Bøger af Lawrence Webb

Christmas is a most wonderful time as we think once again on the season's true focus: the birth of the Baby whose life, death, and resurrection have reshaped history. The reflections in this collection found their inspiration in a variety of sources: * Songs of the season, old and new, sacred and secular, from Canada, Britain, and the U. S., including two new carols by the author * A Christmas quote from "Hamlet" * Soldiers who stopped fighting to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day * John Grisham's seriocomic novel about a man who tries to skip Christmas * Grumblings of a grade school boy who is forced to take a bath * Rheta Grimsley Johnson's newspaper column comparing Christmas with marriage * A Holiday visit to a bombed-out British cathedral * A painting in a London church basement * A three-year-old's first part in a pageant * A family Christmas letter telling about the young husband's bout with cancer * Classic Christmas stories: Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol," Henry Van Dyke's "The Story of the Other Wise Man," and O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi" * A play about men who remember Christmas while they are prisoners of terrorists * A few personal memories from the author's childhood, youth, and adult years *The title essay is taken from the plainest of tree decorations--a clear plastic disc with these words: "Once for a shining hour, heaven touched the earth." The book is written "with the prayer that the readings will provide food for your thoughts -- some of which you may need to chew on a while -- and that they will enrich your Christmas."

A member of the Class of 1955, Lawrence Webb offers a salute to his alma mater, Hardin-Simmons University. He recalls lessons he learned both in the classroom and in campus life. - From President Rupert Richardson's Bee Speech, he learned to look to God in nature. - In his first class, the professor urged students to learn to respect people with different opinions and say, "You may be right." - He learned from George Hine, the sports publicity director, that he was probably too pious for his own good. - In a class, Dr. Hoyt Ford taught him that he didn't need to have all the answers in every situation. - He found lifelong friendship with classmates John Campbell and Jerry Reynolds who returned as professors. - From Euell Porter, he learned to sing and love rich choral music. - Dean W. Truett Walton was a mentor on campus and for decades after the author graduated. - He learned to appreciate English literature from W. D. Bond, who also tried to teach him bait-casting. - Back in Abilene from his first year in seminary, he had his first experience performing weddings, at the invitation of fellow HSUers Maxine Reid and Fred Blalock. - In the literal meaning of alma mater (fostering parent), he felt many professors and staffers filled that role. - Working in the kitchen of "The Beanery," he learned lessons in work and life from Jeff Lott, the janitor. - His freshman English professor, Dr. Robert Burrows, encouraged him in his writing interests which he combined throughout his career along with being a minister and teacher. In 2011, 60 years later, he visited with Dr. Burrows and his wife in Wisconsin.

Every experience of life holds potential for learning spiritual and moral lessons. This book looks at four areas of creative expression - stories, songs, poems, and plays - and discovers Life Lessons with spiritual and moral significance. As a Christian minister, retired university professor, lover of music, community theater actor and director, writer and editor, the author says he finds theological relevance in these four arts areas. Some contain strong, direct expressions of Christian faith, others are less direct, and still others have no obvious connection with God or things religious. Even so, he has learned from each story, song, poem, and play and offers a Life Lesson from each. Stories include The Shack and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Songs include Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven" and "We Shall Overcome." Poems include works by William Cullen Bryant, John Milton, John Keats, and Rudyard Kipling. Theater offerings include Broadway musicals, Fiddler on the Roof and Cabaret, and straight plays, Inherit the Wind and Death of a Salesman.

All sorts of memories come flooding in at Christmas. Each person's memories are unique, but Lawrence Webb believes a reservoir of common experience enables readers to identify with Christmases others have known. Memories in this book are culled from more than seventy seasons. "Some sweet and wonderful. Some romantic. Some funny. One or two are sad. Some, I hope, are reminders of the love Christ expressed in coming into the world." These memories are family-related: the large family of the author's childhood in rural West Texas as well as the smaller family with his wife and their two sons. Geographic settings vary from New York's snowbound Hudson River Valley and snowless Central Florida to Christmas Eve in Westminster Abbey and ordinary life in small-town South Carolina.

As the subtitle indicates, this present book shows Revelation is a book of hope rather than fear. People often import popular notions about things that simply are not in the book, such as Antichrist and the Rapture. Or they exaggerate elements such as the Battle of Armageddon. Professor Lawrence Webb's writing style as a religion editor and radio speaker will help casual readers and church lay members discover what actually is in the book and what is not. Admittedly, Revelation is not an easy read: A red dragon knocks a third of the stars out of the sky with his tail, and a seven-headed beast has the mysterious number 666. An army of locusts from the bottomless pit look like horses but have men's faces, women's hair, lion's teeth, and tails that sting like scorpions. A human army marches two hundred million strong. With all this, you may not recognize hope. But hope is what Revelation is about. In chapters 4-5, John has a vision of God, worshiped by all His creatures. And Christ is "a Lamb standing as though it had been slain." In 11:15, before the decisive battle of Armageddon even begins, we are told, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever." Visions of great disasters unfold, but in the final revelation of God's new heaven and new earth, all is beauty and bliss forever. The future is in the hands of a loving God who will wipe away all tears (21:4), and Jesus Christ is declared "King of kings and Lord of lords" (19:16).

Various kinds of music can have strong emotional, psychological, and spiritual impact on us. So can lyrics. Christian minister and emeritus university professor Lawrence Webb looks at lyrics to more than forty songs from a variety of genres that "sing" Christian messages to him. He says, "Not all the songs were written from a Christian perspective. Not every composer of the lyrics intended to make a spiritual impact. But that doesn't matter. When I hear each of these songs or call their lyrics to mind, they sing things of God to me. I hope they will also sing to you." In addition to the hymns, songs range from Woody Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land" and the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" to "Who Am I?" from "Les Miserables" and Don Quixote's "The Impossible Dream." Country selections include "Almost Persuaded" from the 1960s and "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You" from the 1940s. Christmas carols include the traditional "O Holy Night" and "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," as well as two original texts by the book's author. The book concludes with a meditation on the original Christian text of Robert Lowry's "How Can I Keep from Singing?"

The Cinema of Urban Crisis explores the relationships between cinema and urban crises in the United States and Europe in the 1970s.