Mediaculture: Reflections on the effect of media and culture on our faith

FILM REVIEW

The Great Gatsby (PG-13) is the most recent treatment of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s beautiful novel. While Leonardo DiCaprio gives a fine, nuanced performance of the rich, mysterious title character, the film lacks nuance and instead goes over the top at every turn, even insulting viewers’ intelligence by overexplaining plot points. —Gordon Houser

BOOK REVIEWS

For a Church to Come: Experiments in Postmodern Theory and Anabaptist Thought by Peter C. Blum (Herald Press, 2013, $21.99) combines Anabaptist writers such as Yoder and postmodern intellectuals such as Foucault and Derrida to talk about knowledge, meaning, commitments and action. Despite the heady topic, Blum’s writing is accessible and has helpful insights, like his characterizing Anabaptist-Mennonite as “a certain Christocentric ‘will-to-community’ that we do not yet know how to hold in the same embrace with our liberal individualism.”—gh

The Mystery of God: Theology for Knowing the Unknowable by Steven D. Boyer and Christopher A. Hall (BakerAcademic, 2012, $19.99) steer a course between an overly rational denial of mystery and an irrational acceptance by exploring its meaning in Scripture and church history. “While the mystery of God is by definition beyond rational comprehension,” the authors write, “the appeal to mystery need not be.” While technical in places, the book is written for lay, particularly evangelical, readers.—gh

The Blessed Virgin Mary by Tim Perry and Daniel Kendall (Eerdmans, 2013, $18) examines the church’s diverse thinking about Mary, the mother of Jesus. It discusses Mary’s relationship to her Son, her relationship to the corporate faithful and her relationship to individual believers. The authors, an evangelical Anglican and a Roman Catholic, agree that “Mary is a model disciple for all believers.”—gh