Postmodern Realities Podcast

To say that director Matt Reeves’s approach to the Batman character is scaled back would be an understatement, but this doesn’t come at the expense of audience expectations. The whole affair plays out across its walloping three-hour runtime like an acoustic cover of some of Batman’s greatest hits. The clever gadgets are present, but they’re not gimmicks; they are practical, accessible tools that make sense not only in the context of the narrative, but also in the context of the dirty, grimy version of Gotham City that Reeves has created, one rife with corruption and rotting from the inside. Even the iconic Batmobile makes an appearance in one of the movie’s most thrilling action sequences, but in Reeves’s capable hands it’s a rugged, applied, hand-built horsepower machine — when the engine thunders, the theater shakes. Part of what makes Reeves’s vision so compelling is the way he methodically reinvents these concepts that have become enmeshed in the popular imagination over the past century. This is undoubtedly and unashamedly a Batman film — for my money, the best adaptation yet — but it is Batman unlike we have ever seen him on the silver screen.

“I’m Vengeance” are the first words the Batman utters onscreen, and this is the best indicator for how this version of the character sees himself. In this film, those words become a brilliant starting point for his deconstruction of the character. And this is the character arc that Reeves gives Bruce Wayne here, the realization that violence, retribution, vengeance are all banal, are not enough to truly heal the putrid, festering heart of Gotham City. In fact, if the Batman does not come to stand for something more than vengeance, then he is only perpetuating the endless cycle of violence corroding Gotham’s soul. This is a noir, after all, the film genre that excels in making the whitest of whites look a little gray. There are no “good guys” in film noir, and everyone in some way, shape, or form is morally compromised. A film that begins with Batman stalking a gang of thugs and beating them to a bloody pulp ends with this same dark figure carrying an injured little girl to safety in the light of dawn. Bruce’s voiceover narration — a staple of the noir genre — explains that the Batman must become more than a symbol of vengeance and retribution if Gotham is to recover. He can no longer stand for revenge alone, but his true calling must instead be as a symbol of courage and hope. The unfortunate reality is that, by and large, this is a film that will be ignored by most Christians due less to its content than its tone. Because the modern American church has become ensnared by the quaint but sinister trappings of sentimentality, which promise goodness without context, atonement without sacrifice.

This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Cole Burgett about his online-exclusive article, “The Batman and the Banality of Vengeance”.

**Editor’s Note: This article contains spoilers for The Batman.** https://www.equip.org/article/the-batman-and-the-banality-of-vengeance/

Locked articles are online exclusive content that are only available to subscribers. There are three subscription options to access our online exclusive content.

1. Subscribe ($33.50) to the print edition of the Christian Research Journal which includes all online exclusive content.

2. Pay a monthly fee ($4.99) for Christian Research Journal online exclusive content. This does not include online versions of current print edition articles or receiving the print issues.

3. Pay an annual fee ($24.99) for Christian Research Journal online exclusive content. This does not include online versions of current print edition articles or receiving the print issues.

For more information and to subscribe please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/online-early-access-subscription-options/

Note online-exclusives are eventually made available to the public at regular intervals but to gain access to read it when it’s originally posted subscribing at the link above is the best option.

When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources at equip.org that minister to people worldwide. These resources include our ever growing database of over 1,500 articles, as well as our free Postmodern Realities podcast.

Another way you can support our online articles is by leaving us a tip. A tip is just a small amount, like $3, $5, or $10 which is the cost for some of a latte, lunch out, or coffee drink. To leave a tip, click here https://www.equip.org/product/pmr-jnl-tip/

Other articles and Postmodern Realities podcasts featuring this author

Episode 276 Boba Fett’s Character Arc Actually Makes Sense ( A Review of The Book of Boba Fett)

Boba Fett’s Character Arc Actually Makes Sense ( A Review of The Book of Boba Fett)

Episode 271 Spider-Man: No Way Home and the Emotional Cheapening of the Modern Blockbuster

Spider-Man: No Way Home and the Emotional Cheapening of the Modern Blockbuster

Episode 269 The Matrix Resurrections: Self-Awareness and Romance in the Digital Age

