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.
Bart Ehrman has once again written a sprightly, challenging and informative volume. Some of his previous books too often offer a rehash of well-known scholarly conclusions, served up in an exaggerated fashion that is often misleading.
by Jane Rogers Vann Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Ky. 152 pages REVIEWED BY JUDITH FULP-EICKSTAEDT
“People of faith are hungry for encounters with God in their congregations and for ways more thoroughly to absorb and be changed by those encounters. It is for these congregations that I write.”
This is the kind of movie that invokes every viewer’s experience with racism. So this review will reflect a more personal perspective than normally expected, since emotional detachment is virtually impossible, if not downright dishonest.
Wow, what do you make of a film like this, which delivers exactly what it promises and with a straight face? Just go with it? Make fun of it? Consider it a self-parody? An unwitting farce? Hollywood camp? Or do we make this kind of adventure/sci-fi/CGI film just because we can?
