(The Year is a series of occasional reflections on the Sundays and Holy Days of the church calendar, featuring scripture readings from the Revised Common Lectionary.) Readings: Daniel 7:9-14 | Psalm 93 | Revelation 1:4b-8 | John 18:33-37 To him was given dominion and glory and kingship,that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.His dominion is an…
Category: Literature
I Am Scout
A good friend and I were talking recently about Go Set A Watchman, Harper Lee’s book set twenty years after the events of To Kill A Mockingbird. Written two years before its celebrated prequel and yet published over fifty years afterward, the questionable circumstances of its publication has immersed Watchman in controversy, but perhaps not…
The Artist-Pastor Identity Crisis, Part 2
I was talking with a coworker recently. An English major when he was in college who loves writing stories and reading Dostoevsky, he is now studying at the seminary in order to hopefully plant a church overseas someday. We spoke of stories we liked and environments that seemed to inspire us, like gothic buildings and…
Why I’m Writing on Horror
In many ways, I realize my work-in-progress is written to that fifteen year-old me… I want to show him that the pictures of the gospel he is seeing in the books he is reading and in the movies he is watching are really there.
The Artist-Pastor Identity Crisis
I’m beginning to think that if I don’t have an identity crisis at least once a month, I’m simply not taking in enough good art.
What I Miss About School
I realized earlier today one basic source of my current writer’s block… I miss the sometimes exciting structure and environment of being in school.
Review: The Woman in Black
Hammer Films produced many of the very best gothic horror films in the 1950s and 1960s. After its resurrection just a few years ago, Hammer now seems set to continue its tradition onward if The Woman in Black is any indicator.
Musings While Writing on Horror
I’ve almost considered writing a book about my experiences and thoughts while writing my book…
Great Books
People occasionally ask me what they should read when they start reading literature again as an adult. Below are 35 volumes, most (though not quite all) of which are on many so-called “Great Books” listings (defined roughly as inexhaustible classics worthy of much enjoyment and study) which have been of great impact and pleasure in…
Your Halloween Favorites
Everyone has favorite traditions for each holiday… What are your favorite movies, TV specials, music, and literature to enjoy in the days and weeks before Halloween and why?
