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

FILM REVIEW

The East (PG-13) follows an operative for a private intelligence firm who infiltrates an anarchist group called The East that carries out covert attacks on major corporations. However, as she befriends the members of the group, she questions her mission. This is a rare film that addresses social justice issues without taking clear sides. It also includes some fine acting.—Gordon Houser

DVD REVIEW

The House I Live In (NR) is an outstanding documentary that shows how the war on drugs is really a war on the poor. It delves into the U.S. prison industrial complex and how it subsidizes thousands of jobs and locks up millions of innocent people. This important film shows the consequences of this “war” for all of us.

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 mostly 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.”

Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self by Richard Rohr (Jossey-Bass, 2013, $19.95) argues that the search for our true self requires a dying to our false self. ”Resurrection,” he writes, “is not a miracle to be proven; it is a manifestation of the wholeness that we are all meant to experience, even in this world.” The title comes from a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem and likens the true self to a diamond buried deep within us. This book will challenge and inspire many readers.