Grace in Practice
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 • 1 Comment

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…

Read More »

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…

Read More »

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…

Read More »

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…

Read More »

Humility Is Endless: A Few Choice Cuts From The Merciful Impasse
Death / Forgiveness / Grace in Practice / Law / Relationships / Religion / Theology

Humility Is Endless: A Few Choice Cuts From The Merciful Impasse

by Mockingbird on Feb 10, 2012 • 3 Comments

If you’re one of the few who has been holding out on Paul Zahl’s The Merciful Impasse: The Sermon on the Mount for People Who’ve Crashed (and Burned), the audio collection that Mockingbird released this past Fall, hold out no longer! Here are a few soundbites to whet your appetite. The only aspect of the set they don’t capture is the truly laugh-out-loud humor:

What I’m really talking about is the roots of the problem of being human. Why are we the way we are? What causes us to be intractably defensive, and resistant, and feeling terribly vulnerable to people’s judgments…

Read More »

God, Help Us Be Like the Nuns: Drunk Driving, Scapegoats and Gulag Wisdom
Forgiveness / Grace in Practice / Literature / Politics / Suffering / Theology

God, Help Us Be Like the Nuns: Drunk Driving, Scapegoats and Gulag Wisdom

by Zach Williams on Feb 8, 2012 • 3 Comments

Alejandro and Maria Martinelly of Prince William County, Virginia, knew their son’s affliction all too well, and so they hid the car keys from him. The ruse was effective in keeping him from his third conviction – until one night in August 2010. Fresh into his latest bender, young Carlos A. Martinelly-Montano dug the keys out of his parents’ closet, fired up their Subaru Outback, and went on a joyride. Anyone who has been in debt to, or had a loved one in debt to the rapacious creditor that hounded 23-year-old Carlos knows all too well that no amount of…

Read More »

A Boy and His Dog: When One-Way Love Meets Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
Children / Grace in Practice / Relationships

A Boy and His Dog: When One-Way Love Meets Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

by David Zahl on Feb 7, 2012 • 2 Comments

Ready for a tearjerker? The NY Times Magazine article “Wonder Dog” could be just what the doctor ordered. The story of Iyal Winokur, a Russian boy with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome adopted by American parents (a rabbi and his wife, in fact), it’s an extremely moving example of one-way love accomplishing what restraint couldn’t, an animal reaching through emotional and physiological defenses that had frustrated all human patience and compassion. You might even say the dog in question, Chancer, is conditioned for the sort of unconditionality that you and I could never muster (I want one!), whose object has done nothing…

Read More »

We (Don’t) Need To Talk About Pierre: The Benefits of French Parenting?
Children / Grace in Practice / Law / Relationships / Theology

We (Don’t) Need To Talk About Pierre: The Benefits of French Parenting?

by David Zahl on Feb 6, 2012 • 7 Comments

Judging from the amount of forwards to my inbox, Pamela Druckerman’s “Why French Parents Are Superior” has some relevant things to say. The article is another in a line of Wall Street Journal humdingers about parenting, and also the first time I’ve come across the brilliant new term, ‘kindergarchy.’ The gist of Druckerman’s argument is that French parents produce more well-behaved kids (or at least more self-controlled ones) because they are less worried about saying No to their children, that they believe that one of the parents’ primary tasks to teach the child about patience, and that temperament is not…

Read More »

PZ’s Podcast 90-94: The Rest of Your Life, Sequels, G-d (Robinson Crusoe on Mars), Falsification and My New Program
Church / Film / Grace in Practice / Humor / Sermons / Theology

PZ’s Podcast 90-94: The Rest of Your Life, Sequels, G-d (Robinson Crusoe on Mars), Falsification and My New Program

by Mockingbird on Feb 6, 2012 • No Comments

Episode 90: “What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life?”

The song’s not actually that great. But the title!

This talk concerns your profession, and tries to say what I wish someone had said to me: I wish someone had said this to me when I was 21 and flailing around looking for something to do. I wish someone had said it to me when I was 41 and looking for something better to do. And I wish someone would say it to me when I’m 64 and still flailing around.

The original thought here comes from a paragraph towards the end…

Read More »

Another Week Ends: Indie Law, The New Marriage Killer, Futurizing Fear, Apatheism, Damsels in Distress, George Lucas and Downton Abbey
America / Film / Grace in Practice / Law / Music / Psychology / Relationships / Religion / Social Science / Theology / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Indie Law, The New Marriage Killer, Futurizing Fear, Apatheism, Damsels in Distress, George Lucas and Downton Abbey

by David Zahl on Jan 27, 2012 • 3 Comments

1. In his short article “The Pitfalls of Indie Fame” on Grantland, Chuck Klosterman captures something we have been trying to say on here forever. Don’t be put off by all the music jargon; he is using the critical success of the tUnE-yArDs debut record as an opportunity to reflect on the cruelty of the Law. Which may be particularly pronounced in the indie world (or any rarified/snobby setting for that matter), but the phenomenon is universal. The human relationship to righteousness is a troubled one, love/hate at best, and it finds expression in every possible arena. And while non-religious…

Read More »

No Ifs, Ands, or Buts: The Original Ragamuffin Sums Up the Message of Grace
Grace in Practice / Theology

No Ifs, Ands, or Buts: The Original Ragamuffin Sums Up the Message of Grace

by David Zahl on Jan 27, 2012 • 12 Comments

A beautiful passage from Brennan Manning’s new (and final) book, the memoir All Is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir, ht DJ:

My message, unchanged for more than fifty years, is this: God loves you unconditionally, as you are and not as you should be, because nobody is as they should be.  It is the message of grace… A grace that pays the eager beaver who works all day long the same wages as the grinning drunk who shows up at ten till five… A grace that hikes up the robe and runs breakneck toward the prodigal reeking of sin and wraps him…

Read More »

Does The “Age of Anxiety” Ever End?
America / Grace in Practice / News / Psychology / Social Science / Suffering

Does The “Age of Anxiety” Ever End?

by Blair on Jan 25, 2012 • 3 Comments

I’ve been a rather anxious person for most of my short (thus far) life. I was anxious about grades while in middle school, I was anxious about getting into college while in high school, and I was anxious about getting a job while a senior in college. Today, I’m anxious about an ever-lengthening “to-do” list that never seems to diminish. Tonight, I’m guessing I’ll be anxious about getting up early to go the gym. That being said, an article written by Daniel Smith (author of an anxiety-focused website, The Monkey Mind Chronicles) on what some have called our “Age of…

Read More »