Posts tagged "Anthropology"
Short Story Wednesdays: “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor
Books / Reviews / Theology

Short Story Wednesdays: “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor

by WB on Jan 16, 2013 • 1 Comment

Welcome back! This week for our new short story series, we turn to Flannery O’Connor’s popular and much-anthologized “A Good Man is Hard to Find” – the story of a family vacation gone awry. You can read along by clicking here.

Have you heard the one about the family driving to Florida? Grandmother’s vanity leads to a car accident in South Georgia, they run into an outlaw called the Misfit, and he kills them all. Flannery O’Connor found stories like this deeply comical, and at the same time as serious as anything in the world.

It’s safe to say she was the…

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Wrecking Ralph: Extinguishing the Quest for Glory
Film / Reviews / Theology

Wrecking Ralph: Extinguishing the Quest for Glory

by Bryan J. on Nov 14, 2012 • 3 Comments

Score one for this year’s winter film season! With a half-dozen movies premiering on Mockingbird’s *must* see list (including The Hobbit, Les Mis, James Bond, Django Unchained…), Wreck-It-Ralph kicks off the winter with a pixelated parable of judgment, love, and identity so potent,  you half-expected to see Martin Luther listed as a guest-writer in the credits. Okay, so perhaps I’m a bit over-enthusiastic in my praise of Disney’s newest in-house release, but when movie critics call Wreck-It Ralph “pixar-esque,” well, we’ve kind of got to take notice.

Perhaps there’s no better world to play out the drama of law-trapped characters than the unforgiving…

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Rise of the Time Lords: A Geek’s Guide to Christianity
Books / Reviews / Science / Theology

Rise of the Time Lords: A Geek’s Guide to Christianity

by WB on Oct 17, 2012 • 5 Comments

What do failed stars, Firefly, and engineering specifications have in common? About as random as mustard plants, or misplaced coins. In (sometimes Mbird contributor) Michael Belote’s new book, the hilariously named Rise of the Time Lords: A Geek’s Guide to Christianity, all things geeky, from supply-and-demand to the Theory of Relativity, illustrate the old, Christian story. More than that, all of his illustrations are spot-on: that is, they not only make points, but also they deepen the doctrinal positions that people more than familiar with incurvatus in se – but perhaps less familiar with stellar gravity – already “know.” The theology in…

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The Beautiful Ugliness of HBO: A Conference Breakout
Conferences / Identity / TV

The Beautiful Ugliness of HBO: A Conference Breakout

by WB on Sep 13, 2012 • 2 Comments

I don’t wanna just survive. It’s says in these movie writing books that every character has an arc. Understand?…Everybody starts out somewheres. And they do something, something gets done to them and it changes their life. That’s called an arc. Where’s my arc? 

-Christopher Moltisanti, The Sopranos

HBO’s wild success in premium television belies an underlying sophistication in everything from writing, to editing, to photography. Perhaps the network’s most striking accomplishment is how down-to-earth its characters and plotting tend to be, while still retaining their series’ impressively novelistic scale. HBO seems to understand how deep the human obsession with “arced” narratives of…

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Food / Humor

I Don’t Do It, But I Believe in It

by Matt Schneider on Aug 16, 2012 • 1 Comment

Image thanks to Nikki.

“McDonald’s of the Soul”: A Few Lessons from Jim Gaffigan
Addiction / Food / Humor / Psychology

“McDonald’s of the Soul”: A Few Lessons from Jim Gaffigan

by Matt Schneider on Jul 31, 2012 • 5 Comments

Stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan has a relatively new and insightful comedy special, Mr. Universe. Are you familiar with Gaffigan or his stand-up? You may recognize him in Flight of the Conchords (or his brief appearances in any number of other sitcoms and movies). If you don’t know who or what I am talking about, his bits on Hot Pockets and bacon are mandatory viewing.

