Monsters at the Margin

VIRTUE IS FOUND at the margins of society more often than at its centre. If this is so, Mary Shelley's Monster is a real find! Her creature is an isolate of great sensitivity, kindness, and insight. Contrary to James Whale's 1931 film of the Creature as a lumbering dolt, Mary Shelley's Monster was modeled on Rousseau's notion of humanity as the "noble savage." The nobility of the Creature is evident as he unveils his chronicle to Victor Frankenstein upon the icy crags of Mount Blanc. Meet Frankenstein's Creature

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Hearers and Doers of the Word

We have had a variety of experiences in relationship to the Bible that colour how we have come to approach it. Some recall positive experiences of hearing a grace-filled word, others recall negative experiences of being held to account by its . Whatever our past experiences, many of us have been surprised to discover, through various authors or our own reading, that the Bible contains a depth of meaning beyond what we expected. The Word was introduced as an 'incarnate and living word', 'like Christ' in that it actually exists yet points to something transcendent. It is meant to be

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Party Etiquette for Cross and Resurrection People

Watching the movie of David Adam Richards' The Bay Of Love And Sorrows and reading the story of the great banquet in Luke 14:15-24 was like having the same yarn told stereophonically. The Bay Of Love And Sorrows kicks off with a party, a rural New Brunswick booze-fest back in the heady utopian days of the early '70s. Two men, Michael Skid and Everett Hutch, were celebrating their homecoming: Michael from his exotic pilgrimage to India, and Everett from his dreary confinement in a provincial penitentiary.

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A Reading Guide For After The Flood

Lovers of books often complain that we read too slowly and wonder if we will ever take the time and effort to master the The Art of Speed Reading. My difficulty is that sometimes, strike that - often, that I need to acquire the Art of Reading Slowly to integrate what I read. I don't do that nearly enough. My habitual approach is to read a book with my mind and my hand outstretched to the read. I read distractedly often merely to get the basic gist, get through to book, and then add another book to my growing list

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Encountering Horror and the Holy

KIRK SCHNEIDER IS an existentialist- psychologist interested in the transformative effect of horror literature on readers. He advocates a form of bibliotherapy using horror literature and cinema as a means of exploring our human condition, its limitations and its responsibilities. His book Horror and the Holy: Wisdom-Teachings of the Monster Tale separates horror into two categories: those tales like Dracula that constrict and imprison the consciousness, reducing it to a microcosm, and tales like Frankenstein that expand the consciousness, mirroring the macrocosmic dimension. In many horror stories there are elements of both tendencies but usually one or the other predominate.

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Origen's Allegorical Method

During this second night on Origen we explored his theme of warfare and his allegorical approach to reading. 1) Origen's third theme of warfare. He has an interesting twist on this idea that is linked to being a martyr. He feels we are called first to an inner war - to fight that which brings conflict within our soul. Having fortified our character, we are called to change the world through active non-resistance. So how do we fortify our character, you may ask? Origen says through training. He believed that God acts as a divine goldsmith who hammers us into

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Persuading The Gardner

Whether or not Luther derived his existential way of interpreting Scripture from the medieval four-fold interpretive method, the German mystics, his love of Augustine, or his own passionate nature, what translated his tentative inklings into definitive spiritual prescriptions was the assignment by his mentor Johan Von Stauptiz: to teach students. His first serious attempt (1513-15) involved reading the Psalter as a living oracle. This was not an easy task given the obscure, vindictive, lament-like nature of many Psalms. Luther filtered his reading of the Psalms through his understanding of Christ. He read them christologically. He also applied the tropological or

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