Interviews
Another Week Ends: Internet Morality and Self-Help Gatsby, Mary Karr’s Finger-Wagging, Springs of Life, The Rage of Self-Control, and Finding Potterland
Addiction / Children / Film / Gender / Grace in Practice / Identity / Interviews / Relationships / Religion / Theology / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Internet Morality and Self-Help Gatsby, Mary Karr’s Finger-Wagging, Springs of Life, The Rage of Self-Control, and Finding Potterland

by WB on May 24, 2013 • No Comments

1. Over at the New York Times, A.O. Scott laments the rife materialism of recent films, focusing on Gatsby, Spring Breakers, and The Bling Ring. Fitzgerald’s message is potent given the flourishing of America’s economy right now amid anxieties from the last few years, but money really didn’t seem to be the main issue. In the movie, on the other hand:

The movie has been faulted, not entirely without justice, for its headlong embrace of the materialism that the novel views with ambivalence. Mr. Luhrmann, though following the book’s plot more or less faithfully, does not offer a stable moral perspective from which the world of its…

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Another Week Ends: Underconfidence, Kate Middleton’s Picnics, Unreported Medical Advice, D.H. Lawrence’s Christian Wonder, the Double-Bind of Summer Movies, More Christian Wiman, and (Way) Too Much Sociology
America / Books / Film / Humor / Identity / Interviews / Poetry / Psychology / Suffering / Theology / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Underconfidence, Kate Middleton’s Picnics, Unreported Medical Advice, D.H. Lawrence’s Christian Wonder, the Double-Bind of Summer Movies, More Christian Wiman, and (Way) Too Much Sociology

by WB on May 3, 2013 • 2 Comments

1. How confident are you? Over at The New York Times, David Brooks surveyed his readers to get a sense for self-confidence, lack thereof, and the ways males and females experience confidence differently. While the word itself is a bit vague and murky, and Brooks found few trends in the survey data, the individual responses are definitely worth a look:

But it was really hard to see consistent correlations and trends. The essays were highly idiosyncratic, and I don’t want to impose a false order on them that isn’t there. Let me just string together some of the interesting points…

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Ambition’s Invisible Walls and the “Good Life” Ruthie Lived
America / Books / Identity / Interviews / Relationships / Reviews

Ambition’s Invisible Walls and the “Good Life” Ruthie Lived

by Ethan Richardson on Apr 23, 2013 • 5 Comments

Over at the The Atlantic, Emily Esfahani Smith released a book review-slash-sociological study last week on the relationship between ambition and community. She sets up her article on the recently released memoir of Rod Dreher, whom we’ve mentioned on here before, entitled The Little Way of Ruthie Leming: A Southern Girl, A Small Town, and the Secret of the Good Life. Ruthie Leming is Rod’s sister, the sister who stayed home in small-town Louisiana, who embedded herself in her childhood community, who embraced the ordinariness of her present and who, in her time of great and unexpected weakness (cancer), found…

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Real Christians Don’t Sin: The Least True Thing Said During the Super Bowl
Bible / Celebrity / Forgiveness / Interviews / News / Sports / TV

Real Christians Don’t Sin: The Least True Thing Said During the Super Bowl

by R-J Heijmen on Feb 5, 2013 • 21 Comments

During his pre-Super Bowl interview with Shannon Sharpe, in which Sharpe raised the question of Ray Lewis’ alleged involvement in a 2000 double murder, Lewis made the following, completely untrue, totally unbiblical statement:

“If (the family of the victims) knew, if they really knew, the way God works, He doesn’t use people who commit anything like that, for His glory. No way. It’s the total opposite.”

I’m sorry Ray, but Moses begs to differ. As does David, and Paul. All murderers. Praise God that this isn’t true; that God does, in fact, use sinners for His glory and His purposes. He has…

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The Duality of Lance Armstrong: Simul Jerk et Humanitarian
Celebrity / Interviews / Reformation / Sports

The Duality of Lance Armstrong: Simul Jerk et Humanitarian

by Matt Schneider on Jan 24, 2013 • 3 Comments

I have been in mourning over the revelation of cyclist Lance Armstrong’s guilt for several months now since the preponderance of evidence seemed to point toward his having indeed doped (using banned performance enhancing substances) during his seven-year Tour de France reign. Of course, the man himself finally confirmed his guilt last week during a highly publicized two-part interview/confession with Oprah Winfrey. Now I find myself at a new place with the story since I am finally viewing Armstrong (and the many other cyclists allegedly guilty of doping) through a theological lens. In fact, I found Armstrong’s confession to be…