For my money, the highlight of his Mr. Universe special is a bit on McDonald’s. In fact, it inspired me to list a few observations (in no particular order) about Gaffigan’s act and persona that are highlighted by the…

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The Dark Knight Dies and Rises: Sacrifice and Freedom in Gotham
Film / Reviews

The Dark Knight Dies and Rises: Sacrifice and Freedom in Gotham

by WB on Jul 23, 2012 • 21 Comments

[Spoiler Alert - those who haven't seen it, run don't walk...it's fantastic!]

“All their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest.”   -Ecclesiastes 2:23

“Put your sword back in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”   -Matthew 26.52

Nolan has now traced the Dark Knight’s journey from streetfighter to hero, from hero to villain, and from villain to…recluse. Wayne has died to the world and only holds on to the shadow-life of mourning for Rachel, and Alfred drops more than a few hints that…

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A Problem to Ourselves? Robert Bales and the Astonishing Mixture of Virtue and Depravity
Identity / News / Psychology / Sermons / Suffering

A Problem to Ourselves? Robert Bales and the Astonishing Mixture of Virtue and Depravity

by David Zahl on Mar 20, 2012 • 5 Comments

Holy Smokes! Talk about low-hanging fruit. Another unbelievable, doubletake-inducing column from David Brooks in the Times this morning, this time dealing with Robert Bales, “When the Good Do Bad,” in which he articulates the Mockingbird anthropology with remarkable accuracy (and courage), using none other than John Calvin, G.K. Chesteron and C.S. Lewis to back him up. Wild! I’m almost tempted to replace our glossary entry on “anthropology” with a link to this column. Is Brooks becoming the prophet of the age? The one compassionate voice crying in the wilderness of positive thinking and the American inflated sense of self, speaking…

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It’s Gonna Last You for the Rest of Your Life: Sanctification According to Groundhog Day
Film / Humor / Relationships / Suffering / Theology

It’s Gonna Last You for the Rest of Your Life: Sanctification According to Groundhog Day

by Matt Schneider on Feb 2, 2012 • 5 Comments

That’s right, woodchuck chuckers. It’s Groundhog Day! I have a tradition of watching Groundhog Day every year around February 2. Which is convenient, since television stations tend to play the film this time of year. Repeated viewings are also a fitting homage, given the movie’s plot, which has weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) reliving Groundhog Day over and over and over again for what seems like eternity. Each time I watch Groundhog Day I discover new things, and this year, while keeping an eye on what it might say about human nature, the theme of sanctification (that is, the process of becoming…

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Simul Iustus et Schizophrenic: A Quick One from Clinical Theology
Books / Psychology / Suffering / Theology

Simul Iustus et Schizophrenic: A Quick One from Clinical Theology

by WB on Jul 27, 2011 • No Comments

Dr. Frank Lake was that rarest of beasts: a clinical psychologist, a pastoral counselor, and a learned theologian. Not surprisingly, we consider him a hero. In his landmark Clinical Theology, a textbook for pastoral counselors and theologically serious therapists, he relates classic Protestant anthropology and Christology to the process of psychoanalysis, using real-world case studies (and the Bible) as his foundation. The following is a characteristically profound quote on the simultaneity of human weakness and divine strength, viewed through a clinical lens:

The nature of the help God gives through His Church is to make what cannot be removed, creatively bearable. Paul’s thorn of weakness in the flesh remained. Resting in the power of God,…

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Angsty Tourists and Walker Percy (Part 1 of 3)
Books / Law / Psychology

Angsty Tourists and Walker Percy (Part 1 of 3)

by WB on Jun 21, 2011 • 2 Comments

I’ve been reading some Walker Percy lately and stumbled onto his essay “The Loss of the Creature,” which more than measured up to my expectations (…) as a reader. The work reveals the devastating effect of the Law on the simplest of tasks–sightseeing.

Percy opens with the example of the Grand Canyon, among America’s most awe-inspiring and famous sights. He imagines that the discoverer of the canyon, a Spanish explorer, must have been utterly staggered when he stumbled out of the brush onto its crest. The modern tourist, in contrast, fails to have the same experience as the first explorer, and Percy…

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