Category Archives: Arts and Culture

“I, Charles Darwin: Being the Journal of His Visitation in the Year 2009″

Book Review I, Charles Darwin: Being the Journal of His Visitation to Earth in the Year 2009 by Nickell John Romjue. Through the intensest of inquiries—for my eye is as bright now as it was aboard the Beagle—I have observed many things. Thus speaks Charles Darwin at the close of his re-visitation to earth in …

February 2, 2012 – 12:32 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Arts and Culture, Origins and Science | Tagged , , | Comments (8)

“Engage the Culture, Pastor, If You Dare: Part 1 of 3″

The easiest approach is to remain aloof from the culture and condemn it. [From Engage the Culture, Pastor, If You Dare: Part 1 of 3] The easiest approach is rarely the right approach.

January 23, 2012 – 9:24 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Arts and Culture, Thinking Christianly, Worth Reading | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Listen! You’ll Hear It! (Reductionism Fails)

There is a school of thought that says physics is the ultimate reality; that everything reduces to subatomic particles mindlessly subject to natural law. The story is told—I don’t remember where I heard it—of two young women sitting in the front row of a concert hall, holding the score for the music the orchestra was …

January 13, 2012 – 10:40 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Arts and Culture, New Atheism, Origins and Science | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

“So You Would Give Me Joy? Then I Refuse”

From Holly Ordway, a sonnet on hell, beginning: Hell is not too small a space for me. You offer more, but I won’t pay the cost. I have what’s mine for all eternity: I have myself, whatever else I’ve lost. So you would give me joy? Then I refuse… [From The Problem of Pain Sonnet …

November 16, 2011 – 8:39 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Arts and Culture, The Faith, Worldviews, Worth Reading | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (2)

Check Out Next Month In Salvo

This Salvo magazine link is an invitation to contribute funds, but check out the upcoming issue’s cover articles. Maybe you’ll want to subscribe.

November 16, 2011 – 6:49 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Arts and Culture, Origins and Science | Tagged | Comments (0)

Books in Review: The Truth of the Soul of the Modern World

Dual Book Review The Book that Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization by Vishal Mangalwadi Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies by David Bentley Hart     One of the New Atheists’ more childish conceits is that of secularism’s moral superiority over all that has come …

September 20, 2011 – 6:00 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Arts and Culture, Religions, The Faith | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (3)

Video Review: Metamorphosis

Video Review I have to be realistic and expect that when I link to the purchase page for Illustra Media’s new film, Metamorphosis: The Beauty & Design of Butterflies, you’re going to find the trailer there and you’re going to want to watch it. I hope that if you do that, you’ll stop the playback …

September 17, 2011 – 10:32 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Arts and Culture, Origins and Science | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (12)

Summer Reading Wrap-Up

It’s been a great summer for reading. Watch for reviews to come (I’ll update here with links when I add the reviews). Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand (Review) The Book that Made Your World: How the Bible Created the Soul of Western Civilization by Vishal Mangalwadi …

August 21, 2011 – 2:05 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Arts and Culture, The Faith, Thinking Christianly | Comments (3)

Chesterton: “Nimble as a Hummingbird”

On one of the most under-read, under-appreciated authors—especially among evangelicals—of the last hundred or so years: Though physically awkward, intellectually Chesterton was as nimble as a hummingbird. His writing became famous for its use of paradox: little controlled explosions that ranged from everyday clichés (“travel narrows the mind”) to the perils of the suffragette movement: …

May 24, 2011 – 11:31 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Arts and Culture | Comments (2)

The Comfort of Keeping the Supernatural Unreal

I’m re-reading Perelandra, where I’ve just run across an interesting insight into C.S. Lewis’s way of thinking. Turns out there’s a long excerpt available online, which includes the part that interested me. “Eldila” (plural of “eldil”) are something like angels in this fictional trilogy. The narrator is walking to visit his friend Ransom, who in …

May 6, 2011 – 7:33 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Arts and Culture | Comments (1)