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Another Week Ends: Taylor Swift, Tragedy’s Tragedy, Friday Night Faith, Crises of Boredom, and More November Haidt
America / Art / Books / Celebrity / Everyday / Grace in Practice / Interviews / Music / Politics / Theology

Another Week Ends: Taylor Swift, Tragedy’s Tragedy, Friday Night Faith, Crises of Boredom, and More November Haidt

by Ethan Richardson on Oct 26, 2012 • 1 Comment

David Zahl is finishing up his paternity leave this week. Congratulations amigo! Love to you and yours.

1) In his “Life of Reilly” magazine series, ESPN’s Rick Reilly covered a hummer of a story about one of the most backwards high school football games in history, in which there were “rivers running uphill” and “cats petting dogs.” Taking place in Grapevine, Texas, a well-to-do suburban high school team took on a team from the juvenile justice center—the Gainesville State School Tornadoes versus the Grapevine Faith Lions. Having home field advantage in more ways than one, the Lions’ coach surrendered all—fans,…

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The Transfiguration of Robert Zimmerman, or Just a Closer Walk with Dylan
Bible / Interviews / Music / Religion

The Transfiguration of Robert Zimmerman, or Just a Closer Walk with Dylan

by David Zahl on Sep 18, 2012 • 7 Comments

The recent interview with Bob Dylan in Rolling Stone is, without a doubt, the most fascinating thing I’ve read all year. It’s contentious, sure, but a lot of Dylan interviews are contentious–you know, where you get the sense he’s almost enjoying confounding the interviewer. Or at least not willing to put up with an ounce of nonsense or non-wisdom, especially when it comes to his work and person. For example, reading how Dylan responds when the interviewer, Mikal Gilmore, tries to lure him onto the partisan bandwagon-of-the-month is worth the price of admission alone. In fact, we watch as Dylan’s…

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Another Week Ends: Randy Travis, Prayer Book Poetry, Sanford’s Tutorial, Ethical Blind Spots, Breaking Bad, Bernie, Glorious Ruin and Cville Conf Update
Addiction / Business / Conferences / Film / Grace in Practice / Identity / Interviews / Law / Music / Poetry / Social Science / Suffering / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Randy Travis, Prayer Book Poetry, Sanford’s Tutorial, Ethical Blind Spots, Breaking Bad, Bernie, Glorious Ruin and Cville Conf Update

by David Zahl on Sep 7, 2012 • No Comments

1. An amazing, amazing article about Randy Travis appeared on The Atlantic, trying to make sense of the country singer’s hellish year. You may know that in August he was booked for a DUI after being found naked on the side of the road (his truck in the middle of a nearby field), and then last week he was jailed following a fistfight outside a church. Writer Anthony Easton looks at Randy’s dramatic ups and downs via the two most tried and true narratives about alcoholism in country music: you’re either delivered by God or you die. Easton notes how…

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What Makes the World Go Round (According to Errol Morris)
Film / Identity / Interviews

What Makes the World Go Round (According to Errol Morris)

by David Zahl on Aug 13, 2012 • No Comments

In the first essay of his Eating the Dinosaur collection, Chuck Klosterman interviews documentary filmmaker Errol Morris about the art of, well, the interview. Having enjoyed his work for years (1997′s Fast Cheap & Out of Control being my favorite, though 2003′s The Fog of War and 2010′s Tabloid are close behind), I should have known that Morris would have a lot to say and that a lot of it would be fascinating. They very quickly go beyond the nature of journalism, into some of the relevant issues of underlying human expression. Here are a couple highlights.

Why do people talk?…

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Another Week Ends: F. Scott FitzDylan, Dormroom Surrender, Self-Fulfilling Paranoia, Caveman Vulnerability, Campaign Boredom, More Olympics and Air Conditioning
America / Forgiveness / Identity / Interviews / Music / News / Politics / Psychology / Science / Sports / Technology / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: F. Scott FitzDylan, Dormroom Surrender, Self-Fulfilling Paranoia, Caveman Vulnerability, Campaign Boredom, More Olympics and Air Conditioning

by Ethan Richardson on Aug 3, 2012 • 2 Comments

1) The New Yorker recently released a very good (and very short) story from none other than F. Scott Fitzgerald, called “Thank You for the Light.” A “pretty, somewhat faded woman of forty,” a midwestern corset saleswoman, she cannot find a place to smoke a cigarette away from judgmental eyes. She is becoming desperate and in her desperation she finds, yes, a church. A small sampling here, but be sure to take the extra five minutes and read the whole thing here.

