Dear Partner in Preaching, Yes, I have the Academy Awards on my mind. Actually, I only watched a bit of the program this past Sunday evening and have not seen all the contenders for best film yet. But of the various moments of the show I did catch, one helped me articulate what I think is the heart of not just this week’s passage but the whole of the Gospel. It was the song “Glory” from Ava DuVernay’s film Selma, and what struck me was how the song writers John Legend and Common described the march to Selma in the terms of glory. Think about that for a moment. That march, along with the larger struggle for civil rights, was...

I realize that there is no category at tonight’s Academy Awards for “Best Film Dealing with Theology ,” but I can’t help wonder who the winner would be if there were. Now, I should be clear: by “theological” I don’t mean “religious.” We all have our favorite religious movie, I’m sure. But what I’m interested in here are the movies that delve into questions of life, death, destiny, meaning, and faith in an interesting and engaging way. Would it be The Descendants with its description of the broken and poignant relationships that are part and parcel of the human condition? Or perhaps The Help with its portrayal of the...