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There Will Be Brilliance
Filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson surpasses himself.
by Jean Bethke Elshtain
May/June 2008

Music on the Brain
Oliver Sacks investigates.
by Jeremy Begbie
March/April 2008

Tricksters and Badmen
Burt Williams, Stagolee, and Jump Jim Crow.
by William Edgar
March/April 2008

Holy Hegemony!
A visit to Branson.
by Frederica Mathewes-Green
March/April 2008

What Was It You Wanted
Bob Dylan and Jesse James
by Jean Bethke Elshtain
March/April 2008

A Meditation on the Joint and Its Holy Ornaments
Distance and relation.
by Wayne L. Roosa
January/February 2008

I Spy
The Lives of Others.
by Paul Cantor
January/February 2008

A Way of Giving Thanks
Midwifing the American food revolution.
by LaVonne Neff
November/December 2007

Not Silly Enough
Revisiting Disney's Silly Symphonies.
by John H. McWhorter
November/December 2007

Hee-Haw
How far are we from Idiocracy
by Frederica Mathewes-Green
November/December 2007

A Bigger Tool Kit
Theology from a prog rock band.
by Roger Freet
September/October 2007

The Dance of Thought
Nietzsche and music.
by Bruce Ellis Benson
September/October 2007

Music in God's World
by Jeremy S. Begbie
September/October 2007

Theology Is Stranger Than Fiction
The best film you didn't see last year.
by Sharon Baker and Crystal Downing
September/October 2007

Cue the Violin
Was Hitchcock a master in his use of music?
by John H. McWhorter
July/August 2007

Against Narrowcasting
Radio as it was and might yet be.
by Mark Gauvreau Judge
July/August 2007

Click of the Light / Start of the Dream
Paying attention to Arcade Fire.
by David Dark
July/August 2007

THE VISIBILITY OF THE INVISIBLE
Renaissance Art and the Mediation of Belief
by E. John Walford
July/August 2007

Look Again
William Holman Hunt and the Pre-Raphaelite vision.
by Timothy Larsen
March/April 2007

Seeking with Groans
The moral universe of film noir.
by Thomas Hibbs
March/April 2007

The Cheerful Solipsist
Walt Disney and his century.
by Bill McKibben
March/April 2007

A New Kind of Calvinism
The theology of a comic strip.
by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson
January/February 2007

THE CHRISTIAN VISION PROJECT
Come and See
Leonardo da Vinci's Philip in The Last Supper.
by Makoto Fujimura
November/December 2006

Praise Prepositions
by Jeanne Murray Walker
November/December 2006

Please Flush
Why rock critics need to re-read Lester Bangs—and JPII.
by Mark Gauvreau Judge
November/December 2006

The Triumph of Genius
Celebrating Mozart.
by Jon Pott
November/December 2006

American, Yes; Primitive, No
The art of Grandma Moses.
by Lauren F. Winner
November/December 2006

Hidden Under a Bushel
Sufjan Stevens and the problem of Christian music.
by Randall J. Stephens and Delvyn Case
November/December 2006

A Look Ahead
by Laurance Wieder
November/December 2006

Fried Pie and Catfish Filets
Kate Campbell's Blues and Lamentations tour.
by Lil Copan
September/October 2006

Down the Rabbit-Hole
The life and work of John Tenniel.
by Edward Short
September/October 2006

On Time
Poetry.
by Paul J. Willis
September/October 2006

Good Trembling
The films of Val Lewton.
by Peter T. Chattaway
July/August 2006

A Time to Swing
Tommy Dorsey and the big band era.
by Timothy Larsen
July/August 2006

More Than Meets the Eye
History and The End of the Spear.
by Kathryn Long
May/June 2006

Boink!
Composing for cartoons.
by John H. McWhorter
March/April 2006

"Why All This?"
Rediscovering the witness of Hans Rookmaaker.
By William Edgar
January/February 2006

Pilgrim Bergman
The life and films of Sweden's great director.
By Roy Anker
January/February 2006

The Devil Is Real. Therefore Â…
Evidence that demands a verdict.
Peter T. Chattaway
November/December 2005

Let's Do the Mash
The Who Boys, the Beastles, and the Bible.
By Andy Crouch
September/October 2005

Rime of the Ancient Martian
War of the Worlds—the remix.
By Crystal Downing
September/October 2005

Ungawa!
The curiously compelling saga of Tarzan.
By Frederica Mathewes-Green
September/October 2005

Listening for Another Reality
Adapting George MacDonald for radio.
By Philip Glassborow
September/October 2005

