D. G. Hart's essay "The Evangelical Narrative: Getting Rid of the Church" (Modern Reformation, November/December 2008) is an insightful study of the nature of evangelicalism and its relationship to Reformation Christianity, and an incisive critique of what Hart sees as evangelicalism's resulting weakness in ecclesiology and approach to ministry. I find Hart's history plausible, his […]
Friday, 30 October, 2009 by Donald T. Williams
No modern writer has gotten more Christian truth into more heads than C. S. Lewis. His works of popular apologetics are full of clarity, insight, and good sense; his fiction glows with high imagination and wholesome wisdom. No one is better at showing us the contours of the Christian worldview in all their sanity and […]
Friday, 01 May, 2009 by Donald T. Williams
I am a Southerner. Lost causes don't bother me. We are used to them. And ours is not even lost-at least, not in the long run. In the short run, I am not very optimistic for our society or for the church. We as a society are trying to maintain our democracy while dismantling its […]
Friday, 05 September, 2008 by Donald T. Williams
It was disappointing that the movie version of C. S. Lewis's second chronicle of Narnia, Prince Caspian, did not stick as close to the story as that of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. There may not have been more scenes made up out of whole cloth and gratuitously inserted, but the ones which […]
Friday, 13 June, 2008 by Donald T. Williams
This is not a flick to see lightly for entertainment. A genetically engineered virus that was supposed to cure cancer wipes out 90% of the human race instead, and turns most of the rest into mutated, rabid, aggressive, vicious, and very hungry monsters who only come out at night. Will Smith is a medical researcher […]
Wednesday, 09 January, 2008 by Donald T. Williams
I am not even going to get started on the differences in plot between the new Beowulf movie and the original poem; or even the differences in the characters. If a student watched this movie to learn about Beowulf for his English class and tried to substitute that viewing for reading the book, he would […]
Thursday, 29 November, 2007 by Donald T. Williams
Now that the Harry Potter series has finally been completed, we can look back on the whole Potter legendarium and draw some conclusions. Despite the hysterical rants of some Christians, the books are not occultic. None of J. K. Rowling's magicians, not even the dark ones, has an attendant spirit or anything like that. Their […]
Thursday, 02 August, 2007 by Donald T. Williams
Agnosticism is, in a sense, what I am preaching. I do not wish to reduce the skeptical element in your minds. I am only suggesting that it need not be reserved exclusively for the New Testament and the Creeds. Try doubting something else. – C. S. Lewis, “Modern Theology and Biblical Criticism” English professors find […]
Wednesday, 02 May, 2007 by Donald T. Williams