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Religious Music & Entertainment

2015-11-29T21:10:54-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Song of Lahore: Beautiful Music

Last updated on: November 29, 2015 at 9:10 pm By Paul Asay

Music is inherently spiritual, I believe. It comes from the heart, from the soul, speaking to our deepest pain and our greatest joy. It is an expression not only of our humanity, but our divine roots—our meager creations paying homage to our Creator, expressions of our yearning for the transcendent. No wonder the Taliban hated music so. Music, as raw and as wonderful as it is, circumvents their meager conceptions of God and somehow taps into a greater, unspoken understanding.... Read more

2015-11-25T16:21:14-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The New Captain America Movie Looks Intense … and Troubling

Last updated on: November 25, 2015 at 4:21 pm By Paul Asay

As we go into this holiday weekend, we all can take the opportunity to consider what we’re thankful for. And I, for one, am thankful for this new trailer for Captain America: Civil War. Sort of. This makes for a pretty provocative 156 seconds—and frankly, kind of hard to watch. Tony Stark and Steve Rogers … enemies? “Sorry Tony,” Cap says in the trailer. “You know I wouldn’t do this if I had any other choice. But,” he adds, referring... Read more

2015-11-21T13:58:47-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Is NatGeo’s Saints & Strangers a Show to be Thankful For?

Last updated on: November 21, 2015 at 1:58 pm By Paul Asay

Thanksgiving is, in some ways, America’s most devout holiday. There are no bunnies or men in bright red suits to distract us, no stockings or baskets filled with candy. It’s not necessarily a sacred day: You don’t need religion, after all, to be thankful. But there’s still something deeply, perhaps inescapably spiritual about it. For when we offer our thanks for our many, many blessings, we’re almost forced to asked what, exactly, has blessed us. Who, exactly, are we thanking.... Read more

2015-11-29T17:26:35-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Together, Mockingjay’s Katniss and Peeta Make a Pretty Good Christ Figure

Last updated on: November 29, 2015 at 5:26 pm By Paul Asay

G.K. Chesterton once wrote that “Christianity got over the difficulty of combining furious opposites by keeping them both, and keeping them both furious.” And indeed, it seems like the religion specializes in dichotomy. Christians are guided by rules but covered by grace. We hold monks who don’t talk to anyone and missionaries who talk with everyone in equally high regard. We’re simultaneously sin-twisted creatures and God’s greatest creation. Yeah, Christianity is pretty strange. Take the whole dichotomy between justice and... Read more

Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

justice

literature

love

2015-11-20T15:10:53-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A Prayer of Peace in an Age of Rage

Last updated on: November 20, 2015 at 3:10 pm By Paul Asay

I just watched a movie called The Letters, a biopic on the ministry of Mother Teresa’s work in Calcutta. I’ll write a bit more about the film when it officially releases this December, but I thought one scene was worth talking about today. Late in the film, we see Mother Teresa (Juliet Stevenson) accept the Nobel Peace Prize (which she won in 1979). During her acceptance speech, she quoted a prayer attributed to St. Francis, a friar and preacher who... Read more

2015-11-16T13:46:45-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

We Need to See More Movies Like ‘The 33’

Last updated on: November 16, 2015 at 1:46 pm By Paul Asay

Theaters are full of secular movies where God’s name is mainly used as a curse. A few make room for some Christian movies, too—cinematic sermons made specifically to bolster belief (sometimes at the expense of the actual movie). There’s not a lot of room left, it seems, for movies that show the sort of faith that looks familiar to most of us—a faith that’s not particularly showy or splashy or supernatural, but one that nevertheless is with us every day,... Read more

2015-11-13T13:40:03-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Fantasia is Disney’s Most Spiritual Movie

Last updated on: November 13, 2015 at 1:40 pm By Paul Asay

Disney movies are rarely explicitly spiritual. Though Disney was a practicing Protestant and spoke often about his own personal faith, he mostly kept religion out of his work—with one huge exception. Fantasia, which officially turned 75 today, includes one of the most overtly religious expressions in all of the Disney canon—the still shocking, still moving “Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria” sequence that puts an exclamation point on the film. Looking back, it’s a little crazy how un-Disney the segment feels.... Read more

Night on Bald Mountain

2015-11-11T12:12:13-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Spotlight: The Importance of Being Honest

Last updated on: November 11, 2015 at 12:12 pm By Paul Asay

“Everything in your life is public. There are no secrets. Everything you say, everything you do, everyplace (sic) you go, every thought you think is going to be known by all.” Ted Haggard—one-time pastor of Colorado Springs’ massive New Life Church, one-time president of the National Association of Evangelicals—wrote that in his book Letters from Home. Those words proved sadly prophetic: In 2006, a male prostitute came forward, alleging that he and Haggard had had sex and used methamphetamines. Haggard—one... Read more

2015-11-09T13:46:10-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

What’s America’s Favorite Pastime? Religion.

Last updated on: November 9, 2015 at 1:46 pm By Paul Asay

The United States is growing more secular. According to data released earlier this month by the Pew Research Center, only 63 percent of Americans are “absolutely certain” that God exists, down from the 71 percent who said so in 2007. Nearly a quarter of the U.S. population (23 percent) now reports having no religious preference—up from 16 percent just seven years earlier. Skepticism is particularly strong in Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996), with just four in 10 young... Read more

2015-11-06T15:40:32-06:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Dying Another Day: The Miraculous Career of James Bond

Last updated on: November 6, 2015 at 3:40 pm By Paul Asay

God loves James Bond. Well, OK, He loves all of us. But in spite of Bond’s killing, womanizing, martini-swilling ways, God must really dig 007. I mean, given the guy’s longevity in perhaps the world’s most dangerous career, supernatural grace might be the most logical conclusion we can come to. For 26 films (including Spectre, released today), Bond has dodged bullets, knives, explosives, lasers, poisonous spiders and angry attack sharks. And while much of his survivability could be attributed to... Read more

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