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Christ and Pop Culture

@christandpopculture.com
64 followers 29 following 124 posts

Where the Christian Faith meets the common knowledge of our age. Subscribe today and support our mission: christandpopculture.com/subscribe

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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 28/09/2026
If AI-generated music can be beautiful, emotionally moving, and indistinguishable from something a human could create, does human creativity actually matter?
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Does It Matter Who Makes the Song? - Christ and Pop Culture
Are there any costs or downsides to encouraging the use of generative AI to create music, even remixes and covers?
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 16/09/2026
Christopher Nolan’s latest movie gives the viewer the opportunity to envision ethical hospitality and reimagine it in a contemporary context.
christandpopculture.com
The Odyssey Can Empower the Church to Recapture the Lost Virtue of Hospitality - Christ and Pop Culture
Christopher Nolan's movie gives the viewer the opportunity to envision ethical hospitality and reimagine it in a contemporary context.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 14/09/2026
Christopher Nolan’s movies and the MAGA mindset share a common theme: the slippery nature of truth and the lengths even the best of us go to to narcotize our moral judgement when the truth is too inconvenient.
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“Can I Lie to Myself to Be Happy?” Nolan’s Themes, MAGA’s Blinders and Us - Christ and Pop Culture
We need to admit that apart from God’s grace, to some degree we are all Leonard Shelby.
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StoryCurrents @storycurrents.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Last year, @christandpopculture.com published my review of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, a book that sadly remains as timely as ever. tinyurl.com/2m4v6kck #BookSky
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 31/08/2026
Published last year, Lydia R. Hamessley’s in-depth book on “Jolene” explores why it’s one of the most iconic songs in modern music, country or otherwise. Read @ginadalfonzo.bsky.social’s review:
christandpopculture.com
Lydia R. Hamessley Explores Why Dolly Parton's "Jolene" Still Haunts Us So - Christ and Pop Culture
It was part of Dolly’s gift, both as a singer and a songwriter, to make her songs sound effortless—yet they were anything but.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 26/08/2026
There’s a lot of truth in Brandon Lake and Nick Jonas’s hit single, which celebrates God’s mercy and providence. But it misses the mark when it implies that we can’t bring our hard questions to God. “I do not believe Scripture describes a God who is threatened by the honest cries of his children.”
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Who Am I?: Rethinking “The Author” by Brandon Lake and Nick Jonas - Christ and Pop Culture
If God is truly our Father, then I do not have to run from him with my doubts. I can run to him.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 24/08/2026
Alice Rohrwacher’s enchanting “La Chimera” is a hypnotic portrait of a Romantic soul searching for transcendence in a world that’s evaporated of it, writes @micahrickard.bsky.social.
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Modern Transcendence in Movies: Unearthing Lost Beauty in La Chimera - Christ and Pop Culture
Alice Rohrwacher's film is a hypnotic portrait of a Romantic soul searching for transcendence in a world evaporated of it.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 19/08/2026
In #TheOdyssey, welcoming strangers is a duty; it should be one for American Christians too.
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The Odyssey, Hospitality, and the Right of Strangers - Christ and Pop Culture
American Christians should follow the example of Odysseus’s hosts and love our immigrant neighbors.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 17/08/2026
Originally a series of YouTube shorts, #Backrooms has become one of 2026’s most successful movies. Some of that success is arguably due to the way in which the film taps into Gen Z’s growing recognition that the modern American experience is fundamentally inhumane.
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“It’s Massive in There”: The Inhuman Hell of Backrooms - Christ and Pop Culture
Kane Parsons' horror hit exposes the fundamental inhumanity inherent in the modern American experience.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 12/08/2026
The latest chapter of #Deltarune explores the nature of agency and providence. “The Christian claim has never been that freedom consists in authoring our own existence. Within the providence of the ultimate Author who writes our stories, our choices remain eternally significant.”
