Advent, Art and Receptivity
At the heart of advent is the attitude of receptivity. Gabriel appears to Mary and delivers the earth-shattering news: “You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.” Mary’s…
A journal of theology, imagination, and the arts.
Mything the Point: Why Some Stories Strike True and Others Fall Short [Part Two]
George MacDonald speaks of the true essence of a meaningful fairytale in his classic essay, “The Fantastic Imagination”: [A fairytale] cannot help having some meaning; if it have proportion and harmony it has vitality, and vitality is truth. The beauty…
Under the Wings of the Bat: Symbol & Community in Neil Gaiman’s Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?
Superheroes are often re-born in different incarnations. A writer will start the storyline afresh and a new version of the hero will be born. Neil Gaiman’s award-winning story Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? (2009) coalesces previous Batman incarnations, focusing…
E. Nesbit as Fantasy God-Mother
For many readers – H.G. Wells and Laurence Houseman, G.K. Chesterton and Noel Coward – for these and thousands more, the most magical stories of modern times are those by that Edwardian wizard E. Nesbit…To come upon any Nesbit today,…
J.R.R. Tolkien & C.S. Lewis on the True Myth of the Gospel
On 30 January 1945, J. R. R. Tolkien wrote to his son Christopher about the ‘beauty’ of the Christian story. Regarding the ‘Eden “myth”’, Tolkien thought a worrying consequence of people jettisoning Genesis’s creation account in the face of modern…
Mything the Point: Why Some Stories Strike True and Others Fall Short [Part One]
Have you ever noticed how some stories make a deep impression on certain people yet fail to make a dent in others? You know the sorts that go all in for certain stories: the Trekkies for Star Trek, the Ringers…
The Coming of the King: Transpositions Celebrates Fantasy Literature
Starting Monday, Transpositions will be celebrating fantasy literature with a week-long online symposium. The upcoming topics include: Monday, 5 December: Laura Schmidt, archivist for the Wade Center at Wheaton College, examines why fantasy stories grip some readers with fierce intensity and…
Ambivalent Anticipation: Advent
This is the first week of a new year; the new liturgical year, that is. But in the face of the end of civic calendar (at least in the West), the season of advent often seems like an add-on to an…
Featured Artist: Roger Feldman
Roger Feldman graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in Art Education. He then studied theology at Fuller Seminary for one year, but he chose to return to Seattle and set up a studio. After working for a…