C.S. Lewis: A Very Short Introduction by James Como

I've read at least five C.S. Lewis biographies over the last few years, plus several groups on the Inklings. Too often, books on Lewis are either very accessible but basic, or insightful but dense and hard to get into if you're not an academic. One of the books that does a great job of being …

Lifeviews / Making A Difference by R.C. Sproul

How do we view topics like economics, art, and politics from a Christian perspective? Pastors often try to answer that question, and if they're well-known someone will ask them to write a whole book on the topic. This sort of book can be a mixed bag. Length requirements mean the pastors have to summarize each …

The Artists Guide to Social Media Part 7

In this series, I look at easy pitfalls to fall into when using social media as an artist to promote one's work. Click here to read the first installment. Tip #7: Beware Becoming Inoffensive It's normal to worry about whether your art's making enough impact - how much money are you making, how many influencers …

Eccentric Artist: Ken Russell and the Problem of Maverick Christianity

Recently I've been reading a great blog series by the Anselm Society on "centric artists." In essence (and I highly recommend reading Brian Brown's introduction for the full concept), the series points out artistically-minded Christians shouldn't follow the "eccentric artist" ideal. Christianity claims people's talents are rooted in God and that people are called into …

The Artists Guide to Social Media Part 6

In this series, I look at easy pitfalls to fall into when using social media as an artist to promote one's work. Click here to read the first installment. Tip #6: Beware Trying to Be an Overnight Success When I graduated college, I felt like a failure. No one had told me that -- in …

A Great Satirical Short Story from Jeff Mach

I enjoy a a good parody of fantasy or sci-fi almost as much as I enjoy the genre itself. Recently I took part in a contest created by writer Jeff Mach (author of various funny short stories) to name the worst scifi/fantasy tropes so he could create stories based on each one. I read Robert …

The Artists Guide to Social Media Part 5

In this series, I look at easy pitfalls to fall into when using social media as an artist to promote one's work. Click here to read the first installment. Tip #5: Beware Echo Chambers We don't often think about the fact that the technology we start using changes our environment. Obviously, it changes what we …

Superheroes and Spies

Author's note: I originally wrote this piece for as an article for The Odyssey Online when I was writing weekly articles for that site. I never got around to publishing it there, but thought some readers may find the ideas interesting. Superhero movies and James Bond-style spy movies may not sound very similar at first. …