A Sense of Being Called by Richard Stoll Armstrong Wipf and Stock Publishers. 192 pages.
reviewed by MELANIE HAMMOND CLARK
I was in the ninth grade, in the last few weeks of communicants/confirmation class, and the new senior pastor of our 2,700-member congregation came to get to know us and to let us know him.
Natural Saints: How People of Faith are Working to Save God’s Earth by Mallory McDuff Oxford University Press. 240 pages.
reviewed by BENNETT
“Natural Saints” is both a memoir and a record of actions taken by Christians around the U.S. to protect the environment and provide a sustainable future.
What if William Shakespeare’s plays were not really written by the sometime actor? What if, instead, they were penned by Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford? And if so, why the subterfuge?
Why do a CSI movie when there’s so much of that already on television? Well, maybe because you have a more complex story that takes longer to develop, and maybe because you can sustain a gritty mood with more subtle artistry.
There are many good books. The number of great books is drastically fewer, but when a reader finds one, we sense within a chapter or two that the book we hold in our hands is something special.
by Jean F. Risley WIPF and Stock Publishers. 141 pages.
The last several years have seen a bevy of books extolling the virtues and enumerating the challenges of small-church ministry, such as Jason Byassee’s “The Gifts of the Small Church” and Brandon O’Brien’s “Strategically Small Church: Intimate, Nimble, Authentic, and Effective.”
As a pastor, it’s a very delicate thing to criticize faith-based movies. In a week where “50/50” is being released, which is Hollywood’s story about a young man who contracts cancer, where stunningly neither God nor faith is ever mentioned by anyone, here we have the opposite end of the spectrum: We’re playing high school basketball, and religion permeates the entire film.
This movie is so extremely “chicky-flicky” that it will struggle to attract any male viewers at all, but perhaps this niche market is so strong that it doesn’t really need the males, which, actually, is part of the point.
Interviewer: What was it like working with Brad Pitt?
Jonah Hill: It was amazing. Look, you get a part like this, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for an actor to star alongside this icon, as well as the other great people in this film, and it was like a dream.
The story line of “Restless” is not one that will cause people to flock to the movie theaters: terminally ill teenage girl meets high school dropout guy who crashes the funerals of strangers. They spend some time together before she succumbs to her illness.
“Moneyball” is a baseball movie, so right away that limits its audience. However, there are many other appealing dynamics in the film that transcend baseball and are just about life.
“Dolphin Tale” is one of those “family films” that you know are going to feature good-looking children, beleaguered parents, a little bit of stress, and the triumph of love and acceptance. So what’s wrong with that? Nothing.
George M. Marsden writes, “The Reformation began at a university with a scholar’s insight.” Rob Hoch, assistant professor of homiletics and worship at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, is an insightful scholar who seeks to reform the relationship between church and seminary.
