RUINS

Share this post
RUINS birthday extravaganza!!
www.ruins.blog

RUINS birthday extravaganza!!

Cake optional!!

Jun 27, 2022
Share this post
RUINS birthday extravaganza!!
www.ruins.blog

Well! This week marks the one-year anniversary of my writing this blog on Substack. Instead of a post made up of reflections on what I have learned, how the experience has been, etc., I’m going to use this week’s post to shout out to some other Substack writers inhabiting the Christians-in-the-arts space and showcase the work that they are doing.

Kevin LaTorre writes A Stylist Submits, a personal account of his interactions with the great texts of the past, and his own journey as a novelist. As he explores the ins and outs of the writer’s craft, his Christian faith compels him to puzzle over such questions as “can a writer be reverent and satirical at the same time?”

A Stylist Submits
How Does One Mock Reverently?
Due to its length, you may want to read this essay in your browser rather than your inbox. A man suffering enflamed sexual visions visited a psychoanalyst, who knew instantly that the patient needed considerable help. So he retrieved his briefcase full of inkblot …
Read more
10 months ago · 3 likes · 10 comments · Kevin LaTorre

If you are interested in the literary attributes of the Bible, you will certainly want to check out Adrian Conway’s Scriptourer. He is analyzing the Biblical text verse by verse, explaining its use of literary devices and grappling with the question of why it is even presented as a story at all. He’s been at it for three months and has only covered the first chapter of Genesis, so be prepared for a splendidly detailed ride!

Scriptourer
Story Story
Read more
8 months ago · 2 likes · Adrian Conway

The Young Adult Movie Ministry podcast, hosted by Alissa Wilkinson of Vox and Sam Thielman of Forever Wars, looks closely—and playfully—at movies, with an emphasis on their intersection with Christian culture. A good entry point is their analysis of Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood.

Young Adult Movie Ministry
Vol. 2, Episode 5: That's a Pipeline
Listen now (70 min) | Details, credits, errata: This week we’re delighted to have the great Vinson Cunningham, theater critic at The New Yorker, essayist, humorist, and all-around terrific writer whose work we heartily recommend to you. We w…
Read more
a year ago · Sam Thielman

Duncan Reyburn’s Eucatastrophologist is a good read if you want densely-argued explications of what’s going on in our present cultural moment. He doesn’t have an arts focus, but his musings are always on point. He sometimes ventures into Biblical analysis as well—his piece about the story of the prophet Hosea, and how the story relates to current concerns about mediated reality, was an eye-opener.

Eucatastrophologist
The prophet and the whore
In a strange but philosophically potent story told in the Hebrew Bible, God gives his prophet Hosea some rather odd instructions. Those in favour of something resembling polyamory may initially be very pleased by God’s apparent progressiveness in the tale but their pleasure is unlikely to last long as they read on. God commands Hosea to take for himself…
Read more
9 months ago · 8 likes · 5 comments · Duncan Reyburn

I would also like to mention two non-Substack newsletters which are always a pleasure. Victoria Emily Jones writes Art and Theology, a roundup-style notice board in which she features an extraordinarily eclectic array of visual art, films, and music from around the world. The link below will take you to a representative post—I have no idea how she finds so many interesting pieces with such regularity!

Artway, co-edited by Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker and Laurel Gasque, is a great resource for anyone interested in a Christian artistic aesthetic. The site features a diverse selection of pieces from across the globe, and their Visual Meditations, which come out every Sunday morning, examine a single painting or sculpture in light of the artist’s faith. Here’s a recent one:

That should be enough to keep you busy reading for a while! Thanks, everyone, for the year so far. Whether you’ve been with me from the beginning, or just signed up last week, I heartily appreciate and value all of you. The time you invest reading my essays is truly a gift.

Leave a comment

Do you have an art-and-faith question that you want answered? An idea for a future essay? An artwork that you want me to analyze? Let me know in the comments (or you can reply directly to this email), and I’ll see what can do! Thanks, again, for reading my thoughts! It means more than I can say.

6
Share this post
RUINS birthday extravaganza!!
www.ruins.blog
6 Comments
Commenting has been turned off for this post
TopNew

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 William Collen
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing