How should we die? I think it was one of the Wesleys who noted that Christians are the ones who die well. I hope this is still true, but just how to do so can be a challenging question in an affluent nation with a Byzantine health care system. To help cut through the noise, reduce the fear, and manage the physical and emotional pain, Dr. Pamela Pyle has drawn on her years as a physician and written the excellent... Read more
As we continue to think about what the future holds for media, I think it’s worth asking what streaming is going to look like. (We’ll get to non-streaming as well; did you remember that theaters still exist–as does broadcast television?) We’re in the middle of a streaming war right now that nobody seems able to win–though Netflix is clearly ahead of the rest. Still, we all know that Hulu, Prime, Peacock, HBO, and Paramount+ are options (among many others). So... Read more
Continuing the not-necessarily-for-everyone exercise of reading through the Schaff set of Church Fathers (if my count is right, I should be done with this in only one more decade, give or take). My latest conquest here is Volume 3 of Series 2, containing the writings of Theodoret, Jerome, Gennadius, and Rufinus (mostly Theodoret, Rufinius, and Jerome). Frankly, it was excellent. Oh, don’t get me wrong. It had all the challenges of reading the 19th century translations of the church fathers.... Read more
As the media landscape changes, one thing that is already underway is the rise of the microbudget films. No, I don’t mean the ones that are funded on Indiegogo or Patreon or whatever (though those certainly exist as well, and are filling up platforms like Tubi). I mean bigger budget than the $30,000 raises through crowdsourcing, but far, far under the $100 million range small-scale blockbusters put to work. Specifically, we should expect to see the return of the $10-$50... Read more
The landscape of film–both television and the movies–has been changing in the past twenty years. More and more money has been poured into shows and movies by production companies. This saw impressive results for a while (think of the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe–at least until Endgame hit the theaters), but has more and more often resulted in diminishing returns or even outright losses in the past five years. Consider as just one example the film Chaos Walking, which you almost... Read more
It’s been a quiet few months at Schaeffer’s Ghost thanks to some chaos IRL (mostly not mine, thankfully). This will continue for a bit longer, and then Lord willing we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled reviewing. But in the spirit of Christmas past, I wanted to offer a list of the best of 2024, As in the past, these are the best books I read. Not the best books anyone could have read, or the best books that were published.... Read more
With the nomination of J.D. Vance as Donald Trump’s running mate, I thought it worthwhile to repost a conversation about Vance’s excellent book Hillbilly Elegy held seven years ago on the City of Man podcast. The conversation starts about seven minutes in (after an announcement for a conference that happened seven years ago, which if I were less lazy I’d go back and clip out, and introductions of other podcasts, most of which are now defunct). Available in the player below, here, or... Read more
9Marks has been slowly releasing a series of pamphlets in the “Church Questions” series. Each short book aims to answer in a few pages key questions about the life and theology of the church. The two I received for review are both short enough that I’m going to cover them together in one review rather than posting two reviews, each of which would run the risk of being longer than the text in question… The first is How Can I Grow... Read more
Does God judge the earth? What does that judgment look like? Is it a fleeting-but-still-terrible thing? Or long-running-but-not-so-bad (the proverbial drinking beer with friends in hell)? Thomas Schreiner has tackled these and other questions in his new short book The Justice & Goodness of God: A Biblical Case for the Final Judgement. In just over a hundred pages, Schreiner walks us through what the Bible has to say about the final judgment and how it squares with God’s good character. This... Read more
Have you ever read the parable of the prodigal son and thought “they should rewrite this for kids.” For kids, yes, but that’s been done. Charlie and the Preschool Prodigal by Ginger Blomberg is the telling of the tale about the brothers of the tale as children. The plot is pretty straightforward (and I won’t spoil much of it here, though can one really spoil a children’s book based on a story everyone knows?). Eddie is the mess/wild kid, Charlie is the clean/orderly... Read more
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