No. 20
CONTENTS
Editor's Note
Places in the Heart
Essays
Reflections on Contemporary Christian Art
As Occasioned by My Fall into Moral Criticism
Todd Gibson
A moralistic approach to criticism usually doesn't do justice to the work of art on which it's applied. But works of
art that exist primarily to assert a philosophical position limit critical engagement.
To Narnia Together
Travels from the Top Bunk
Jeffrey Johnson
The author reflects on his journeys with his oldest son into Narnia, the magical place which, C.S. Lewis said,
grew out of a mental picture of a faun carrying an umbrella and parcels across a snowy wood.
The Stained-Glass Delaware
Stephen J. Rippon
"No ideas but in things," the poet William Carlos Williams said. In this essay, Stephen Rippon relates how he
attempted to secure his memories of his home state by making a stained-glass image of Delaware. In the process,
he reflects on the difficulty of staying connected to places and people in these transient times.
Studies
Infinity Applied
Glimpses of God in the Numbers
John Noonan
"Mathematics is the alphabet with which God has written the universe," according to Galileo. Here, John
Noonan explains that as we discover new mathematical truth, we gain a greater understanding of the character
and mind of God.
Ass-Kicking for Jesus' Sake
Walker Percy's Vision of the Christian Artist
Mathew Woodley
How does the believer go about writing, "having cast his lot with a discredited Christendom and having inherited
a defunct vocabulary?" asked novelist Walker Percy. This study explores some of Percy's answers to his own
question.
The Mars Hill Interview
The Poetry of American Life
A Conversation with Robert Pinsky
Ilya Kaminsky and Katherine Towler
As Poet Laureate of the United States, Robert Pinsky launched the Favorite Poem Project and invited ordinary
Americans to send him their most beloved poems. Here, Pinsky speaks about poetry as a communal force, and
what he calls "the struggle and sprawl of spiritual reaching" in his writing.
Reminders of God
The Writing Life
Fiction
Sidestep is Mainstream
Thomas Allbaugh
The Trial
Mary Cameron Kilgour
Nonfiction
My Bones Are Vexed
Judy A. Johnson
Power and Grace
David Vanderveen
Poetry
Spiritual Exercises in a Cellar Bookstore
Brett Foster
The Refusal
Brett Foster
Dei Gratia
Brett Foster
Reconciled
Cleopatra Mathis
At the Lake That Was Once a Volcano
Anne Higgins
Tension
John Terpstra
At the Blue Mosque
Jennifer Horne
Zoom
Mark Gordon
Is Now
Todd Melicker
A Small Catechism
Jim Elledge
Views and Reviews
Music
Reviews:
Time*Sex*Love, Mary Chapin Carpenter
David W. Johnson
The Houston Kid, Rodney Crowell
David W. Johnson
Love and Theft, Bob Dylan
D. S. Martin
Shangri La Dee Da, Stone Temple Pilots
Dave Urbanski
Music Also Reviewed
David W. Johnson and Sarah Koops Vanderveen
Books
Essay:
Upon Loss of Light:
A Reflection on the Death of Eudora Welty
Margaret-Love Denman
Reviews:
Questions for Ecclesiastes, Mark Jarman
Marlene Muller
This Dark World: A Memoir
of Salvation Lost and Found, Carolyn S. Briggs
K. J. Gilchrist
Books Also Reviewed
Bill McGarvey and Kell Andrew Peterson
Film
Essay:
The Fellowship of the Ring: The Lord of the Rings
Liam Atchison
Reviews:
Metropolis
Jennifer Anderson
Black Hawk Down
Mark Metherell
Moulin Rouge
Susie Miller
Ghost Dog
Barret Fisher
Films Also Reviewed
Scott Emmert and Joey Earl Horstman
Risvolti
compiled by Susie Miller
Mars Hill Contributors
