No. 22
CONTENTS
Editor's Note
Storytelling
Essays
Inside the Story
Kathleen Bowers
If the gospel stories tell us that faith can move mountains and heal
disease, what then is possible for us? In this essay, the author takes a
look at stories that require more than the usual suspension of disbelief,
and finds that grappling with them may be the point after all.
The Arc of Repentance
Helen W. Mallon
In the wake of a near-affair, a married woman recognizes a long-standing
pattern of finding her identity in other people and in her own obsessions.
While turning back to God in brokenness brings peace, she realizes that
lifelong repentance will bring a new identity.
Narrative Medicine
David Steensma
"An episode of sickness has all the essential elements of good narrative: an
experience far outside of the ordinary, temporal evolution, character
development, and plenty of dramatic tension. . . ," writes the author, a
physician. But, he explains, a person's medical record and life story
sometimes bear little resemblance to each other.
Study
Hero's Journey: The Argument from Story
John Sexton
The author reviews the classic arguments given by philosophers for the
existence of God and proposes another argument that apologists have
overlooked: the argument from story. In doing so, he revisits Joseph
Campbell's concept of the monomyth, or hero's journey, which is at the heart
of the greatest stories ever told.
The Mars Hill Interview
The Promise of Pilgrimage
A Conversation with Paul Elie
J. Greg Phelan
Writer and editor Paul Elie discusses his new book, The Life You Save May Be
Your Own, which is, in his words, a "group portrait" of the four great
Catholic writers of the twentieth century: Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton,
Flannery O'Connor, and Walker Percy. In this interview, Elie explains how
studying the lives of these authors has in turn informed his own story and
journey to faith.
Reminders of God
The Writing Life
Fiction
Catherine and Pope Gregory
James W. Morgan
Pilgrimage
Evelyn Mattern
Nonfiction
The Language for Light
Anne E. Campisi
The Prayer Book
Lucinda Franks
Particulate Matter
Laura A. Munson
Poetry
In a Country Once Forested
Wendell Berry
Seeker
Jenn Cavanaugh
History
Scott T. Summers
Geese, Tree, Apple, Leaves
Jeanne Murray Walker
Ascent
Ann Horn
When the Battle is Done
Sherry Elmer
The Last Sparrow
Barry Ballard
Views and Reviews
Music
Essay:
The Sonic Quaalude of the "Me Decade":
Led Zeppelin's Mysterious Soul-Numbing Power in Concert
Dave Urbanski
Interview:
Lonesome Melodies:
Conversations with Ralph Stanley
David W. Johnson
Reviews:
American IV, Johnny Cash
David W. Johnson
Books
Reviews:
Book Against God, James Wood
J. Greg Phelan
Schopenhauer's Telescope, Gerard Donovan
Bill McGarvey
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Mary Roach
Jody Onstad
Film
Essay:
Choosing the Matrix
Bruce Ellis Benson
Reviews:
The Hours
Ellen Haroutunian
Risvolti
The Editors
Mars Hill Contributors
