Posts Tagged ‘evil’

Last year we as a faculty at Cair Paravel Latin School had the enriching pleasure of reading and discussing “The Light Princess,” “The Golden Key” and The Princess and the Goblin, three delightfully profound fairy tales by George MacDonald.  The experience led me to take another whack at MacDonald’s Phantastes, and I’m mostly glad that I did. Read the rest of this entry »

            The universally bad reviews of the movie I Frankenstein, which I have not seen, reminded me of the retelling of the Frankenstein story by Dean Koontz.  Although Koontz’s pulp fiction style is not Tolstoy, the series is a thoughtful and devastating critique of modern materialism.  It is also fun to read. Read the rest of this entry »

            The strong, visceral horror at the slaughter of little children in Newtown, Connecticut is universally felt in America.  This natural human reaction has led to serious questions about gun control, mental health and security.  Without a doubt these concerns are justifiable, but they fail to address a fundamental question: What is it about modern society that has produced a series of these types of mass murders that are unprecedented in human history? Read the rest of this entry »

            When things go wrong in society, the finger of blame is regularly and understandably pointed at the “crooked politicians.”  Corruption in high places does plague human societies, but it is not the main problem.  Psalm 146 clearly teaches that there is a more fundamental and tragic reason for political failure. Read the rest of this entry »

            A good way to evaluate Harry Potter is to compare it to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Taking into account the facts that Tolkien’s masterpiece is the standard for fantasy literature and that Rowling is writing a slightly different genre and for a different audience, Harry Potter holds up fairly well.  Nevertheless, Rowling falls short at a crucial point.  That shortcoming, however, is one that much Christian thinking about God and evil shares.  We desperately need to hear Tolkien in order to avoid the errors of moralism and a simplistic faith that cannot withstand the tidal waves of disappointment in the face of the hiddenness of God. Read the rest of this entry »