The Matrix Resurrections: Self-Awareness and Romance in the Digital Age
Episode 263: Free Will, the Power of Choice, and Skin in Eternals

Episode 261 Dune and the Future of the Science Fiction Epic

Dune and the Future of the Science Fiction Epic

Episode 259: All the Time in the World: No Time to Die and the End of an Era

All the Time in the World: No Time to Die and the End of an Era

Episode 251 Growing Up and Letting Go in CODA

Growing Up and Letting Go in CODA

Episode 242: Friendship and Fatherhood in Pixar’s Luca

Friendship and Fatherhood in Pixar’s Luca

Episode 239: No Us Without Him: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Zack Snyder’s Justice League

No Us Without Him: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Zack Snyder’s Justice League

Episode 234: Star Wars Happy and Glorious in The High Republic

Happy and Glorious in The High Republic: A Review of The High Republic Era beginning with Star Wars: Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule

Episode 227 Catharsis and the Power of Release in WandaVison

Catharsis and the Power of Release in Wandavison

Episode 222 Deconstructionism and the Gospel of Hope in Logan

Deconstructionism and the Gospel of Hope in Logan

Episode 218: Wonder Woman 1984: The Truth Is Enough.

Wonder Woman 1984: The Truth Is Enough.

Episode 214 Star Trek’s Christopher Pike: An Old Fashioned Hero For Our Cynical Times

Star Trek’s Christopher Pike: An Old- Fashioned Hero for Our Cynical Time

Don’t miss an episode; please subscribe to the Postmodern Realities podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Please help spread the word about Postmodern Realities by giving us a rating and review when you subscribe to the podcast. The more ratings and reviews we have, the more new listeners can discover our content.

To say that director Matt Reeves’s approach to the Batman character is scaled back would be an understatement, but this doesn’t come at the expense of audience expectations. The whole affair plays out across its walloping three-hour runtime like an acoustic cover of some of Batman’s greatest hits. The clever gadgets are present, but they’re not gimmicks; they are practical, accessible tools that make sense not only in the context of the narrative, but also in the context of the dirty, grimy version of Gotham City that Reeves has created, one rife with corruption and rotting from the inside. Even the iconic Batmobile makes an appearance in one of the movie’s most thrilling action sequences, but in Reeves’s capable hands it’s a rugged, applied, hand-built horsepower machine — when the engine thunders, the theater shakes. Part of what makes Reeves’s vision so compelling is the way he methodically reinvents these concepts that have become enmeshed in the popular imagination over the past century. This is undoubtedly and unashamedly a Batman film — for my money, the best adaptation yet — but it is Batman unlike we have ever seen him on the silver screen.

“I’m Vengeance” are the first words the Batman utters onscreen, and this is the best indicator for how this version of the character sees himself. In this film, those words become a brilliant starting point for his deconstruction of the character. And this is the character arc that Reeves gives Bruce Wayne here, the realization that violence, retribution, vengeance are all banal, are not enough to truly heal the putrid, festering heart of Gotham City. In fact, if the Batman does not come to stand for something more than vengeance, then he is only perpetuating the endless cycle of violence corroding Gotham’s soul. This is a noir, after all, the film genre that excels in making the whitest of whites look a little gray. There are no “good guys” in film noir, and everyone in some way, shape, or form is morally compromised. A film that begins with Batman stalking a gang of thugs and beating them to a bloody pulp ends with this same dark figure carrying an injured little girl to safety in the light of dawn. Bruce’s voiceover narration — a staple of the noir genre — explains that the Batman must become more than a symbol of vengeance and retribution if Gotham is to recover. He can no longer stand for revenge alone, but his true calling must instead be as a symbol of courage and hope. The unfortunate reality is that, by and large, this is a film that will be ignored by most Christians due less to its content than its tone. Because the modern American church has become ensnared by the quaint but sinister trappings of sentimentality, which promise goodness without context, atonement without sacrifice.