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Do Our Decisions Matter? Agency and Prophecy in Deltarune - Christ and Pop Culture
Deltarune continually distinguishes between an appointed end and the genuinely meaningful decisions made along the way.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 10/08/2026
Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” (2014) offers a gentler, if no less provocative, exploration of humanity at the end of its scientific abilities, writes @micahrickard.bsky.social.
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Modern Transcendence in Movies: The Immanent Answers of Interstellar - Christ and Pop Culture
Christopher Nolan offers a gentler, if no less provocative, exploration of humanity at the end of its scientific abilities.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 05/08/2026
“The modern temptation of worship leaders is to reverse this pursuit and focus more on personal brand than ministering to God and others, assuming that if their brand is successful enough, genuine ministry will just automatically happen.”
christandpopculture.com
A Life Laid Down or a Platform Built Up? - Christ and Pop Culture
A personal brand should be a byproduct of ministry, but too many worship leaders hope that ministry is a byproduct of brand.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 03/08/2026
Film adaptations like Christopher Nolan’s #TheOdyssey “often tell us more about those who adapted the material than the original source itself—sometimes reflecting the reality of their time, sometimes showing us how they wish things could be, sometimes warning us of what might come.”
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The Greatest Story Ever Adapted: Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and the Adaptation at the Heart of the Gospel - Christ and Pop Culture
Why does this story continue to appeal to us? What does this latest version say about both the filmmaker and us? Nolan’s Odyssey gives us one man’s journey; what we need, though, is not just an adapta...
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 31/07/2026
Longtime CAPC editor/writer @ginadalfonzo.bsky.social has just published a new book titled “The Screen and the Mirror” on Wipf and Stock. They’ve graciously allowed us to share the opening chapter, which focuses on John Frankenheimer’s “The Manchurian Candidate,” with our readers.
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CAPC Exclusive: Read the First Chapter From Gina Dalfonzo's The Screen and the Mirror - Christ and Pop Culture
Gina Dalfonzo's new book considers how flawed movie characters can teach us about our own fallen natures.
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Micah Rickard @micahrickard.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Wrote about a film that continues to snake its way into the recesses of my mind over @christandpopculture.com—Alex Garland's ANNIHILATION. I never get tired of writing about or thinking about or being transformed by this one
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Modern Transcendence in Movies: Annihilation Ventures Beyond Reason - Christ and Pop Culture
Alex Garland's 2018 sci-fi/horror film reminds us that the world contains powers that refute our modern rationality.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 29/07/2026
New from @micahrickard.bsky.social: Alex Garland’s “Annihilation” (2018) uses a blend of sci-fi and horror to encourage us to consider the powers that lie beyond our ability to describe and control. Read the full article: christandpopculture.com/modern-trans...
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Natalie Portman in Annihilation
ALT: Natalie Portman in Annihilation
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 27/07/2026
AI tools can be great for boosting efficiency. But is efficiency what we really want when it comes to spiritual formation?
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Spiritual Formation in an Autocomplete World - Christ and Pop Culture
Remove enough friction and you don’t have a more efficient formation process. You have no formation process. You have content delivery.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 24/07/2026
Looking back at this year’s #WorldCup, here are some of the more notable moments — both on and off the pitch — that brought @opus.ing joy during those six weeks.
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Moments of Joy From the 2026 World Cup - Christ and Pop Culture
The whole world coming together proved even more beautiful than the beautiful game itself.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 22/07/2026
The speed at which AI is advancing, and the ways its advancement are changing how we think and work and relate, currently outpace our ability to describe and discuss its impact.
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We Need New Words for the Experiences We Didn’t Have Before AI - Christ and Pop Culture
The speed of AI's advancement currently outpaces our ability to describe and discuss its impact.
