Intruding Upon the Timeless


Book Description

Intruding Upon the Timeless: Meditations on Art, Faith, and Mystery is a collection of essays, written over nearly three decades, by the founder and editor of Image journal, Gregory Wolfe.




C. S. Lewis and His Circle


Book Description

For over thirty years, the Oxford C. S. Lewis Society has met weekly in the medieval colleges of the University of Oxford. During that time, it has hosted as speakers nearly all those still living who were associated with the Inklings-the Oxford literary circle led by C. S. Lewis--as well as authors and thinkers of a prominence that nears Lewis's own. C. S. Lewis and His Circle offers the reader a chance to join this unique group. Roger White has worked with Society past presidents Brendan and Judith Wolfe to select the most important talks, which are here made available to the wider public for the first time. They exemplify the best of traditional academic essays, thoughtful memoirs, and informal reminiscences about C. S. Lewis and his circle. The reader will reimagine Lewis's Cosmic Trilogy with former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, read philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe's final word on Lewis's arguments for Christianity, hear the Reverend Peter Bide's memories of marrying Lewis and Joy Davidman in an Oxford hospital, and learn about Lewis's Narnia Chronicles from his former secretary. Representing the finest of both personal and scholarly engagement with C. S. Lewis and the Inklings, the talks collected here set a new tone for engagement with this iconic Oxford literary circle--a tone close to Lewis's own Oxford--bred sharpness and wryness, seasoned with good humor and genuine affection for C. S. Lewis and his circle.




Universal Spirit


Book Description

To a church that increasingly addresses itself to biblically illiterate people, to people who may have little or no church experience, and to those who simply call themselves spiritual-but-not-religious, Don Collett’s look at the Christian year inspired by the work of the great Canadian scholar Northrop Frye offers a priceless gift. “Frye conceived of a world beyond the normal confines of Christian doctrine and theology,” writes Collett, “and then found a place for Christian doctrine and theology to provide the hope this world needs.” This movement, says Collett, allows us to “begin conversations that seem wholly secular” – conversation that happen in “language” most familiar to people today, both inside and outside the church – “and arrive at the vocabulary of the spiritual life.” While the seasons of the Christian year – Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost – may seem arcane to many, Collett uses this method of structuring the year as a way to draw forth insights into what he calls the Universal Spirit, spiritual truths which may be applied in the course of a person’s everyday life. Says Collett, “These pieces will appeal to the person who desires to make sense of spiritual concepts and topics, and to the way both intersect with the challenging events of our times.”




Through a Screen Darkly


Book Description

In the style of a cinematic travel journal, film columnist and critic Jeffrey Overstreet of Christianity Today and lookingcloser.org leads readers down paths less traveled to explore some of the best films you've never seen. Examining a feast of movies, from blockbusters to buried treasure, Overstreet peels back the layers of work by popular entertainers and underappreciated masters. He shares excerpts from conversations with filmmakers like Peter Jackson, Wim Wenders, Kevin Smith, and Scott Derrickson, producer Ralph Winter, and stars like Elijah Wood, Ian McKellan, Keanu Reeves, and the cast of Serenity, drawing "war-stories" from his encounters with movie stars, moviemakers, moviegoers, and other critics in both mainstream and religious circles. He argues that what makes some films timeless rather than merely popular has everything to do with the way these artists--whether they know it or not--have captured reflections of God in their work. Through a Screen Darkly also includes a collection of reviews, humorous anecdotes, and on-the-scene film festival reports, as well as recommendations for movie discussion groups and meditations on how different films echo the myriad ways in which Christ captured the attention and imagination of culture.




The Operation of Grace


Book Description

The Operation of Grace collects a decade's worth of essays by Gregory Wolfe taken from the pages of Image, the literary journal he founded more than a quarter century ago. As he notes in the preface, his Image editorials, while they cover a wide range of topics, focus on the intersection of art, faith, and mystery. Wolfe believes that art and religion, while hardly identical, offer illuminating analogies to one another - art deepening faith through the empathetic reach of the imagination and faith anchoring art in a vision beyond the artist's ego. Several essays dwell on how aesthetic values like ambiguity, tragedy, and beauty enlarge our understanding of the spiritual life. There are also a series of reflections that extend Wolfe's campaign to renew the neglected and often misunderstood tradition of Christian humanism. Finally, there are sections that contain more personal meditations arising from Wolfe's involvement in nurturing and promoting the work of emerging writers and artists. The Operation of Grace demonstrates once again why novelist Ron Hansen has spoken of Wolfe as one of the most incisive and persuasive voices of our generation.




