Grace in Practice
Sucker Punched By One-Way Love
Grace in Practice / Relationships / Suffering

Sucker Punched By One-Way Love

by Matt Johnson on Mar 20, 2012 • 1 Comment

Let it be known, I am no romantic. But being an avid This American Life listener, sometimes I get sucker-punched by the occasional, irresistibly sappy story. This is such a great story of grace in practice I couldn’t not share it. It doesn’t hurt that Mockingbird is getting ready to release a publication about the show called This American Gospel…

In episode #425, “Slow To React”, Ira Glass cues up the scene of a “legendarily romantic love story”. The writer of the piece, Sean Lewis, recounts the story of his somewhat awkward, sometimes stoic, dutiful uncle, Mark. This is the kind…

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Artificial Intelligence, Imputation and the Desperate Need to be Heard
Grace in Practice / News / Psychology / Science / Social Science / Technology / Theology

Artificial Intelligence, Imputation and the Desperate Need to be Heard

by R-J Heijmen on Mar 15, 2012 • 6 Comments

In 1966, MIT computer science professor Josef Weisenbaum wrote a very simple computer program named ELIZA. ELIZA was designed to mimic an empathetic psychologist, mirroring back key words to users in the form of questions, encouraging them to go deeper with their emotions. For example, if the user mentioned, in passing, that they were feeling a bit depressed, ELIZA would ask them why they were depressed. If the user mentioned a family member or significant other, ELIZA would ask them to elaborate on that particular person.

Weizenbaum intended ELIZA as a very rudimentary experiment in artificial intelligence, but was shocked to…

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PZ’s Podcast 98-99.5: Reflections in a Golden Eye, A Night at the Bardo and Got to Have a Hundred
Art / Church / Death / Grace in Practice / Identity / Literature / Music / Psychology / Religion

PZ’s Podcast 98-99.5: Reflections in a Golden Eye, A Night at the Bardo and Got to Have a Hundred

by Mockingbird on Mar 12, 2012 • No Comments

Episode 98: Reflections in a Golden Eye

This is a little “onesy” and posits your current media/avocational/move-television/music-iPod interest as a sort of “true north” of your life, of what’s really going on inside you, and therefore outside you.

What I mean is, the books you like, the TV show you can’t miss, the music you just have to download: those are indicators of what you’re currently looking for — in life, for life, from life.

Two odd and devastating sentences from 20th Century literature tell this story. One is from The Genius and the Goddess (1955) by Aldous Huxley, and the other is…

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Another Week Ends: John Carter, Obesity FAILs, Mary Karr on Suffering, Winning!, Friends with Kids, Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball and Community Returns
Addiction / Film / Grace in Practice / Humor / Interviews / Literature / Music / Religion / Social Science / Suffering / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: John Carter, Obesity FAILs, Mary Karr on Suffering, Winning!, Friends with Kids, Springsteen’s Wrecking Ball and Community Returns

by David Zahl on Mar 9, 2012 • 3 Comments

1. “I am not Jesus, but I have the same initials.” Thus sang Jarvis Cocker on the classic Pulp track “Dishes” (at bottom), and it now looks like he has a new contender to the throne, Tim Riggins himself, Mr. John Carter of Mars. That’s right: Finding Nemo director Andrew Stanton’s first live-action feature is out this weekend, and the consensus thus far is that there’s no consensus. Some claim that it’s an overblown mess, others that it’s the sort of exceedingly fun pulp adventure that doesn’t get made anymore. But Stanton is a filmmaker that I trust over any…

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May I Interject One Notion at This Juncture? Betrayal and Grace in Broadway Danny Rose
Film / Forgiveness / Grace in Practice / Humor

May I Interject One Notion at This Juncture? Betrayal and Grace in Broadway Danny Rose

by David Zahl on Mar 9, 2012 • 5 Comments

Broadway Danny Rose is something of an anomaly in Woody Allen’s filmography. Released 1984, it came smack dab in the middle of his golden period (1977-1992), right after Zelig and just before The Purple Rose of Cairo, when Woody could do no wrong. His increased confidence as an actor and filmmaker showed itself in his decision to vary his character more than he ever had before, or since. Instead of a conflicted-yet-talented college-educated neurotic, Woody plays a long-suffering, working-class hustler, a guy who just can’t catch a break (and you can see why) working as an agent for end-of-the-line nightclub…

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Capon, Silverstein and the Foolishness of the Cross
Bible / Books / Forgiveness / Grace in Practice / Literature / Psychology / Relationships / TV

Capon, Silverstein and the Foolishness of the Cross

by R-J Heijmen on Mar 8, 2012 • 4 Comments

A couple of literary meditations – one religious, one secular, both sacred – on this Sunday’s Lectionary reading, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25, and the “foolishness” of the cross. First, from Robert Farrar Capon’s Kingdom, Grace, Judgment: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus:

Direct, straight-line, intervening power does, of course, have many uses. With it, you can lift the spaghetti from the plate to your mouth, wipe the sauce off your slacks, carry them to the dry cleaners, and perhaps even make enough money to ransom them back. Indeed, straight-line power (“use the force you need to get the result…

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Hospitality, Manners and Grace in George Herbert’s “Love (III)”
Grace in Practice / Poetry / Theology / Theology/Religion

Hospitality, Manners and Grace in George Herbert’s “Love (III)”

by WB on Mar 6, 2012 • 2 Comments

From George Herbert, Anglican priest (1593-1633):

Love (III)

Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey’d Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack’d anything.

“A guest,” I answer’d, “worthy to be here”;
Love said, “You shall be he.”
“I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee.”
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
“Who made the eyes but I?”

“Truth, Lord, but I have marr’d them; let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.”
“And know you not,” says Love, “who bore…

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Film / Forgiveness / Grace in Practice

The Gospel According to Terrence Malick: A Clip from Tree of Life

by R-J Heijmen on Mar 1, 2012 • 6 Comments

Now You’re Special To Me: Downton Abbey and the Adoption of Daisy
Grace in Practice / Relationships / Theology / TV

Now You’re Special To Me: Downton Abbey and the Adoption of Daisy

by David Zahl on Feb 28, 2012 • 14 Comments

Many of us struggled with the recently completed second season of costumed PBS/BBC megahit Downton Abbey. And for good reason. It zigzagged relentlessly, introducing subplot after ridiculous subplot, the bandaged Canadian stranger being the lowest blow, an understandable point of no return for some. Perhaps the culprit was the editing for US audiences, who knows, certainly a slower boil in the last few episodes would have gone a long way (though I’m not sure it could have saved the arc entirely).

This is not to say the season was without merit. Julian Fellowes may have been focusing a bit more on…

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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 • 5 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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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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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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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…

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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…

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