“Movies are being made that tell us nothing about the struggle of the human soul. Sex, violence, bright colors, and lush sound take center stage, subordinating plot, character, and allegory to secondary roles” (Robert Knight, The Age of Consent, p. 18.).
Sacred Violence No More
“On the contrary, by arousing empathy for victims, the biblical tradition has destroyed the kind of peace and social consensus that conventional cultures were once able to achieve at the victim’s expense. In clogging the gears of the scapegoating machinery, the gospel revelation brings not peace but a sword. This is purely and simply because …
Our Cultural Mechanics
“Today’s relativists could not have gotten away with their double standards in a culture that prized truth. But a gradual, sustained assault on truth has been carried out through the soft underbelly of Western culture: the arts. In film, music, and television, the themes of sensual pleasure and individual choice have drowned out the tried-and-true …
Spears to Pruning Hooks
“On the contrary, what Scripture is intended to achieve is a conversion of the human heart that will allow humanity to dispense with organized violence without sliding into the abyss of uncontrollable violence, the apocalyptic abyss” (Gil Bailie, Violence Unveiled, p. 15).
A Spate of New Books
I mentioned in a recent blog post that a spate of new books from Canon Press was about to arrive. Well, they are all at the printers, and so you can start ordering them now. In fact, on most of these, if you order now they have a deal on shipping costs. Take a gander. …
Art That Is Dangerous to Diabetics
“But among evangelicals, morality and spirituality are usually the primary determinants of the quality and acceptability of art, at the expense of aesthetic and cultural considerations. Pious themes, jejune lyrics, sweet-sounding music, didactic dialogue and Pollyannaish endings characterize much evangelical music, movies, fiction and television programming” (William Romanowski, Pop Culture Wars, p. 327. Amen. But …
If the Bible Described a Red Wagon, This Means the Idea of Red Is Meaningful
“When the Bible says that Abigail was a beautiful and intelligent woman (1 Sam. 25:3), this means that there is such a thing as feminine loveliness. When the Bible calls us to sing a new song to God and to play skillfully with a shout of joy (Ps. 33:1), this means that there is such …
You Would Think It An Obvious Point
“Trying to avoid intolerance by presenting all possible points of view will be a boon to those suffering intolerance only if the various points of view presented express an equally robust empathy for the victims of intolerance” (Gil Bailie, Violence Unveiled, p. 9).
Oh Great
“According to a recent report, overseas film earnings are growing at twice the annual rate of the domestic market; Hollywood accounts for about half the movie market in Japan and two-thirds of all movie tickets sold in Germany, France and Italy. Generally about 70 percent of films shown around the world are U.S. productions” (William …
And One Visitor Said, “I Can See the Broken Eggs. Where’s the Omelet?”
“Caiaphas was invoking a mechanism for preserving culture that is as old as culture itself. Whether it is the Assyro-Babylonian myth declaring that Marduk created the world by killing the monster Tiamat; or the Teutonic myth telling how Odin formed the world by raising the corpse of Ymir from the sea of Ymir’s own blood; …