And to herself she was thinking, If I could just get three puffs I could sell old-fashioned whalebone.

She had…

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Another Week Ends: Trickle-Down Distress, Klout Scores, Playful Parenting, Glorious Ruin, Churchy Beer, Moonrise, Darnielle on Amy Grant, Blur and Louis CK
America / Children / Church / Comics / Grace in Practice / Identity / Interviews / Money / Music / Relationships / Religion / Technology / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Trickle-Down Distress, Klout Scores, Playful Parenting, Glorious Ruin, Churchy Beer, Moonrise, Darnielle on Amy Grant, Blur and Louis CK

by David Zahl on Jul 6, 2012 • 1 Comment

1. “Trickle-Down Distress: How America’s Broken Meritocracy Drives Our National Anxiety Epidemic” – what a title! Maura Kelly’s piece in The Atlantic functions almost as a survey of a number of the studies and articles we’ve highlighted in recent months, such the WHO reports that show America leading the world in clinical anxiety by a significant margin, and the recent piece about Having It All. In what essentially amounts to a treatise on the cruelty (and practical and psychological dead-end) of works righteousness, Kelly looks at how thorough-going the conflation of personal identity with material/career success has become in our…

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Another Week Ends: Moral Dieting, Self Illusions, Craig Sager’s Suits, Superhero Saints, LIBERATE, Prometheus, Drive-In Church, and MJ’s Bad
Church / Fashion / Film / Identity / Interviews / Music / Psychology / Religion / Social Science / Theology / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Moral Dieting, Self Illusions, Craig Sager’s Suits, Superhero Saints, LIBERATE, Prometheus, Drive-In Church, and MJ’s Bad

by David Zahl on Jun 8, 2012 • No Comments

1. We’ve given him a rest for a few months, but the break is over! David Brooks wrote an another incisive column for The NY Times this week, “The Moral Diet,” reflecting on Dan Ariely’s new book on dishonesty. Brooks isn’t afraid to cast the research in historical-religious terms; indeed, the shift in Western self-perception, from fundamentally bad to fundamentally good, is one of his favorite subjects. But in this column he also touches on our proclivity for self-justification, questioning the unquestioned assumption that a good life is simply one where the good outweighs the bad, i.e. where the moral/political/achievement…

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Breast Cancer, Napalm, and Freedom: The Fruit of Suffering
Interviews / News / Suffering / Theology

Breast Cancer, Napalm, and Freedom: The Fruit of Suffering

by Lauren R.E. Larkin on Jun 6, 2012 • 1 Comment

Two articles have come across my radar as of late: one from Christianity Today, “Culture Making Amid Cancer: the Choices that Suffering Makes Possible,” and the other through Yahoo News, “AP Napalm Girl Photo from Vietnam War Turns 40”. The two articles cover two vastly different topics: Cancer and the Vietnam War. However, those two vastly different topics have a common thread: suffering and hope in the midst of it. A woman diagnosed with cancer who loses just about everything and a young victim of the Vietnam War desperately trying to escape her past, find hope and even purpose in…

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Conferences / Interviews / Theology

The Future of the Gospel: A Theologian’s Discussion with Michael Horton

by Mockingbird on May 16, 2012 • 2 Comments

The moment you’ve been waiting for! We are proud to present the final recording from our recent conference in New York City — and the first of what we hope to be many official conference videos — our very own Jady Koch (JDK) speaking with Dr. Michael Horton:

Many, many thanks to Mark Babikow for capturing it on film and putting everything together so beautifully!

Joss Whedon on Genre Filmmaking, Objectification and Sympathy for the Devil
Film / Interviews / Religion

Joss Whedon on Genre Filmmaking, Objectification and Sympathy for the Devil

by David Zahl on May 14, 2012 • No Comments

Joss “Mr. Avengers” Whedon was interviewed in Wired last week, and as you might expect, made some thought-provoking observations on ‘genre’ filmmaking, the creative process and self-justification as it relates to drama:

Whedon: For me, I love genre because you can talk about things more intimately and specifically than you can in a family drama or a cop show without being didactic. You can absolutely get to the heart of something very weird and very personal because you have that remove…

I guess the thing that I want to say about fandom is that it’s the closest thing…

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