Coming from a strong collection of fiercely contemplative, and overwhelmingly creative Christian individuals, Madeleine L’Engle has composed some of the richest pieces of fiction to ever grace the evangelical arsenal, though not exclusively.  Known mostly for her popular work “A Wrinkle in Time” L’Engle has survived the unfortunate categorizations of a “Christian Artist” by constructing truth-filled (but not always overt) compelling stories that reflect the nature of what is and what can be.  Her works ...

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Stephen King. The name makes people shiver. Not only because of his frightful ideas, but also because of the way he weaves the written word. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft was his first endeavor to write after his life-threatening accident. It showcases the best of his writing and his wisdom of a profession that he claimed as young man and has flourished in. The book covers a lot of ground. It gives insight into ...

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“One of the gifts of being a writer is that it gives you an excuse to do things, to go places and explore. Another is that writing motivates you to look closely at life, at life as it lurches by and tramps around.” To all who write or ever wanted to write, Bird by Bird by Ann Lamott carries its readers through the treacherous swamps of writing from beginning to end. Intended for an audience of ...

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In his interesting and counter-cultural work Habits of the High Tech Art, Quentin Schultze cautions readers of the moral implications of society being over-saturated in technology and media. While our natural reaction would be to resist even his position that there are actual moral implications to the technology we enjoy, Schultze’s work must not be thrown off too quickly as extremist nay-saying. In developing and defending his thesis, he states, “I hope that the careful ...

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 The Book      Amusing Ourselves to Death is a book that was written before it’s time. The book, written by Neil Postman, was published in 1984. As a communication theorist and educator Neil Postman has dedicated his career to the arts of communication. Before the popularity of the personal computer and before the creation of the internet Postman makes bold claims about the effects the advance of technology is having on America. I bought a personal ...

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In his book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman promotes his basic premise that the rise of television is diminishing the importance of public discourse in society. This famous media-in-culture critic (or rather, culture-in-media critic) may have written this compelling critique of a televised society in 1985, but his assertions still prove to be pertinent in modern society and sometimes have even further implications for culture today. What’s On the TV In support for Postman’s recognition that ...

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The Purpose Walking on Water is a book by Madeleine L’Engle. It is first and foremost a book for artists, by an artist. L’Engle passionately believes that all good art should be Christian art. What she means by this is not that all art should be created and produced by Christians for Christians. Rather, that all art should be seeking to find cosmos or the divine, in the chaos and dissonance of life (8, 49, 51, ...

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Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death is a revealing and thought-provoking book that should cause any reader immersed in Western culture to examine themselves in order to determine how the media has affected their life. The main thrust of Postman’s argument is twofold: (1) American culture has fully transitioned from a typographic, word-based culture to a image-based culture, and (2) the media, with the advent of television, has transfixed the minds of the American people ...

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Exposure Rory Noland in his work, The Heart of an Artist exposes what I find to be the greatest temptation for Christian artists.  Some of the most gifted and passionate of all of God’s creation is found in the artist.  Yet, along with this gifting comes the temptation to worship the creature rather than the Creator and believe that we are greater than Him and can receive His glory.  Noland’s personal experience as Worship Pastor at ...

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Imagine a world without gang violence, suicide, rape, drugs, broken homes. The concept of a world without these things sounds like a fairy tale. For a person living in such a situation it does not seem possible, it is the only life they know. They do not dream bigger dreams because they do not think it is possible to escape the life they have known for so many generations. But for J. Nathan Corbitt and ...

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Walking on water by Madeline L’Engle is a collection of thoughts on faith and art. L’Engle is an author of more than 50 books including the Newberry Winner, Wrinkle in Time. She was born in Manhattan on Nov. 29 1918; she died Sept. 6th 2007. By the age of 5 she had written her first book, and began to withdraw into her writing. She graduated from Smith College with a degree in English. Her works ...

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Steve Turner has worked as a poet and music journalist for over 30 years. Though from a Christian home in London, he studied at L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerland where his interest in categorizing (or more accurately, not categorizing) Christian art grew. His book Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts represents his biblically founded views of Christian artists. Throughout the book he posits that art itself is not Christian or non-Christian; rather, the difference ...

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Neil Postman was born March 8, 1931 in New York; he died October 5, 2003. After graduating from the State University of New York, he went on to obtain a masters degree and doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia. In addition to authoring over 200 articles and books, he founded a media ecology program at Steinhardt School of Education in 1971 (Saxon 1). Postman continually lectured and wrote on the effect of media upon culture, and ...

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“The essence of childhood is innocence. The essence of youth is awareness. The essence of adulthood is responsibility.”  Culture Making, written by Andy Crouch, is a book that awakens every reader, especially the Christian, to the realization that many people are living like children in adult bodies. Adults are more likely to be considered “culturally aware,” “culture consumers,” or even “culture critics,” than being classified as “culture makers.” We become childish by condemning, critiquing, copying and consuming culture. When we take ...

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