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

FILM REVIEW
The Monuments Men (PG-13) tells the fascinating true story of a group that goes into Germany toward the end of World War II to rescue artistic masterpieces from Nazi thieves and return them to their rightful owners.—Gordon Houser

BOOK REVIEWS
The Nonviolent God by J. Denny Weaver (Eerdmans, 2013, $25) argues that “if God is truly revealed in the nonviolent Christ, then God should not be described as a God who sanctions and employs violence.” Weaver considers how Jesus is revealed in Scripture and engages the atonement tradition. In this important book, he calls for a theology for living the reign of God made visible in Jesus.”—gh
Songs from an Empty Cage: Poetry, Mystery, Anabaptism and Peace by Jeff Gundy (Cascadia Publishing House, 2013, $23.95) is a sequel to Gundy’s Walker in the Fog: On Mennonite Writing. Gundy, whose poetry has been published here, seeks to develop “an Anabaptist theopoetics” as he explores transgressions, traditions, poetry, pedagogy, peace, music, metaphor, martyrs and mystery. His observations and reflections are engaging and challenging, if not always accessible to the general reader.—gh

Reading the Passion Stories with Heart and Mind by Wes Bergen (Lighthouse Christian Publishing, 2013, $7.95) seeks to combine two ways of looking at the Passion stories in the Bible: it asks difficult intellectual questions of the texts and how these texts relate to our lives.—gh

Radical Jesus: A Graphic History of Faith, edited by Paul Buhle, with illustrations by Sabrina Jones, Gary Dumm and Nick Thorkelson (Herald Press, 2013, $24.99), uses comic art to present stories from Jesus’ time through the Radical Reformation and peacemaking efforts today in Iraq and Colombia. This is an enjoyable and accessible way to learn history.—gh