Category Archives: Uncategorized

With each new church season we (my church) work our way through one of the Gospels. We are presently in the Gospel of Luke. This morning we looked at the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) The great thing about this practice is that each new season brings with it a fresh context, thusContinue reading “The Good Samaritan and Hope For The World: Seeing a Familiar Passage Through Fresh Eyes”

I was genuinely taken captive by Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book Between The World and Me, read from the vantage point of being a white male living in Canada. Yes, I am certain Coates has his detractors and his disagreements- comes with the politicized territory. But I found him to be a poignant window into a worldContinue reading “Coates, The Message, and the Power of A Word In a World of Misunderstanding”

James Monaco, in his book How To Read A Film, connects the development of film to the science of brain function. On a technical level, to tell a story on film requires understanding how it is that we process images, and the art of film, of creating on-screen storytelling methods which imitate movement in time andContinue reading “Film, The Brain, And The Art of Knowing: Building a Philosophy For Life”

“Film is difficult to explain because it is easy to understand… somewhere between lies the genius of film.” (P191 If film is distinguishable by its adherence to technology and technicalities, it is equally distinguishable by its esthetics. Understanding the technical dimensions (the science of film) can make us better readers of the films esthetics, orContinue reading “Does Art Still Matter: Film, Modernism, And The Need To Understand This World”

In a recent episode of the Bema Podcast, host Marty Solomon references Brad Gray, discussing one of the distinguishing factors of the Judeo-Christian narrative. I mentioned in a previous post on this site that memory is a concept indebted to the Judeo-Christian Tradition, at least in the way it utilizes it as redemptive act and concept.Continue reading “Backing Into the Future: The Memories That Make a Life”

He (Jesus) was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him (Luke 4:15) All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this (Luke 4:28) Separated by a meager 13 verses, the fourth chapter of Luke’s Gospel details these polarized responses by the “people in the synagogue” in Galilee, Jesus’ hometown. Which begsContinue reading “Luke 4: The Way of Holistic Redemption”

I acknowledge that the majority of my friends and acquaintances find this weird. I also know I’m not the only one who feels this and thinks this. But whenever I find myself in discussions with others about an assumed and seemingly common and pervasive desire to escape or retreat back to nature and the outdoors,Continue reading “Reflections on the Nature of Building and the Building of Nature”

Some more thoughts on my journey through the book How To Read A Film by James Monaco. Thoughts relating to how we see, how we know. Monaco points out that a common artistic presence runs underneath all forms of art regardless of adaptations of technology and the subsequent  development of new technique. One can studyContinue reading “Film, Modernism, and the Relationship Between Function and Interpretation”

The subject of memory became crucially important to me following an experience I had some years ago during a particular dark night of the soul. I detailed that experience in this space before, and I also talk about it with the Fear of God Podcast in a conversation about the film The Never Ending Story (partContinue reading “Relic, Memory, and the Search For Identity (Part 2)”

Google the question “can we trust our memories”, and the answer that comes up is an emphatic no. Despite memory being the only tool we have to recollect the past, it is notoriously untrustworthy in the way it reconstructs facts and conceals the truth. My earliest memories reach back somewhere into the recesses of myContinue reading “Relic, Memory, And Searching For Identity (Part 1)”