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Gina Dalfonzo @ginadalfonzo.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
"When a society turns a human being into an icon, the truth is the first casualty. Facts and evidence become secondary to feelings and loyalty. People stop asking what is true and begin defending the version of reality they need to be true." Excellent piece. #filmsky #MichaelJackson
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 20/07/2026
Caro Claire Burke’s #Yesteryear, about a tradwife influencer who awakens in the 19th century, has been one of the summer’s hottest — and most controversial — novels. In her review, Sarah Greene highlights how Burke’s novel challenges several competing cultural narratives.
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The Way Out of the Maze: A Reflection on Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear - Christ and Pop Culture
Burke’s novel pulls the psychological and physical curtain back to reveal where the promise of a simpler life falls short.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 15/07/2026
For millions, #MichaelJackson was a vessel into which a lonely world poured its hopes, nostalgia, childhood innocence, and longing for redemption. Cecily Cox reviews the recent Michael biopic and what it says about our need for modern idols.
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A Cultural Critique of Michael Jackson and Modern Idolatry - Christ and Pop Culture
Why do so many of us still desperately want to believe in Michael Jackson?
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 13/07/2026
Mainstream #Batman stories have largely pushed in the direction of psychological horror and urban decay. Matt Fraction’s relaunch is so refreshing because it understands that Batman can suffocate beneath too much solemnity.
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The Bat in Daylight: Matt Fraction, Batman, and a New Day in Gotham City - Christ and Pop Culture
You don't wait for institutions to become trustworthy, or people to become good, or the city to become clean before deciding whether it's worth fighting for.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 08/07/2026
Ultimately, Kendrick Lamar’s theological vision presents a challenge: to examine not only his message but our own assumptions about faith and justice.
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The Nature of Kendrick Lamar’s “Suffering Servant” - Christ and Pop Culture
Lamar’s music is a battlefield of competing theologies embedded in the dissonance of lived experience.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 06/07/2026
“To hoard power and live a performative religion is to misrepresent God and to ignore love, to disobey, and ultimately to be annihilated.” Chris Fogle does a deep dive into Jonah’s tale of narcissism and big fish.
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The Prophet and The Pagans: Narcissism versus Humility in Jonah - Christ and Pop Culture
Whether pastors or politicians, average Jo(nah)s or communities as a whole, we must move from being self-absorbed to being self-abnegating.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 01/07/2026
New from @micahrickard.bsky.social: David Lowery’s #TheGreenKnight thrusts the viewer into “the strangeness of the enchanted world,” revealing that humanity’s rational mastery over the earth is a self-satisfied illusion.
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Modern Transcendence in Movies: The Threat of Enchantment in The Green Knight - Christ and Pop Culture
David Lowery’s Arthurian tale reveals that humanity’s rational mastery over the earth is a self-satisfied illusion.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 29/06/2026
“The Monolith,” a recently announced tabletop game from @plaidhatgames.bsky.social, seeks to satirize religious nationalism. But will players get the joke?
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Sanctifying Splatter-punk: Rage, Fear, and Embodied Play in Christian Art - Christ and Pop Culture
Want to know what questions haunt our society? Ask horror.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 24/06/2026
“The themes of Disney’s run may have been far more biblical than viewers realized… [T]he showrunners, it turns out, have quite a bit to say about the nature of Christian grace.” Josiah DeGraaf reviews the second season of “Daredevil: Born Again.”
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Daredevil: Born Again Tests the Limits of Christian Grace - Christ and Pop Culture
The Disney superhero series can help us appreciate the brazenness of Christ’s grace.
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Micah Rickard @micahrickard.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
When I first pitched this piece, I didn't realize that we were actually entering into a golden era of cinematic Pentecosts
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 22/06/2026
The way we engage in disagreement is just as important as the content that we are disagreeing about, and the way we speak to others is just as important as the beliefs and ideas we hold.
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Spiritual Oneupmanship and the Dangers of Digital Discipleship - Christ and Pop Culture
The way we speak to others is just as important as the beliefs and ideas we hold.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 17/06/2026
A new series from @micahrickard.bsky.social explores how movies reveal modern notions of transcendence. The first installment considers David Lowery’s “Mother Mary,” starring Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel.