This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Cole Burgett about his online-exclusive article, “The Batman and the Banality of Vengeance”. **Editor’s Note: This article contains spoilers for The Batman.** https://www.equip.org/article/the-batman-and-the-banality-of-vengeance/

Locked articles are online exclusive content that are only available to subscribers. There are three subscription options to access our online exclusive content.

1. Subscribe ($33.50) to the print edition of the Christian Research Journal which includes all online exclusive content.

2. Pay a monthly fee ($4.99) for Christian Research Journal online exclusive content. This does not include online versions of current print edition articles or receiving the print issues.

3. Pay an annual fee ($24.99) for Christian Research Journal online exclusive content. This does not include online versions of current print edition articles or receiving the print issues.

For more information and to subscribe please click here.

Philosopher and Christian apologist William Lane Craig’s latest work, In Quest of the Historical Adam, is an impressive, bold interdisciplinary exploration into the historicity of Adam (and Eve). Analyzing key texts in the Old and New Testaments, Craig concludes that Scripture presents Adam as a historical person and progenitor of humanity who introduced moral evil into the] world through disobedience. Craig adopts an evolutionary perspective on humanity’s origin. To reconcile a human evolutionary history with the biblical account of humanity’s creation, he makes the case that Genesis 1–11 belongs to a genre called mytho-history (a sacred mythical origins narrative that also makes allusions to real people, places, and events). Craig holds the view that it is up to modern science to determine who Adam was and when he (and Eve) lived. Based on the evidence from anthropology, Craig provisionally concludes that Adam lived between 750,000 and 1,000,000 years ago as a member of the hominin species Homo heidelbergensis. Craig’s theological and scientific conclusions. This episode focuses on the scientific issues — in particular, how symbolic artifacts in the fossil record provide compelling evidence that Adam (and Eve) are best understood as modern humans, who alone display cognitive capacities that reflect the image of God.

This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Fazale “Fuz” Rana about his article in the current issue (March 2022) 44:4 edition of the Christian Research Journal entitled, “Who Was Adam? (Summary Critique of William Lane Craig’s In Quest of the Historical Adam)”. Available as your first issue if you subscribe in the Spring of 2022! Click here for information on subscribing. Click here for a Special limited preview of the article. https://www.equip.org/article/who-was-adam-a-book-review-of-in-quest-of-the-historical-adam-by-william-lane-craig-special-limited-preview/

When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources at equip.org that minister to people worldwide. These resources include our ever growing database of over 1,500 articles, as well as our free Postmodern Realities podcast.

Another way you can support our online articles is by leaving us a tip. A tip is just a small amount, like $3, $5, or $10 which is the cost for some of a latte, lunch out, or coffee drink. To leave a tip, click here https://www.equip.org/product/pmr-jnl-tip/

Other articles related to this subject:

Misreading the Book of Knowledge and the Book of Nature

Junk DNA: Evidence for Evolution or Design?

Neither Human Evolution nor Theistic Evolution

Lost World of John Walton a book review of The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and the Human Origins Debate

The New Theistic Evolutionists: BioLogos and the Rush to Embrace the “Consensus”

Paul, Second Adam, and Theistic Evolution

Adam and Eve Redux

No God-of-the-Gaps Allowed: Francis Collins and Theistic Evolution



Don’t miss an episode; please subscribe to the Postmodern Realities podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Please help spread the word about Postmodern Realities by giving us a rating and review when you subscribe to the podcast. The more ratings and reviews we have, the more new listeners can discover our content.

Boba Fett is a Star Wars icon. A brutal bounty hunter first seen in the original Star Wars films with limited lines and on-screen presence, Boba Fett has been the center of fan adoration and speculation since the very beginning of the franchise. But how did we get from the rough-and-tumble bounty hunter to whom Darth Vader instructs, “No disintegrations” to the Boba Fett who intends to “rule with respect” as he reigns on the late Jabba’s throne as a crime lord on Tatooine? Has Boba Fett gone soft? Has the fan-imagined lore surrounding his character distracted us from a story that could be even more compelling? The Book of Boba Fett presents a much richer story than fan-imagined futures of Boba Fett. We see a story of lives changed: resurrection narratives, a life trajectory shifted through adoption, resulting in a recapturing of his morality and convictions.

