Star Wars | Mockingbird

Another Week Ends: Assurance Anxiety, Genesis Lessons, Tumblr Love, Lost in the Cosmos, Iron Man Prep, and Hatsune Miku’s Pizza Stage

by David Zahl on Mar 8, 2013 • 3 Comments

1. First off, a little pop theology. Phillip Cary contributed an encouraging review of J.D. Greear’s sensationally titled Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart to the recent issue of Christianity Today, under the header “Anxious About Assurance”. As he does in his book Good News for Anxious Christians, Cary gets straight to the heart of the matter:

Greear is not saying it’s wrong to ask Jesus into your heart. He’s saying it’s not the same thing as believing the gospel. And if we want to be assured of salvation, it’s believing the gospel that actually counts. We are saved by faith…

Sports / Theology

“Oh, Cutting Your Eyeball with a Laser Knife is Totally Okay:” The Casuistry of PEDs

by Nick Lannon on Feb 13, 2013 • 1 Comment

Casuistry is a fancy theological word that means something like “the search for special cases.” It exists by necessity; the law abounds, and so we humans (born lawyers, according to a friend) are compelled to search for ways to get around it. In fact, one might argue that casuistry makes up the bulk of a lawyer’s job description: a client is accused of some manner of law-breaking, and the lawyer attempts to find a reason that, in at least this one instance, the law-breaking was justified. Lawyers spend dozens of billable hours a week at this job, but we humans…

Children / Christmas / Comics / Film / Grace in Practice / Music / Week In Review / Year In Review

Another Week Ends: Heresy vs. Apathy, Cartoon Boba Fett, Grown-Up Three-Year-Olds, Krampus, Winning the Lottery, More Deep Blue Sea, and Seeing God

by WB on Dec 14, 2012 • No Comments

1. Another fascinating piece by Tanya Luhrmann over at the New York Times argues that “Hark, the Herald Angels Didn’t Sing.” Amidst sobering reminders from strict biblical constructionists that many Christmas details are imagined or embellished, Luhrmann advocates a middle road for how to engage the Bible with imagination, ht SZ:

I am no theologian and I do not think that social science can weigh in on the question of who God is or whether God is real. But I think that anthropology offers some insight into why imaginatively enriching a text taken as literally true helps some Christians to hang on…

Books / Film / Humor / Poetry / Politics / Psychology / Relationships / Religion / Social Science / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Post-Election Meekness and Melodrama, Googlepoetics, Psychopathic Stories, DFW Exists, The Testament of Mary, Episode VII, and Skyfall

by David Zahl on Nov 9, 2012 • 2 Comments

1. Definitely not the easiest week to write this column. The Interwebs, as one might have predicted, have been consumed by I-Told-You-So’s and The-End-Is-Nigh’s, neither of which are a whole lot of fun–at least not from the standpoint of grace. Who knows, maybe you found yourself staying away from screens altogether this week, biding your time until the sanctimony and self-pity dissipated a little…. Maybe you took the opportunity to read the new DFW collection, catch up on Bob’s Burgers, change an ungodly number of diapers, and possibly delve a bit deeper into the unreleased work of The Rolling Stones.…

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…

Books / Business / Children / Film / Humor / Music / Religion / Science / Social Science / Technology / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Immortal Smartphones, Jefferson Bethke, Adolescent Rewards, Profound Comedy, Therapeutic Irony, more George Lucas, Pixar and Hunger Games

by David Zahl on Feb 3, 2012 • 2 Comments

1. In last weekend’s NY Times Magazine, Carina Chocano explained “The Dilemma of Being a Cyborg” – AKA what our current obsession with “data” has to say about our humanity – dropping her usual allotment of insight bombs along the way. Not only does she point out the increasingly prevailing illusion that if something wasn’t ‘documented’ it didn’t happen, she gets at the real crux of our smartphoned existence: the false promise of immortality. In other words, a familiar serpent has found its way into the, um, Apple Store:

This is the dilemma of being a cyborg: It’s not just that…

Addiction / Film / Law / Music / News / Religion / Social Science / Sports / Theology / TV / Week In Review

Another Week Ends: Horton on Legalism, Atheist AAs, Oprah, Irene Relief, Star Wars, Beach Boys, John Luther & Teenage Wastelands

by David Zahl on Sep 2, 2011 • No Comments

1. Hopefully you got a chance to read our recent e-newslettter. We made a number of announcements about upcoming events and projects, including our next Spring Conference in NYC, which will happen from April 19-21, 2012, and at which none other than Michael Horton has agreed to be our keynote speaker! Needless to say, we are super excited. For those of you unfamiliar with Dr. Horton, our friend Tullian Tchividjian has posted a superb four-part interview with him over at The Gospel Coalition, in which the distinction between the Law and the Gospel is hashed out at considerable length, among…

Celebrity / Film / Grace in Practice / Humor / News / Politics / Sports / Year In Review

Top MBird News Pieces of 2010

by Bryan J. on Dec 31, 2010 • 2 Comments

In the age of the 24 hour news cycle, here are my picks for Mockingbird’s Top News Stories of 2010

10) The Rent is too Damn High, November 2010

Jimmy McMillan, candidate for Mayor of NYC, has found the solution to all of New York’s problems. The rent is just too damn high. Take the rent part out, replace it with unmerited grace, and you pretty much have Mockingbird’s philosophy of preaching- repeat the gospel over and over again till people start to change.

9) Kill the Ump! Grace & Baseball, June 2010

Jim Joyce, professional MLB umpire, blows a perfect…

Interviews / News / TV

An Interview with the Writers of LOST

by Todd Brewer on May 17, 2010 • 2 Comments

A few MB-related highlights from a recent New York Times interview with LOST writers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse. If you are interested in the show at all, the interview is worth the full read.

On their literary influences:“One of the things that we completely own is that in many ways “Lost” is a mash-up/remix of our favorite stories, whether that’s Bible stories from Sunday school or “Narnia” or “Star Wars” or the writings of John Steinbeck. Carlton and I both had to take philosophy classes when we were in college, and we talk about philosophy, so when certain ideas…

Christmas / Film / Humor / TV