Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Dismantling Privilege: A Review Of “White Picket Fences”, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "Every once in a while, I read a book that resonates with me so fully, I wish I could become close friends with its author. I presume this is the case with most inveterate readers: we see our lives represented in an author’s words, and feel that—perhaps for the first time— someone has articulated our own experiences and world views completely. We might even imagine spending a long afternoon talking faceto- face with the author over coffee, the book having convinced us that time together would pass quickly because we were so simpatico."

Saving People From The Fiery Pits Of Hell? A Review Of “The Very Worst Missionary”, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "As a Christian college student several decades ago, I knew without a doubt that the holiest, most sanctified majors on campus where those preparing their graduates for overseas missions. This probably explains the small twinges of guilt I felt when others gushed about their longing to serve God on the mission field. Nothing about that vocation seemed appealing to me, nor did the yearly short-term missions trips the college hosted, when vanloads of students travelled to Mexico or flew to other far-away locales to offer children a week of Vacation Bible School, or to build an outdoor baño."

Reckoning With “Other Lies”: A Review Of “Everything Happens For A Reason”, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "Everything Happens For a Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved narrates the aftermath of Bowler’s diagnosis, reflecting on what it means to live well despite the specter of death. The memoir, by turns funny, thoughtful, meditative, and sobering, asks important questions about how we understand God in the midst of suffering and pain, especially when those facile mythologies we often turn to—everything happens for a reason, it’s all part of God’s plan, God is teaching me something—provide insufficient comfort for those who are hurting."

The Limitations Of Welcome: An Interview With Amy Jacober, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "Amy Jacober remembers well the anger she felt when, in her early 20s, she saw a first-grade girl get kicked out of her church’s youth choir. The girl, a daughter of close friends, had Down syndrome, and the choir’s director decided since there was no one to help the child navigate her time in choir, she would be banned from participating."

Raising Spiritual Kids In The Age Of Instagram, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "The call came in to our harvest-yellow kitchen when I was fourteen. I stood at the breakfast bar with my family's also-yellow phone pressed to me ear, winding and unwinding the twisted cord while listening to Tamara, my erstwhile friend. She wanted me to know I was nice enough, but that everyone in my ninth-grade class agreed I needed to get some new clothes already. And that I definitely needed to get a new hairstyle, because my short curls were really ugly (except she used an expletive in place of "really")."

Finding The Intersections: A Review Of “This Child Of Faith”, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "Sophfronia Scott and her son, Tain Gregory, have a compelling story to tell. In December 2012, Tain was a thirdgrader at Sandy Hook Elementary, the school that became synonymous with the tragedy of school shootings when 20 first-grade children and six adult staff members were killed at Sandy Hook in a massacre that took only moments. Tain’s friend, Ben, was among those killed, as was the school’s principal, a woman who had only months earlier warmly welcomed Tain to his new school. Sophfronia and Tain tell their story in the book This Child of Faith: Raising a Spiritual Child …

Book Review: I’M Still Here: Black Dignity In A World Made For Whiteness, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "As a Christian feminist and progressive, I spend a lot of time patting myself on the back, believing other people might be racist or sexist or otherwise close-minded, but certainly not me. It’s easy for me to assert my bona fides. I seek to be inclusive in my language and in my actions; I champion diversity in the classes I teach; I have two teenage boys who are not white and with whom I’m carefully navigating an educational experience that has not been wholly positive, given their place in a majority white school."

The Totality (Chapter In Into The Deep: An Unlikely Catholic Conversion), Abigail Rine Favale

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "For over a decade, the maleness of the priesthood kept me away from the Catholic Church. By the time I was a junior in college, my feminism was in full swing, and the ordination of women had become my litmus test for whether or not I could be part of a particular church or denomination."

C. S. Lewis' Ambivalence Toward Rhetoric And Style, Gary L. Tandy

Faculty Publications - Department of English

While C. S. Lewis has been called by many names (scholar, teacher, speaker, philosopher, literary critic, and theologian, to name only a few), rhetorician is the name he often used to describe himself, and, based upon his life and body of work, it is perhaps one of the most appropriate titles for him. As James Como asserts, "[Lewis'] rhetorical temper provided a compulsiveness and a posture that could be resolved only in argument. Training, taste, and talent equipped him for an academic and apologetic career, to the exclusion of nearly all others ... Lewis was the quintessential Homo rhetoricus, knew …

Book Review: Fat And Faithful: Learning To Love Our Bodies, Our Neighbors, And Ourselves, Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "Patterson is the former president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, fired in May because of his misogynistic comments and mishandling of sexual abuse claims. He chose in his return to preaching last week to question the legitimacy of the #MeToo movement, and apparently thought the pulpit was the best place to body-shame women, in particular those who are fat. In a sermon during a Christian revival, Patterson described a woman who “filled the door,” made a joke about the baptistery and her weight, and said that she could play linebacker for an NFL team.

The audience, there ostensibly …

"When The Light That's Lost Within Us Reaches The Sky" Jackson Browne's Romantic Vision (Chapter Seven Of Rock And Romanticism: Blake, Wordsworth, And Rock From Dylan To U2), Gary L. Tandy

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "In "Michael: A Pastoral Poem," William Wordsworth imagines "youthful Poets, who among these Hills I Will be my second Self when I am gone." 1 In his recent critical study, Andrew Bennett suggests that Wordsworth and the other British Romantic poets continue to have an impact on the poetry and poetic theory of our times: "Contemporary culture, indeed, is pervaded by developments in conceptions of poetry and art that are associated most fully with the Romantic period."2 As Sayre and Lowy state, "Far from being a purely nineteenth-century phenomenon, Romanticism is an essential component of modern culture."3 One contemporary …

Why Mowing The Lawn Can Be Complicated (Chapter 6 From Worthy: Finding Yourself In A World Expecting Someone Else), Melanie Springer Mock

Faculty Publications - Department of English

In Worthy, college professor Melanie Springer Mock sifts through the shape and weight of expectations that press Christians into cultural molds rather than God's image. By plumbing Scripture and critiquing the ten-billion-dollar-a-year self-improvement industry, Mock offers life-giving reminders that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Set free from the anxiety to conform to others' expectations, we are liberated to become who God has created us to be. If you're worn out from worrying that you've missed God's One Big Calling, and if you're tired of trying to fit yourself into some cookie-cutter Christian mold, step away from the expectations and …