http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5888552/posts/summaryFri, 16 Jun 2006 13:40:37 +0000http://www.tonywatkins.co.uk/blog/index.htmTonyBlogger115http://www.blogger.com/feeds/5888552/posts/summary/117511413117388470Wed, 28 Mar 2007 20:34:00 +00002007-03-28T20:35:31.175ZOnce more good intentions of keeping up with blogging have gone the way of most good intentions. Anyway, the book, Focus: The Art and Soul of Cinema was officially published last Friday. My copies arrived on Monday - always an exciting moment to see the results of so much hard work nicely printed (11 pt Palatino on a very crisp white paper if, like me, you care about such things - and I realise http://www.tonywatkins.co.uk/blog/2007/03/focus-art-and-soul-of-cine_117511413117388470.htmTonyhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5888552/posts/summary/115799035173760198Mon, 11 Sep 2006 15:54:00 +00002006-09-11T15:59:11.736ZI ran out of time for preparing more Da Vinci Code audio for my site. I may put up a more recent one when the DVD comes out later in the year. Meanwhile, the Above Bar Church website website now carries dowloads of Sunday sermons so there's some recent material from me there. Of particular interest might be my two-parter on Engaging with the real world - part one and part two.http://www.tonywatkins.co.uk/blog/2006/09/more-audio.htmTonyhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5888552/posts/summary/115799004663679031Mon, 11 Sep 2006 15:50:00 +00002006-09-11T15:54:06.646ZWell, I'm behind schedule with just two weeks to go and a lot of revisions to do as well as writing appendices and other stuff. I'm pleased with what I've done, though, and hope it will make a valuable and distinctive contribution. More soon - when I have some time again! tonyhttp://www.tonywatkins.co.uk/blog/2006/09/book.htmTonyhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5888552/posts/summary/115046735413117579Fri, 16 Jun 2006 14:09:00 +00002006-06-16T14:15:54.143ZI neglected to inform the world that my recording of a Men's Breakfast at King's Community Church, Hedge End (Southampton) is now available. It didn't seem to be the right context to talk about the sacred feminine and goddess spirituality, so instead I talked about The Da Vinci Code and conspiracy theories. I highlighted a number of features of conspiracy theories and suggested that, despite Dan http://www.tonywatkins.co.uk/blog/2006/06/and-more-on-da-vinci-code.htmTonyhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5888552/posts/summary/115046523730023749Fri, 16 Jun 2006 13:31:00 +00002006-06-16T13:40:37.303ZIt's about time I said something about my current writing project. I am getting towards the end of writing a book about engaging with film at a worldview level. There are a number of books written by Christians which look at connections between films and theology - some of them extremely good. Robert K. Johnstone's Reel Spirituality is one of them (one day I will get around to putting my various http://www.tonywatkins.co.uk/blog/2006/06/current-writing-project.htmTonyhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5888552/posts/summary/114925545177445769Fri, 02 Jun 2006 13:27:00 +00002006-06-16T13:30:34.286ZMy Review of Dark Matter: A Thinking Fan's Guide to Philip Pullman has now been published in the USA by IVP. Publishers Weekly, a major trade publication for the book world, has published a favourable review: 'Philip Pullman's acclaimed His Dark Materials trilogy, a sweeping retelling of Milton's Paradise Lost and The Fall , has caused great controversy among Christian readers. Watkins, a http://www.tonywatkins.co.uk/blog/2006/06/review-of-dark-matter-thinking-fans.htmTonyhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5888552/posts/summary/114900138159827062Tue, 30 May 2006 14:57:00 +00002006-06-02T13:57:57.810ZThe Salvation Army published a very positive review which you can read on their website. Here's the blurb and contents of the first book in the Talking About series. Love: one of the deepest longings of the human heart, yet increasingly viewed with cynicism. Many people have been hurt too often to believe in love any more, or they just think that it can never last – and they settle for sex as http://www.tonywatkins.co.uk/blog/2006/05/sex-and-cynics-talking-about-search.htmTonyhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5888552/posts/summary/114923847914803794Fri, 02 Jun 2006 08:45:00 +00002006-06-02T13:52:05.513ZBooks 3 and 4 in the Talking About series were published in early May this year. I was satisfied with the first two, but very pleased with how these two have ended