in the open space: God & culture

Director Gary Ross/Lionsgate via IMDB In “ Gamesmakers Hijack Story: Capitol Wins Hunger Games Again ,” author and blogger  John Granger gives a lengthy but insightful critique of how the film version of Hunger Games changes the story we find in the novel. In particular, he points out how director Gary Ross has changed the story in subtle ways to be sympathetic to filmmakers' art and Hollywood, some things of which Suzanne Collins’ book was critical. Whether or not you agree with all of Granger’s observations and conclusions, he makes a striking point: Ross indeed changes the story, retelling it through a lens affected by his own experience and perspective.                                                      ...

Ken Morefield at 1More Film Blog just posted my guest review of The Mummy Returns (2001) , one in a series he's put together looking back at films from 2001.  This was a fun review, heh: Ten years ago, Ken called The Mummy Returns the worst movie of 2001. A decade later, he went looking for someone to stand up for the Stephen Sommers franchise. Carmen Andres answers the bell:  The Mummy (1999) is one of my favorite films of all time. I am, as Roger Ebert puts it in his review , “cheered by nearly every minute of it:” I cannot argue for the script, the direction, the acting or even the mummy, but I can say that I was not bored and sometimes I was unreasonably pleased. There is a little immaturity stuck away in the crannies of even the most judicious of us, and we should treasure it.  Indeed, I treasured The Mummy so much I bought the original film poster, which now hangs on a wall sandwiched between The Fellowship of the Ring and The Assassination of Jesse ...

From a blog post by J.R. Daniel Kirk exploring the story of the Good Samaritan: "Love is not depicted in any of these stories as demanding that someone enter the people of God, it is depicted as a realization that God’s blessings burst beyond the people of God, enveloping even those who will not place themselves within the space marked off by that God’s rules and people."

I have started an additional blog, this one mixing God-talk with another passion of mine: cooking. If you share the same passion, let me know what you think of A Kind of Love Affair . Blessings.

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 St...

Joel Watts recently put up a tongue-in-cheek post entitled What if Bible Translations were Television Shows on his blog. And while I’m not as well versed in the various versions as he is, I started to think what the versions I’m most familiar with would be if they were films. So, here’s what I came up with, using a Shakespeare theme. If we think of the original Greek and Hebrew texts as films that adapt Shakespeare’s plays in the settings, costumes and language of the original (something like Kenneth Branagh’s Much Ado About Nothing ), then: The Message = 10 Things I Hate About You , a delightful and clever adaptation of Taming of the Shrew that gives us deeper understandings of the original especially when viewed with the original play in mind. NLT = ShakespeaRe-Told , a BBC film project that adapts plays to modern language. (Note: I haven’t seen any of these, so they may not be the best example but you get the idea.) The NIV= Hamlet (2000) , a film that keeps the original langua...

I have mixed feelings about spoiler warnings. In general, I think a quality piece of storytelling will work regardless of whether or not you know where it’s headed, and if the story’s no good, then it doesn’t really matter anyway. ~ Gabriel McKee in an editorial at Religion Dispatches When I tell people that I just as often as not read the end of a book first, I often get eye rolls and exclamations of disbelief or even disappointment in my character. Yes, there are times I purposely choose to be surprised, but I like how McKee puts it. And I rest my case. (Image: mine)

After I wrote up my post on the Lost finale , I started to look around to see how others responded, and here are a few links to articles and musings I’ve found insightful, informative and/or entertaining concerning series and its finale: Beth Rambo and Ken Brown are big reasons this post is shorter than it could have been. On The Painful Nowning Process (one of the more cleverly named blogs I’ve run across) Beth (who’s a PhD in lit plus a Buffy universe guru) pulls together a solid collection of links to various musings about the finale along with some reflections of her own . At C. Orthodoxy , Ken (who’s soon leaving for Germany to get his own PhD) gives us Lost links to reflections on the redemption themes and reviews by a couple of television critics. Jason’s post at NonModern — Lost in the Wrong Motivations or: The Beginning and The End, or the Mystery in the Middle —contains a collection of answers the series provides—and it’s a good list. And for all those questions left u...

