Category Archives: Books

Trading Zootopia for Eutopia

I finally got around to seeing Zootopia over spring break. It had the best trailer of the movies showing before Star Wars- The Force Awakens, but it ended up low on my “need to see” movie list. I’m glad I … Continue reading

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Reconnecting Worship and Worldview

I’m about halfway through my (digital) copy of James K. A. Smith’s You Are What You Love (which releases in print on April 5).  Smith’s Desiring the Kingdom has been one of the most formative books on practice that I’ve read … Continue reading

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Benedict Option Debrief

A couple of days ago, I posted a video of Rod Dreher talking about “the Benedict Option.”  It’s been both an interesting and controversial topic, a kind of Rorschach test for Christians and their understandings of the relationship between church … Continue reading

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Recalibrating the Heart

James K. A. Smith’s newest book, You Are What You Love, drops in a couple of weeks.  Brazos Press has been releasing short videos of Smith talking about the book each week.  Here’s the most recent video, which ends with … Continue reading

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Kung Fu Panda 3 and the Benedict Option

The story of Kung Fu Panda 3 begins with adversaries on parallel paths. Po, the hero of the series, is set to take on the duties of teacher. At the same time, the villain Kai has returned from the spirit … Continue reading

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Tapping into the Heart

Here’s a second video from Brazos Press leading up to the release of James K. A. Smith’s You Are What You Love.  Along with its predecessor, the video is a nice taste of what Smith seems to have been thinking … Continue reading

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The Ever-Present Future

Douglas Coupland has been writing and drawing us into the future for some time.  He has a particular knack for “getting things right” years before they happen.  While I don’t always enjoy his short essays for the Financial Times, I … Continue reading

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Taking a Dip in Myth

Lewis continued his discussion of The Lord of the Rings as myth in “The Dethronement of Power,” his review of The Two Towers and The Return of the King that appeared in the October 1955 issue of Time and Tide. … Continue reading

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Nostalgia and Narsil

In his review of The Fellowship of the Ring, Lewis tackles the charges of “fiction as escapism or nostalgia” head-on.  We saw hints of it in yesterday’s excerpt.  We get an even better sense of it in the selection below. … Continue reading

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Middle Earth as Myth (not allegory)

One of the things you hear most when reading Tolkien (or reading about Tolkien) is whether or not The Lord of the Rings is an allegory.  Tolkien, of course, flatly denied the charge, but that hasn’t kept decades of readers … Continue reading

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