Author Archives: davetcourt

A question I’ve been pondering this week:Is mystery the gap bwteeen the scientific data we know and the data we don’t know? To ask that in another way: is the aim of mystery to fill that gap with more scientific knowledge? In his book How God Changes Your Brain, neuroscientist Andrew Newberg argues that seekingContinue reading “The Importance of Mystery: Where Embodied Experience Leads to True Knowledge”

Question:As agnostic neuroscientist suggests in his book How God Changes Your Brain, it’s not so much that this external concept changes some brains through selective engagement with influences outside of ourselves, it’s that all human brains evolve through a necessary belief in God. If this is the case, this taps into that an important partContinue reading “God, the Brain, and Belief: How We are Drawn to Metaphysics and how Metaphysics Leads us To Theology”

What will be your directive now. In the recent movie Tron Ares this is the question posed to one of the film’s main protagonists, a digital creation and program (Master Control, played by Jared Leto, which has found itself needing to adapt to its encounters with the human world. Tron Ares flips the script, makingContinue reading “What is Our Directive: Tron Ares and the Existential Crisis”

Paul’s letter to the Philippians has been a favorite of mine ever since I was a child. I was rerreading a portion of it this morning, my childhood long behind me, and jotting down some thoughts that maybe reframe how this letter continues to speak to me today: 4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again IContinue reading “To Be Rejoice Worthy: Seeking the Thanksgiving in Philippians 4”

Picking up Ryan G Dunns Theology of Horror: The Hidden Depths of Popular Films seemed an obvious fit for spooky season. Less obvious would be pairing it with Paul J. Schutz’s A Theology of Flouishing. There were two portions of Schutz’s introduction that helped solidify this as a helpful conversation partner with a theology ofContinue reading “A Theology of Horror and A Theology of Flouishing: Two Books and One Idea Shaping This Year’s Spooky Season”

“The Lord spoke to Moses “in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of of the land of Egypt, saying, “Take a census…” (Num 1:1-2) I’ve been working my way through a new commentary on theContinue reading “In the Wilderness: Finding Life in the Book of Numbers”

31 years. That’s how long it has been since I graduated high school. And subsequently that’s how long it has been since I’ve seen most of my graduating class. Had a random invitation the other week to meet up with some old classmates. Two to be precise. The reason? My old school was honoring aContinue reading “Filling in the Gaps of 31 years: Travelling Back in Time Between High School and 50”

I recently finished the book The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis: How Great Books Shaped a Great Mind by Jason M. Baxter. Highly recommended. It’s a rich and compelling exploration into the writers that shaped Lewis’ own journey and thought practices. It is in fact these voices that provide a window into what plagued hisContinue reading “The Medieval Mind, the Last Romantic, and the Art of Recovering Myth-Telling For a Modern World”

In my half point reflection back at the beginning of July, I noted the overall lack of releases in 2025, along with these films reflecting a slate of good to very good but not great releases with there being very little in the way of real standouts. Following up on the first front, at theContinue reading “Thoughts on Film at The Third Quarter of 2025”

I recently came across a recommendation for a new 2025 book by author Kate Riley called Ruth. It was advertised as a book for the curious and persistant seeker, following a “fictitious” religious commune/communty that has obvious and direct allusions to the Hutterites. I’ll be honest, after going out and purchasing it and now havingContinue reading “Finding The Necessary Tension at the Crossroads of Two Stories: Learning What It Means to Know God Through Our Participation in the Spaces We Occupy”