The Curious Case of Benjamin Button provides us with a character who is able to reflect back on her life as she lies on her deathbed. This is something of fictionalized Hollywood here for a variety of reasons. In many cases, death comes for us quickly and without warning, robbing us of any opportunity for [...]
Over the Christmas holidays, I saw two films that dealt with the meaning of life…or rather the meaning of life for two distinct individuals. Both The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Slumdog Millionaire involve two characters looking back over significant events in their lives. Both films, to an extent, rely on gimmicks: the former, [...]
John Huston concludes his film, The Bible: In the Beginning (1966), with Abraham’s near-sacrifice of his son Isaac and God’s promise of countless future generations in return for his faithfulness. In the film (not in scripture), God tells Abraham that he has been tried like metal in a fire. Viewers of Huston’s sprawling biblical epic [...]
No, I’m not talking about the latest Pop Theology review between Richard Lindsay and myself. I’m talking about Ron Howard’s latest film, Frost/Nixon. But back to one of our Pop Theology dialogues: we felt that one of the true highlights of Oliver Stone’s latest film, W., is his effort to humanize a controversial political figure [...]
Pop Theology contributor Richard Lindsay and I saw Gus Van Sant’s new film, MILK, last week. It tells the story of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to political office in the United States. We thought we would provide another dialogue review like we did with another interesting biopic this year, [...]
Here, for the first time, is the 2008 Pop Theology Holiday Television Viewing Guide. Now while there are certainly more extensive and complete lists out there (I have included two links after the jump), these are just a few of the programs I’ll be watching or recording throughout the holidays. You’ll notice that National Lampoon’s [...]
Perhaps one of the most significant ways to look at the life and ministry of Jesus is to view it as a proleptic vision of the coming kingdom of God. In a sense, Jesus’ life is a theatrical trailer for a coming blockbuster. The themes of this blockbuster are love, liberation, salvation, inclusion, forgiveness, and [...]
