Jason Albertson

Humans seem to be fascinated with superheroes.  Nowadays we have the Flash and Captain America, but it's bigger than America—think of Finn MacCool in Irish folklore or the Greek demigods delivering humanity from monsters. And it's not just comic books: consider Sherlock Holmes from detective fiction or the many “long-prophesied chosen one” characters in fantasy, like Harry Potter or Percy Jackson. By superhero, I mean a character who is both human and gifted with superhuman ability to solve the problems regular humans can't solve.  Sherlock Holmes is good at noticing stuff. Hercules is really strong. The Flash is the fastest man alive (except when his latest nemesis steals his speed). Why so many superheroes? I think it's because we recognize that humanity faces problems too big for us on our own. I think it's because we long for a Savior, someone like us but better than us, too. But here's the weird thing: when we tell stories about superheroes, people equipped...

George MacDonald didn’t believe that Jesus’ death on the cross atoned for our sin. [1] I base this claim on MacDonald’s sermon, “Justice,” published in his Unspoken Sermons , vol. 1, 2, and 3. I read from this Project Gutenberg edition. I don’t agree with him about that. But he did have some other ideas that are useful. He was a bit eccentric. According to one scholar, MacDonald esteemed roses so highly that he “seemed to think it unbecoming to speak of them as growing on bushes.” [2] Timothy Larsen, George MacDonald in the Age of Miracles (Grand Rapids: MI, Intervarsity Press), 2018. Read for free from HooplaDigital . Instead, in novels, poems and short stories, he most often describes roses as growing on trees. The trees may be small and crooked, the roses may grow close to the ground, but they’re rose trees, not rose bushes. He’s got one fantastic scene in The Princess and Curdie in which a boy enters a room to find that “on a huge hearth a great fire was burning,...

My retelling of the legend of Sisyphus in the last post said a few things about how the world works. These are the ones that stood out to me, but there might be more that I overlooked. 1. Justice comes out in the end In my version of the story, Sisyphus’s punishment from the gods matched his crimes against people. The goddess’s judgment highlights the match-up: “In life you stole by trickery . So shall your life in death be an empty trick .” The repetition of “trick” and the comparison-word, “so,” show that the judgment matches the crimes. 2. There is an ultimate authority When he died, Sisyphus was subject to the judgment of the gods. In the story, that’s just how it is. There’s no suggestion of him resisting the gods--they are the ultimate authority in this story. 3. We need our work to be meaningful Sisyphus was condemned to eternal, meaningless labor. That’s a worse punishment than eternal but meaning ful labor. How well do you think these assertions match up to reality...

There’s a legend about a man named Sisyphus. He angered the Greek gods somehow, so they sentenced him to roll a huge stone to the top of a mountain. But each time he attempted to roll it to the top, he would slip, trip, lose his grip, and the stone would roll back down, and he would have to begin again the next day. As it turns out, he had to roll the stone, day after day, for eternity. From the way I just told that story, it’s hard to tell if I am saying something about how life works by telling it. The story itself is ambiguous--it could mean a number of things, but you don’t know whether I mean any of those things. Here’s a retelling. I’m using the same basic story, but emphasizing or adding things to make a few points. What does this story say about the way life works? Once, there was a man named Sisyphus, infamous for his quick wits, quick fingers and hard heart. Through deception, he became king of a large city. He used his power to become wealthy, and then he died. H...