This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Lisa Cooper about her online-exclusive article, ” Boba Fett’s Character Arc Actually Makes Sense ( A Review of The Book of Boba Fett)”. https://www.equip.org/article/boba-fetts-character-arc-actually-makes-sense-a-review-of-the-book-of-boba-fett/

Locked articles are online exclusive content that are only available to subscribers. There are three subscription options to access our online exclusive content.

1. Subscribe ($33.50) to the print edition of the Christian Research Journal which includes all online exclusive content.

2. Pay a monthly fee ($4.99) for Christian Research Journal online exclusive content. This does not include online versions of current print edition articles or receiving the print issues.

3. Pay an annual fee ($24.99) for Christian Research Journal online exclusive content. This does not include online versions of current print edition articles or receiving the print issues.

For more information and to subscribe please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/online-early-access-subscription-options/

Note online-exclusives are eventually made available to the public at regular intervals but to gain access to read it when it’s originally posted subscribing at the link above is the best option.

When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources at equip.org that minister to people worldwide. These resources include our ever growing database of over 1,500 articles, as well as our free Postmodern Realities podcast.

Another way you can support our online articles is by leaving us a tip. A tip is just a small amount, like $3, $5, or $10 which is the cost for some of a latte, lunch out, or coffee drink. To leave a tip, click here https://www.equip.org/product/pmr-jnl-tip/

Other articles and Postmodern Realities podcasts featuring this topic:

Episode 234: Star Wars Happy and Glorious in The High Republic

Happy and Glorious in The High Republic: A Review of The High Republic Era beginning with Star Wars: Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule

Episode 217: Thinking About Religion in The Mandalorian

This is the Way…Or is It?: Thinking About Religion in The Mandalorian

Episode 154: The Dead Won’t Stop Talking: A Review of The Rise of Skywalker

The Dead Won’t Stop Talking: A Review of The Rise of Skywalker

Episode 054: The Last Jedi: A Star Wars Movie for the Era of “the Nones”

The Last Jedi: A Star Wars Movie for the Era of “the Nones”

Episode 027: “Evaluating the Star Wars Worldview”

May the Force Bewitch You: Evaluating the Star Wars Worldview”.

Get “May the Force Bewitch You: Evaluating the Star Wars Worldview” in PDF format in:

English

Chinese

Spanish

By giving Jesus and his disciples clear and discernable personalities, The Chosen rises above the traditional (some would say “wooden”) Christian adaptations of the gospel story to offer viewers a thoroughly engrossing series. Of course, this means creative licenses are taken when fleshing out the gospel characters. But the most intriguing character to get a refined personality is, of course, Jesus (Jonathan Roumie) himself. The Chosen picks through the gospels with a fine-toothed comb to find every trace of his personality and attempts to pull those thin threads into a cohesive whole. Consider, by way of example, Jesus’s interaction with the Pharisees in Matthew 12. The Pharisees see his disciples picking and eating heads of grain on the Sabbath and confront him for breaking the Law of Moses. In his response, Jesus leads with, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry?” (Mt. 12:3). Theological points aside, look at the texture of Jesus’s response—asking Pharisees whether they have read about David! And this is not the only time in the gospels he poses this question to the same group. Obviously, the Pharisees have read about David—they are the religious leaders of the day. The question demonstrates the man’s cutting sense of irony, itself a form of humor. And this sense of humor is on full display in The Chosen. The ultimate result is a portrayal of Jesus that is actually quite believable. This is not to say that all other portrayals are faulty, because they certainly aren’t. However, where most other mainstream portrayals of Jesus lean into the ambiguity of his personality as depicted in the biblical canon (thereby make him seem distant or aloof), The Chosen gives him well-defined, multi-dimensional personality traits and marches forward with the story. The attention to context, both historical and immediate (for the characters), sets The Chosen apart from the usual Christian media fare. Yet these creative licenses, sure to provoke the ire of some, are what make The Chosen work as good contemporary television in ways that other adaptations, like History’s 2013 The Bible miniseries, simply cannot. If nothing else, The Chosen is worth viewing for Christians simply to see Jesus portrayed in a way that is achingly human. The show never shies away from his divinity but recognizes that this would be the most difficult characteristic of the man for his fellow humans to grasp. Rather than distance him and render him aloof as a result, the show leans into his human qualities to present a Christ who experiences real and complex human emotions; a Christ who is keenly aware of the fate that awaits him but is nonetheless capable of enjoying himself and others along the way.