Donnie and the Bunnyman
Why Donnie Darko is a favorite film on college campuses.
By Thomas Hibbs
September/October 2005

What Is "Jewish Art"?
Collective memory personalized.
by Mark Packer
July/August 2005

Wagner and The Lion King
Where to find the total work of art.
by John H. McWhorter
May/June 2005

The Movies and America
What the Academy Award nominees for Best Picture tell us about ourselves.
by Drew Trotter
May/June 2005

Ending It
Mercy killing at the movies.
by Peter T. Chattaway
May/June 2005

Jedi or Jesuit?
Looking for God at the cineplex.
by Jason Byassee
May/June 2005

The Big Muddy
Folk artist Richard Shindell sees big stories in small moments.
By Holly Lebowitz-Rossi
January/February 2005

Forget Me Not
Movies and memory.
By Peter T. Chattaway
January/February 2005

For Everything There Is a Season
Nostalgia for nature's seasons in a climate-controlled world.
By Cindy Crosby
November/December 2004

Your Chip Is Showing
Four recent films show a battle for control among men, women, and machines.
By Peter T. Chattaway
November/December 2004

A Practical Romantic
The films of Douglas Fairbanks.
By S.T. Karnick
November/December 2004

The Legend of Bono Vox
Lessons learned in the church of U2.
By Scott Calhoun
November/December 2004

Turning the Lens on Itself
Jean Luc-Godard, agent provocateur.
By Michael Leary
September/October 2004

Seen Through
Christ of Sinai and the splendor of Byzantium at the Met.
By Emily Jorjorian Lowe
September/October 2004

Annie Get Your Subaltern Identity
The metamorphosis of the American musical.
By John McWhorter
July/August 2004

The Revenger's Tragedy
Vengeance is ours, saith Hollywood.
By Peter T. Chattaway
July/August 2004

Differently Disabled
Forrest Gump without the extravagance: the "ordinary" life of Bill Porter.
by Crystal Downing
May/June 2004

Jesus and Mama
The intercessor par excellence in country music
by Sam Torode
May/June 2004

The Biggest Book in the World
In pursuit of a 130-pound photo album.
by Laurance Wieder
May/June 2004

What Would Buffy Do?
Is it possible to call for help ironically—and really mean it?
by Todd Hertz
May/June 2004

"Out of the Darkness"
Entering the world of Krzysztof Kieslowski.
by Roy Anker
March/April 2004

An Emperor of Art
The life and films of Akira Kurosawa.
by Carl Plantinga
March/April 2004

The Punk Rocker with a Ph.D.
Greg Graffin, frontman of Bad Religion, has a freshly minted doctorate in evolutionary biology and a new album coming soon.
by Preston Jones
March/April 2004

How to Disappear
The restless art of Weldon Kees, "pursued for mortal stakes."
by Caroline Langston
January/February 2004

An Ecumenical Luther
The Reformation as a movie.
by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson
January/February 2004

Hulking Rage
An epidemic of anger at the cineplex.
by Jeffrey Overstreet
September/October 2003

A Different Kind of Hero
Retelling the gospel in a new rock opera.
by Russ Breimeier
September/October 2003

The Movies Go to War
The moral messages and political overtones of war films.
by Peter T. Chattaway
July/August 2003

Getting It Half-Right
What's worth celebrating in Gods and Generals—and what's not.
by Mark Noll
July/August 2003

Reading God's Two Books
Reconciling the written Word with the starry skies.
by William R. Shea
March/April 2003

Skeptical Resurrection
A sci-fi—and psy-fi—journey into space.
by Phil Christman
March/April 2003

Heaven for a Terrorist
How are our actions judged?
by Agnieszka Tennant
March/April 2003

The Hymn
How ordinary belivers found their voice through song.
by Mark Noll
March/April 2003

Hungry Eye
The Two Towers and the seductiveness of spectacle.
by Ralph C. Wood
March/April 2003

A Bloody Shame
Gangs of New York and the apotheosis of Martin Scorsese.
by Eric Metaxas
March/April 2003

Born Again
A Man Without a Past
by Peter T. Chattaway
January/February 2003

Looking for Bach
The mystery of the missing years.
by John Ito
January/February 2003

Humming Schoenberg
Is there any there there?
by John H. McWhorter
January/February 2003

Sacred Monsters
Frida seeks to shock but ends up prettifying its subject.
by Jeff M. Sellers
January/February 2003

