Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

"Is Government the New God?" - The Religion of Totalitarianism (Academy of Ideas)

This is an excellent 13 minute video! 

Transcript:

"RISEN" MOVIE - VERY MUCH WORTH SEEING

The movie "Risen" is quite good and definitely worth seeing.  A positive review and helpful reflection on Christian faith and "Christian movies" can be found in the following article:   "Risen and What Makes a Good Christian Film"

A friend of mine recently wrote me and included a link to the First Things  review of Terrence Malick's Knight of Cups.  He saw it shortly thereafter and wrote:

I thought the movie, Knight of Cups ... phenomenal. I think Malick is attempting to express profound truths about life, God, and relationships through film like no one else.  I can understand why some don't have the patience for his films - they are like visual poems, very beautiful but demanding. Certainly high art.   

 I am grateful for this introduction to Terrence Malick's work.

MAX MCLEAN OFFERS AN ORAL INTERPRETATION OF THE GOSPEL OF MARK

A friend wrote yesterday saying her church was going to start a sermon series on the Gospel of Mark.  Last night, while sitting in a MacDonald's sipping coffee, I decided to reread Mark's gospel and did so in one setting.  Great experience.  I would like to go over many passages and pin down the location of various incidents and phrases.  Meanwhile, today I looked up Max McLean's dramatic recitation and have been enjoying his rendition.  Mark's gospel, I'm told, was intended to be read orally. 

 

Update  3/7/15

Today I learned of another Gospel of Mark recitation, this one by the famed British actor, Alec McCowen.  McCowen chose as his text the 1611 Authorized (King James Version) of the Bible.  I have appreciated both these renditions.  

 

CHRISTIANITY AND THE ARTS

Justin Taylor spotlights a new book to be published next month that looks particularly good, Jerram Barrs' Echoes of Eden: Reflections on Christianity, Literature, and the Arts,  Taylor quotes Tim Keller's endorsement:

Echoes of Eden is the most accessible, readable, and yet theologically robust work on Christianity and the arts that you will be able to find. It is biblical, theologically sound, filled with examples, and edifying. It anticipates and answers well all the most common questions that evangelical people ask about the arts. I highly recommend it.

Here is the table of contents:

1 God and Humans as Creative Artists
2 Imitation, the Heart of the Christian’s Approach to Creativity
3 Building a Christian Understanding of the Artist’s Calling
4 How Do We Judge the Arts?
5 Echoes of Eden: God’s Testimony to the Truth
6 The Conversion of C. S. Lewis and Echoes of Eden in His Life
7 Echoes of Eden in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings
8 Harry Potter and the Triumph of Self-Sacrificing Love
9 Shakespeare and a Christian Worldview
10 Jane Austen, Novelist of the Human Heart

Me:   I'm thinking this book will be pure delight.  

TOUR THE SISTINE CHAPEL FROM YOUR ARM CHAIR

Click here.  Click, hold and move your mouse to view all around the room and ceiling.  When you want to get closer or farther away, go to the lower left corner and click on the plus or minus symbol or just Roll your Scroll wheel.  Turn on your sound for a more dramatic effect.  (With thanks to my friend John for the tip)

RON DiCIANNI: PAINTING THE RESURRECTION

 

PAINTING BY MICHELLE McCORKLE

(Posted by Douglas Groothuis)

RON DICIANNI: PAINTING THE RESURRECTION (CBN-TV VIDEO)

Thanks to my friend Tom's e-mail, I can point you to a magnificent painting where the painter, Ron Dicianni, explains his  painting.  This is a MUST-SEE.  Go here.

AKIANE KRAMARIK - CHILD ARTIST PRODIGY PRODUCES ART INSPIRED BY GOD

I am grateful to a friend who e-mailed me the following:

This is almost unbelievable.  I will tell you the basics, she is now 12 years old.  She started painting at age 4.  Her Mother is an atheist so God was never discussed in their home and she really had never been taught anything about Him or the Bible.  She has visions and has told her Mom she has visited heaven numerous times.  She gives God the glory for her talent.  She has never had an art lesson.  PS. Her family now believes in God.  (This 3 minute clip is from CNN).   Me: I think she is now 15.

