A Thinking Reed

  • Friday Metal: Sinister Realm, “Winds of Vengeance”

    File under “neo-traditional.” Nice to hear some of these recent metal acts with actual singing! A refreshing change from the now-cliched “extreme” vocals.

  • God and the White Whale

    Brandon points to this interesting piece by Reformed theologian R.C. Sproul on Moby-Dick, which Sproul correctly notes is the greatest American novel. Sproul argues for a Christian reading of Melville’s work–seeing Ahab as man in rebellion against God (symbolized by the White Whale). Melville experts and scholars come to different conclusions about the meaning of…

  • A worry about open Communion

    I don’t have really strong feelings one way or the other about “open” Communion–i.e., communing the non-baptized. I can see arguments both for and against it. But I do have some questions about how I’ve seen it put into practice. At several churches I’ve been to that practice open Communion, there is little or no…

  • Friday Metal: Iron Maiden, “Number of the Beast”

    From Rock in Rio:

  • Elvis 101

    The AV Club has a great primer on the music of Elvis Presley, presumably in honor of the anniversary of his death this week. You may wonder why arguably the most famous pop/rock star in history needs an introduction, but the article hits the nail on the head, I think: While Presley’s fame continues unabated,…

  • Reading the Bible after supersessionism

    I’ve started reading R. Kendall Soulen’s The God of Israel and Christian Theology, which is an attempt to rethink the foundational narrative of Christianity within a “post-supersessionist” context. Christian theology has traditionally held that the church replaces Israel in God’s covenant. However, the realization, post-Holocaust, of how Christian theology has contributed to anti-Semitism and the…

  • NPR’s SF and fantasy top 100

    NPR did a listener survey on the best science fiction and fantasy books and posted a list of the top 100. The ones I’ve read are in bold. At a glance, the list seems a little bit too weighted toward more recent stuff. Anything else on here anyone would particularly recommend? 1. The Lord Of…

  • Friday Metal: King’s X, “Sometimes”

    The King’s X obsession continues. This is from their first album, Out of the Silent Planet (note the C.S. Lewis reference).

  • The Christian politics of Mark O. Hatfield

    Former senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon passed away this week at the age of 89. He was one of the last of the liberal Republicans–someone who bucked his party on many issues. But Hatfield wasn’t simply a liberal Republican in the Nelson Rockefeller mold. He was a devout evangelical Christian, a virtual pacifist, and a…

  • Is “Christocentrism” the proper alternative to “biblicism”?

    I’m against “biblicism” if by that we mean treating each and every passage of the Bible as equally inspired and authoritative. However, I’m not sure a “Christocentric” reading is a viable alternative if it means this: The Bible is about Jesus Christ, and the only way to read the Bible is read it from beginning…