The painting caught me by surprise. I was meandering the dusty grounds of an antique mall in Granbury, Texas when I saw it. Jesus’s face, wracked with dismay, looking at me from behind old clutter. The painting was dirty and tucked among rusty tools and buckets in an open-faced shed, exposed to the weather. Why […]
An American Artist Read More »
Several years ago when I still lived in Durham, North Carolina in a house on Vickers Street, one of my housemates told me about the song “World So Full,” by Jon Dee Graham. Her sister and two friends had posted a cover of it on YouTube back in 2015 when they were students at Goshen
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Last night, I watched the Oscar-winning film The Zone of Interest, and I can still feel it in my gut. It taps into present concerns as I survey the political and social landscape of my country and the world at large. Theologically, the film reminds us of what many religions have long asserted—depravity lurks in
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At first, I didn’t want to watch The Book of Clarence (2023). A hasty glance at the description made me assume the film would regurgitate low budget movies on the life of Jesus, except using Black actors this time. But my spouse thought it looked intriguing, so we watched it last night. And I’m glad
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Have you seen the movie Noah starring Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly? Given my interest in Old Testament reception history, I could not pass it up. How would two Jewish men today interpret this flood story? The Genesis account itself is a product of unique Israelite interpretation of a common ancient Near Eastern narrative. The
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