If you found yourself saying "incredible" while watching the above video, then you absolutely must watch the next 8 minute video as well.  It inspired me, and I think it will inspire you also.

STEPHEN WILTSHIRE: ARTISTIC GENIUS

From an e-mail.  You've got to see this to believe it!  The artist, incidentally, is autistic.

More about Stephen Wiltshire can be found here.

DO YOU LIKE THE PAINTINGS OF THOMAS KINCADE?

Joe Carter offers an evaluation.   (HT: Justin Taylor)  I hope to run this by some of my friends whose opinions I value.  At the very least, readers will find Carter's article extraordinarily stimulating, especially since it includes many illustrations, including some that contrast Kincade's earlier work with his later.  Take the following for example:

Which is the earlier?  Which is better?  Why?  For one man's answers, read Carter's essay and the discussion that follows.  Also, you might want to heed a reader's suggestion and read Gregory Wolfe's earlier article,"The Painter of Lite."    I have not pondered these matters sufficiently to offer my own opinion.

BEN WITHERINGTON - THE NOBLE VOCATION OF ARTIST OR ARTISAN

Ben has posted a portion of a forthcoming book on "work in the light of kingdom come."  Ben says,  "I want to present a brief case for being an artist as a proper way to glorify God and edify others."    Read on...

Update:  I decided to add an excerpt in which Ben refers to God as an inspirer of music:

God is not just a ‘visual’ artist, God is both an inspirer of, but also a composer, of music, as Robert Banks points out. So for instance God tells the Israelite leaders in Deut. 31.19 “write down this song and teach it to the Israelites, and have them sing it.” In fact there is a direct connection made between God giving verbal

How to Draw a Head

A free tutorial provided courtesy of Academy of Art University.   (HT: the evangelical outpost)

DADA EXHIBIT AT NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

Chuck Colson at "Breakpoint" weighs in with comments  about the current Dada exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.  In addition to his commentary, I appreciated the links at the end of the article and the reference to a number of books I hadn't known about, including some on Christians and the arts.

CHRISTIAN ARTISTS & GLOBAL OUTREACH

As I looked today at the British publication Global put out by "Operation Mobilisation,"  I learned that fourteen artists traveled last summer to Bosnia-Herzegovina for three weeks in July to share the love of God through various forms of creative arts.  Among many other projects, they designed and painted Disney characters in a room on the children's ward of a local hospital.   The report of the trip is here.  It turns out that most artists were from the USA .  More trips are scheduled this spring and summer to Albania April 11-23, Bosnia July 1-22, and Nepal August 2-22.  I suspect there are many artists who have no idea they can use their talents in such creative and specialized ways internationally!

OM’s Artslink definitely needs to become better known. Their website provides a link to helpful books on faith and art.    Information on contacting the OM USA office can be found here. 

Oh, and by the way, for any beagle-eyed Americans eager to find misspellings, be it known that the Brits spell "mobilization" with an ‘s’ instead of the American ‘z.’

Current Absurdities in Art History

Roger Kimball, a distinguished art critic, editor of "The New Criterion," and author of The Rape of the Master: How Political Correctness Sabotages Art  offers a commentary on his encounter with Michael Fried, a celebrated art historian from Johns Hopkins University.  This is a long article but worth reading if one wants an immersion into the esoteric, truly weird, sicko world of academic art history.  Kimball will have none of it.

Kimball has the quaint idea that "we teach and study art history to learn about art. . . The answer furnished by the academic art establishment, however, is that we teach and study art history in order 1) to show how clever one is and 2) to subordinate art to a pet political, social, or philosophical agenda."

Hat tip: Corner National Review Online