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No. 10

CONTENTS

E s s a y s

A Theology of Things
Gina Bria
Experiences and memories are composed of the places and things which populate them. Yet, in our haste to spiritualize experience, we are apt to lose these very memories by the loss of our sensual touchstones. The things that surround us have a theological power to lead us to recollection, thereby deepening our apprehension of the spiritual.

Notes on Drowning
Doug Frank
"Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies..." The paradox, "If we are to find life in God, we must drown" is one of the hard sayings of the Christian life. We long to believe that the world is a safe, comforting place, but are sometimes brought face-to-face with the bald fact that all creation conspires to bring us to a realization of our helplessness. Yet, we, like Jonah, may find the Father at the bottom of the sea.

Studies

Art and Christian Spirituality:
Companions in the Way
Luci Shaw

"Does art impact our spirituality? Does spirituality affect our art? Yes. And yes." Art, a widening of the imagination, lays bare the world, exposing the complexity beneath. As our eyes and ears are attuned to the work of the Spirit, we catch glimpses of that which is unseen, detect echoes of that which lies just beyond our range of hearing, and we behold a God who irresistibly draws us from the mundane into the realm of the sacred.

Searching for Our Fathers
Don Hudson

What do we want from our fathers? What are they truly able to give us? In this study of The First Man, Camus's unfinished masterpiece, Don Hudson describes the seasons of abandonment, engagement, and pursuit that characterize our relationship with our fathers, and with the Father.

Resurrection Face
The Addict and the Artist
Sharon Hersh

Addicts have chosen to exchange the freedom of living in a contradictory world for a condition resembling the enforced confinement of a prison camp. They have chosen counterfeit ecstasy over inevitable despair, self-loathing over the gift of grace, and an illusory "present" over the hope of an unfathomable eternity. Emancipation comes with the willingness to live in the desperate tension of paradox, transforming the addict into an artist.

The Mars Hill Interview

Ultimate Concerns
A Conversation with Irvin D. Yalom
Bruce Ramsay

Awareness of death, desire for meaning, fear of existential isolation, flight from autonomy -- these are the "ultimate concerns" that linger in the depths of the subconscious. Noted psychiatrist Irvin Yalom has for many years labored to bring these preoccupations into the field of psychotherapy. In this lively conversation, Dr. Yalom summons Heidegger, Sartre, and Kierkegaard to make a case for the exploration of classic existential categories in the therapy hour.

Reminders of God

The Writing Life

Fiction

A Deep, Black Joy
H.E. Francis

Nonfiction

Bad Host, Addled Guest
Kevin Heath

Grandma’s Cookbook
Stuart C. Hancock

Poetry

“The Coiled Spring”
Luke Schelhaas

“Four,”
Paul Willis

“Spring Herons”
John Leax

“Further in to Fleckness”
James Durell Shivers

“Hands”
D.S. Martin

“Hail the Daisy”
Grace Holdom

“The Lame Priest’s Exegesis”
Bryan D. Dietrich

Views and Reviews
Music

Essay: Dylan Revisited
Douglas Thorpe

Reviews: Bob Dylan, Time out of Mind
Brent Short

Fiona Apple, Tidal
Eric Von Fullgraf

Music Also Reviewed
Douglas Thorpe

Books

Essay:

The Prodigal Son
at Home in Lake Wobegon
Joy Alexander

Reviews:

Asylum, Patrick McGrath
James A. Sparrell

Mount Misery, Samuel Shem
James A. Sparrell

The Angel of Darkness, Caleb Carr
James A. Sparrell

The Secrets of Barneveld Calvary, James Calvin Schaap
Joey Earl Horstman

Books Also Reviewed
Judith Terry McCune

Film

Essay: "Real" vs. "Reel":
Religion as Art and Idea in the Films of Woody Allen
Joey Earl Horstman

Reviews: Boogie Nights and The Ice Storm
Scott Sawyer

Films Also Reviewed
Sheryl Cornett

Risvolti
Timeless graffiti from the broad canvas.

Mars Hill Contributors