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Modern Transcendence in Movies: The Spirit Descends on Mother Mary - Christ and Pop Culture
Mother Mary declares that the modern age is not so impervious to the spiritual as it would like to think.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 15/06/2026
The latest from @ginadalfonzo.bsky.social: “The ending of any life, born or unborn, has effects that ripple outward and impact many lives, often in wholly unexpected and deeply painful ways. Literary efforts to deal with the subject, if they’re honest, will reflect this.”
christandpopculture.com
Abortion Stories, Reproductive Wrongs, and Our Need for Each Other - Christ and Pop Culture
If one overarching theme can be discerned in such a variegated collection, it’s this: No abortion takes place in a void.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 10/06/2026
#007FirstLight allows James Bond to possess authentic magnetism without turning him into either a joke or pathology.
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The Last Unapologetic Hero: Masculinity and Heroism in 007 First Light - Christ and Pop Culture
The game assumes the audience already understands the dangers built into the Bond archetype, and then it moves beyond them.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 08/06/2026
One of the biggest lessons in @netflix.com’s #CobraKai is that second chances can happen, that people can be forgiven, and that the least likely people can change for the better.
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“Cobra Kai Never Dies”: The Redemption of Johnny Lawrence, John Kreese, and Cobra Kai - Christ and Pop Culture
Part of what makes the Cobra Kai series so great is how it shows Johnny and Kreese’s transition into heroes.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 03/06/2026
“To learn a foreign language, and to make consistent efforts to communicate with those who speak that language natively, cultivates godly maturity.”
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Love, Language, and The Lost Princess: What Murcia Taught Me - Christ and Pop Culture
Learning a foreign language, and making consistent efforts to communicate with its native speakers, cultivates godly maturity.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 01/06/2026
If God designed human life, then His Word reveals the right way to live—in terms of biological health, mental well-being, and societal health—which requires a submitting of the whole self to His authority.
christandpopculture.com
How To Live Forever: Bryan Johnson and the Mind-Body Relationship - Christ and Pop Culture
Bryan Johnson is an extreme example of body/mind duality, and his religious commitment to biological health should be heeded as a warning.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 28/05/2026
Lauren Gross reviews Brittany Fichter’s “Before Beauty”: “[She] may not have set out to write an allegory, yet the gospel is woven so deeply into the fabric of this tale that it preached to me.”
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Encountering the Gospel in Brittany Fichter's Before Beauty - Christ and Pop Culture
The gospel is woven so deeply into the fabric of this tale that it preached to me.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 26/05/2026
Can dance music be more than just escape? Could it also be a place of radical embodiment and prayerful presence? Can Christ speak, through DJs, to the cavernous heart that’s hungry for something greater?
christandpopculture.com
Can Christ Speak Through DJs? EDM Provides a Soundtrack for Metamodern Longing - Christ and Pop Culture
EDM allows young people to lay down pretense and come clean about their desires.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 13/05/2026
One year has passed since #Andor ended. @opus.ing wrote about the series’ condemnation of moral complacency in the face of evil, as evidenced by one particularly haunting scene from the finale.
christandpopculture.com
The Sad Fate of Mon Mothma's Husband Is One of Andor’s Most Striking Lessons - Christ and Pop Culture
Would we really be so quick to throw away our status and privilege for a life of hardship, struggle, and near-certain death? Andor’s Perrin has lost nothing. Except his soul
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 11/05/2026
The two “Avatar” franchises present very different perspectives on violence and retribution. And for Christians, only one of them rings true.
christandpopculture.com
Avatar vs. Avatar: A Christian Case for Nonviolence Even in the Face of Injustice - Christ and Pop Culture
It’s by Christ's death that we can love our enemies, seek peace with those that want to harm us, and refuse to take vengeance when we are wronged.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 06/05/2026
Movies and TV series love to play with quantum physics as a way to explore fantastical concepts like the multiverse. But quantum physics also gives Christians a way to carefully think about God’s transcendence and his interactions with creation.
