Author Archives: awtraughber

An End to the Jedi

“What do you see?” “It’s so  much bigger…”

Posted in Movies | Leave a comment

“As If Paul Really Meant It”

I’ve been thinking a lot about church lately, for as many reasons as there are days in a week, really.  I’ve also been doing a slow re-read of N. T. Wright’s After You Believe, which isn’t about church life in … Continue reading

Posted in Faith, Scripture | Tagged | Leave a comment

Awkward Observation

I spent most of the last two days at an education conference.  One of the funniest moments in the conference came during a breakout session about shifting practices in teacher evaluation.  As a kind of “artifact,” the administrator-in-charge showed this … Continue reading

Posted in Teaching, Television | Leave a comment

Ending with Regeneration

After what has been a mostly slow “winter” season on the small screen, things are finally picking up.  Last week’s premiere of The Amazing Race was one of the best episodes of that show in a good while (hiatus withstanding). … Continue reading

Posted in Television | Tagged | Leave a comment

Crossing Time Streams

The second season of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow wraps up this Tuesday with an episode that looks to break at least one rule of time travel: don’t cross your own path.  Here’s the extended trailer for the episode, “Aruba.” The … Continue reading

Posted in Television | Leave a comment

All-Around War

Two things.  One: the Planet of the Apes reboot of the last few years has been one of the best things to happen to summer cinema.  What could’ve been paint-by-number has been a creative and enjoyable (and saddening) adventure. Two: … Continue reading

Posted in Movies | Leave a comment

Augustinian Call and Cappadocian Collapse

Two of my favorite writers, James K. A. Smith and Alan Jacobs, had very different responses to The Benedict Option by Rod Dreher.  Both, though, started their reviews with historical anecdotes that work well together. Smith, who published first, opened … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

“Sometimes a Kind of Glory”

From the thirteenth chapter of Steinbeck’s East of Eden: Sometimes a kind of glory lights up the mind of a man.  It happens to nearly everyone.  You can feel it growing or preparing like a fuse burning toward dynamite.  It … Continue reading

Posted in Books | Leave a comment

Today in Middle Earth

It’s easy to forget that March 25th is quite the day of significance in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.  Here are a couple of clips concerning what “happened” today in Middle Earth history. and then I think … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Movies, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

The Basic Question of the Benedict Option

I finished Rod Dreher’s The Benedict Option.  As a friend recently said: if you’ve been reading Dreher’s blog for a while, you totally know what you’re getting in this book.  The only thing that really stood out from the book-version … Continue reading

Posted in 2017, Books, Faith | Tagged | Leave a comment