Posts tagged "Theology of Glory"
Tiger Woods: Theologian of Glory
Celebrity / Sports / Theology

Tiger Woods: Theologian of Glory

by Nick Lannon on Apr 3, 2013 • No Comments

Tiger Woods’ new ad campaign (or, more accurately, Nike’s new ad campaign featuring Tiger Woods) is making the rounds. Featuring Woods staring down a put, the tagline is “Winning Takes Care of Everything,” a quote attributed to “Tiger Woods, World #1.” There has been much debate about the taste level of this ad, seeing as how Tiger Woods remains a divorcee with less than full custody of his children. Has “everything” really been taken care of? Is this an appropriate message to be sending to children?

The great Gerhard Forde (via the greater Martin Luther) talked about…

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Lady Edith Put to the Test: “I Don’t Think It’s Working”
Relationships / Suffering / TV

Lady Edith Put to the Test: “I Don’t Think It’s Working”

by Matt Schneider on Jan 15, 2013 • 3 Comments

Spoiler alert! This concerns the latest episode of Downton Abbey, Season 3: Episode 2.

As those who have been watching this season of Downton know, this past week, Edith’s big day finally came to be wed to the affable, albeit much older, Sir Anthony Strallan. (“Finally something is going on in this house that’s about me,” Edith says.) The scene I most want to highlight is the emotionally charged one that takes place between Lady Edith and her mother Cora (Lady Grantham). Lady Grantham is trying to comfort her distraught daughter after Edith is left at the altar by Sir Anthony…

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Catching Fire: Cruciform Heroes, Unconventional Villains and Breaking the Closed Circle of the Modern Bestseller
Books / Film / Reviews

Catching Fire: Cruciform Heroes, Unconventional Villains and Breaking the Closed Circle of the Modern Bestseller

by WB on Nov 7, 2012 • 4 Comments

A brief recap: in The Hunger Games piece, we examined a two-level voyeuristic scaffolding built by Suzanne Collins as the book meditates on our attraction to violence and suffering. The Gamemakers create a brutal world into which teenagers are plunged to fight to the death for the amusement of thousands in the fictional dystopia of Panem and, simultaneously, Collins herself is constructing that world as the author for the amusement of, by now, over a million contemporary readers. In our indignation against the Gamemakers for the horrors they perpetrate, we are ultimately drawn into a split between our own enjoyment…

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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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Hopelessly Devoted: Numbers Chapter Twenty Two Verses Nine Through Thirty Five
Bible / Forgiveness / Theology

Hopelessly Devoted: Numbers Chapter Twenty Two Verses Nine Through Thirty Five

by Mockingbird on Apr 30, 2012 • No Comments

Who knew? For what can be seen as a dark and and foreboding picture of the all-too-fearsome power of the magnifying glass-wrath-and-anthill God, the God of the Old Testament kings and prophets, instead becomes a powerful indication of God’s favor for working things out in the upside-down world of the cross. Old Testament mysteries, talking asses and the grace of God! This morning’s devotion comes from Ben Phillips.

Behold I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me (v. 32b).

In college I played on an intramural co-ed flag football team. One of the suggestions floated for…

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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 • 3 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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Buddy Christ and the Catholicism WOW Campaign; or, Cross vs. Glory in Dogma
Church / Film / Humor / Religion / Theology

Buddy Christ and the Catholicism WOW Campaign; or, Cross vs. Glory in Dogma

by Matt Schneider on Jan 24, 2012 • No Comments

This is a bit of a throwback given that Kevin Smith’s film Dogma is about 12 years old. But I recently let my daughter begin playing with my Buddy Christ statuette since she had been pointing to it on a bookshelf and making quizzical utterances (“hunh?”)—yes, I have a Buddy Christ toy. In any event, I thought the toy would be a convenient way to begin teaching her about Jesus. One day I asked if she could kiss Buddy Christ and tell him “thank you” (for salvation, etc.). Since then she has carried Buddy Christ around saying “tank tu” and…

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Batman, Robin, D-Wade and LeBron
Sports / Theology

Batman, Robin, D-Wade and LeBron

by Nick Lannon on Jun 9, 2011 • 4 Comments

One of the main storylines of these NBA playoffs, if not THE main storyline, is the leadership of the Heat. Is it Dwyane Wade’s team?  LeBron James’?  Who is the alpha dog? As is common in sports journalism, the Batman and Robin tandem is used as an illustration. For instance, Michael Jordan was Batman, while Scottie Pippen, his “sidekick,” was Robin. Jordan’s superiority is unquestioned.

LeBron’s deference to Wade in the fourth quarter of the first four Finals games has been reported as a kind of personal weakness. Indeed, his decision to sign with the Heat at all, where Wade has…

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by Robert A. Davis, Chicago Sun-Times
Identity / News / Sports / TV

Inflated TV Personas and the Thirst for Glory

by Todd Brewer on May 16, 2011 • 1 Comment

In yet another proof that “the thirst for glory is not ended by satisfying it but rather by extinguishing it” (Martin Luther), I present to you the tale of ESPN sports personality/commentator Jay Mariotti. With influence spanning from AOL’s fanhouse to ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, Mariotti specialized as a superficial, loud-mouthed, shoot-from-the-hip talking head that sports fans seem to love. As told in a recent article by Deadspin (of all places), Mariotti was one of the few sports journalists to attain C-list celebrity status and a fat paycheck, only to lose it all when he began to believe his own…

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Amanda Beard on Olympic Expectations, Failure, and Freedom
Grace in Practice / Identity / Sports

Amanda Beard on Olympic Expectations, Failure, and Freedom

by David Zahl on Aug 10, 2010 • No Comments

Athletics are really only one part of the Olympic Games. At least when it comes to American television, the parade of human interest stories has slowly taken on equal importance as the events themselves, sometimes even overshadowing them. The stories are usually familiar: the long hard road to excellence, the valiant overcoming of obstacles, the preternatural talent, the indispensable coach/father figure, etc. They can be inspiring, exasperating, humbling, amazing, and sometimes alienating. The X factor, of course, is how they end. When things go as planned, a la Michael Phelps, it’s pure magic. When they don’t, well, there’s inevitably another…

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Don’t Call It A Comeback: The American Music Awards, Mickey Rourke, and the Thirst for Glory
Celebrity / Music / Psychology / Reformation / Theology

Don’t Call It A Comeback: The American Music Awards, Mickey Rourke, and the Thirst for Glory

by Sean Norris on Nov 24, 2009 • 5 Comments

A couple of nights ago I watched the American Music Awards with my wife, and we were struck by all of the “comeback” stories in the entertainment world. Michael Jackson was up for 5 awards including Artist of the Year. He didn’t win that one, but he did win a bunch of others. His sister Janet opened up the show with a performance honoring him, which is kind of a “comeback” in and of itself. Eminem, who recently returned to recording after years of debilitating drug addiction, was up for Rap Album of the Year, which he did not win,…

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Ted Kennedy and Living up to Expectations
Politics / Theology

Ted Kennedy and Living up to Expectations

by Kate Norris on Sep 2, 2009 • 23 Comments

Ted Kennedy. The “theology of glory” is at work in the pursuit to idealize the Kennedy family, to make them into the beautiful, successful, American dream for which we all are to strive. This is a pressure the late Senator Ted Kennedy publicly contended with everyday. His faults with women and alcohol were persistent; his losses, the assassination of his two brothers to say the least, were public; his failure to win the 1972 Democratic presidential nomination was a disappointment to family and political expectations alike. In the Time article, “More than Myth,” David Von Drehle writes, “While the Senator…

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