If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen most of these already, but that assumes you actually read my tweets, heh. For what it’s worth, here’s a list of links and blogs I found particularly worth reading in the last week or so—and most of which brought God-talk into open spaces.1. New Testament prof and scholar Daniel Kirk uses Gladiator and Revelation as launch points to examine the concept of “What we do echoes in eternity!” and asks “Does that idea scare the poop out of you?”
2. AMC released a trailer for its The Walking Dead, an adaptation of a graphic novel by the same name chronicling the lives a group of survivors in a zombie apocalypse. The series looks to have the makings of a good story. Wait, you say. How can zombie flicks be good stories? Read film critic Peter Chattaway’s Why even consider a horror movie? at Christianity Today, an interview with self-confessed Christian director Scot Derrickson (Hellraiser, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Day the Earth Stood Still). However, I have to admit, the series is most likely too violent and gory for me to take on a weekly basis. (Word of warning: the trailer also has those elements.)
3. The above still posted by /Film from the upcoming Cohen brothers True Grit remake is encouraging. I loved the novel and the John Wayne film, so this version will be a tough sell for me—but I’m starting to think it might be okay.4. Ken Morefield approaches Eat Pray Love from an interesting and alternative perspective at 1 More Film Blog while Jason reviews Repo Men and Daybreakers at NonModern.
5. Gabriel McKee curates and links to his introduction of Cornell's Carl A. Kroch Library’s exhibit on the history and influence Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
6. A couple of good posts exploring authentic Christian community at Internet Monk, the first on New Monasticism and the other taking another look at Dietrich Bonheoffer and “Wish-Dream” Community.
7. At Christ and Pop Culture, Richard Clark urges Christians to consider the video game medium—both its assets and its challenges. Christians, he writes, “tend to remain behind the curve as a group, only accepting a technology or medium after it’s been vouched for by the world at large.” I agree, and find his post worth considering.
8. I ran across two interesting interviews with actors who are self-confessed Christians: Christianity Today’s interview with Robert Duvall and film critic Peter Chattaway’s interview with Jane Russell (yes, that Jane Russell).
9. Finally, I must know, do the images at the end of this trailer for alien apocalypse Skyline remind anyone else of a certain event popular in dispensational theology?! A rather creepy twist, but still. Heh.
(Images: Walking Dead photo, AMC; True Grit photo, Amblin/Mike Zoss/Paramount)