Anyone bored or turned off by the recent “sissification” of the vampire, particularly in the form of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series, would do well to read Justin Cronin’s The Passage. In this epic novel, we have a blend of two of my favorite genres, post-apocalyptic and vampire literature.  While drawing from the best of each [...]

Though at only 176 pages it might seem like a short novel, Daniel Kehlmann’s Fame is one of the more prophetic books that I have read in quite some time.  And by prophetic, one could equally refer to the dual actions a of “describing the present” and “predicting the future.”  Kehlmann deftly exposes our relationship [...]

The fact that video game industry revenue has surpassed $19 billion dollars and that one on-line game commands a following of over 8 million people certainly constitutes a phenomenon.  Yet until recently, few scholars, and even fewer theologians, have taken the initiative to critically engage the medium.  Far more prevalent are the critics who either [...]

Pop Theology contributor Richard Lindsay provides a review of a collection of one of the most (in)famous film critics of all time, Pauline Kael.

Later this year, I’ll be presenting a paper on the ethical/theological/moral implications of video games.  As luck would have it, a public discussion over whether or not video games qualify as art broke out in on-line and print media over the past few months.  Film critic Roger Ebert oppossed this notion while arguments for it [...]

Heather Hendershot‘s Shaking the World for Jesus:  Media and Conservative Evangelical Culture is one of several recent books that provides an insightful analysis of evangelical Christians’ relationship with popular culture.  Like her contemporary, Daniel Radosh, Hendershot also takes a sympathetic approach to the topic, recognizing that evangelicals make significant meaning out of their interactions with [...]

In her book, Brands of Faith, Mara Einstein argues that religion is a competing commodity in a larger marketplace.  James B. Twitchell takes this notion closely to heart and runs with it in his book, Shopping for God:  How Christianity Went From In Your Heart to In Your Face.  He argues that denominational differences have [...]

As part of my dissertation research, I’ve been looking into the Prosperity Gospel, the Health and Wealth Gospel, or the Name It and Claim It Gospel…whatever you like to call it.  For those of you who don’t know, it’s basically the notion that God wants us to be physically wealthy here and now.  Ironically, those [...]

There can be no doubt that brothers Joel and Ethan Coen are perhaps two of the most original, visionary filmmakers working today.  In fact, when they have run their course, their filmography will no doubt stand out as one of the greatest in American film history.  If there is any credence to the auteur theory, [...]

Angelology is one of the latest entries in the recent spate of religious adventure fiction made most popular by Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons.  Danielle Trussoni‘s novel will unfortunately most likely not get the attention of its, in many ways, inferior predecessors, but it is one captivating summer read that [...]