This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Cole Burgett about his online-exclusive article, “King Laugh: Jesus of Nazareth In the Chosen ( A Series Review of The Chosen)”. https://www.equip.org/article/king-laugh-jesus-of-nazareth-in-the-chosen-a-series-review-of-the-chosen/

Locked articles are online exclusive content that are only available to subscribers. There are three subscription options to access our online exclusive content.

1. Subscribe ($33.50) to the print edition of the Christian Research Journal which includes all online exclusive content.

2. Pay a monthly fee ($4.99) for Christian Research Journal online exclusive content. This does not include online versions of current print edition articles or receiving the print issues.

3. Pay an annual fee ($24.99) for Christian Research Journal online exclusive content. This does not include online versions of current print edition articles or receiving the print issues.

For more information and to subscribe please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/online-early-access-subscription-options/

Note online-exclusives are eventually made available to the public at regular intervals but to gain access to read it when it’s originally posted subscribing at the link above is the best option.

When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources at equip.org that minister to people worldwide. These resources include our ever growing database of over 1,500 articles, as well as our free Postmodern Realities podcast.

Another way you can support our online articles is by leaving us a tip. A tip is just a small amount, like $3, $5, or $10 which is the cost for some of a latte, lunch out, or coffee drink. To leave a tip, click here https://www.equip.org/product/pmr-jnl-tip/

Related articles and Postmodern Realities podcasts

Episode 012: Jesus Films

Jesus Films: Who Does Hollywood Say That I Am?

Don’t miss an episode; please subscribe to the Postmodern Realities podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Please help spread the word about Postmodern Realities by giving us a rating and review when you subscribe to the podcast. The more ratings and reviews we have, the more new listeners can discover our content.

In a recent New York Times editorial entitled The Anti-Abortion Movement Could Reduce Abortions if It Wanted To, lawyer and journalist Jill Filipovic makes the case that an unhealthy preoccupation with birth control at the expense of limiting abortions exposes some ugly truths about the pro-life movement. According to Filipovic, pro-lifers are more interested in controlling women’s bodies than they are in pursuing measures that reduce the number of abortions, those measures being free access to long-term contraception and comprehensive sex education. Filipovic characterizes “many” pro-life individuals as mistakenly believing that contraception causes an abortion. These same people work to deny access to sex education and family planning, preventing the most vulnerable members of society, those most likely to experience unplanned pregnancies and seek abortions, the ability to use the most effective forms of contraception. The editorial is an oddly argued ad hominem attack. She condemns the prolife movement for not doing things to limit the number of abortions, which she believes are a fundamental right for all women and a good thing she has no interest in limiting. In an amazing coincidence, the measures most likely to serve the pro-life cause of reducing abortion happen to line up with the author’s own agenda for free contraception and progressive ideas on sex education. At our best, the pro-life community champions a clear message. Every human being ought to be treated with dignity and respect. Human beings are the imago Dei, the image-bearers of God. The embryonic and fetal humans are one of us and establishing a culture that protects their lives is better for us all. It elevates us to see the most vulnerable members in our community as worthy of our personal sacrifice. It gathers the community to seek creative solutions to life’s most difficult problems rather than seeking a minimally disruptive path that destroys human lives deemed inconvenient. The benefits of a clear and passionate call to respect life are obvious. If we can become convinced to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, the change will immediately protect those most at risk, the unborn, but also those who would destroy the unborn out of fear or selfishness. We endeavor to end abortion because any amount of abortion in our community hurts us all.

This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Jay Watts about his online-exclusive article, “Filipovic’s Confused Claim that the Pro-Life Community Must Champion Contraception”.https://www.equip.org/article/filipovics-confused-claim-that-the-pro-life-community-must-champion-contraception/

Locked articles are online exclusive content that are only available to subscribers. There are three subscription options to access our online exclusive content.