Sideways Locke: What makes you think letting go is so easy? Sideways Jack: It's not. I don't really know how to do it myself. Which is why was kind of hoping you could go fist. I loved that exchange. I like the implication that these two flawed, fallen men could join forces and labor together to complete their respective redemption projects. This is what we religious people call ''church.'' -- Doc Jensen in his recap and musings on “The Candidate” episode of Lost . Leave it to Doc to say the things I wish I could have said. I love this image of "church" being an action—after all, church isn’t a place we go but a people we are. The church (or "called out ones") is God’s covenant community, as Dallas Willard puts it in The Divine Conspiracy , “in which he is tangibly manifest to everyone on earth who wants to find him.” And Doc’s description of the relationship between redemption and community fits right in with others I’ve resonated with...

I’m trying a new approach in compiling links for this category by sifting through the ones I’ve tweeted and pulling out the ones I thought more interesting. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen many of these before, but that assumes you actually read my tweets, heh. For what it’s worth, then, here’s a list of links and blogs I found particularly worth reading this week—and most of which brought God-talk into open spaces. 1. Fav-series-of-this-blog Caprica , the prequel series to Battlestar Galactica (another fav of this blog) made the list of Entertainment Weekly’s Top 10 Best TV Series Right Now along with yet other fav of this blog, Lost . (If you want to more about the fav shows of this blogger, go here .) Hat tip @ CapricaSeven . 2. Speaking of Lost , this week’s episode “Sundown” produced a good collection of musings and analysis. King-of-all-that-is- Lost Doc Jensen gives his customarily brain blowing recap complete with religious, biblical, literary and philosophi...

Just after the beginning of the year, a novelist friend of mine mentioned that she’d read about a time management tool in the WSJ and had been using it with great success. I decided to give it a try and—and, well, wow . Not only is The Pomodoro Technique helping me get lots done, but I’m also coming to think of it as a spiritual discipline of sorts. This simple system was developed by Francesco Cirillo—you can read everything you need to know about the system on its web site —but the basic gist is that you break down your time into sets of four 25 minute increments with five minute breaks in between. Once you finish one set, you take a 15-30 minute break and then begin another set. The system uses two basic worksheets (which you can print off or download from the website) on which you list all of your activities/responsibilities and an estimate of how long each will take (Activity Inventory worksheet) from which you draw to list what you will do on a particular day (To Do Today wor...

Hat tip Liturgy . Heh, and all you Lost fans out there, pay close attention.

From The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible by Scot McKnight : Sin is a cracked relationship of otherness with God, with self, with others, and with the world. The redemptive plan of the Bible is to restore humans into a oneness relationship with God, self, others, and the world. This otherness problem is what the gospel "fixes," and the story of the Bible is the story of God's people struggling with otherness and searching for oneness. . . . It is right to see the plot move from creation and fall to redemption, but how God chooses to redeem is a giant (three hundred pound!) parakeet in the Bible for many readers. The story of the Bible is creation, fall and then covenant community --page after page of community-- as the context in which our wonderful redemption takes place. If reading the Bible as Story teaches us one thing, it teaches us that it is the otherness with others that most concerns God. Otherness of the self and God is the assumption, but oth...

Recently, Andrew Jones (aka, the Tall Skinny Kiwi) was invited--along with a group of other bloggers--to Summarize the Gospel in 10 Words or Less . Why? Says, host blogger Demian Farnworth, "The thinking behind the post is essentially this: If you can’t summarize what you believe in ten words, do you truly understand what you believe?" The results (as well as those left in the comments section) are interesting--and diverse. It's worth a look-see. It also challenged me to come up with my own version--one which I fully disclose, admit and put forth lifts verbatim from Scot McKnight's own summary of the Gospel of which I am so fond : Jesus reconnects us to God, ourselves, others and the world. Of course, like Farnworth says, a tiny summary like this isn't meant to explain the rich nature of the Story and God's gift to us in Jesus. But, this exercise is good for me. And I'm finding it a bit addictive--perhaps it's my fascination with words? or maybe a r...

