Echoes and Moments

26 Martyrs of Nagasaki, Japan. When it comes to literature, as with any other art form, there come to mind a few standouts of the many books I've read over the past year or so. I've let Dostoyevsky take me through Raskolnikov's anguish in Crime and Punishment. I liked the book so much that I eagerly took up The Brothers Karamazov, drawn to the story of intertwining lives as Alyosha, Dmitri, and Ivan find themselves amidst the brokenness of their family and how it shaped their (quite different) worldviews. Then there are the sci-fi greats: Frank Herbert brought me to Arrakis and I watched Paul Atreides ride sandworms to overthrow the villanous Harkonnen dynasty that usurped his family's claim to the planet they all call Dune. I picked up Walter Miller Jr.'s A Canticle for Leibowitz, which let the realm of monastic life provide a terrifying lens through which we view an apocalyptic and fatalistic future. All of these books have left a mark, introducing me to cul...

2015 is shaping up to be a good year for music. Already we've had immense and game-changing releases from the likes of Kendrick Lamar, Sufjan Stevens, My Morning Jacket, Tame Impala, and Wilco. This year we can expect our horizons to be further expanded by Foals, St. Vincent, and (as I go into giddy fan mode), Radiohead. It's easy in the midst of this to forget that there is a good deal of art out there that recognizes the intensely spiritual side of our human journey. Lamar and Stevens' latest efforts are obvious choices for those artists not being played in church settings (although they arguably could). But more on that later. My concern is to look back through the realm of contemporary sacred music from across traditions to see just how our Christian faith shapes our expressions today. Unfortunately, much of the landscape is bleak. I've had my issues with the label "Christian" as applied to music, and I would agree with Michael Gungor that applying ...

Landscape near Tucson, Arizona. This summer I've been busy, and it's finally caught up to me. Between my last post  and today Fresno's climate has increased from "tolerably warm" to "oppressively broiling," several summer blockbusters have been released to either box-office records or critical acclaim , (guess which one I preferred), and the nation reels in the wake of yet another terrorist massacre at the hands of a gun-wielding white supremacist. On one of my trips midway through June, I listened to eyewitness reports on public radio and nearly had to pull my car over because I was crying so bitterly. Through the hours of the night and the early morning rays of the sun my prayers rise with so many around the world, both in my neighborhood and abroad. Though my privilege and education insulate me from many of my brothers and sisters who experience suffering daily, I stand in solidarity with them, as I've chosen a journey that puts me in int...