In which I celebrate books and film and art | Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

When I almost missed the Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Anita Mathias — Thu, 07 Jan 2016 23:36:16 +0000

The Doni Tondo, a rare canvas painting by Michealangelo. Scroll down for more images. I spent the first Sunday of January 2106 at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. It was free, and advice online, as well as unsolicited advice on Facebook warned me that the lines were horrendous. But visiting Florence and not spending a […]

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7 things I learned from Simon Vibert’s “Stress: The Path to Peace”

Anita Mathias — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 20:23:12 +0000

Available on Amazon.com Available on Amazon.co.uk Living with high levels of stress can be physically and emotionally dangerous, so much so that stress tests like those by psychiatrists Holmes and Rahe can predict the likelihood of serious illness or an accident in the coming year based an individual’s level of current stress. 1 In his […]

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Charles Duhigg’s “The Power of Habit,” on How to Create or Change Habits

Anita Mathias — Sun, 02 Nov 2014 21:04:06 +0000

Here’s a potted summary of a fascinating, helpful book, Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit. “All our life is but a mass of habits—practical, emotional and intellectual—systematically organised for our weal or woe, and bearing us irresistibly toward our destiny.” William James. According to a study by Duke University—40% of the actions people perform each […]

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In which Imaginative Literature Stirs the Heart to Conversion (A Guest Post by Holly Ordway)

Anita Mathias — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 22:08:08 +0000

I am honoured to welcome Dr. Holly Ordway to my blog today. In which Imaginative Literature Stirs the Heart to Conversion How could a fierce atheist enter into Christian faith? There are many ways for God’s grace to work; my own story is one that highlights the importance of imaginative literature! When I was firmly […]

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Les Miserables: The Film Akin to a Spiritual Experience

Anita Mathias — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 21:34:54 +0000

Can watching a film, a mere film, be a spiritual experience? Well, watching Les Misérables was a spiritual experience for me. As I watched, I was repenting, recommitting my life to Christ, surrendering to him again, resolving to read the Gospels more, to live by their beautiful way of love and mercy. * * * Under […]

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Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life: A Visually Splendid, Deeply Philosophical AND Christian film.

Anita Mathias — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 23:33:03 +0000

I loved Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life. It’s the only film that I’ve watched, dazzled—and then immediately watched again. Terrence Malick, the auteur–who studied Philosophy at Harvard; was a Rhodes Scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford translated Heidegger; taught philosopher at MIT; wrote for the New Yorker; and directed six visionary films–is a modern America […]

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Some DVDs I’ve enjoyed: The King’s Speech, Life of Pi, and The Hobbit

Anita Mathias — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 21:04:58 +0000

The King’s Speech—I loved it. Partly because my father had immigrated to England in the forties and fifties when George VI was King. My father was imaginative, and read the newspapers like a novel, and made the events of the forties as real to us as the plot of any story he told us. […]

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Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris. And a Musing on what the Arts are Good for

Anita Mathias — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 22:35:19 +0000

I had a magical Sunday morning in Oxford, watching Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris. I bought the DVD, because it was Woody Allen, without having read reviews. And so I was particularly enchanted. Here was Zelda, as edgy and high-energy and fragile as Scott Fitzgerald depicts her in Tender is the Night. And charming Scott […]

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The Tragi-Comic and Glorious Fairy Tale of Hans Christian Andersen

Anita Mathias — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 21:13:00 +0000

Last July, I spent a couple of days in Odense, the birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen–which he left as soon as he could. Hans Christian Andersen (all three are very common and popular Danish names) was a freak genius, born to a cobbler and a (mildly alcoholic) washerwoman. Their simple one room cottage had few books–Shakespeare, […]

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The Superlative Christian Books Which Have Most Influenced Me.

Anita Mathias — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 17:49:00 +0000

1 The Bible 2 The Imitation of Christ. I read it as a teenager in school, and again when I was a novice at Mother Teresa’s. Its thinking has influenced mine. It is a book of pure devotion to Christ for Christ’s sake, regardless of rewards which Thomas a Kempis did not expect or receive. […]

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