Yesterday I began a series of posts on Martin Luther and the Reformation in commemoration of Reformation Day. I have been looking for video clips that help to illustrate various elements of Luther’s life and theology. The challenge is that there are very few complete videos, at least that are both pretty good and relatively brief. So instead I will share a couple of clips that illustrate various elements of Luther’s life and, when possible, direct you via hyperlink to larger segments. The clip we watched yesterday, from Biography.com, illustrated the early part of Luther’s life, tracing his journey from a planned career in law to...

Martin Luther didn’t set out the change the world. In fact, were it not for an unusually acute conscience and a remarkably tenacious personality, the world would most likely never have heard of the young lawyer and court official he had planned to be. But, of course, all that changed when, on the way back to school, he is terrified by a thunderstorm, pledges to become and monk, and follows through on the promise, taking his vows – and eventually the grace of God – very seriously. This week we commemorate the day Luther posted his 95 Theses and started what later became known as the Protestant Reformation. So each day this week I’ll...

Tomorrow is Reformation Sunday and many who read this blog may find themselves singing one or more of the hymns composed by Martin Luther. If you do, that will most likely be “A Mighty Fortress,” sometimes called the “anthem of the Reformation” or the Protestant “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” I don’t know if you’ll sing the hymn I put below as this week’s poem, but it is one of my favorites for the way it vividly portrays God as the one eager to come to our help. The picture of God in this hymn is not that of an angry king who needs a blood sacrifice to appease his wrath – one of the more common portraits of God...

This month’s Fourth Friday Film Forum: Gravity. From the very start of the film Gravity you are aware of two elements of space that we probably know but don’t often think about: 1) the sheer size of outer space and, by extension, the universe, and 2) the utter silence of space. Both of these elements are brought to vivid expression by filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón and serve to elicit one emotional reaction in particular: loneliness. That sense that you are so small as to be insignificant; so absolutely irrelevant in the larger scheme of things; so tiny and powerless in the face of the monumental challenges of life; so utterly...