For the record, there are two great filmmakers working today who happen to be Christians: Whit Stillman and John Patrick Shanley. Shanley’s Wild Mountain Thyme was both weird and conventional, traditional and Shakespearean, and included a number of scenes so thematically rich, I was already looking forward to my third or fourth viewing. It hasContinue reading “The Best Film of 2020”
Author Archives: Joshua Gibbs
Sing Night And Day
This song is overwhelmingly beautiful. Britten does more in these one hundred seconds than many other competent composers can accomplish in forty minutes.
Proverbial: Episode 46
After a month off, Proverbial is back. Available now, “A New Twist on an Old Favorite.” Up for consideration is Edmund Burke’s aphorism, “A spirit of innovation is generally the result of a selfish tempter and confined views.”
The Proverbial Air Max 90
More On Senior Thesis
“No thesis statement should be approved which merely calls for the government to make a new law or spend more money. Assuming the audience of a senior thesis is the high school student body, the only thesis statements that should be approved are those which an audience of high school students can personally, immediately respondContinue reading “More On Senior Thesis”
The Writing Life
“Very few high school writing teachers are writers. Non-writers who teach writing are generally more optimistic (and more vocal) about the prospect of ‘making good writers’ out of high school students, which is why many parents believe their sons and daughters can become better writers while maintaining debilitating screen addictions, writing very little, and almostContinue reading “The Writing Life”
Other Compelling Lessons I Learned From “The Crown”
“While I appreciate the fact the so-called “Matthew 18 principle” prohibits gossip and slander, many Christians treat the “Matthew 18 principle” as a kind of theological-bureaucratic rigmarole that must be blown through before the real work of dismantling someone’s reputation or career can be “righteously” undertaken. I find it telling that the eighteenth chapter ofContinue reading “Other Compelling Lessons I Learned From “The Crown””
Literal
One of the most stunning turns of phrase in Scripture is the description of Christ as “the first born from the dead,” which we often take as a euphemism or a symbolic claim, and yet it really must be taken at face value to be appreciated.
Intellectual Honesty In An Age of Flattery
In the next several days, the GibbsClassical.com mailing list will receive an invitation to a lecture entitled “Intellectual Honesty In An Age of Flattery,” which I am delivering online on the evening of January 21st. If you would like to attend this lecture for free, head over to GibbsClassical.com and sign up for the mailingContinue reading “Intellectual Honesty In An Age of Flattery”
This Is What I Learned From “The Crown”
Can we talk about what happened in DC the other day? My latest for CiRCE concerns discussions of recent events in the classroom.