LOTR and Paradise Lost
I’ve finished “Paradise Lost,” and I thought it would be fun to list all the passages that made me think of Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings.” Many things in “Paradise Lost” made me think of Middle-Earth, some because of their resemblance to Tolkien’s creations, others because there was only a superficial similarity and strong differences.…
Star Trek II: The Wrath of the Well-Read Villain
My kids have not grown up on “Star Trek”, and until recently they knew nothing about it beyond Spock’s ears, a captain named Kirk, and maybe a ship named Enterprise. For our regular movie night I recently picked “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.” I didn’t tell the kids what I was going to…
Look, it is good
And God saw all that He had done, and, look, it was very good. Genesis 1, verses 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31 This is not a statement so much as a loving word. There is no single correct way to respond to it, no obligation even to make a specific reply. But it…
Discovering Paradise Lost
I don’t know how I’ve never read John Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” but I’m here for it now and it’s already blowing me away. The first two of its twelve parts are densely filled with poetry that’s surprisingly easy to read, and with so many dramatic images that I’ve lost count. The first surprise for me…
The Grand Inquisitor and Rebellion
Ivan Karamazov issues the following challenge to his devout brother Alyosha, before sharing with him the now-famous parable about the Grand Inquisitor, in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov”: Tell me straight out, I call on you—answer me: imagine that you yourself are building the edifice of human destiny with the object of making people happy…
The Grand Inquisitor and Exodus
I’ve recently finished “The Brothers Karamazov”, a book that’s tough-to-chew, frustrating, blasphemous, hilarious, delirious and puzzling: in short, a great book. I want to start with just a few *brief* remarks about the Grand Inquisitor story, the parable that Ivan Karazamov composes and shares with his brother Alyosha. The parable is so well-known that I…
Contact movie night
I chose “Contact”, the 1997 Robert Zemeckis film based on Carl Sagan’s novel of the same, for a recent family movie night. It was new to the kids. I read the book a few years ago, soon after quarantine began. I had been wanting to show the kids this movie ever since we saw “The…
After reading Hebrews
Jesus — Freed us from death by dying (and conquering death): Rom 5.18, Heb 2.14-17, 1 Cor 15.21 Freed us from daily sacrifices by becoming a sacrifice: Heb 7.27 Freed us from the Law’s curse, by becoming a curse: Gal 3.13 Freed us from the Law, by being born subject to the Law: Gal 4.4-5…
Prince of Egypt Movie Night
My son Jacob recently chose “The Prince of Egypt” when it was his turn in our revolving “family movie night”. He intends to run through all the Dreamworks animated pictures — a project that should take us about four years, at our current pace — and “Prince of Egypt”, released in 1998, was Dreamworks’ second.…
Clash of the Titans Movie Night
My son has been reading a lot of Greek mythology so I pulled up this 1981 flick for our family movie night. The kids’ favorite character was Bubo, the mechanical owl. My son was disappointed with the depiction of Poseidon, and he said this movie made him hate Zeus. He was also ready with small…
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