Our current inability to contemplate the breadth and depth of any social, political or theological issue is the result of our perceived necessity for constant entertainment. One need only to descend into the rabbit hole of Twitter to locate the…
Maria Pia Di Bella and James Elkins, editors, Representations of Pain in Art and Visual Culture, Routledge Advances in Art and Visual Studies 4 (London: Routledge, 2013), xiii + 216 pp. incl. index and contributor bios. Hardcover, $160.00 / £95.00…
When a monk asks you a question, it’s generally wise to listen. I learned this lesson on my annual silent retreat at the monastery of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist in Cambridge, MA. During his sermon on the…
Asbjørn Grønstad and Henrik Gustafsson, editors, Ethics and Images of Pain, Routledge Advances in Art and Visual Studies 1 (London: Routledge, 2012), xxiii + 238 pp. incl. index and contributor bios. Hardcover, $160.00 / £95.00 from publisher. Given today’s world,…
In film critic circles—particularly film critics of a religious persuasion—the term ‘parable’ will be tossed out in a review to describe a film. A film may be a ‘parable of grace’ or a ‘parable for our times’. Recently, Darren Aronosky’s…
Roger Scruton. The Soul of the World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014, viii + 205 pp., $27.95 cloth. In this, the forty-first text of non-fiction published by Roger Scruton, the central aim is no less than the salvation of the…
By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, ‘Sing us one…
Jennifer R. Ayres. Good Food: Grounded Practical Theology. Waco, TX.: Baylor University Press, 2013, xiv + 233pp., $29.95 What does it mean to call food ‘good’? At a time when seemingly more attention than ever is paid to what we…
It is fitting to write a reflection on the idiosyncratic artwork of Pieter Jansz Saenredam from the peculiar comfort of Martyrs Kirk library in St Andrews, especially in the year that marks the five hundredth anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.…