Word and Journey

Part III of the Ransom Trilogy may be one of the finest pieces of speculative(dare I say - predictive) literature ever written. Building on the prior two books, THS takes place on Earth, in England, beginning with Bragdon Wood and the legendary burial site of Merlin. There are those humans who have aligned with the heavenly forces bent on Humanity's destruction, and the worst part is...they do...

In part II of the Ransom Trilogy, Ransom again makes a voyage through Deep Heaven, this time to Perelandra, or as we know it, Venus. This time he goes on purpose, being sent for a task. He encounters a paradise unfallen, beautiful, pristine, and innocent., its only inhabitants its queen and king, long separated, searching for each other. As Ransom befriends the queen, he quickly discovers that all...

Welcome to Part I of the Ransom Trilogy by C. S. Lewis! And we say the "Ransom" Trilogy rather than its other common name, "The Space Trilogy," because, as we find as we read, outer space is not really empty space at all, but, being the "heavens," is full of the weight substance of the Creator! Moses and Rousseau team up again to follow the adventures of Dr. Ransom, a...

"The story [of Frankenstein] is nothing like the costume; it's much better." Here we come to the conclusion of the classic novel Frankenstein , where we learn the fates of Dr. Frankenstein, the Fiend, and friends. We talk about betrayal and vengeance, misery and morality, the nature of humanity, redemption, the devastation of loneliness, and the pitfalls of hubris We ponder what is t...

Moses, Joel, and Caleb are back with Dr. Frankenstein and the Fiend! We continue discussing Mary Shelley's classic novel Frankenstein . Here we deep dive into the story of the Fiend. We discuss class consciousness, empathy, nature versus nurture, and how a being is formed by community, or deformed by the lack thereof! "The Monster had potential!" But then we see what happens when he...

The novel Frankenstein , by Mary Shelley, is routinely included among the top 10 most important works of literature in the last thousand years. Now Moses has read it for the first time, and invited Joel and Caleb to join him! Here we discuss monsters. What is a monster? Who is a monster? What makes a monster a monster and why is that monstrous? What about Dr. Victor Frankenstein was so very monstr...

To commemorate Labor Day, here’s an episode about a slave uprising gone glorious! Mike Savara is a good friend and extraordinary social worker, government worker, addiction counselor, and the one who introduced me to the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown. Today we talk about Lightbringer , book 5 of the Red Rising series. This is book 5 of 6, and there’s tons of spoilers, but we highly recommend y...

Moses and Matt are back with the last half of Wheel of Time, the show, Season 2. Here we discuss more of the themes. The Wheel of Time show follows a pattern of developing morally ambiguous characters who have great powers, great ambitions, and blatant fatal flaws. We discuss implications of a story world lacking both a clear good and a clear evil, and the challenges this poses for story writers. ...

Moses Bernabe and Matt Rensi return to discuss Amazon Prime’s adaptation of Robert Jordan’s epic fantasy series Wheel of Time as the show plods through its second season. As counselors who study people and readers who are long time lovers of sci-fi and fantasy, we had a great time being drawn into the story world, then pulling it apart for themes, lessons, and great moments. From a storytelling st...

The Wheel weaves as the wheel will! Welcome back to our discussion of the Wheel of Time! Originally, when the Wheel of Time show came to Amazon Prime, I started a series of discussion in which I had watched the show, Matt Rensi had watched the show and read the books, and Aaron Esparza had watched the show, read the books, and play the game. We started out to compare our experiences of the show. A...

Moses and Jake meet up for the finishing touches of The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. Here we consider the desire for a long and comfortable life and how that may be very dangerous to our spiritual health. We talk about courage, cowardice, and virtues that the demons cannot replicate. We recognize that the spiritual journey is just long and tiring and that we are vulnerable when fatigued. Fina...

Here we almost finish The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. Screwtape and Wormwood continue to hound the Christian on his spiritual journey. They try to get him to feel entitled to own things. They try to get him to lust after a new girlfriend, then to get bored with her. They poke at his craving for a tribe to call his own, then try to distract him with visions of “the historical Jesus.” They try...