Stranger in a Strange Land
Two Icons
by Scott Cairns
November/December 2002

Going to Hell
by David Noll
November/December 2002

The Other Warhol
by Daniel A. Siedell
November/December 2002

The Windup World of the Nervous Tick
Looking hard with Elvis Costello.
by David Dark
November/December 2002

Signs and Wonders
The spiritual imagination of M. Night Shyamalan
by Roy Anker
November/December 2002

To End All Christian Films
A movie that takes evil seriously.
by Eric Metaxas
July/August 2002

Smoke Signals on Film
Indians in the Movies
by Crystal Downing
July/August 2002

Vengeance is Whose?
A new file version of The Count of Monte Cristo emphasizes faith, but with a strange twist.
by Todd Hertz
July/August 2002

The Way It Was Before
Stephen Carter's first novel offers a compelling mystery.
by Elizabeth Fox-Genovese
July/August 2002

They've Gotta Have It
The impossibility of being celibate.
by Peter T. Chattaway
May/June 2002

Parody
The corrections.
by Eric Metaxas
May/June 2002

Poem
Alpha/Omega, Eucharist & the Coriolis Force.
by Luci Shaw
May/June 2002

Ennobled by Jazz
Ralph Ellison and the music of American possibility.
by Lucas E. Morel
May/June 2002

Synoptic Star Wars
The fan club strikes back.
by Telford Work
March/April 2002

Seducing the Underworld
Christian's story in Moulin Rouge.
by Douglas Jones
March/April 2002

Back in the U.S.S.R.
Films of the Soviet Sixties.
by Bethany Davis Noll
March/April 2002

"They Don't Write Them Like That Anymore"
Really? Richard Rodgers, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and the fate of American musical theater.
by John H. McWhorter
January/February 2002

The Beauty of Borrowing
Contemporary artists in dialogue with the past.
by Joel C. Sheesley
January/February 2002

Kandahar
A film from Iran explores the Taliban's heart of darkness.
by Peter T. Chattaway
January/February 2002

The Sheep, the Goats, and Leo DiCaprio
Just another Hollywood pretty boy, you say?
by Crystal Downing
November/December 2001

Rock's New Rebellion
Net music and the backlash against commodification.
by J. David Dark
November/December 2001

Who Killed Classical Music?
And can marketing magic bring it back to life?
by Lionel Basney
September/October 2001

A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
Steven Spielberg's A.I. is a haunting parable about human longings.
by Roy Anker
September/October 2001

Final Fantasy
Our spirits, ourselves?
by John Wilson
September/October 2001

What's Cooking When Martha Stewart Meets the VeggieTales?
Bob the Tomato and the doyenne of decorating go together like water and wine.
by Otto Selles
July/August 2001

Shrek: Happily Ever Ogre
An anti-fairy tale run amuck.
by Eric Metaxas
May 30, 2001

The Iron Women of Chinese Cinema
Why do so many recent Chinese films feature strong women?
by Stefan Ulstein
May/June 2001

Creative Spirituality
The way of the artist.
by Robert Wuthnow
March/April 2001

Art and Idolatry
Making golden calves.
by David Morgan
March/April 2001

Rembrandt's Protestant Icons
The impact of Reformed thought on Rembrandt's art.
by Catharine Randall
March/April 2001

The Artworld's Memento Mori
Vanity, all is vanity.
by Daniel A. Siedell
March/April 2001

Transport me. Please.
I want to stare at something amazing, something that pulls me beyond myself.
by Eric Metaxas
March/April 2001

Swinging Before the Sixties
The revival of swing dancing and the rebirth of grown-up culture. A Web Exclusive.
by Nathaniel Taylor
February 14, 2001

Postmodern Hamlet
Can Shakespeare survive the dissolution of the self?
by Debra Rienstra
January/February 2001

The Soul of Duke
The surprisingly Christian roots of Duke Ellington's jazz. A Web Exclusive.
by William Edgar
January 17, 2001

Evangelical Psychopath
We're used to seeing born-again Christians portrayed as hypocritical, sex-crazed maniacs whose holy talk conceals deeds of darkness. Craig Lucas's new play, Stranger, seems to be heading along that well-worn path—but then it takes an unexpected twist.
by Lauren Winner
November 8, 2000

Yolking with Postmodernism
Where is postmodern culture headed? Two recent films, Chicken Run and The X-Men, suggest a neo-Romantic turn. A Web Exclusive.
by Crystal Downing
October 11, 2000

Ambiguous Liturgy
Rock music as religious experience.
Flowers In the Dustbin: The Rise Of Rock & Roll, 1947-1977 by James Miller
by Tom Beaudoin
September/October 2000