Morning & Evening (Sea Harp Timeless series)


Book Description

"Come, my soul, sit at Jesus's feet and learn of him all this day." Our hearts long for true connection with God—to know Him, to be known by Him, and to be transformed by this knowing. Whether we recognize it or not, we are forever searching for moments of intimacy, of communion with Jesus.In our busy, cluttered world, it’s far too easy to...




The Culturally Savvy Christian


Book Description

In The Culturally Savvy Christian—his incisive critique of contemporary culture and religion—Dick Staub concludes that though it is influential, American popular culture is generally superficial (diversionary, mindless, and celebrity-driven) spiritually delusional (moralistic, therapeutic, and deistic) and soulless (sustained not by art, craft, and ideas, but by the mad pursuit of profit—propped up by marketing and technology). Similarly American Christianity has devolved into its own mindless, diversionary, and celebrity-driven superficiality. Because humans are created in God's image with spiritual, intellectual, creative, moral, and relational capacities, we long for more, yet the true seeker faces the lose-lose alternatives of a soul-numbing culture and a vacuous Christianity-lite. The renaissance we need in both faith and culture will originate in a deep spiritual renewal that restores God's image in us and creates a new breed of culturally savvy, thoughtful creatives who rekindle the spiritual, intellectual, and creative legacy of Christians as enrichers of culture.




God in the Gallery (Cultural Exegesis)


Book Description

Is contemporary art a friend or foe of Christianity? Art historian, critic, and curator Daniel Siedell, addresses this question and presents a framework for interpreting art from a Christian worldview in God in the Gallery: A Christian Embrace of Modern Art. As such, it is an excellent companion to Francis Schaeffer's classic Art and the Bible. Divided into three parts--"Theology," "History," and "Practice"--God in the Gallery demonstrates that art is in conversation with and not opposed to the Christian faith. In addition, this book is beautifully enhanced with images from such artists as Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock, Enrique Martínez Celaya, and others. Readers of this book will include professors, students, artists, and anyone interested in Christianity and culture.




Lacunae


Book Description

New poetry from Scott Cairns on containing the uncontainable Often, when speaking of what he has called the poetic operation of language, Scott Cairns has characterized that event as our “glimpsing an indeterminate, inexhaustible enormity within a discrete space.” This is the poet’s continuing fascination with lacunae, those spaces, those openings that offer more within than appearances can register from outside the ostensible covert of their terms. Cairns is here focused upon how an image, a word, or—in the case of the Theotokos—a womb can contain the uncontainable. As Orthodox hymnography avers, she is more spacious than the heavens. So, too, the poet suggests, in its own, modest way, the poem might give birth to more, and more, and yet more than even the poet supposes.




U2 and the Religious Impulse


Book Description

U2 and the Religious Impulse examines indications in U2's music and performances that the band work at conscious and subconscious levels as artists who focus on matters of the spirit, religious traditions, and a life guided by both belief and doubt. U2 is known for a career of stirring songs, landmark performances and for its interest in connecting with fans to reach a higher power to accomplish greater purposes. Its success as a rock band is unparalleled in the history of rock 'n' roll's greatest acts. In addition to all the thrills one would expect from entertainers at this level, U2 surprises many listeners who examine its lyrics and concert themes by having a depth of interest in matters of human existence more typically found in literature, philosophy and theology. The multi-disciplinary perspectives presented here account for the durability of U2's art and offer informed explanations as to why many fans of popular music who seek a connection with a higher power find U2 to be a kindred spirit. This study will be of interest to scholars and students of religious studies and musicology, interested in religion and popular music, as well as religion and popular culture more broadly.