Arts & Literature
When I was growing up, my father had a rather extensive collection of 78 RPM records, the ones made of shellac in the first half of the twentieth century before vinyl took over. […]
Poetry may be the sharpest tool of human self-awareness ever invented. Whether wielded as an ax or a scalpel, poetry carves with compact lucidity, revealing ourselves to ourselves like nothing else. This is biblical. Not just in the sense that fully one-third of the Bible is poetry, but in the sense that from the start, […]
April 25, 2003, was an ordinary Friday morning. I was making final sermon preparations for the coming Sunday when my next-door neighbor informed me that a friend of mine was going to recite poetry in Concord that afternoon. Jim Bradley and I had discussed literature in depth for years. He was a University of Chicago […]
Modern Reformation is pleased to welcome Larry Woiwode, poet laureate of North Dakota, as the new poetry editor. Larry is the author of the poetry collection Even Tide (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977) and a chapbook, Land of Sunlit Ice (NDSU Press, 2016). His poetry has appeared in The Atlantic, Harpers, The New Yorker, The […]
JackBy Marilynne RobinsonFarrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020309 pages (hardcover), $27.00 “Ah, look at all the lonely people.” These opening lyrics to the Beatles’ 1966 song “Eleanor Rigby” came to me while reading Jack, the latest book in Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead series. This is probably because the title character is so lonely. In fact, all the […]
The word beauty refers to attractiveness, to the pleasing aspect of what is seen or heard. Its range of uses in Christian theology is potentially very broad. “How beautiful upon the mountains / are the feet of him who brings good news, / who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness” (Isa. 52:7).[1] The […]
The Writings of Phillis WheatleyEdited by Vincent CarrettaOxford University Press, 2019288 pages (hardcover), $125.00 What do we know about Phillis Wheatley? A small poll among my Facebook friends (the thirty-eight who replied) showed that about one-third has never heard of her, over one-third has heard of her but knows little, and less than one-third is […]
In 2016, The Economist Espresso asked an intriguing question on April 23, Shakespeare’s birthday: “Would you agree that you find Shakespeare relevant today?” The survey found that in Brazil (85 percent) and Mexico (82 percent), the answer was yes, followed close behind by India, China, Turkey, and South Africa. Yet only half of British and […]
Out of the deep have I called unto thee, O Lord: Lord, hear my voice. [1] April is the cruellest month, breedingLilacs out of the dead land, mixingMemory and desire, stirringDull roots with spring rain.Winter kept us warm, coveringEarth in forgetful snow, feedingA little life with dried tubers. [2] Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in […]
Do you sometimes leave a movie feeling totally bowled over—only to find that the next day you can’t quite explain why you thought it was so great? Have you ever dragged friends and family to a film you loved, and then suddenly realized with horror that it wasn’t appropriate or worthwhile? If so, then you’ve […]
Despite strong reviews and an impressive cast, Hail, Caesar!—the latest film from Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo, True Grit, No Country for Old Men)—made only $30 million at the box office and hasn’t really scored with viewers. This is a shame, since it’s one of last year’s most fascinating films, particularly from a Christian standpoint. […]
The facts of experience support this conclusion….What now can reason propose that is right, when it is thus blind and ignorant? … or, rather, what can the will pursue, when reason can propose to it nothing but the darkness of its own blindness and ignorance? Where reason is in error and the will turned away, […]
Fyodor Dostoevsky has been hailed by many scholars as one of the most brilliant and important novelists of all time. His two most famous novels, Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, are routinely required reading in many high schools and universities across the United States. He also happens to have been a devoted Christian. […]
The last time I spoke with John Updike-well, all right, the only time I spoke with John Updike-was in May 2008. He was in Washington, D.C., to deliver the Jefferson Lecture under the auspices of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Dr. Brian Lee was in charge of his schedule and kindly introduced me to […]
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 […]
