Religion
Poetry / Religion

Testimony – Stephen Dunn

by Aaron M. G. Zimmerman on Apr 5, 2012 • No Comments

The Lord woke me in the middle of the night,
and there stood Jesus with a huge tray,
and the tray was heaped with cookies,
and He said, Stephen, have a cookie,

and that’s when I knew for sure the Lord
is the real deal, the Man of all men,
because at that very moment
I was thinking of cookies, Vanilla Wafers

to be exact, and there were two
Vanilla Wafers in among the chocolate
chips and the lemon ices, and one
had a big S on it, and I knew it was for me,

and Jesus took it off the tray and put it
in my mouth, as if He were give me
communication, or whatever they call it.
Then He said, Have another,

and I tell you I thought a long time before I
refused, because I knew it was a test
to see if I was a Christian, which means
a man like Christ, and not a big ole hog.

He Gave Us Sweet Cherry Wine (So Very Fine)
Music / Religion

He Gave Us Sweet Cherry Wine (So Very Fine)

by David Zahl on Apr 5, 2012 • 2 Comments

Not sure there’s a better Maundy Thursday jam out there than Tommy James and the Shondells’ “Sweet Cherry Wine”, their follow-up to “Crimson and Clover”. I’ll let the man speak for himself via this interview from Songfacts. (If you’ve never heard the story behind “Crystal Blue Persuasion”, it’s just as wild):

SF: Earlier you mentioned “Sweet Cherry Wine.” Is that a metaphor?

Tommy: Yes. It’s a metaphor for the blood of Jesus.

SF: I know you say you converted to Christianity. How did that transformation take place?

Tommy: Well, I don’t worship every Sunday; I worship every day. Every hour of every day. It’s…

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Marilynne Robinson on the Anthropology of Religion and the Intervention of Grace
Literature / Religion / Science

Marilynne Robinson on the Anthropology of Religion and the Intervention of Grace

by David Zahl on Apr 3, 2012 • 2 Comments

Man, I wish I could write like Marilynne Robinson. Such precision and clarity, so much soul and insight. She takes on subjects that can be so dull, and breathes such life into them. The following quotations come from the first essay in her much-recommended new collection, When I Was a Child I Read Books, entitled “Freedom of Thought.”

Religious experience is said to be associated with activity in a particular part of the brain. For some reason this is supposed to imply that it is delusional. But all thought and experience can be located in some part of the brain, that…

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Another Week Ends: Jeremy Lin, Scientism, Cosmism, Clergy Burnout, Tearjerkers, Springsteen’s Advice, 30 Rock, and Garbage Pail Kids
Art / Books / Children / Forgiveness / Grace in Practice / Music / Religion / Sports / Technology / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Jeremy Lin, Scientism, Cosmism, Clergy Burnout, Tearjerkers, Springsteen’s Advice, 30 Rock, and Garbage Pail Kids

by David Zahl on Mar 30, 2012 • 3 Comments

1. The Linsanity continues! But this time the hubbub has to do with a powerful (and unexpected) instance of off-court forgiveness. Last week, Jeremy Lin invited the ESPN employee who was fired for writing an offensive headline about Lin to lunch. Newsday spoke with the journalist in question, Anthony Federico:

Federico apologized after he was fired, calling the headline’s play on words ["chink in the armor"] “an honest mistake.” Lin said at the time that he accepted the apology and added, “You have to learn to forgive.” Apparently, he meant it. A member of Lin’s family reached out to Federico via…

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How Do I Love Jonathan Haidt? Let Me Count the Ways…
Books / Identity / Psychology / Religion / Social Science

How Do I Love Jonathan Haidt? Let Me Count the Ways…

by David Zahl on Mar 28, 2012 • 5 Comments

1. The main premise of his new book, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, is that the human mind is wired for “righteousness.” Need I say more?! He talks at length about “inner lawyers” and our primal drive to justify ourselves (and all the trouble it creates), which jives not only with experience but with the biblical account(s). In this light, Justification by Faith is (much) more than a quaint 16th century phrase; it speaks to the absolute core of human existence. At least as Jonathan Haidt describes it.

2. Haidt subordinates reason to emotion,…

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PZ’s Podcast 99 5/8, 99 4/5, 99 9/10, Number Nine Number Nine Number Nine: A Kind of Loving, Meat for Go, Twisterella
Film / Grace in Practice / Identity / Music / Philosophy / Religion

PZ’s Podcast 99 5/8, 99 4/5, 99 9/10, Number Nine Number Nine Number Nine: A Kind of Loving, Meat for Go, Twisterella

by Mockingbird on Mar 26, 2012 • No Comments

As our intrepid podcaster winds his way to Episode 100, we would like to draw attention to the PZ”s Podcast Reception that will take place at 6:30pm on Friday evening of the NYC Conference, 4/20, hosted by PZ himself. Open to all PZ’s Podcast’s faithful listeners, not just those signed up for the event, we hope to see you there!

