Shortly after I posted my review of Mark Driscoll’s Real Marriage, which failed as a book on marriage, many sympathetic to Driscoll told me to get the forthcoming The Meaning of Marriage by Tim Keller. Tim is the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church on the island of Manhattan. He’s also a New Calvinist and a […]
Author: JR. Forasteros
JR. lives in Dallas, TX with his wife Amanda. In addition to exploring the wonders that are the Lone Star state, JR. is the teaching pastor at Catalyst Community Church, a writer and blogger. His book, Empathy for the Devil, is available from InterVarsity Press. He's haunted by the Batman, who is in turn haunted by the myth of redemptive violence.
Have you noticed how much sitcoms have changed? The earliest sitcoms were nearly all about marriage, from Leave it to Beaver to Father Knows Best to I Love Lucy. For every Mary Tyler Moore Show, M*A*S*H*, or Cheers, you had dozens of Growing Pains and Family Matters and Step by Step and Fresh Prince. As […]
Marriage Confidential by Pamela Haag is one of the most thought-provoking and insightful books I’ve read in a long time. It deserves more than a single review, and I plan to interact with Pamela’s ideas in much more depth later this year. But I couldn’t spend a whole month talking about marriage and not include […]
This review was originally featured at RELEVANT Magazine. Click here to read it! I’ve got a confession for you: I’m a pretty cynical person. I know. You’re shocked, right? Big surprise these days, when skepticism is the norm. We’ve seen it all (on YouTube, at least). Nothing catches us off guard anymore. If you get […]
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Summer 2012 Blockbusters
This summer was one of the most anticipated in movie history, thanks largely to The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises. But quite a few other blockbusters debuted this summer. Here’s my take on each of the films, along with links to my original reviews, if I did one. These are only the big-budget blockbuster […]
Is it ever appropriate for Christians to kill in the name of Jesus? Church history has a long tradition of debating this, with everyone agreeing that mostly the answer is No. We diverge at the question of war: many Christians ascribe to some version of Augustine’s Just War theory, which claims that under some circumstances, […]
Maybe it’s time we all quit trying to outsmart the truth and let it have it’s day. — Alfred In Act I (Batman Begins), we meet a Gotham overcome by corruption. The city rots, and crime runs rampant. The few good Gothamites are to afraid of organized crime to make a stand. This fear takes […]
This town deserves a better class of criminal. — The Joker The Dark Knight is Nolan’s second act in a masterful classic three-act story structure. Building on what Act I established, Act II brings the conflict into the open. The main character tries to solve the problem, only to find his situation worsening. He learns […]
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Act I – The Setup: Batman Begins
If you make yourself more than just a man, if you devote yourself to an ideal, and if they can’t stop you, then you become something else entirely… A legend, Mr. Wayne. — Ras al Guhl By now it’s undeniable that Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy joins the elite ranks of masterpiece cinematic trilogies. Why? What […]
One of the more common criticisms of The Dark Knight Rises revolves around the apparent ease with which Detective John Blake discerns that Bruce Wayne is Batman. Those defending the film point most often to Robin #3, Tim Drake, who in the comics figures out that Bruce is the Batman and more-or-less argues his way […]