1. Subscribe ($33.50) to the print edition of the Christian Research Journal which includes all online exclusive content.

2. Pay a monthly fee ($4.99) for Christian Research Journal online exclusive content. This does not include online versions of current print edition articles or receiving the print issues.

3. Pay an annual fee ($24.99) for Christian Research Journal online exclusive content. This does not include online versions of current print edition articles or receiving the print issues.

For more information and to subscribe please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/online-early-access-subscription-options/
Note online-exclusives are eventually made available to the public at regular intervals but to gain access to read it when it’s originally posted subscribing at the link above is the best option.

When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources at equip.org that minister to people worldwide. These resources include our ever growing database of over 1,500 articles, as well as our free Postmodern Realities podcast.

Another way you can support our online articles is by leaving us a tip. A tip is just a small amount, like $3, $5, or $10 which is the cost for some of a latte, lunch out, or coffee drink. To leave a tip, click here https://www.equip.org/product/pmr-jnl-tip/

Other articles and Postmodern Realities podcasts featuring this author

Episode 249: Do Abortion Politics Hurt Women Enduring Miscarriage?

Do Abortion Politics Hurt Women Enduring Miscarriage?

Episode 230: Is it Ethical for Pro-Life Christians to Receive Covid-19 Vaccines?

Is it Ethical for Pro-Life Christians to Receive Covid-19 Vaccines?

Episode 190 Assessing the Confession of Norma McCorvey in AKA Jane Roe

Assessing the Confession of Norma McCorvey in AKA Jane Roe

Episode 163 Merely Human: The Problem of Recognizing Chimpanzees as Persons

Merely Human: The Problem of Recognizing Chimpanzees as Persons

Episode 134 Are Laws Restricting Abortion Forced Organ Donation? A Review of Beyond Roe

Are Laws Restricting Abortion Forced Organ Donation? A Review of Beyond Roe

Episode 117-Unplanned: An Imperfect but Brave Film

Unplanned: An Imperfect but Brave Film

Episode 042: When Freedom of Expression and Emotions Collide on Campus

When Freedom of Expression and Emotions Collide on Campus

Episode 032: On Chimeras and What It Means to Be Human

On Chimeras and What It Means to Be Human

Episode 013: Death with Dignity and the Imago Dei

Death with Dignity and the Imago Dei

Episode 007: Rape and Sexual Violence on the College Campus

Rape and Sexual Violence on Campus

Don’t miss an episode; please subscribe to the Postmodern Realities podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Please help spread the word about Postmodern Realities by giving us a rating and review when you subscribe to the podcast. The more ratings and reviews we have, the more new listeners can discover our content.

Revoice 2021 Together met in October 2021 in Dallas to encourage what they call “sexual minorities” within the church to obedience, to reach out evangelistically to LGBTQ people, and to minister to “sexual majority” Christians. The conference featured Eve Tushnet, Preston Sprinkle, Greg Johnson, Misty Irons, Greg Coles, and many other speakers, as well as panels on gender minorities, racial minorities, and women. With an emphasis on community support (reflected in the theme “together”), the speakers called the gathered assembly to be obedient to a biblical sexual ethic, as well as acknowledging the pain that the church has caused to those who identify as LGBTQ.

Revoice 2021 positions itself in the theological mainstream, as if the controversies surrounding the conference and movement are purely semantic. The wider evangelical church, for example, by policing the language of people who identify as LGBTQ, are said to erect artificial barriers for entrance into the kingdom of God, akin to those of New Testament era Judaizers. Revoice, as a movement, is prepared to forgive and reach out to those in the church who are complicit in this grave sin, but the church should repent and move on from these kinds of debates for the sake of mission and the witness of the gospel.