The What-If Game
Movies that fiddle with the arrow of time
by Peter T. Chattaway
July/August 2000

Playing the Postmodern Field
Any Given Sunday
by Crystal Downing
May/June 2000

The Lost Art of Attentive Viewing
Painting the Word: Christian Paintings and Their Meanings by John Drury
by E. John Walford
May/June 2000

Jesus at the Movies
"In Jesus of Montreal, Denys Arcand's witty satire about a group of actors who put on a revisionist Passion play, the church sponsoring the play sends in some security guards to call off the production in mid-performance. The actors have tinkered with the Gospels too much; their reconstruction of the historical Jesus challenges church tradition at nearly every point, so out it must go Â… "
by Peter T. Chattaway
March/April 2000

He Was in the Arts, You Know
A tribute to sculptor Joseph O'Connell.
by Garrison Keillor
March/April 2000

The Self-Deception of Mr. Death
Errol Morris's new film Mr. Death peers into the mind of a Holocaust denier.
by Peter T. Chattaway
January/February 2000

Random Jottings Found on the Back of a Movie Poster Â…
Random Jottings Found on the Back of a Movie Poster Announcing the Opening of Friday the Thirteenth, Part XXIII, Transcribed on the Night of the Last Lunar Eclipse
by Albert Haley
November/December 1999

Richard Rorty for the Silver Screen
Waking Ned Devine as apologetic for postmodernism.
by Crystal Downing
September/October 1999

Devil in a Blue Dress
Bourgeois life is about winning; the blues are about losing. Bourgeois life is innocence; the blues are experience.
by Gerald Early
September/October 1999

Maximal Minimist
Arvo Pärt converted to Russian Orthodoxy and brought depth to his music.
by William Edgar
September/October 1999

John Donne meets The Runaway Bunny
Margaret Edson is equally at home in kindergarten and on Broadway.
by Betty Carter
September/October 1999

An Interview with Margaret Edson
Q & A session with Margaret Edson
Interview by Betty Carter
September/October 1999

Liberated by Reality
The Matrix
by Tony Jones
September/October 1999

Deliver Us From Evil
The films of Paul Schrader show that he got the most important part of his Calvinist upbringing right.
by Roy Anker
July/August 1999

Saigon Stories
Looking for family values? Try postwar Vietnam.
by Greg Metzger
May/June 1999

Spielberg's List
Five Holocaust survivors tell the camera the bitter truth.
by Stefan Ulstein
March/April 1999

Weird Sisters
Not accepting yourself is the original sin in these media tales of witchcraft.
by Margaret Kim Peterson
March/April 1999

Myth America
Pleasantville's full of conservative bigots intent on keeping their women from book-learning and orgasms.
by Eric Metaxas
January/February 1999

My Favorite Flicks
Earlier this year the American Film Institute made headlines with a list of the 100 best American films. We asked regular reviewers Roy Anker and Peter Chattaway to give us a modest counterpart: their 10 favorite films.
by Roy Anker and Peter T. Chattaway
November/December 1998

Prodigal Grandma
We moderns like our heroes cut down to size. Especially we demand that Christian faith, which is nothing if not the heroic writ large, must be portrayed warts and all.
by Eric Metaxas
November/December 1998

The Saxophonist Who Would Be a Saint
John Coltrane: His Life and Music by Lewis Porter
by Rodney Clapp
September/October 1998

Amnesiacs Anonymous
Aliens seek to hijack human immortality.
by Peter T. Chattaway
July/August 1998

Pinocchio on the Damascus Road
It's not so easy getting over woodenness.
by Vigen Guroian
May/June 1998

It Ain't Me, Babe
Bob Dylan, reluctant prophet.
by Alan Jacobs
May/June 1998

Sci-Fi's Biofascism
"Science fiction movies serve as directional indicators for the winds of the zeitgeist. In the 1950s we were served up cautionary tales about the misuse of science. We fooled with atomic energy and got gigantic spiders, a 50-foot woman, an Incredible Shrinking Man—and, of course, Godzilla."
by Stefan Ulstein
May/June 1998

Preacher Man
Robert Duvall's The Apostle goads not only secularists but conventional believers as well
by Roy Anker
May/June 1998

Amistad Gives African Americans Their Due
Abolitionists fare less well.
by Peter T. Chattaway
March/April 1998

The Ultimate Lawyer Joke
It's a bad omen when Rosemary's Baby meets The Firm
by Roy Anker
January/February 1998

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