What 1984 teaches us in 2026

I first read 1984 in 1985. Orwellโ€™s great novel was assigned by my school curriculum for analysis and sober reflection, as it should be for every student in every school. If you have not yet read it, know that Big Brother is coming for you, and read it before it is too late. [Spoiler alert. …

Theology and imagination in Robert Musil’s works

Robert Musil is one of the least widely read of the great European modernist writers, yet his work occupies a distinctive place in twentieth-century intellectual culture. His fiction is neither conventionally religious nor militantly anti-religious. It explores the spiritual exhaustion of modern civilisation, the collapse of moral certainty, and the persistent human longing for transcendence …

Review of Seven Stories by Anthony W. Bartlettย 

Anthony W. Bartlettโ€™s Seven Stories: How to Study and Teach the Nonviolent Bible (third edition; n.p.: Hopetime Press, 2026) offers a bold reinterpretation of Jewish and Christian Scripture, bringing together historical-critical scholarship, literary sensitivity, and the anthropological insights of French semiotician Renรฉ Girard. Bartlett claims that the Bible is a progressive revelation that exposes the deep structures …

The Bible in Photography: Index, Icon, Tableau, Vision

Sheona Beaumont, The Bible in Photography: Index, Icon, Tableau, Vision (London: T&T Clark, 2024). 227pp. ISBN 9780567706539 Reviewed by Dr Rod Benson Women grinding wheat at Ramallah, Palestine, early twentieth century. Photo: public domain. In this book, British academic Sheona Beaumont explores the photographic representation of biblical narrative through the lens of twentieth-century cultural criticism. …

The Bible in the Early Church

Justo Gonzรกlez, The Bible in the Early Church (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2022). 186pp + indexes. ISBN 9780802881748 Reviewed by Dr Rod Benson When Christians and people of other or no faith ask me questions about the Bible, they typically donโ€™t ask why I regard the Bible as trustworthy, or why I shape my life on …