Arts and Culture

Movie novelization strips down important lessons

September 6, 2007

The Ultimate Gift by Rene Gutteridge (Thomas Nelson Press, paperback, 170 pages, $14.99 U.S.). The Ultimate Gift has been adpated from its original form, a novel by Jim Stovall, into both a movie by FoxFaith and a novelization of the movie by Rene Gutteridge.

Beware of Coehlo’s ‘feminine face’ of God

August 13, 2007

The Witch of Portobello by Paolo Coelho, translated by Margaret Jull Costa. (HarperCollins, softcover, $29.95 list). The blurb on the Advance Reader’s Edition of The Witch of Portobello invited me to “discover why Paolo Coelho ranks with J.K. Rowling and John Grisham as one of the world’s most successful writers.” I thought that was a good clue to what was between the covers: magic and suspense, soon to be sold in an airport near you. The kind of work that, when Graham Greene wrote it, he dismissed as “an entertainment.” Meanwhile, Greene’s “entertainments” are studied in English literature classes, and John Grisham’s are not and probably never will be.

Digging into a cutter’s mind

August 13, 2007

Inside A Cutter’s Mind: Understanding And Help Those Who Self Injure by Jerusha Clark and Dr. Earl Henslin (NavPress, paperback, 233 pages, $12.05). Inside a Cutter’s Mind is a book for those who either injure themselves or know others who harm themselves and want to help them.

Art exhibit tells story of Christ

August 1, 2007

WELLAND, Ont. - The One Called Jesus, a travelling art exhibit with lifelike, highly detailed characters, is winning rave reviews from visitors during a month-long stop in Welland.

Benedict’s personal search for the face of Christ

August 1, 2007

Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration by Pope Benedict XVI, translated from German by Adrian J. Walker (Random House, hardcover, 400 pages, $32). Jesus of Nazareth is an erudite, profound, personal and sometimes poetic discussion of the person of Jesus. Always with a thoughtful reflective tone, Pope Benedict explores in detail the sources of Gospel imagery in the Hebrew Scriptures, often in dialogue with Church Fathers and great European and Jewish scholars of the past century.

Simpsons family values takes the big screen

July 31, 2007

If there aren’t many out-and-out surprises for fans of the durable TV series (18 seasons and counting) on which it is based, there are chuckles to be had in abundance.

Sr. Varley prays with paint

July 14, 2007

TORONTO - She may not be able to trace her ancestral roots to Group of Seven painter Frederick Varley, but Sr. Virginia Varley, CSJ, says that in the art world, “the name does me no harm.”

Harry Potter film harbours Christian themes

July 12, 2007

WESTFIELD, Mass. - July will be a big month for Harry Potter fans and Fr. Michael Bernier, parochial vicar at St. Mary parish in Westfield, proudly counts himself among the myriad of Potter devotees.

Superman: man of faith

July 3, 2007

Superman has returned to earth and he looks more like Christ than ever before. The 2006 release of Superman Returns is directed by Bryan Singer and opened in Canadian theatres on June 28. The film's introduction explains that Superman ascended from earth five years earlier to find out who survived on the planet Kryptonite.

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