Reviews

A collection of 89 posts

Featured

Dive! The Film: A Review of Jeremy Seifert’s Documentary on Dumpster Diving

At Camas Friends Church, we’ve been doing a monthly film and discussion group we’re calling “Last Sundays for the Earth.” The purpose of the event is to watch a film, or have a person come in and facilitate a discussion, around issues in sustainable living (and what we

Blog Entries

Resources for Studying the Disciple’s Prayer (Matthew 6 and Luke 11)

This Sunday morning we are beginning a series of discussions around the Disciple’s Prayer in Matt. 6-913 and Luke 11:1-4. The Our Father (Catholic) or Lord’s Prayer (Protestant) is also known among Quakers, and Anabaptists as the Disciple’s prayer, that is, it is the disciples who

Featured

My choices for the Quintessential ‘It’s Alright Ma’ Dylan Playlist

The other day I got a message from a friend and former professor of mine from our Malone days, John David Geib, who is in the middle of facilitating a class on all-things Dylan. He’s calling the class, “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m only Bleeding) Deconstructing The Song

The Cultural

The Divine Commodity by Skye Jethani (A Review)

I’m way late to be posting about this book, but I still operate under the “better really late, than even later than that” motto. I was sent “The Divine Commodity” by Skye Jethani, editor of leadership journal, [Powell’s affiliate link embedded] shortly before we packed up all our

Blog Entries

New Quaker Blogger Book: Writing Cheerfully on the Web

Liz Oppenheimer has recently edited a volume of online conversations from a rich variety of Quaker authors and brought them together in “Writing Cheerfully on the Web,” a play on the George Fox’s famous line, “Walking Cheerfully Over the Earth.” Here’s what Quaker Books has to say about

The Cultural

(Untitled)

My friend Rhett Smith asked me on twitter yesterday where he should start if he wanted to get into some of Žižek’s writings. There are a few different places to start because he has such a huge corpus and covers a variety of topics. For instance the different

Featured

Christian Nonviolence: An Incomplete List of Recources on Biblical Pacifism

Rhett asked me today about books I’ve found helpful on the subject of Christian nonviolence, which reminded me that I had planned on doing a post about some of my favorite books on the subject for quite some time. Here’s a list of books I recommend on the

Blog Entries

Long Reach Toward Just Peacemaking: Fuller’s Theology, News and Notes

I want to commend to you the latest Fuller Theology News and Notes, a magazine that comes out bi-annually and is edited by a Fuller professor. This issue was edited by ethcist Glenn Stassen and is called the Long Reach Toward Just Peacemaking. The issue has a number of great

Blog Entries

(Untitled)

I saw this today on my favorite fan site rushmore academy and it made me really happy. It didn’t hurt that L really likes this book, and that Arcade Fire’s song “Wake Up,” from their album Funeral, is playing in the background really helps too. [youtube=http://www.

Blog Entries

Counsel to the Christian Traveller – Put Your Hand to the Plow

A while back when we were at the Convergent Friends weekend I got a copy of “Counsel to the Christian-Traveller: Also Meditations and Experiences” by William Shewen. It is an early Quaker text that was originally published in London in 1683, Shewen was among the early prominent London Friends. He

Church in Mission

Fan Culture and “Virtual” Communities

I’ve written about Henry Jenkins in the past, he’s Director of the MIT Comparative Media Studies Program and writes constantly about fan culture or “fandom,” remix, and other contemporary cultural happenings. I didn’t know much about him until last year when my doctoral advisor recommended I read

Church in Mission

The Ironic Gesture of the Church

Ryan Bell, the pastor of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Hollywood, invited philosopher/theologian Peter Rollins to do a two day conference called “Beyond Evandelism” at their church building (You can read Bell’s recent post on Rollins talk last night). In his talk Peter Rollins discussed a number

Church in Mission

A 21st Century Good Samaritan: Deidox’s Story of “Robert”

