Why Read the OT (1): As Background
A lot of folks treat the Old Testament as ”background” reading for something else. For Christians, it’s treated as the prequel to the New Testament, the part you have to read in order to understand...
View ArticleBiblical Themes in Harry Potter
My daughter, a college senior, saw the new Harry Potter movie at midnight last night. She sent me an email this morning, shared with her permission: while i was watching harry potter i got fixated on...
View ArticleNot All Closets are the Same
My husband and I recently watched Connie and Carla, a 2004 comedy starring Nia Vardalos and Toni Collette. Click here for a trailer… The plot of the story goes something like this: Connie and Carla are...
View ArticleJulie, Julia, and the Contemporary Hero Quest
This weekend, my husband and I saw Julie and Julia (click for a link to the official website). The film is Nora Ephron’s adaptation of two books: Julia Child’s memoir My Life in France; and Julie...
View ArticleThe Coen Brothers Take on Job
A new movie opens today. Entitled “A Serious Man,” it’s the biblical story of Job told through the eyes of Joel and Ethan Cohen. According to the New York Times review, it’s one of the Coen brothers’...
View ArticleAncient Literature for Modern Healing
A recent New York Times article reports that the U.S. military has turned to a new resource to help soldiers name and heal from the trauma of war: the very old literature of Sophocles. The Pentagon...
View Article2012 and the Noah Narrative
In a recent New York Times review of the new movie 2012, Manohla Dargis twice links the destruction-of-the-world movie with the Bible. She describes the unlikely pairing off of survivors as the...
View ArticleFighting over Manuscripts in the Digital Age: The Blockbuster
It’s a common plot of novels and movies: while the superstitious public clings to outdated religious beliefs, people in power compete for access to ancient manuscripts which reveal the powerful, if...
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