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Why Should Christians Care About Quantum Physics? - Christ and Pop Culture
The appeal of the multiverse metaphor in everyday conversation is that it functions as an anaesthetic for regret and makes decisions feel less weighty.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 04/05/2026
@stephenwilsonjr01.bsky.social’s songs return again and again to questions of inheritance—of family, place, and past—and the unsettling realization that much of who we are lies outside our choice.
christandpopculture.com
“I Am My Father’s Son”: Stephen Wilson, Jr., Wendell Berry, and the Myth of Self-Creation - Christ and Pop Culture
Wilson's songs trace the long, difficult movement where inheritance becomes not just a burden but a belonging.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 29/04/2026
Though not a “Christian” film, #ProjectHailMary nevertheless embodies distinctly Christian versions of love and sacrifice that hearken back to the sacramental theology of the early Church.
christandpopculture.com
Discovering a Sacramental Worldview Through Project Hail Mary - Christ and Pop Culture
Some of the most glorious expressions of goodness and beauty can be found in art that has no direct affiliation with Christianity.
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joey thurmond @joeythurmond.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
my first published article in over two years! really loved doing the research for this one.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 27/04/2026
In her latest book, @courtneyellis.bsky.social uses #birding and nature to explore the beauty that can emerge from the pain of change and transition. Read @ginadalfonzo.bsky.social’s review:
christandpopculture.com
Courtney Ellis’s Weathering Change Teaches Us to Trust (Review) - Christ and Pop Culture
Courtney Ellis's careful observations of nature teach her, and us, to find peace during the hardest transitions.
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 20/04/2026
One of 2025’s most critically acclaimed games, @supergiantgames.bsky.social’s “Hades II” serves as fertile ground on which to engage with the concept of the imago Dei—a central doctrine of the Christian faith that is too often loosely defined and historically misunderstood.
christandpopculture.com
Rediscovering the Imago Dei and Humanity's Purpose in Hades II - Christ and Pop Culture
Supergiant's acclaimed game serves as fertile ground on which to engage with the concept of the imago Dei, a historically misunderstood doctrine of Christianity.
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Jason Morehead @opus.ing · 16/04/2026
We’ve all felt the impulse to celebrate when a public figure we dislike dies. After all, they’re *finally* getting their ultimate comeuppance. But where does that impulse come from, and what does it really say about us? My latest for @christandpopculture.com.
christandpopculture.com
Maybe We Shouldn't Celebrate People's Deaths - Christ and Pop Culture
Are we crying out for justice so that God might reveal himself to a broken world? Or do we just want to look righteous on social media?
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 15/04/2026
New from @opus.ing: Left-leaning folks celebrated the death of a conservative actor even as they criticized the president for celebrating the death of a political opponent, and this very same president previously condemned those who demonize their political opponents. Talk about a mess!
christandpopculture.com
Maybe We Shouldn't Celebrate People's Deaths - Christ and Pop Culture
Are we crying out for justice so that God might reveal himself to a broken world? Or do we just want to look righteous on social media? Reactions fo the deaths of Chuck Norris and Robert Mueller raise...
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 13/04/2026
In a culture obsessed with youth (and terrified of aging), it’s tempting to reclaim relevance by embracing a caricature: we can’t be young and charming forever, so let’s be old and cantankerous. But what if we aimed instead for something truly countercultural, and thoroughly biblical?
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Getting Older Doesn’t Have to Mean Getting Meaner - Christ and Pop Culture
The “grumpy old man,” which has become a popular narrative trope, is also a self-fulfilling prophecy. But should it be?
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Christ and Pop Culture @christandpopculture.com · 09/04/2026
Pixar’s #InsideOut serves as a reminder that sadness is not the enemy of faithfulness, and the impulse to suppress it may do more harm than the grief itself. christandpopculture.com/when-church-...
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