We’re back with more thoughts on The Screwtape Letters by C.S Lewis. Moses and Stephanie pull out their writer and editor lenses to talk about the writing - and proper reading - of the text. We consider genre, subculture, the narrator’s voice, and share thoughts to consider when writing about the spiritual world in general. Above all, we remember that this book is speculative; we don’t actually kn...

“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel and excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.”  Moses, Jake, and Stephanie are back and reading The Screwtape Letters by C....

And the saga of the Nazi hunters finally draws to its end! What makes a hero? Can a person be considered heroic, even if they do the same horrendous things as the villain?  We wonder if people can really change, or if they never out grow their past wrongs. And if ultimately we can define our enemies by their worst parts, what does that mean about how we see ourselves?  Our heroes will stop at noth...

Moses and Jake offer more commentary on the Amazon Prime show Hunters, Season II. This season comes with thick layers of intrigue, drama, lies, betrayals, and dark histories revealed. And as the global adventure continues, the personal lives of the characters just get more and more chaotic. The show raises questions about identity, integrity, and explores what it means to be family. Much more diff...

More Nazis, more intrigue, more explorations of human-nature-under-duress, more drama - yes, dear listener, it’s Word and Journey’s commentary on the hit Amazon Prime show Hunters, Season II! Here we see our favorite heroes, anti-heroes, and outright villains continuing the quest to rid the world of Nazis, one gouged out eye at a time. The action rises when they figure out Hitler is alive and they...

Who are we really? Are we an ethnicity? Are we the horrors enacted upon us? Or could we be the manner in which we respond to darkness....with light? Or with more darkness?   What is justice? What is vengeance? How much "Wrong" is ok in order to do right? And what is the right in a situation like the Holocaust?   Where is God in the evils of the world? Could it be He is made real in the o...

Moses and Jake continue their review of the hit Amazon Prime show Hunters , which follows the adventures of a group of Nazi Hunters in New York in the 1970's. We bring many questions.               Why do we need to remember the painful things?             We need to know where we came from so we don't repeat it.             We need to know where we came from so we know what's driving...

"The only difference between heroes and villains is who sells more costumes at Halloween." - Jonah Heidelbaum, Hunters, Season 1.               Hunters is a series on Amazon Prime created by David Weil. The story follows a group of Nazi Hunters based in New York in the 1970's. Moses found it first, then drafted Jake into watching and commenting on it with him.             Is the show...

Moses and Joel are back, with dad jokes in tow! We read the book Picture of Dorian Gray…and then we watched the 2009 Film Adaptation with Colin Firth and Ben Barnes. Now we compare and contrast. We comment on the aesthetic of the movie and how, seeing the characters brought to life is cool, but the movie defaults to relying on spectacle, rather than allowing the profound concepts of the story to s...

Do you ever feel like, when you finish a book, it’s like a break-up? Sometimes we feel this way. Sometimes it’s a good break-up…and sometimes not. Thus, Moses and Joel reflect on the worst books we’ve read, and allow ourselves permission to NOT finish a badly written book. Meanwhile, we conclude the saga of Dorian Gray. In this section, we follow Dorian on his downward spiral to the lowest levels...

It's late at night and the Dad-Jokes are out in force!   Moses and Joel establish that “Picture of Dorian Gray” is a story about deplorable characters, some(Like Lord Henry) probably could not and should not be written in our current age. And yet, in the marvel of how stories work, even a story about bad people can teach us something true and important. Dorian has been watching how his portrai...

            Rousseaux and I are spiritual grand-children of the Jesus Movement, from which came the Calvary Chapel churches, whose origins in the turbulence of the 1960's was depicted in the 2023 film Jesus Revolution. We grew up under the spiritual tutelage of a pastor who was a direct mentee of the Jesus Movement's founder, Chuck Smith.             For today's episode, we watched the...

This is a story about people being together and not seeing each other.  Here we follow the life and death of Sibyl Vane, an actress, and the object of Dorian’s obsession. In their short relationship, we see a depiction of utter obsession, which initially thrills, then ultimately leads to crushing disappointment.  Lord Henry displays a particularly potent version of toxic masculinity in how he rega...