Tag: story
Reflections on Fatherhood From 'The Road'
After reading a passage from The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, in a sermon, someone came up to me afterwards and said, ‘I couldn’t put that book down.’ But before you...
Doodle: J. K. Rowling, Ideologies, and Make-Believe
Around the turn of the year, J. K. Rowling was once again the object of ire on social media. This most recent backlash came after she took to X—formerly known...
How to Become a Better Reader
Last week Gavin Ortlund released a superb video on how to become better readers, with five strategies for reading more. Crucially he starts by saying, “There’s no real shortcuts to...
Stories Are for So Much More Than Escapism
If anyone is willing to sponsor it, I’ll embark on a PhD in literature tomorrow. My question: when did we start treating literature as escapism? This question obviously applies to...
Biblical Narratives: Some Comments on Structure, Themes, and Sermons
Towards the end of last year I wrote an article arguing that most biblical narratives don’t have a main point. I was grateful to those readers who raised questions and...
Marilynne Robinson's Model Fathers
I’ve made a point of not crying in public. Perhaps my masculinity is too fragile. Maybe I’ve wrongly associated tears with weakness. Either way, this commitment recently made for an...
Most Biblical Narratives Don't Have a Main Point
Ifemelu is sitting in a salon, having extensions braided into her hair when another customer notices that she’s is reading. The other customer innocently asks: what’s the book about? Annoyed—mostly...
Is Reading Fiction a Waste of Time?
Despite growing up before the advent of smartphones, streaming services, and YouTube, I read essentially no fiction until my early 20s. Sadly, this wasn’t because I was more invested in,...
The Power of Story to Form Community: Reading Together
Last year I formed a reading group that meets on Zoom to discuss literature. Initially our plan was to read Lord Of The Rings through hard lockdown. But towards the...
Prince Caspian: Conflicting Stories
Similarly to The Horse and His Boy, in Prince Caspian we see the uncertain tension of life between Aslan’s victorious death and his decisive defeat of evil in the future, The...
Risks in Reading for the Art of Biblical Narrative
Graham has recently written a couple of posts (here and here) on Alter's seminal work, "The Art of Biblical Narrative". The "New Literary Criticism" movement is not new any more...
