Narnia, Lilith, and Banjos

I saw Lester Flatt, of Flatt & Scruggs/Foggy Mountain Breakdown/Beverly Hillbillies fame, in 1976 when I was 12 years old, on television in southern California. The banjo in his band thrilled me, and Dad bought me a banjo when I was 13. I didn’t come out of my room until I was 21. Read More ›

Art Stories: Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks — How We Spend Our Days

I had a high school art teacher who wanted her students to do more than develop artistic skills. She wanted us to love the art that was already in the world. She continually put great art in front of our young eyes, and insisted that we not move on from it too quickly. Read More ›

Slow Church Discussion: Week 1.5

As we contemplate Slow Church, it seems appropriate that the natives are crying for slower reading. Over the past week, we’ve enjoyed rich conversation in the discussion forum, and folks have been generous with sharing their observations and personal stories. Read More ›

Reading for the Common Good – Author Event

At 7:00pm on Tuesday, July 12th, join us at the Art House in Nashville where we’ll host C. Christopher Smith (coauthor of Slow Church) and discuss his new book, Reading for the Common Good: How Books Help Our Churches and Neighborhoods Flourish. Read More ›

Album Review: Where the Light Gets In

Uncertainty. Shame. Identity. Jason Gray hasn’t shied away from exploring these themes in his music before, but in the song “Where We Go From Here” there’s a particularly tender image that’s hard to shake: Read More ›

Drawing the Line on Convenience

The new marketing tagline at Chick-fil-A read, “Lines are so last year.” It promoted Chick-fil-A One, which allows chicken-eaters to earn loyalty points to acquire free poultry. Also, in-app purchases allow customers to pay for their spicy fowl meat before entering the restaurant, Read More ›

New Music(al): The Unusual Tale of Mary & Joseph’s Baby

Sometimes the Christmas story almost sounds like the start of a joke, “A pregnant Jewish virgin and her husband knock on the door of an inn.” It seems crazy. That’s because it is. It’s a crazy story. So when New York City playwright, Read More ›

Art Stories: Norman Rockwell’s Girl at Mirror – They Called Him an Illustrator.

They called him an illustrator. Not an artist.

Norman Rockwell was a visual bard, an historian, and an observer. And he was prolific, producing more than 4,000 original works of art over the course of his life. Read More ›

Slow Church Discussion: Week One

Welcome to Rabbit Room Book Group. We’re so very glad that you’re here. Before we get started, some housekeeping: Read More ›

“Beauty is never necessary”: Alexander Schmemann’s For the Life of the World

“The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens,” wrote Chesterton, contrasting that poetical sanity with the craziness of the logician “who seeks to get the heavens into his head.” The poet gets a good view; the logician gets a splitting headache. Read More ›

In Praise of the Purposeless Ramble

Over the past few years, I’ve attempted to create space in my life for solitude and reflection by going for walks, often in one of the many nature preserves that surround the area I live in. But what I’ve noticed, especially in the busiest seasons, Read More ›

Review: Sing Street

A few nights ago, during dinner, I DJed an impromptu YouTube playlist of ‘80s music. Why? Someone mentioned St. Elmo’s Fire (the weather phenomenon, not the classic Brat Pack film). That’s all it took. Read More ›