• Film/TV - Religion

    Noah: The Movie, the Fable, and the Issue of Belief

    April 4, 2014 - By 

    I’d like it known that I read the book first. Which, as all literarily inclined people know, is the right and proper order of things in a modern media age when Hollywood regularly absconds with your favorite tales and more often than not turns them into something  shallow and alien. This inevitably causes you to exhort those who reversed the natural order of things by walking in blind to see the movie: “Oh, you just have to read the book!” In the case of Noah and its film iteration from director Darren Aronofsky and Paramount Studios, we have the good…

  • Odds & Ends - Religion

    Tell Me a Story and My Heart Will Be Glad

    January 11, 2014 - By 

    My most recent post on The Book of Job led some readers to say it had heartened them or their loved ones in grappling with issues of tragedy and grief in their own lives. I was glad for that, even as I couldn’t help but note the slight oddity of being heartened by discussion of a work that basically tells human beings flat out they had better rethink any notions they have of a tender merciful overseer reaching down from the heavens with a helping hand to set their lives aright. I suspect the God depicted in The Book of…