Rather than a purely semantic disagreement over whether or not to use the word “gay,” the language applied to self-hood and identity by Revoice points to underlying philosophical and theological assumptions that Christians should identify themselves by sexual behavior and inclinations, grounding this identification in a secular gender ideology rather than the Scriptures. Furthermore, by framing the semantic issues as Side A and Side B — referring to “Side A brothers and sisters” — they make the question of sexuality, both behavior and identity, to be adiaphora, a non-essential issue that Christians are free to disagree about. Rather than a “slippery slope,” both the ideology and language that Revoice is embracing will eventually take them over a spiritual cliff.

*Note this description has been updated along with the article below on February 8th, 2022. *

This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Anne Kennedy about her online-exclusive article, “Identity and Obedience in Revoice 2021”. https://www.equip.org/article/identity-and-obedience-in-revoice-2021/

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When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources at equip.org that minister to people worldwide. These resources include our ever growing database of over 1,500 articles, as well as our free Postmodern Realities podcast.



Other articles featuring this topic:

Homosexuality and Modern Ministry: Examining Old Approaches and Assessing New Ones Part One: A History of Missions and Missteps

Identity, Terminology, and the Revoice Conference

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When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources at equip.org that minister to people worldwide. These resources include our ever growing database of over 1,500 articles, as well as our free Postmodern Realities podcast.

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In some ways, Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) represents the zenith of the modern pop-culture superhero craze. While it’s certainly better than any film of this sort has any right to be, it’s also not as good as that Rotten Tomatoes score would lead you to believe. There is a certain logic that is absent from the core mechanics of how the “multiverse” is supposed to work. But what Spider-Man sacrifices in the way of coherency, it more than makes up for in the way of generating pathos. The real draw of Spider-Man: No Way Home is the chance to see the three modern cinematic incarnations of Spider-Man all playing in the same sandbox at the same time. Perhaps the reason Spider-Man: No Way Home seems stale has to do with the fact that this story has already been told in a much more interesting fashion, and recently. There is little doubt that 2018’s Academy Award-winning animated feature Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse played a significant role in the trajectory the current live-action Spider-Man films are now taking. But where Sony’s hit wowed critics and audiences alike with the limitless flair of animation, Disney’s live-action version of the dimension-hopping Spider-Men looks like any of the other CGI-laden superhero blockbusters of recent years. And in the context of the previous narratives that Spider-Man: No Way Home tries to tie off, what results is something worse than cynicism — sentimentality, the reducing of complexity to trite cliché, preying on nostalgia, the trading on emotion for the sake of emotion, and that is the currency with which this film pays dividends. Spider-Man: No Way Home is a film just about anyone can sit down and enjoy. No one can accuse these kinds of films of being poorly made; studios throw too much money at them for that. But when it comes to substance, depth, texture, and contradiction, the thinking filmgoer will be left wanting.

This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Cole Burgett about his online-exclusive article, “Spider-Man: No Way Home and the Emotional Cheapening of the Modern Blockbuster.“ https://www.equip.org/article/spider-man-no-way-home-and-the-emotional-cheapening-of-the-modern-blockbuster/

Please note this article will be fully accessible by the public in the future, to get early access to read it now, please see our FAQ section on Early Access to Online-Exclusive Articles by clicking here. https://www.equip.org/early-access-to-online-exclusive-articles-faqs/

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Other articles and Postmodern Realities podcasts featuring this author
Episode 269 The Matrix Resurrections: Self-Awareness and Romance in the Digital Age

The Matrix Resurrections: Self-Awareness and Romance in the Digital Age
Episode 263: Free Will, the Power of Choice, and Skin in Eternals

Episode 261 Dune and the Future of the Science Fiction Epic

Dune and the Future of the Science Fiction Epic

Episode 259: All the Time in the World: No Time to Die and the End of an Era

All the Time in the World: No Time to Die and the End of an Era

Episode 251 Growing Up and Letting Go in CODA

Growing Up and Letting Go in CODA

Episode 242: Friendship and Fatherhood in Pixar’s Luca

Friendship and Fatherhood in Pixar’s Luca

Episode 239: No Us Without Him: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Zack Snyder’s Justice League

No Us Without Him: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Zack Snyder’s Justice League

Episode 234: Star Wars Happy and Glorious in The High Republic

Happy and Glorious in The High Republic: A Review of The High Republic Era beginning with Star Wars: Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule

Episode 227 Catharsis and the Power of Release in WandaVison

Catharsis and the Power of Release in Wandavison

Episode 222 Deconstructionism and the Gospel of Hope in Logan

Deconstructionism and the Gospel of Hope in Logan

Episode 218: Wonder Woman 1984: The Truth Is Enough.