1. It looks like Kings —a modern day spin on the biblical King David saga—has been cancelled (HT Peter Chattaway ), though it also looks like the remaining episodes will still be seen on NBC starting June 13. At SF Gospel, Gabriel Mckee wonders if network squeamishness about religion killed the series. I wonder if it had something to do with why good series get cancelled . 2. Speaking of cancelled series, the official word came down that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles was cancelled as well. Mckee says that while he thinks the series might be “the best thing the Terminator franchise ever offered up,” he’s not that upset to see it go . For those going through withdrawal, there is the latest film in the franchise and, in more general terms, Peter Chattaway looks at how Sarah Connor may actually have made the war worse . 3. For more miscellaneous God-talk in film, Ken Brown feels somewhat conflicted about Star Trek , and so does Gabriel Mckee . Jason has some interesting th...

From Scot McKnight's Kingdom Gospel series at Jesus Creed: If the kingdom is the solution, what was the problem? The community of God gone awry. What is the solution? A community standing on its feet, heart transformed, eyes and ears open, and a willingness to live as one. Let's return to the gospel that deconstructs the church and offer its alternative: God loves you and everyone else and has a plan for us: the kingdom community. But you and everyone else have a sin problem that separates you and everyone else from God, from yourselves, from one another, and from the good world God made for you. The good news is that Jesus lived for you, died for you, was raised for you, and sent the Spirit for you - so you all can live as the beloved community. If you enter into Jesus' story, by repentance and faith, you can be reconnected to God, to yourself, to others, and to this world. Those who are reconnected like this will live now as God's community and will find themselves ...

Want to explore the God-talk in last night's season five finale of Lost ? Well, sheesh, I couldn't hold a candle to Doc Jensen--go over to EW and take a look . From Jacob and Esau, to Jesus and Satan, to Cain and Abel, to the Greek word apokatastasis which signifies "the idea that in the end, Satan will be defeated and that all of creation will be redeemed and unified under Christ." Holy smoke. Wow . (Image: ABC)

Had a great day, but I'm exhausted. However, here are few tidbits I've found intereting over the last few days: 1. At FilmChatBlog , Peter Chattaway has a list of biblical and religious film and TV newsbites--including the info that we won't be seeing any new Kings episodes until June. Oh, that does not bode well. Sounds like another good television story is well on its way to getting the boot . There's also news on the film development of the The Year of Living Biblically and Angels & Demons , the sequel-prequel to Da Vinci Code (you can also see another interesting tidbit on the latter film here .) 2. Ken has a review up of the God-talking Battlestar Galactica sequel-prequel, Caprica . I haven't seen it yet, but plan on it as soon as I can get my hands on it. By the way, Ken has some pretty interesting things to say in response to my recent post on Twilight --great conversation. 3. Speaking of Twilight , Karen has some updates on the sequel to that film ...

Hat tip to Maggi Dawn at Theology, Life and Faith in the UK : "It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.” --J K Rowling, speaking at Harvard University

1. Vin Diesel is hinting once again about a third Riddick installment (the first two being Pitch Black and Chronicles of Riddick ). While both films have got more than their share of violence, Riddick’s story is also often riddled with God-talk , so I’m interested to see just what the next one has in store. Interestingly, while Babylon A.D. definately wasn’t the best of filmmaking, I found it interesting that Vin Diesel’s Toorup seemed more than akin to Riddick, and that film too had its share of God-talk. (Hat tip ComingSoon ) 2. The Red Dawn remake is apparently still on track. In an interview with ShockTillYouDrop , Disturbia scribe Carl Ellsworth had this to say: "We're working with Dan Bradley, the director, on revising the draft. . . ."We're not straying too far from the original story. It's about the Wolverines, a group of kids. And we're doing our best to make these kids realistic and relatable. There are parallels between these kids who become an ...