Favorites of 2011

My reading list includes many volumes from history, so I do not always have time to read the latest titles.  Also, my wife cancelled cable, so the television shows I see are usually netflixed or rented.  With that in mind, I thought I'd offer a list of my favorite books, films, magazines, and T.V. programs that I discovered in 2011.  Some may be new, others old...who cares, just as long as it is good...right?

Favorite New Movie- Terrence Malick's Tree of Life (I know, every theologian talked this film up...but there is a reason)!.  Favorite old movie seen for the first time- Babbette's Feast (no other film has made me so hungry).

Favorite T.V. Show-  This is tough, because my favorite show WAS Dexter, but it seemed to "jump the shark" this season...I also USED to like The Walking Dead, but this season lacked character development ....so the winner is Buffy the Vampire Slayer!  Yep, that is right, I am bringing back an oldy.  I watched the entire series this year in preparation for two book chapters on Buffy's mythos, and it was as fruitful as ever!
Favorite Journals/Magazines- Communio (Theology that starts with modern questions and draws answers from the Church Fathers....brilliant thinkers inside!)

 First Things (If you want to get a taste of conservative Catholic public/political thought, check it out.  To me, the subsription is worth it just to recieve regular David Bentley Hart articles.)

Second Spring: A Journal of Faith and Culture (Just discovered this one, and I am so thankful for their online archive: Milbank, Brague, Rowland, Barker etc)

The Other Journal: An Intersection of Theology and Culture (Terrific stuff by William Cavanaugh, Peter Candler and much more)

Favorite Music-
I am still stuck on Sufjan Stevens, Mumford and Sons, and The Avett Brothers. When I get in a rut, I get into a rut!

Favorite Readings-
Norman Wirzba's Faith and Food: A Theology of Eating (2011)

Ratzinger's In the Beginning...A Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall (1995)

Bonhoeffer's Life Together (*along with the study guide written by the ekklesia project).

Conor Cunnigham's Darwin's Pious Idea: Why the Ultra Darwinists and Creationists Both Get it Wrong (2010)

Josef Pieper's Leisure: The Basis of Culture (republished 2009)

William Cavanaugh's Theopolitical Imagination: Christian Practices of Space and Time (2003)

 Emmanuel Katangole's The Sacrifice for Africa: A Political Theology for Africa (Dec. 2010)

St. Maximus the Confessor On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ: Selected Writings from St. Maximus the Confessor (2003)

Marshall Sahlins The Western Illusion of Human Nature (2008)- I read this one in 2010, but again in 2011.