review Archives - Debra Rienstra

The Barbie Movie: A Note to Young Women

But you, especially, young women, should go see this movie. Will it tell you everything you need to know about women’s history and feminism and the experience of being women today? No, it will not. But there are a couple moments in it where you…

Debra RienstraAugust 5, 2023

climate change review

Everyone Wants to Play God: Extrapolations and a Climate-Bleak Future

The episodes are short-story-style vignettes, introducing mostly new characters, different climate-related scenarios, and a tangled web of ethical dilemmas.

Debra RienstraApril 15, 2023

review

Yet More Books for Your Night Table

Here are some recent gems I would commend to you. If you can make it through the serious theology, you’ll get to a couple great novels at the end.

Debra RienstraOctober 1, 2022

review

New Wine from The Porter’s Gate: The Climate Vigil Album

With their just-released album, Climate Vigil, The Porter’s Gate aims to help the church wake up to “one of the greatest moral challenges of our time.”

Debra RienstraJuly 23, 2022

review

The Tragedy of Macbeth: Art Without Tragedy

Joel Cohen’s new film version of Macbeth struck me as an art piece about the play Macbeth more than a performance of the play. When the tragedy part gets lost in the shuffle, all you have left are lights and shadows.

Debra RienstraJanuary 22, 2022

review theology

The Birdy Spirit: Mark Wallace’s When God Was a Bird

Mark Wallace, Swarthmore professor of religion and environmental studies, takes this scriptural moment as much more than an exercise in symbology. Instead, in his 2019 book, When God Was a Bird, Wallace argues that the baptism narratives are quintessential manifestations of a second incarnation. Just…

Debra RienstraDecember 11, 2021

pop culture review

The Green Knight and Narrative Refusal

Director David Lowery, who also produced and wrote the film, has stripped out almost all of the subtle satirical commentary on Christian piety and chivalric pride. Instead, he’s focused on the problem of romance narrative itself—at least this is how I’m seeing the film. What…

Debra RienstraAugust 28, 2021

climate change nature review

Everything Causes a Scintillation: Review of Robert Macfarlane’s Underland, Lost Words, and Spell Songs

Macfarlane’s journeys, remarkable as much for the philosophical and emotional strain as for the physical rigors they demanded, uncover what underlands mean to us: in these hidden worlds, we shelter what we treasure, dispose of what we fear, and coax the earth to yield what…

Debra RienstraJanuary 11, 2020

review

Let Me Explain: Wolterstorff’s Life of the Mind, Life in Community

In This World of Wonders: Memoir of a Life in LearningNicholas WolterstorffEerdmans, 2019318 pages When vistas open up in life, extraordinary people awaken to them. Widening vistas and intellectual awakenings characterize philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff’s new memoir, in which he recounts a long and extraordinary life…

Debra RienstraMay 25, 2019

college life cultural commentary politics review

The Weight of This Sad Time

Shakespeare is right to show us that there is no guarantee of reward for choosing integrity and mercy. Over against the example of his sources, Shakespeare eschewed a reparative ending. In Shakespeare’s final scenes, the noble among the younger generation pay a heavy price for…

Debra RienstraSeptember 29, 2018

review

The Barbie Movie: A Note to Young Women

Everyone Wants to Play God: Extrapolations and a Climate-Bleak Future

Yet More Books for Your Night Table

New Wine from The Porter’s Gate: The Climate Vigil Album

The Tragedy of Macbeth: Art Without Tragedy

The Birdy Spirit: Mark Wallace’s When God Was a Bird

The Green Knight and Narrative Refusal

Everything Causes a Scintillation: Review of Robert Macfarlane’s Underland, Lost Words, and Spell Songs

Let Me Explain: Wolterstorff’s Life of the Mind, Life in Community

The Weight of This Sad Time

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