep an eye out for anything that helps us grasp and/or communicate the Gospel a bit more clearly. We look for cultural and dramatic aids, if you will, which underscore the depth and universality of God’s reality. I like to think that we catch a glimpse of grace whenever we come across such instances of forgiveness, mercy or love. But when we point to one of these things, we’re not necessarily  saying, “That’s God at work”. God’s grace often works in highly internal…

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Music

Needing Is One Thing (And Getting’s Another)

by David Zahl on Feb 14, 2012 • 4 Comments
Another Week Ends: Joseph Mills, Commitment Devices, Anxiety Rights, Bible Rescue, Imposter Syndrome, Hitch on Chesterton, Elmer Bernstein and Liz Lemon
Addiction / America / Art / Bible / Books / Education / Film / Humor / Music / Psychology / Religion / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Joseph Mills, Commitment Devices, Anxiety Rights, Bible Rescue, Imposter Syndrome, Hitch on Chesterton, Elmer Bernstein and Liz Lemon

by David Zahl on Feb 10, 2012 • 6 Comments

1. One of the many things to adore about David Foster Wallace’s A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again is the cover (of the US edition). The collage manages to capture the torrential intellect at the heart of that wonderful collection without losing the humor. But it wasn’t until this past week that I knew anything about its designer, photographer/artist/pumpkin farmer Joseph Mills. The Washington City Paper did a feature on him back in 2003 in conjunction with an exhibit at the Corcoran, and Joseph’s words–and personal history with psychosis and depression–pack quite a punch, ht SJ:

When asked about…

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