A New Way to Dialogue…

I recently highlighted a list of significant religious documentaries released in the past decade.  Well…it looks like I missed one, but perhaps so did many of you.  Thankfully, Lord Save Us From Your Followers will re-release in theaters on February 26.  I had the opportunity to host two screenings of it as part of the Pacific School of Religion’s Earl Lecture Series.  [Read more]

The Bubble: A Review

Check out Richard Lindsay’s review of the Israeli film, The Bubble (2006), after the jump. [Read more]

What the Church Can Learn from Facebook

In their book, Transforming Christian Theology for Church and Society, Tripp Fuller and Philip Clayton argue for the necessity of local congregations to connect the work they do with deep, sustained theological reflection.  I have been thinking about other areas of life that should be linked with deep theological reflection, and for me one of these areas is popular culture.  Another aspect is the changing nature of technology and communication in the culture in which we live.  In Thy Kingdom Connected:  What the Church Can Learn from Facebook, the Internet, and Other Networks, Dwight J. Friesen provides rich theological reflection on the state of “relationality” today, providing one of the most insightful accounts of how the church not only should be, but truly is, that you are likely to find. [Read more]

A Post-Apocalyptic Bible

In 2009, there were two (post)apocalyptic films…that I am aware of, The Road and 2012.  Both took drastically different approaches to an age old theme, though neither of them were particularly fresh approaches.  2010 starts off with its own post-apocalyptic film in The Book of Eli.  There’s much here that is similar to its predecessors, but it does provide a new character…the bible. [Read more]

The Hurt Locker

Many of the films that focus on the war in Iraq look at the effects of the war on soldiers returning from battle, think In the Valley of Elah, Brothers, Stop-Loss, etc.  Few films have yet to consistently place audiences in the heat of battle.  One of the most recent films to do so is Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, a film being touted by many critics as one of the best films of the year. [Read more]

The Earthquake in Haiti, God, and the Arbitrariness of Life

By now, most people are just as familiar with Pat Robertson’s interpretation of the Haitian earthquake as they are with the natural disaster itself.  Yesterday, I came across two other theological responses to the quake, one by Al Mohler that is almost as offensive as Robertson’s and another by Paul Raushenbush that is somewhat more appealing to me.  The responses to Raushenbush’s response are just as compelling as the article itself, as many non-religious readers responded with vitriol, asking where the supposedly omniscient and omnipotent Christian God was in the face of such a tragedy.  Clearly, in many different ways, theodicy is at the forefront of our popular theology in these tragic days.  In a recent review of Life.Support.Music., I referenced the question, “Is God as Arbitrary as Life?,” that was posed to the theologians at the Transforming Theology conference last spring.  We have finally uploaded the video and you can check it out after the jump.  You won’t agree with all of the answers (I certainly don’t), but they are deeply thoughtful and compassion alternatives to those of Pat Robertson and his ilk that, unfortunately, garner all the media attention.   [Read more]

On Monsters: A Review

Although it might not sound like it, Stephen T. Asma’s latest book, On Monsters:  An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears, is one of the most theologically compelling texts I have read in quite a while.  It lends a certain credence to my advisor’s frequent assertions that the genres of horror and the supernatural are the last pop-culture strong holds for spirituality and religion. [Read more]

LIFE.SUPPORT.MUSIC. A Review

At the first Transforming Theology Conference last year, Tripp Fuller and I videoed the participants answering a select group of theological questions from a pool submitted online.  These questions included, “Who is God,” “Does God Do Anything,” “What Did God Do in Jesus That We Couldn’t Do for Ourselves,” “What is Truth?”  By far, one of the most complex (if the limited amount of people who answered it is any indication) was “Is God as Arbitrary as Life?”  While each answer was different, one would be hard-pressed to deny the main assertion of that question…life is arbitrary…or at least it seems so to us mere mortals.  A recent documentary, the surprisingly uplifting and inspiring Life.Support.Music., reveals this arbitrariness, and though it doesn’t take it as its main focus, a discussion of it after viewing the film is inevitable. [Read more]

Under Pressure

Stephen King is not often known for brevity, and his most recent novel, Under the Dome, is no exception.  Clocking in at 1072 pages, it’s a commitment that ends, not too soon, but all too quickly. [Read more]

A Decade for Documentaries

As Richard and I mentioned in our review of some of the most spiritually and theologically significant films of the decade, the ‘aughts were a particularly good decade for documentaries.  Interestingly enough, some of the best documentaries addressed religious subject matter.  Here is a list of ten significant religious documentaries of the decade. [Read more]

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