Last week I heard about the new project Brent Gudgel, Dan Portnoy and clan have been working on called “Deidox” from twitter. I’ve posted about some of Brent’s work before: The New Chronicle Project. The Imagination of the Kingdom at Work Think of Deidox, pronouced “day-docs,” as short

All Songs Considered

Great New Tunes for 2009

Last year, I felt, was kind of void for me when it came to new music. That is one reason why I asked my good friend Matt Hoopes to guest write his list (and also I was interested in learning about new artists). But already for 2009 I’ve been

Featured

Guest Post: Matthew Hoopes’ Top 5 Albums of the Year

Since he spends so much time immersed in music, I asked my good friend, and fellow Canton, Ohio native Matthew Hoopes of Relient K to share his top 5 Albums of 2008 with the gathering in light community. This is his first guest post here, and it’s a a

Blog Entries

Through Flaming Sword: Spiritual Autobiography of George Fox

My guess is that many younger Evangelical Quakers know little about George Fox‘s life, ministry and faith or have found reading through his Journal a rough go (myself included). I think Quaker historian Arthur Roberts newly updated and classic text, “Through Flaming Sword” will help to change this. This

The Cultural

David Bazan Visits Fuller Seminary

David Bazan graced Fuller Seminary with his presence this past Saturday, playing a sold-out show in what turned out to be a very intimate show in Fuller’s Travis Auditorium. I’ve been a fan of David Bazan’s music (aka Pedro the Lion and Headphones) since a friend of

Church in Mission

The McCain-Palin Taste for The Secret

We live in a culture of increasing secrecy. Despite claims of being the ‘age of information,’ one might goes so far as to say we live in a culture of ‘the secret.’ Not only has there been a flood of recent secular books all pointing to new secrets being discovered

The Cultural

Zizek and Theology by Adam Kotsko

Adam Kotsko’s recent book, Žižek and Theology, is a great addition to the growing library of commentaries, introductions and appropriations surrounding Slavoj Žižek‘s philosophical work. It was only recently published in the States by T & T clark and it comes in the series “Philosophy and

Antonio Negri

New Books: The Monstrosity of Christ, Evangelicals and Empire, and Lessig’s Remix

Here are a few new books on their way out, or already published, that I want to highlight. The Monstrosity of Christ by Slavoj Žižek and John Milbank. The book is about secularism, politics and the future of Christianity between two unlikely characters: John Milbank, the main proponent of

The Political

The Imagination of Politics – William Cavanaugh’s Theo-Politics

I’m currently working through Catholic theologian William T. Cavanaugh‘s book ((here is a listing of his bibliographic works), “Theo-Political Imagination: Discovering the Liturgy  as a Political Act in an Age of Global Consumerism,” for a lecture I’m doing later this quarter. I cannot recommend this book enough

Blog Entries

Manufacturing Dissent: An Interview with Stephen Duncombe

I came across an interview with Stephen Duncome, the author of “Dream:Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in the Age of Fantasy,” a book I really enjoyed and have been trying to utilize some of the ideas (you can see a first attempt in my essay called, “Desire and the Imgination of

The Theological

McClendon on Convictions and Pluralism

Last week, I read James Wm. McClendon and James M. Smith’s book “Convictions: Defusing Religious Relativism,” it’s a highly recommended book for anyone interested in religious language and rationality, ethics and theology. It is difficult to get through due to his heavey useage of philosophy, espeically JL Austin’

Blog Entries

Interview With Tom Sine and Jarrod McKenna On The New Conspirators

Tom Sine’s recent book, The New Conspirator’s, has been gaining a lot of attention since it was released last month. This week he’s staying with my friend and emerging peace church activist Jarrod McKenna. Tom and his wife are staying in Australia with McKenna at the Peace

Blog Entries

Interview with Sacred Compass Author Brent Bill

I decided to take part in Brent Bill’s recent contest to help get the word out about his book. I know Brent through my work with convergent Friends and have enjoyed following his blog and his interest not only in Quakerism but the emerging church. He is the author