Upon reading Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, one is immediately struck by the entertainment necessitated culture in which we exist. Neil Postman wrote Amusing Ourselves to Death in 1985, yet its prolific themes make it exceptionally applicable today. Postman begins his book by explaining the media as epistemology and what typographic America looked like prior to the age of the television. In the second part of his book, ...
Delroy Martin Jr. Book Review Letters To A Young Poet By Rainer Maria Rilke Letters to A Young Poet are received in its purest form a one man lends his very own words from experience to another young man who is seeking life guidance. Franz Kappus, has come to discover that he directly relates to someone who over two decades ago was in the same circumstance; alone and unsure. Rilke, over the course of five years, responds and addresses ...
The Christian artist in the church could play a big roll in ones life, sometimes even more than a pastor himself. Artistic expression of images, videos, songs, creative design of the website, church building and its decorations could draw people near to God or sometimes away from Him if not used wisely. In his book, “Visual Faith,” William A Dyrness challenges the readers to see how arts were imbedded in the church throughout history and ...
Christians are the priesthood of believers, yes (1 Peter 2:9). But professors Robert H. Woods Jr. and Paul D. Patton, in their book Prophetically Incorrect, argue that we must also be small-p prophets in the way we interact with media. As prophets, not all of us will be called to roam naked for three years (as Isaiah did) or cook food over fecal matter (as Ezekiel did). But, as prophets, we will be called to ...
There has never been a lack of biblical resources at Moody bible institute. I can go down to the library and look up any subject that I desire. Finding exegetical material for my papers and personal fulfillment are never an issue, and God’s grace, I have been able to comprehend the literature that I have been given. I knew early in my walk as a believer that God allowed me to understand his word at ...
Written in nineteen eighty-five, Neil Postman’s book Amusing, Ourselves to Death. delves into the concepts of public discourse in a time when Postman believed television was taking precedence over the print Media. Postman based his arguments on Aldous Huxley’s idea that, “what we love will ruin us” leading him to state that, “Our politics, religion, news, athletics, education and commerce have been transformed into congenial adjuncts of show business, largely with out protest or even ...
Culture is ever evolving. Old things make way for the new and technology is the fuel that makes it possible. This technology creates media. Whether this is a good or a bad thing, media and culture is always changing and always effects and influences what is around it. In Neil Postman’s book Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, the switch of American culture in the 20th century from the ...
Ruskin John Ruskin was a man of the British Empire, in the height of her glory. Not just any man but a renaissance man of the Victorian era. From teaching art at Oxford to building his own Utopian philosophy, lecturing at architecture schools to wrestling with religion, Ruskin was thinker commended by Tolstoy and Gandhi alike. First of all, Ruskin looks at art as the search for truth and communication of that truth, reminiscent of Newton’s approach to science. At ...
In Walking on Water, Madeleine L’Engle, a popular young adult fiction author discusses the roles that the various arts can play in the Christian life. As she examines the unique possibilities of the ways that the arts can further one’s relationship with God, she adds various examples from her own life as well as the thoughts of various well known thinkers and artists. As the author journeys through the discussion of the place of art ...
Well-known journalist, Malcolm Gladwell wrote The Tipping Point as an attempt to explain why some ideas suddenly take off and succeed in society while others do not. His tag line for the book is “how little things can make a big difference”, and this theme is developed throughout. He uses case studies from recent history to develop a formula of success for products in the marketplace, ideas and thought-patterns. The Law of the Few The first premise ...
“In America, we are never denied the opportunity to amuse ourselves” (Postman p. 141). When Neil Postman wrote Amusing Ourselves to Death, these words were perfectly accurate. That was before the age of the internet, before smartphones, laptops, and wireless connectivity. Throughout the text of his book, Postman makes it abundantly clear that it is not simply amusement as a negative cultural tendency that he is proposing. It is, rather, the fact that amusement has ...
Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts by Steve Turner An experienced journalist and poet, Steve Turner holds first hand knowledge regarding what it looks like for a Christian to be in the secular arts. Being a writer for a magazine interviewing musicians such as John Lennon, Elton John, and Eric Clapton, he has seen all sides of both Christian and secular art and media. Turner seeks to open wide the doors of opportunity for ...
Calvin DeWitt is an acclaimed author, and environmental scientist. He is most well known for having been responsible, in large part, for increased awareness of the importance of environmental stewardship within the Christian community. Through his most recent book, Song of a Scientist: The Harmony of a God-Soaked Creation, DeWitt celebrates the splendors of God’s creation that have been entrusted to us. Through this book he demonstrates the biblical response to the witnessing of God’s ...
There’s a point when something “gets big.” Like an explosion, cultural trends have a tendency to detonate and are quickly adopted by the masses. Whether it’s that one song every radio station never seems to turn off, the latest viral YouTube video gaining two million views overnight, a high-fashion trend of the season, or a sudden shift in behavior in a community, when something takes over society by storm, chances are there was a point ...