Tolkien
-
“Well, I’m Back”: A New Book’s Oxford Connections
This blog has been somewhat neglected by me over the past 12 months, or so. This is not because of any loss of enthusiasm regarding the psalms. Quite the opposite. Much of my spare time has been spent on editing the book: The Penitential Psalms: The Rise, Fall, and Future of the Seven Psalms. I Continue reading
-
Walking the Line with Proverbs 4
Wising Up One of my favourite films, Magnolia, has the weirdest of trailers where every member of the cast is in the middle of their dysfunctional life and the singer Aimee Mann pops by singing the song Wise Up. They even join in, whether dying in bed, being a confused policeman or in the midst Continue reading
-
Where Did It All Go Wrong?
A Reflection on Genesis 3:1–24 1. Certain Death Many people are quick to dismiss the Bible—often without pause to think what it is they might be disowning. There is, however, an assertion of the Bible that is difficult to deny. Written on most pages, in different ways, is the bad news that precedes the good Continue reading
-
The Breath of Life: Acts 2
1. The Invisible This post is dedicated to George Floyd who had the breath of life taken from him in horrific circumstances on 25th May 2020. I am something of a fan of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. For me, his book the Lord of the Rings is a masterpiece. One of the Continue reading
-
Beautiful Lord: An Advent Reflection on Revelation 1:12‒18
What is Beauty? Beauty tends to be something that is peripheral to Western society and culture today. At least that is my view. When things are marginal there is a danger that they are neglected. Worse still, in an age of soundbites we might define important things by a short saying or an aphorism. In Continue reading
-
The Journey Motif in Life, Art and Scripture
Introduction Human beings have, since prehistory, attempted to explain life as a journey. In a physical sense life is a journey from the helplessness we display at birth to the lifelessness of death. The physical nature of ‘the end’ is all too tangible. Science can probe it and concludes it is indeed journey’s end. Many Continue reading
-
Musing About ‘The Road Goes Ever On’
In both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien presents a song, The Road Goes Ever On, which is said to have been written by Bilbo Baggins. It occurs once in The Hobbit and three times in The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was an active churchgoing Roman Catholic and I suspect that Continue reading
About Me
This blog’s central aim is to explore all aspects of how the Psalter (the biblical psalms) functions as Scripture today.
To this end it will also include book reviews on the Book of Psalms and related topics.
Some posts will reflect more broadly on biblical interpretation or hermeneutics.
If you like what you see here and want to arrange for me to give a lecture, run a teaching event or a short retreat based around The Psalms then contact me so we can discuss how this might work.
PsalterMark 