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Noah v. Kitschy Jesus: A Tale of Two Movies

By Jay Michaelson

…forward it actually is. The film is the opposite of irony and afraid of nuance. Of course, we’ve already had nuance and complexity in the Jesus story—the Scorsese/Kazantakis Last Temptation of Christ—and we saw how well that went. One could object that Jesus, being Divine, is a special case. But how different is the milquetoast Jesus from the milquetoast teens meant to ask WWJD?, or commit to virginity at the Purity Ball? This isn’t the Emergent C…

Something Borrowed, Something Blue: Avatar and the Myth of Originality

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…up the mythology of originality, the better to sell themselves to an audience that has fully incorporated the idea of “creation out of nothing.” But once these new myths of the individual get told, take hold, and are retold, people recite them as a creed. “We are all individuals!” goes the collective anthem of Brian’s disciples in Monty Python’s astute spoof of Jesus films, The Life of Brian. And once this happens we’ve lost deep creativity. By d…

Trump’s Easter Egg Roll: Inauthentic Christianity in a Bunny Suit

By Karen E. Park

…ly had an internal coherence with both overt and hidden religious significance. While it’s clear that Trump is deeply uncomfortable talking with children (a fact made even more obvious when compared with the delightful rapport that the Obamas had with them, as seen at the 2016 Easter Egg Roll), welcoming families and young children and sincerely trying to show them a good time was never the goal of the Trump administration. In order to understand…

Doubt v. Predator: A Vatican II Parable

By Gabriel Mckee

…r era, the last pope before Vatican II. The film excises an explicit reference to the Council made in the play, but it’s still clear: Doubt paints a picture, from the cheap seats of the Bronx, of the Church in mid-transformation. But things are even more complicated than that, as the story is also an elaborate critique of the way power is wielded in the Church—and the fact that Vatican II managed to change very little. Sister Aloysius is paralyzed…

The Moral Bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Asceticism

By Vlad Chituc

…is is an astonishing admission, in part because it clearly highlights the inconsistency in Rhinehart’s brand of asceticism. Surely he can’t imagine that donating his clothes and buying new ones is more sustainable than keeping and washing them himself. Even more, he describes grocery shopping as a “multisensory living nightmare,” and explains that he doesn’t use grocery shopping services because he “cannot in good conscience force a fellow soul th…

From ‘Management Gurus’ to ‘Corporate Chaplains’: A Review of Spirituality Inc.

By Brittany Shoot

…that companies like Hobby Lobby are not called upon to explain their reliance on cheap goods and labor. Exploitative working conditions, even if ones tucked out of sight in overseas factories, can’t be justified by religious rhetoric. Bethany Moreton, author of the recent To Serve God and Wal-Mart, spoke with me about these contradictions. “Evangelical interpretations of sin as personal vice have obscured the structural injustices even in a Chris…

Prophets of the Environmental Apocalypse

By Peter Laarman

…he books of Daniel and Joel) concern the oppressions and dreams of deliverance experienced by groups of displaced Jews. What is called the Intertestamentary Period of Second Temple Judaism was marked by strong apocalyptic strains. And for generations, scholars have argued about the extent of Jesus’ own apocalyptic consciousness. When Jesus speaks of an imminent judgment (Mt. 24-25, Mark 13, Luke 21), it’s clear that he’s referring to something his…

Watching Preachers’ Daughters Right After the Boston Bombings While Teaching a Class on Augustine’s Confessions

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…n? Because they are the ones still being taught how to be “one of us.” Infancy seems to have something of a theological cipher for Augustine. He can’t remember his own infancy, of course, and so he must has to rely on stories from others to learn who he is, where he comes from, and how to know God. This is part of human sociality, and it would be a fine arrangement if human societies only ever sought the good. But that’s not the case. Instead, chi…

First Things First: Sexual Equality Just Is

By Kate Blanchard

…are, in short, nasty. It was entirely unrealistic to expect “that the financial independence of women would have wholly positive effects on the dance of the sexes” since “the old necessities that once brought them together have disappeared.” Back when girls were girls and men were men, everyone knew where they stood—and where they lay. Notably missing from this modern Archie Bunker’s supposedly scientific argument is any reference to same-sex cou…

Body Language: Michael Jackson and the Illogic of White Superiority

By Anthony B. Pinn

…ade visible the often hidden dilemmas of whiteness as the ‘look’ of importance. His public appearances made it difficult to not see ‘whiteness’ as having a color—to rethink assumptions concerning the color of ‘flesh tone.’ Whiteness (and stereotypical understandings of whiteness) was held up for observation and interrogation. “Who really looks like that?” was a common question. “He’s becoming white!” was a common remark. There was a sociocultural…