Finding Treasure in a Broken Land: America’s Best Songwriter, Thirty Years On
An antidote to both hopeless secularism and blind, unreflective faith, Mark Heard’s songs grab listeners by the lapels and shake them awake.
“It’s an Old Song, and We’re Gonna Sing It Again”: Hadestown, Sir Orfeo, and Music for the End of Time
There is indeed an affinity to the classical pagan tale in Hadestown, one that tells us much about our own day—especially when compared to the medieval poem Sir Orfeo.
When Violence Is Not the Answer but Certainly the Question: Bruce Cockburn’s “If I Had a Rocket Launcher”
The question of the dissemination of dangerous ideas through art is always a contentious one.
Does Evil Have a Sound? Reflections on Vecna’s Playlist, Black Metal & the Banality of Evil
Is Vecna’s evil really exemplified best by the tumultuous sounds of black metal artists like Darkthrone and Mayhem?
“Hold Me Jesus ’Cause I’m Shaking Like A Leaf”: Anxiety and the Eucharist
I wish I could say that Christians are exempt from the effects of fear, but to say so would be a lie.
That Melody above the Herd: Pilgrims, Punk Rock, and Love in U2’s Songs of Innocence
In U2’s Songs of Innocence, the artist can participate in this reality of love, but only if he can first humbly admit the poverty of his own soul.
On Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers, Kendrick Lamar Finds Peace with Self by Accepting Conflict
Instead of simply preaching his thoughts on those controversial topics, Lamar shares his experiences and resulting perspectives on the matters.
“We’d Still Worship This Love”: Desiring God with Hozier, Taylor Swift, and Justin Bieber
Three hit songs offer three different perspectives on what it means to worship.
Natalie Bergman’s Mercy Is an Exquisite Expression of Grief, Faith, and Love
These songs may be deeply sad, but the album serves as a stirring reminder that death doesn’t have the final word.
“Everything Is Alright”? Self-Loathing and Salvation through Commit This to Memory
Seventeen years later, Commit This to Memory remains a visceral account of one man’s search for that reality, an empty bottle ebenezer reminding us that self-actualization is a messy, painful, and ultimately impossible process. Without help, that is.
1981 vs. 2021: Searching for Salvation
Reviewing the products of 1981 and 2021 reveals our desperate search for salvation from death… and salvation from modern daily life.
CAPC’s Most-Read Articles of 2021
Here’s what everyone was reading at Christ and Pop Culture in 2021.
No, You Can’t Get It All Done: Time Management for Mortals and Mineo’s Never Land II
You have to choose a few things, sacrifice everything else, and deal with the inevitable sense of loss that results.
Lyrics of Lament: Suffering and Theodicy in Hip-Hop
When Tamir Rice and Trayvon Martin were killed, when children die around the world of preventable disease, when children and teens experience the “death” of family and get bounced around foster homes, evil is manifest. Suffering has a face. Suddenly questioning God’s plan seems the most reasonable course of action.
Lorde’s Solar Power Is an Embodiment of the Spiritual-but-Not-Religious Age
Even as Solar Power knocks at the hollow of everything that we seem to live for, these are questions that, even at the end, remain unanswered.
Could J. Cole’s The Off-Season Just Be an “Okay” Album?
The Off-Season might just be an “okay” album for some J. Cole fans’ standards; but if we take into account its purpose as a work of art, it wouldn’t be an overstatement to categorize it as great.
