Recent Posts
Citizenship Confusion: Pamela Geller Abuses a Murder“Voices like Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller are very dangerous, particular for Christians and conservatives”
Grace Notes: Dead Can Dance, The Mary Onettes, Saint EtienneDead Can Dance come back from the dead, The Mary Onettes adjust their 80′s sound, and Saint Etienne just want you to dance.
Sacred Space: Superbowl Sunday“Something in the regular life of the church is going to conflict with the Superbowl this Sunday. What ought the church to do?”
Eat Your Vegetables: “The Age of Innocence” (Wharton, 1920)The novel’s tone is thoroughly ironic, as Archer continually misreads as progressive the very traits that consign him to the status quo.
Mixed Signals: What the Christian Message Says to the MassesTargeting a message to your “superfans” doesn’t mean that they are the only ones listening.
We Recommend:
Reviews of comics, graphic novels, and manga by Seth T. Hahne, CaPC's new illustrator.
Author Archive
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Our Favorite Five Books of 2011
Posted on January 2, 2012 | No CommentsCarissa Smith shares an idiosyncratic list of the best five books of 2011. -
The Magician King: Enduring the Loss of Eden
Posted on September 13, 2011 | 2 CommentsLev Grossman's latest explores the perceived tragedy of gods who pick and choose. -
‘Divergent’: Derivative Dystopia?
Posted on July 26, 2011 | No CommentsA Christian author's young adult novel seems similar to others, but not in the way you might think. -
The Vampire Defanged: An Interview with Susannah Clements
Posted on June 16, 2011 | 2 CommentsWhy is our culture fascinated with vampires, and how has that fascination changed over time? -
Of Gods and Men and the Surprising Drama of Spiritual Discernment
Posted on May 24, 2011 | No CommentsFinally, a film that does justice to the voice of God. -
Eat Your Vegetables . . . and Ponder the Global Consequences
Posted on March 30, 2011 | 3 CommentsEach week in Eat Your Vegetables, Carissa Smith shares the benefit and appeal of some more high-brow culture we should be consuming. This week I have for your consideration a literal vegetable, the South American “superfood” quinoa, readily available to U.S. consumers in the upscale supermarket... -
Repent, for the Stupocalypse is Nigh!
Posted on March 24, 2011 | 10 CommentsHow do we cope with the seeming inevitability of an irretrievably dumb culture? -
Eat Your Vegetables: “Jane Eyre”
Posted on March 16, 2011 | 2 CommentsEach week in Eat Your Vegetables, Carissa Smith shares the benefit and appeal of some more high-brow culture we should be consuming. The release of a new film version of Jane Eyre makes this a perfect time to reread—or encounter for the first time—Charlotte Brontë’s 1847... -
Eat Your Vegetables: Handel’s “Messiah”
Posted on March 9, 2011 | 1 CommentEach week in Eat Your Vegetables, Carissa Smith shares the benefit and appeal of some more high-brow culture we should be consuming. As a child raised primarily on classical music (with a healthy dose of Broadway musicals and Simon & Garfunkel), I loved Handel’s Messiah from... -
Eat Your Vegetables: Trollope!
Posted on March 2, 2011 | No CommentsEach week in Eat Your Vegetables, Carissa Smith shares with us some of the more high-brow culture we should be consuming. For our first nutritious and edifying offering, we have the fiction of Anthony Trollope, Victorian novelist and gentle satirist of Anglican church politics. Trollope... -
Foodie-ism: A Form of Gluttony?
Posted on February 22, 2011 | 5 CommentsIn a fascinating article called “The Moral Crusade against Foodies,” B.R. Myers lambasts the backwards ethics of contemporary foodie-ism, a movement that, as he notes, has adopted the vocabulary and moral stance of a religion: “Even if gourmets’ rejection of factory farms and fast food... -
RetroPost: The Oscars: A Plea for Accessibility without Condescension
Posted on February 22, 2011 | No CommentsTwo years ago, Carissa Smith had high expectations for the Oscars, and was let down. -
The King’s Psychobabble
Posted on February 6, 2011 | 3 CommentsI saw The King’s Speech a few weeks ago, and the acting was excellent and the movie as a whole was formulaically pleasant (albeit not fully worthy of its likely Best Picture Oscar win), I found myself irked by the dominance of psychotherapeutic model of... -
To Change the World: There Are Better Reasons for Engaging Culture
Posted on January 31, 2011 | 2 CommentsOur pipe dreams of world-changing may be misguided. -
“A Tough Season for Believers”; A Good Season for Books
Posted on December 20, 2010 | 1 CommentRoss Douthat’s latest op-ed in the New York Times begins by addressing the strange role of Christmas in America and ends by offering up two books considering the broader topic of the relationship between Christianity and culture: Robert Putnam and David Campbell’s American Grace and... -
Mockingjay’s Hermeneutics of Suffering
Posted on December 13, 2010 | 1 CommentDoes the final book make or break the Hunger Games series? -
Catching Fire: Team Love Triangle or Team Dystopian Grit?
Posted on November 29, 2010 | No CommentsThe second installment of the Hunger Games trilogy deals with romance as a possible symbolic hope. -
The Hunger Games: What Counts as Ethical in a World Where Kids Kill Each Other on TV?
Posted on October 25, 2010 | 7 CommentsA young adult phenomenon addresses some incredibly relevant moral dilemmas. -
John Mark Reynolds on the “Yoga Wars”
Posted on October 12, 2010 | 1 CommentOver at The Scriptorium, John Mark Reynolds of Biola University writes a response to the “Yoga Wars” (our own Rich also responded last week): Recently, Mohler wrote a courageous post condemning the importation of Yoga into the church. If a blog post was to be... -
RetroPost: ‘Son of Rambow’ and the Ultimate Summer Fantasy
Posted on September 28, 2010 | No CommentsNow available on Netflix Instant Watch, Son of Rambow is a different kind of action-influenced film.