Philip Vivirito Reading Blog 3

The other day I read an article by Relevant Magazine that looked at 6 points of conversation Steven Colbert had over his tenure as the host of Colbert Report. They are revolved him defending the faith, and often him breaking character on his show to tell his guest about the truths of the Bible. I found awesome that a comedian of his statue has such great faith. A lot of what he said was so well put you could mistake him as a pastor or some church leader. It showed a different side of Colbert I have never seen, and it was very uplifting. I usually don’t read articles from Relevant Magazine because they are just over bias, and have the time just plain dumb. My favorite point of conversation is when Colbert said, “If Jesus doesn’t have a sense of humor, I am in huge trouble.” I think its awesome a Christian can be a comedian like Colbert can be. Who cares if he cusses and is somewhat inappropriate at times? The bottom line is that he is a man after God’s heat and that he loves Jesus Christ. He shows it through his humor and through his faith. Very awesome article, recommend it very much.   

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/culture/6-times-stephen-colbert-got-serious-about-faith

Philip Vivirito Reading Blog 2

In C.S Lewis, The Four Loves, he writes, “Man’s spiritual health is exactly proportional to his love for God.” This is probably my favorite Lewis quote, because it is has such an impacting application. In the 1 John 4 it says that God is love, and that if you hate your brother but you say you love God he is a liar. I seems that loving God is the most grounding aspect of your faith, and that if your love is weak your spiritual health is low. I think that as believers we sometimes underestimate how important love is in our walk with God. If you have extreme faith, but weak love is your spiritual health affected? I honestly believe that we need to correlate faith and love. That what Lewis said shouldn’t be something new, it should be something challenging and uplifting.

The Four Loves 

Philip Vivirito Reading Blog 1

Over the semester I have been writing my senior thesis, and have engaged with various amounts of different works. One of my favorite books I read for my paper was C.S Lewis, Problem of Pain. One of my favorite lines from the book is, “ To condone an evil is simply to ignore it, to treat it as if it were good. But forgiveness needs to be accepted as well as offered if it is to be complete: and a man who admits no guilt can accept no forgiveness” (124).  When I first read this it shocked me, but then when I read it a second time it really hit me. How many times does a person get forgiveness for some act, but then not show his guilt for something he did? I think this goes back to what Lewis says at first: “to condone an evil is to ignore it,” I think that we often just over look the guilt of a man and forgive him, when we need to look at the guilt and repent. I know for me it is hard to show my guilt for actions I commit because it is just human nature not to admit to wrongdoing.  I think people need to focus on giving and accepting that we are all guilt of sinning and that we need to vocalize that to achieve true forgiveness.

Problem of Pain 

Luke Jeffery: Northfork

The theme of journey is evident in the film Northfork. Characters in the film repeat the phrase, "Have a pleasant journey" over and over again.  The entire film is a journey itself from the town of Northfork on to another place.  Those who lived in the town are seen as sojourners that are traveling to find a new home.  This theme of journey goes even further as the film hints that our lives are only a journey on this life.  This theme can be seen from the fact that the town will be flooded with water and recreated into a massive lake.  This shift displays that man's footprint on the earth can be erased and reprinted depending on society and culture.  Interestingly, the mountains remain as witnesses to all of the change that is happening. They stay the same.  We can see that God remains the same even though there is shifting and changing in the world that is particularly influenced by man.

Buhl- Free blog 4

 

The movie I picked to write my term paper on is Moulin Rouge, directed by Baz Luhrmann and released in the United States in 2001. Throughout the movie the main characters, Christian and Satine, fall in love while producing a musical at the Moulin Rouge in Paris, France. Satine and Christian, through the ritual of rehearsal, Satine is presented with the sacred orders; she accepts them into her life and is transformed through the practice of ritual. As the movie progresses, the sacred and profane orders reveal themselves through select scenes. The sacred is performed through rehearsals and the love between Christian and Satine; the profane is represented in the building of the Moulin Rouge. The Moulin Rouge is filled with scandalous dancers and materialistic goods. Throughout the movie Satine transforms from being the queen of the profane world to a follower of the sacred. Through her transformation she understands and can accept the love that Christian is giving her.

I really loved this movie before I selected to study it for this class. What made me go out and actually purchase this movie was Satine’s transformation is incredible and moving; at the start of the movie she was so against love and only comfortable in her little world of the Moulin Rouge. But as the movie progresses she finds herself falling for Christian. This movie reminds me how important and life-changing relationships are; not just limiting to how important and moving love is, even though love is a major theme in this movie. Over the course of the movie Satine undergoes her transformation, which becomes liberating to her.

Luke Taylor- North Fork: A Unique Lens (Blog Assignment #4)

In the film, North Fork, I really loved the idea of Happy’s lens. They were his own unique lens that worked only for him and with them he could see things that no one else could. Although the physical idea of the lens was important in the film, it made me think a little outside of the box. We all have our own special lens, every single person; people with their own pair of glasses but even people without.  These lenses go much deeper than just the physical specimen of glasses that help us see well. The lens I’m talking about do not pertain to what one can and cannot see by their eye sight but more of who they are and how they perceive things in life. Each and every single one of us has all gone through different events in our lives. Some things that we’ve gone through have been some of the greatest experiences of our lives, and some have been the worst. Nonetheless, these experiences we have gone through have impacted our lives and have adjusted our very own special lenses. We perceive things differently because of them; we view life at different angles. 

C.S. Lewis once said “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” With that being said, in a similar understanding, C.S. Lewis’ lenses are influenced by Christianity. He views life differently because of what he can now see because he is a Christian. He is implying that before he was a Christian he viewed a lot of things differently but now he has a new perspective on life and because of that his very own lens have changed and he sees life in an entirely new perspective.

In my own life I have seen a similar change. I used to live a life where I certainly did a lot of wrong to a lot of different people and saw nothing wrong with it. I felt no remorse for my wrong doings and continued to live a life in which I would always gratify myself in the best possible ways. However, because of the impact that God has had on my life my own lens was transformed. I no longer did the evils I once boasted in; rather I felt wrong in even considering them. I believe that we all have our very own lens that is always shifting and changing depending on where we are in our life and what our perspective on life is. We all have our own lens and they are always changing.

                                                                                                                         

Buhl- Free blog 3

Mediated by Thomas de Zengotita (2005)

In this book there are four main points but only two out of the four apply to this class. The last two he mentions in his book are “the blob” and also the “real verses the mediated.”  The blob is a visual metaphor for the audience to understand and offer an image to capture and describe the historical process of how media takes over reality and grows "fakeness." The fakeness describes how things become just mere shadows of what they were. Through our mediated world our perception is transformed into seeing and understanding a mediated world, and not the true reality of our society. Mediated culture has seeped into our religious culture as well as our everyday life. Mediation is structuring religious experiences. For example the local church Water’s Edge; the pastor only attends one out of five churches each Sunday and then broadcasts to the other churches over a projector screen. The pastor isn’t really at the other four locations; he is a holographic image that people are responding to. Technology is standing in for an actual person; the experience of this religious experience is being mediated by the use of technology. The use of technology is affecting the religious message that is being communicated to the congregation of this mega church. Language is not an empty vehicle in which we communicate with one other, the way we choose to communicate or which ever medium we choose to use affect the message that is being produced. This is what is happening in this church. The technology is getting in the way of the actual religious message.