Wonder Woman 1984: The Truth Is Enough.

Episode 214 Star Trek’s Christopher Pike: An Old Fashioned Hero For Our Cynical Times

Star Trek’s Christopher Pike: An Old- Fashioned Hero for Our Cynical Time

Don’t miss an episode; please subscribe to the Postmodern Realities podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Please help spread the word about Postmodern Realities by giving us a rating and review when you subscribe to the podcast. The more ratings and reviews we have, the more new listeners can discover our content.

For us to have a robust free will, there must be an amount of divine hiddenness, or what John Hick called “epistemic distance.” Divine hiddenness is the teaching that for humans to act out of free will, God’s existence (or presence) can’t be too obvious. Not surprisingly, this is a doctrine that many Christians misunderstand and over which skeptics howl. Many Christians ask, and even sometimes complain, that God should make His presence more apparent. Skeptics complain that if God really loved us (in other words, if God were really a good God), He would make His existence unmistakable.

But the Lord absolutely doesn’t want to do that. Why? Because the Lord doesn’t want us to feign loyalty. As Clay Jones wrote in his book, Why Does God Allow Evil?, God could have designed the universe so that when we looked up, even if we were indoors, we would always see a Giant Flaming Sword, and if anyone rebelled against God, that Giant Flaming Sword would immediately cut him in half! Omnipotence could easily do such a thing. But how many people would be Christian in such a world? All of them! Everyone would, at the very least, feign loyalty. But how many true worshippers would you get in such a world? You don’t get true worshippers in that world. Worship, like love, must be uncoerced.

This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Clay Jones about his article in the 44:4 issue, entitled, “Four Types of Divine Hiddenness of God”.

For a special limited preview of this print article please click here! https://www.equip.org/article/four-types-of-divine-hiddenness-of-god-special-limited-preview/
To read the article in it’s entirety please subscribe to the print subscription and get it as your first issue now. (December 2021-March 2022) please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/crj-subscription/

When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources at equip.org that minister to people worldwide. These resources include our ever growing database of over 1,500 articles, as well as our free Postmodern Realities podcast.

Another way you can support our online articles is by leaving us a tip. A tip is just a small amount, like $3, $5, or $10 which is the cost for some of a latte, lunch out, or coffee drink. To leave a tip, click here https://www.equip.org/product/pmr-jnl-tip/

Other articles and podcasts featuring this author:

Postmodern Realities Episode 247: Is It True That There Are Good Non-Christians?

Is It true That There Are Good Non-Christians?

Postmodern Realities Episode 233 You Probably Aren’t Saved If…(This Is about Sex)

You Probably Aren’t Saved If…(This Is about Sex)

Postmodern Realities Episode 202 Symbolic Immortality Projects Can’t Save You

Symbolic Immortality Projects Can’t Save You

Postmodern Realities Episode 183 Immortal: How the Fear of Death Drives Us and What We Can Do About It

Immortal—Epicurus, Sam Harris, and Bart Ehrman Are Wrong: Death Is Something

Postmodern Realities Episode 176 Our Fallen World

Hank Unplugged: Why God Permits Evil with Clay Jones

Postmodern Realities: Episode 114 Why Did God Let that Child Die?

Why Did God Let That Child Die?

Postmodern Realities: Episode 068: Something Made: The Role of Form in Apologetics

Something Made : The Role of Form in Apologetics

Postmodern Realities: Episode 030: Evangelizing the Cultural Christian

Evangelizing the Cultural Christian

Killing the Canaanites: A Response to the New Atheism’s “Divine Genocide” Claims



Don’t miss an episode; please subscribe to the Postmodern Realities podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Please help spread the word about Postmodern Realities by giving us a rating and review when you subscribe to the podcast. The more ratings and reviews we have, the more new listeners can discover our content.