Author Archives: davetcourt

My recent reading through the book Work: A Deep History, from the Stone Age To the Age of Robots by James Suzman, has really been shaking up my understanding of what work is. I’m sure that this would not be Suzman’s intent, but it has also reawakened and reinvigorated my faith in God, particularly inContinue reading “A History of Work and The Celebration of Earth Day: Making Sense of The God-Creation-Human Relationship”

Approching the turn of the calendar year in 2020, I, like most people I think, found myself doing quite a bit of reflecting. Exhaustion with the pandemic and the never ending lockdowns has long since set in and taken its toll. While turning the page to 2021 didn’t actually promise much in the way ofContinue reading “The Memory Making Process: Reconnecting With the Most Essential Human Story”

“When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. ThenContinue reading “Eastertide: The Beginning of a New Creation Story”

Back when I found myself stepping away from my faith and challenging a lot of my beliefs, I found myself at something of a crisis point. It started with a process of questioning the rationality of my faith after opening myself up to the wide world of academics and thinkers I had not previously beenContinue reading “Science, Faith, Determinism, Free Will and Nihilism: A Journey From Faith to Reason to Faith”

Chloe Zhoa is a master at capturing the intimate nature of the human story and experience set against the backdrop of the larger narrative of the natural landscape and world that affords these stories and experiences their sense of place and meaning. Having recently picked up and read the novel on which this film isContinue reading “Nomadland: Chloe Zhoa’s Cinematic Portrait of The Beauty of Communion and The Process of Grief”

I can still vivdly remember the trip my wife and I took to Italy, our first time to the Country and our first time overseas together. After scoring flights through an auction sight for $200 a person round trip, we jumped at the opportunity. The only catch was we had to fly out of Chicago.Continue reading “Italy, Buildings, Architecture and Meaning: Allowing the Transcendent to Shape the Present”

“And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.”Mark 15:33 Mark’s passion narrative has been deliberately structured in three hour intervals. This moment of darkness signifies the final hours of this narrative, telling us that what is happening holds a cosmic (whole “world”) reach. This isContinue reading “Welcome to the Sunrise: Resurrection Faith and the New Creation Story”

I’ve been reading through the passion narrative in the Gospel of Mark this morning as I reflect on the Friday that we call good. The good news of God with us, of the Christ who entered into the suffering of our world and bore the weight of sin in all of its manifestation, all soContinue reading “The Good News of a Good News Story: The Gospel of Good Friday”

FILM LA SAPIENZA (2014) Directed by Eugene Green La Sapienza is not an explicitly religious film, but I think it just might feature one of the most powerful arguments for the notion of faith. At the heart of the film is a discussion about the relationship between architecture and people, with architecture containing both theContinue reading “Month in Review: Memorable Reads, Watches and Listens For March 2021”

As I have often said in the past, the mark of a good book is when I hightlight the  heck out of it. Having just finished Michael Gormon’s The Death of the Messiah and the Birth of the New Covenant: A (Not So) New Model of the Atonement, I’ve got a LOT of highlights fromContinue reading “The Problem with The Theory of Atonement: Making Sense of All the Noise”