No. 15
CONTENTS
Essays
A Book of Hours
Gina Bria
It is the dawn of a new millennium, and the world seems to be spinning
faster and faster: we are frequently overwhelmed by the myriad
appointments, duties, and chores that life demands. This essay reflects
upon the traditional eight "moments" of contemplation during the daily
life of medieval religious orders, and how we might return to them as
touchstones of sanity and recollection.
The Gift of the Black Muse
How the Harlem Renaissance Changed the Century
Jo Kadlecek
In the 1920s, Harlem was the cultural and spiritual heart of New York
City. Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Langston Hughes, and Zora Neale
Hurston -- among the greatest artists America has yet produced -- all lived
within a few blocks of one another. The writer, a resident of Harlem,
describes the vitality of those times, when, as one saying went, "I'd
rather be a lamppost in Harlem than Governor of Georgia."
Hospice
A Counterrevolution
Rebecca Spencer McCurdy
In the world of corporate healthcare and HMOs the quality of life of the
terminal patient has generally been lost in the shuffle. A primary tenet
of hospice is that life is precious, regardless of how much or how
little of it remains. This essay, a poignant account of a hospice worker
and gifted writer, brings death out of the clinical realm and back into
the heart of the family.
Last Night
A Meditation on Invisible Man
Caroline Langston
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man, considered by many to be the book of the
20th Century, has had a profound impact upon American thought. In
Caroline Langston's thoughtful essay, the protagonist in Ellison's
"quintessentially urban novel" is found to be wrought with the same
terrors and longings that have informed race relations throughout our
history.
Studies
Honey, I Woke Up in a Different Universe!
Confessions of a Postmodern Pastor
Brian McLaren
In the past few decades, there has been a subtle but very real shift in
the way society has viewed truth. We have -- especially those under age
thirty -- begun to think less in terms of a secular/scientific universe,
and more in terms of a spiritual/aesthetic universe. Noted author and
lecturer Brian McLaren discusses the split between Enlightenment
objectivity and postmodern inter-subjectivity in our approaches to the
Bible.
Love Language Lost
Martin Heidegger and the Fall of Language
Don Hudson
Heidegger's main preoccupations were language and being. He taught that
the text does not merely stand over us and provide all of the answers,
but rather provides a living discourse which constantly evolves into
deeper levels of interaction. This study outlines the history of "the
triumph and tragedy of language," from the Greeks through Heidegger.
Remembering the Bomb
Hiroshima, Enola Gay, and the Culture Wars
Harold K. Bush, Jr.
John Hersey's 1946 book, Hiroshima, began the American public's long
period of reappraisal of the use of the atomic bomb in World War II.
This study analyzes opinions about the bomb during and after the war,
culminating in accounts of the Smithsonian's Enola Gay exhibition in
1995.
The Mars Hill Interview
Technology and the Search for Meaning
A Conversation with Sven Birkerts
Katherine Kellogg Towler and Stuart C. Hancock
In The Gutenberg Elegies, essayist Sven Birkerts detailed the ways in
which technology and mass media have led us to a divided reality. Our
"buried life" -- the life of the soul and the mind -- has often been
supplanted by mere functionality. In this engaging conversation,
Birkerts discusses some of the fundamental questions of existence, and
the possibility of living with a deeper awareness of our surroundings.
Reminders of God
The Writing Life
Fiction
Age, Signs, and Wonders
Christine van Belle
Nonfiction
Mouse
Beth Passaro
Poetry
Contrition
Elaine Sexton
Where Do We Start
Hildred Crill
Mother and Son
Jennifer Wallace
For Love of Logic
Erin Elizabeth Tremblay
The Junior Choir at Wake Chapel
Lenard D. Moore
The Women of Piney Green
Lenard D. Moore
Views and Reviews
Music
Essay: "If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day"
The Conflicted Soul of Robert Johnson
Dave Urbanski
Reviews:
Trad Arr Jones, John Wesley Harding
James Sparrell
The Fragile, Nine Inch Nails
Dave Urbanski
Music Also Reviewed
James Sparrell
Books
Essays:
Attending Virginia Woolf
Lessons for the Church from a Writer's Life and Work
Sheryl Cornett
Much Ado about Harry
J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter Series
Michael Wenberg
Reviews:
Juneteenth, Ralph Ellison
David W. Frauenfelder
Rose's Garden, and Lamb in Love, Carrie Brown
Sheryl Cornett
Race Manners: Navigating the Minefield between Black and
White Americans, Bruce A. Jacobs
David W. Frauenfelder
Books Also Reviewed
Sheryl Cornett
Film
Essays:
Kubrick & Eye
Barrett Fisher
Love in the Ruins
Redemption and Relationship in Kieslowski's
Three Colours trilogy and Sverak's Kolya
Rachel Hostetter Smith
Films Also Reviewed
Scott Emmert and Joey Earl Horstman
Risvolti
Timeless graffiti from the broad canvas.
Compiled by James Vescovi and Stuart C. Hancock
Mars Hill Contributors
