Cultivating the Christian Imagination

Over this last week, I sat down and watched Steven Spielberg's classic and highly acclaimed film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, starring Richard Dreyfuss. This was the first time I had seen it. It's currently on Netflix until 2/1/19. In short, the film intrigued, impressed, and disturbed me. Please note this reflection contains spoilers. >> A FILM TO BE COPIED While the story was a slow-burn, Spielberg offered his usual dose of suspense mixed in with some genuinely terr

"Mom, I know your intentions are good, but your request for me to go to bed invoked the fallacy of faulty appeal to authority." You may have heard the joke that a little knowledge can create a monster. I used to teach middle schoolers how to see fallacies (errors in logic) in advertisements, comics, and everyday conversations. As seen in the quote above, I'd often have to warn the parents and apologize to them in advance that their children may start correcting them in monstr

I've enjoyed a number of the Marvel films released lately, and because of that (and a host of villains looming on the horizon), I'm intrigued by the idea of an origin story, especially the point of crisis. This event ultimately shapes the hero's passions, values, mission catapulting him or her on a journey, whether the hero likes it or not. Here is my origin story. I hope it encourages you. I can look at my story from a number of different angles, but I'm presenting just one