up. They have a better balance of material in them, for one thing. Here's the blurb and contents list for Spooked: ‘I've never been someone who needed organised religion. But I've always been someone with a deep belief in a higher http://www.tonywatkins.co.uk/blog/2006/06/spooked-talking-about-supernatural.htmTonyhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5888552/posts/summary/114923926346103372Fri, 02 Jun 2006 08:58:00 +00002006-06-02T13:51:30.013ZNumber four in the Talking About series created problems for us in trying to find the right subtitle. The Playing God bit was easy, but trying to summarise the area of interest in just a very few words was tricky. The 'ethics in medicine' part is straightforward enough - looking at issues relating to the beginning and end of life in particular. But 'technology' could mean anything from the http://www.tonywatkins.co.uk/blog/2006/06/playing-god-talking-about-ethics-in.htmTonyhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5888552/posts/summary/114900166556286730Tue, 30 May 2006 15:03:00 +00002006-06-02T13:49:12.203ZThe second book (technically it's number 2, but it was published at the same time as Sex and the Cynics) is on one of the hottest issues in our culture: how do we relate to people with different worldviews and moralities? What does tolerance really mean? Here's the blurb and contents list: ‘Why can't you be more tolerant? Surely Jesus isn't the only way to know God.' Christians increasingly http://www.tonywatkins.co.uk/blog/2006/05/truth-wars-talking-about-tolerance.htmTonyhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5888552/posts/summary/114925594745484327Fri, 02 Jun 2006 13:45:00 +00002006-06-02T13:45:47.456ZI've now added the recordings of Wednesday evening's events at Above Bar Church, Southampton, which I shared with David Couchman of Focus. I talked about the appeal of The Da Vinci Code, its opposition to orthodox historical Christianity, the sacred feminine and goddess spirituality. David addressed three key claims in the book: that the Gnostic gospels discovered at Nag Hammadi are earlier http://www.tonywatkins.co.uk/blog/2006/06/da-vinci-code-more-audio_02.htmTonyhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5888552/posts/summary/114925581930671576Fri, 02 Jun 2006 13:37:00 +00002006-06-02T13:43:39.306ZAs well as reviewing Dark Matter, Publishers Weekly also conducted a short email interview with me which was published in Religion BookLine. Here's an extract: . . . rather than a screed against Pullman's books—which portray the Church as a corrupt corporation and God as a sick old man whose place has been taken by an evil usurper—Watkins, a British Christian cultural critic, offers what he http://www.tonywatkins.co.uk/blog/2006/06/mini-interview-on-publishers-weekly.htmTonyhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5888552/posts/summary/114924521470968215Fri, 02 Jun 2006 09:09:00 +00002006-06-02T10:46:54.720ZI've done a number of Da Vinci Code events recently, some of which I recorded. The audio files are now available online for a limited period (as new material becomes available, older material will be kicked out). The first is from an event in London which includes some material on Leonardo and on the supposedly factual Priory of Sion. Dan Brown claims that its history goes back to 1099, but in http://www.tonywatkins.co.uk/blog/2006/06/da-vinci-code-audio.htmTonyhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5888552/posts/summary/114900426362261899Tue, 30 May 2006 15:40:00 +00002006-05-30T15:51:17.923ZAn MP3 recording of my most recent sermon in Above Bar Church is now available to download from this site. It's on Nehemiah 5, which is about the people of Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile trying to rebuild Jerusalem's walls. Having faced significant opposition from neighbouring rulers, Nehemiah found himself dealing with some serious complaints about some of his fellow Jews. Nehemiah, as http://www.tonywatkins.co.uk/blog/2006/05/nehemiah-5.htmTonyhttp://www.blogger.com/feeds/5888552/posts/summary/114900232301612937Tue, 30 May 2006 15:15:00 +00002006-05-30T15:32:44.003ZI'm beginning to feel like I've overdosed on Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. Hardly suprising I guess since it's been such a huge bestseller since publication and especially given the amount of over-the-top hype from Sony (which is, frankly, setting people up to be disappointed with the film - all the advertising makes people expect one of the finest cinematic experiences of their lives). I've http://www.tonywatkins.co.uk/blog/2006/05/getting-da-vinci-ed-out.htmTony