catapult magazine

vol. 7, num. 12 :: 2008.06.13 — 2008.06.27

What is happening to the world when a teen-ager confuses a reference to a renowned Baroque painter with a widely available brand of dentifrice? This issue will look at the relationship between contemporary popular culture and what came before.

Feature

Late night thoughts on the incident behind this issue

by Reverend Lawrence W. Farris

An experience in a high school classroom prompts thoughts about the postmodern decline of shared cultural reference.

Editorial

In a time of war

by Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma

How to become a conscientious objector in the culture war at the dinner table.

Articles

Pop culture = low culture?

by Dana Johnson

An interview about language and culture with a partner in critical blogging.

Culture and the Christian

by Julie Mueller-McClennen

On the benefits of a classical education for understanding the human condition.

Befriending big bad

by Joy-Elizabeth Lawrence

Cultivating a mindful approach to watching television.

Dumbing down discernment?

by James K.A. Smith

Two philosophy colleagues debate the value of high and low culture for the Christian student.

Reviews

Grant’s recommendations 6.13.08

by Grant Elgersma

Two documentaries, one about soldiers returning from Iraq and one about the history of jazz.

For everything else

by Raymond Blanton

A review of Pierre Salvadori’s film Priceless, an unconventional love story.

In case you missed it the first time

Ephemeral art

by Henry Bakker

What Goldsworthy and Christo have in common.

Life in a box

by Kirstin Vander Giessen-Reitsma

An interview with artist Ben Keys about his series of paintings featuring TV Head.

The man ain't got no culture

by Denise Frame Harlan

What happens when "the world" enters your sub-culture?

Weaving the web

Couture: Gateway drug to high art culture?

Comment

Alissa Wilkinson writes about shifts in the relationship between fashion and museums.

Pop goes Christianity

Slate

Hanna Rosin on the “parallel universe” of the Christian pop culture industry.

Columns

Turpentine

by Meredith Kathryn-Case Gipson Hoogendam

A foray into the heart of the South and the heart of an artist.

daily asterisk

Even in a country you know by heart
its hard to go the same way twice
the life of the going changes.
The chances change and make a new way.
Any tree or stone or bird
can be the bud of a new direction. The
natural correction is to make intent
of accident. To get back before dark
is the art of going.

Wendell Berry
“Traveling at Home” from Traveling at Home

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