Episode 99 5/8: A Kind of Loving

The surface subject of today’s talk is an “English rose”, a gem of a movie from 1962, entitled A Kind of Loving. It was directed by John Schlesinger and starred Alan Bates, June Ritchie, and Thora Hird (What…

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Another Week Ends: Zeitgeistlichkeit, Atheist Religiosity, Freakonomic Fathers, Ralph Erskine, MJ, Devo’s Paradox, Hunger Games, Deep Blue Sea, and Hoarders
Books / Children / Death / Economics / Film / Humor / Law / Literature / Music / Religion / Theology / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Zeitgeistlichkeit, Atheist Religiosity, Freakonomic Fathers, Ralph Erskine, MJ, Devo’s Paradox, Hunger Games, Deep Blue Sea, and Hoarders

by David Zahl on Mar 23, 2012 • No Comments

1. A pair of terrific book reviews have appeared in The NY Times over the last couple weeks, the first being Generation X author Douglas Coupland‘s inspiring riff on Hari Kunzu’s opus, Gods Without Men, and the exciting new genre it epitomizes (“Translit”). Ironically enough, he makes a number of Twitter-ready observations:

[We are living in a] “state of possibly permanent atemporality given to us courtesy of the Internet. No particular era now dominates. We live in a post-era without forms of its own powerful enough to brand the times. The zeitgest of 2012 is that we have a lot of…

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Humor / Music / Religion

FAIL/WIN of the Week

by David Zahl on Mar 16, 2012 • 1 Comment

If you’re confused, or simply can’t stop laughing and want more, go here.

Hey, Hey, It’s The Monkees (and Saint Matthew and Bob Dylan and The Holy Ghost)!
Music / Religion / TV

Hey, Hey, It’s The Monkees (and Saint Matthew and Bob Dylan and The Holy Ghost)!

by David Zahl on Mar 13, 2012 • 6 Comments

Davy Jones’ premature death last month was only the most recent (and visceral) in a long line of Monkee tragedies. Journalists have done their best to respect the late entertainer, shoring up The Monkees’ legacy by mentioning their influence on such contemporary attempts to manufacture prefab chart-toppers as American Idol and The Voice. And they’re not wrong. The Monkees do represent one of the more crass meetings of commerce and art in the TV-era. But the larger tragedy is that most people think that’s all they were.

The singles speak for themselves: “Last Train to Clarksville” “Valleri” “Listen to the Band”…

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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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Forde Friday: Glory vs. Cross Part I
Religion / Suffering / Theology

Forde Friday: Glory vs. Cross Part I

by Matt Johnson on Mar 9, 2012 • 2 Comments

Superhuman theologies of human achievement and graceless religion are a drag. Then along comes Gerhard Forde and puts a finger on what we already know, but couldn’t quite articulate. Happy Forde Friday!

Glory vs. Cross Part I

Does anyone remember those awful (or at least incredibly cheesy) Christian T-shirts of the 80s and 90s? Budweiser logos re-appropriated to say “This Blood’s For You”? Or how about Jesus, face down in a push-up pose with the cross on his back: “Bench Press This!” Don’t tell anybody, but I may have been guilty of wearing those types of T-shirts in my high school days.…

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Another Week Ends: Inner Machiavellians, Lutheran Insults, Whisky Priests, Monkees, Mets, Parenthood, Veep, Viola Davis and Frankenweenie
Education / Film / Humor / Identity / Interviews / Money / Music / Psychology / Relationships / Religion / Social Science / Sports / Suffering / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Inner Machiavellians, Lutheran Insults, Whisky Priests, Monkees, Mets, Parenthood, Veep, Viola Davis and Frankenweenie

by David Zahl on Mar 2, 2012 • 2 Comments

1. I’ll admit it: I’ve been trying to lay off the David Brooks, at least in the Weekend columns. As insightful as he frequently is, there are plenty of fish in the digital sea, are there not? Well, to paraphrase a Pacino, every time I think I’m out, he pulls me back in. That is to say, giving anything top billing other than his NY Times column from yesterday, “The Machiavellian Temptation,” would be dishonest. It’s getting to the point where I suspect we’re being punked a la Candid Camera. Anyway, this time around Herr Brooks is contrasting recent breakthroughs…

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Unpleasant Associations and Chunks of Wood in Evelyn Waugh’s Helena
Books / Church / Literature / Religion

Unpleasant Associations and Chunks of Wood in Evelyn Waugh’s Helena

by David Zahl on Mar 1, 2012 • No Comments

To the extent that one makes lists of one’s favorite authors, Evelyn Waugh has long been at the top of mine–or very close to it. Brideshead Revisited was the first novel I read after becoming seriously interested in Christianity that moved me on a sympathetic level, confirming that my cultural and religious curiosities could indeed co-exist, that there might even be some hope of integration. What’s more, Waugh masterfully demonstrated that one did not have to check one’s sense of humor at the door to be a creature of faith. I soon got my hands on the TV adaptation, and…

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Preach Tim Tebow Always…Use Words When Necessary
Religion / Sports / Theology/Religion

Preach Tim Tebow Always…Use Words When Necessary

by Nick Lannon on Feb 24, 2012 • 10 Comments

This story is actually from November of last year, but just came to my attention now, brought on by the recent Brady Quinn/Tim Tebow flap.  For those not in the know, GQ Magazine recently ran an oral history of last year’s Denver Broncos season called The Year of Magical Stinking.  In it, many of Tebow’s teammates and fellow NFLers offered opinions on the man, his season, and, of course, his expressions of faith.  Brady Quinn, another quarterback on the Broncos (and a Christian), is quoted on the subject of Tebow’s public displays of faith, saying:

If you look at it as…

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