One of the most fruitful trends happening in Hollywood filmmaking these days is what I’d call the Genre Recycle. Writers and directors are taking overused and worn out genre templates—the romantic comedy, the alien invasion summer blockbuster, the western—and resetting them to new purposes.Read more

I was recently introduced by email to Craig Dunham via Doug Serven (a CGO Contributor and RUF Pastor at OU).  Craig and Doug wrote Twenty-Someone, a quite helpful book about navigating the twenties with Christian wisdom.  Doug suggested that Craig review a book for CGO, and it's worked out for Craig to review Donald Miller's recent release, To Own A Dragon. 
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“One of the most reliable predictors of whether a boy will succeed or fail in high school rests on a single question: does he have a man in his life to look up to? In every kind of neighborhood, rich or poor, an increasing number of boys – now a startling 40 percent – are being raised without their biological dads.”

From “The Trouble with Boys” Newsweek: January 23, 2006

“In writing some thoughts about a father, or not having a father, I feel as though I am writing a book about a dragon or a troll under a bridge. For me a father is nothing more than a character in a fairy tale. And I know fathers are not like dragons in that fathers actually exist, but I don’t remember feeling that a father existed for me.”

From To Own a Dragon: Reflections on Growing Up Without a Father
by Donald Miller and John MacMurray

If you’ve attended church on Father’s Day, you’ve probably heard that fathers are important for reasons beyond mere sperm donation (okay, maybe you didn’t hear this particular point in a sermon, but it can be inferred). As the sermons go, you know that the need for the male parent can be justified by a wide range of argumentation – theological or economical, logical or emotional – all for the good of civilization (not to mention the sake of the egos of the men in attendance that Father’s Day morning).Read more