Author Archives: davetcourt

There are two direct parallels called to mind in Mark 2:13-17, a story that describes Jesus walking along the sea of Galilee, encountering a crowd, singling out an individual, and being called out for those whom he is associating with and for his words/actions reflecting an offence in light of Torah faithfulness. The first callContinue reading “A Conversation With Mark 2:13-17: What it Means To Follow Jesus and For Sinners to Be Restored and What That Tells Us About the Torah and the Scribes”

(I’ve been gradually trying to force myself to get some of my project into a space where it can hold me accountable to doing something with it. I finished what I would call a rough draft of “my story” last year. So now I’ve been putting the very rough version in pieces in this spaceContinue reading “Chapter 3: Another Piece of a Very Rough Draft at My Attempt To Tell My Story “

Bi Gan’s latest creative venture once again finds the visionary director playing with the subject of perspective, seeing through the lens of this liminal space between dream or illusion and reality. If Long Day’s Journey Into Night reflected on how these transparent spaces translate to cinematic storytelliing and its relationship to form, this film takesContinue reading “Resurrection: The Death of Cinema and Finding Ourselves in That Story”

I’m always a bit cautious when it comes to giving too much weight to surveys. Why? Because I have participated in them myself. I’m not even sure how much I trust myself to answer the questions in a reliable or relevant fashion. I’m also very aware that no single survey can say much on itsContinue reading “Surveys and Headlines: What It Really Means To Say Gen Z is Disconnecting at Higher Rates Than Everyone Else”

I mentioned this in a previous post, but this year both my Church and I am working through the Gospel of Mark (every year my Church works through a different Gospel beginning with Christmas and moving through Lent and Easter). What has struck me in the beginning chapter is how this Gospel’s penchant for jumpingContinue reading “Some Thoughts on Mark Chapter 2: Houses, Temples, Crowds and Healings”

For Lewis, the experience of Joy as virtue and Joy as person were, if not synonymous, held together as a working metaphor for the other. In this particular quote the author is speaking about the way in which both things are held together by memory. Our lives are memory. Thus, as it was with Lewis,Continue reading “The Joy That Awakens Our Desire for Truth: A Brief Thought on Remembering and Celebrating 21 Years of Marriage”

“Theater started with the sacred and eventually brought in the profane. Cinema started with the profane and brought in the sacred.” (The Wages of Cinema, Crystal Downing) In the book Sacred and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, Mircea Eliade defines the nature of the sacred as “differentiation” and defines the profane as “homogeneity.” ItContinue reading “The Sacred and the Profane: Setting Crystal Downing and Mircea Eliade in Conversation”

I’ve got a confession to make. And perhaps in the iconic words of Dave Grohl, “I’m your fool.” Perhaps, but while the month of January often gets labeled the annual dumping ground for films stuidos don’t think will succeed elsewhere, that get auomatically written off by critics and don’t get seen by audiences, I haveContinue reading “Dumping Ground Or Underappreciated: Why I’m a Fan of January At The Movies”

“The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” (Mark 1:1) What’s in a word. In this case the Greek word arche, translated as “beginning.” Turns out quite a bit.  According to biblical scholar James R. Edwards, the formal introduction to the Gospel of Mark takes the common course of patterned ancientContinue reading “What’s In a Word: Beginnings, Endings, and New Beginnings in the Gospel of Mark”

The goal for me heading into a new year is never an exhaustive reading plan or “to read” list. It’s simply locating a place to start. I find most of the time this emerges from the natural outflow of where my reading year in 2025 brought me. What themes and stories and directions it findsContinue reading “Looking Ahead: A Place To Start My Reading in 2026”