Goings On

Tracked down the rest of my comp. list books last night. I have books coming from three different used book stores in the States. I figure it is worth it, these are going to be books I live with all summer, and most of them will be core texts for my research and teaching. Saint Paul has a funny way of organizing their comps - they want a small set of foundational texts based on seven themes. My profs had less themes but tonnes more books! And huge texts too. The biggest text I have is Ernst Bloch's Principle of Hope - but I am only really responsible for about half of volume 1 and a section from volume 3. That's a relief, because volume 2 is really hard to find (if you have a spare one you'd like to part with, please let me know). I sent out a final list to my committee and am really just waiting on one reply to know it is going to the faculty head for approval. I think the count is 19 books, 6 essays, 2 articles and selections from Principle of Hope. In September they will meet to set up my exam question, my director wants me to go off and read until then (after this semester of course) and come back with my notes from the readings. Then we'll start working to prep for the exam. I'm actually quite excited about it all and we are thinking that an exam date in October will work fine.

Great News!

I already mentioned that I am doing Local Area Coordinator of the Canadian Theological Society work for Congress 2009 (formerly the Learneds). And I just received notice that the paper I proposed was accepted! That is so good. This one is similar to the paper I have accepted for Concordia's conference next month, but a bit of a twist. "Micro-Missional Ecclesial Identity" is the title, and I am exploring the way in which alternative forms, in this case deliberately small faith communities, are efforts to wrestle with what it means to be the church. In a sense it is about an incipient ecclesiology. But what is exciting is that now I am officially using a term - micro-missional - that my dear friend Brad coined, and using it in an academic setting. I think this term is important for a number of reasons.

1. It identifies that every effort of the church re-inventing itself can be named, can be a model. Now I'd be the first to say that a model doesn't help you, and in fact it is the following of models that is part of the reason that micro-missional options are emerging. But, never-the-less you can always determine bounds by which to describe a movement and this is helpful for academics who wish to understand a given model.


2. It situates the churches that have affinity with this model/tag as a response to the mega-church. I know that emerging church commentators have made this observation already, but here I'm naming the model in a way that directly confronts an alternate model which does not provide a satisfactory ecclesial identity to the micro-missional crowd. This is not a value judgment in my form, but an entrance into a conversation that might shed light on what kind of ecclesial identity micro-missional might describe.


3. It is a super cool way of describing a counter-cultural trend - the love of the small. As someone who has experienced both models, it is easy to describe the differences in terms of benefits (on both sides). But there is something that is unfortunately hip about being small that also allows us to bring to bear a critique.

I also situate this movement in what I call cycles of evangelicalism. Something that I have adapted from the historical work of Robert Webber, particularly his book The Younger Evangelicals. This allows me to ask questions that I know aren't in the immediate conscious of micro-missional leaders. Questions like: what will this look like when it integrates into the larger sense of evangelical identity?

A lot of work ahead of me. I'm excited to be bringing my questions and research into an ecumenical context and amongst academic theologians.

Bugs Me

I'm finding the continued talks of bailing the automotive industry so infuriating. A business that fails should be allowed to fail - no matter how many jobs it means are lost. That might sound heartless - but the help creates only an illusion of security. Plants will continue to close, people will continue to lose their jobs and we will be simply worse for it in the long run. The idea of an invisible hand is exactly that - an invisible hand not a government prop and prod. If we've changed systems then let's be upfront about it and try to figure out what the heck it is. Seriously I'm all for finding an alternative to capitalism, but not as a poorly conceived knee jerk reaction.

But I'm actually pleasantly surprised at some of the responses I've seen from evangelicals around the atheist bus ads. Bravo for not giving into the knee jerk reactions of Christians who somehow think that in their isolation they have maintained anything resembling a moral authority. Bring em on. Heck, if we really believe in the freedoms that allow us to practice our religions in relative peace then we should welcome any and all tests to those freedoms. Personally I think these ads are brilliant conversation starters, but hey I'm not known for being afraid of much.

For your amusement check out this awesome bus sign generator.

Concordia - Theology Beyond the Classroom

I am pretty stoked to announce that my paper "Sensory Services and Ecclesial Identity" has been accepted at the Theology Outside the Classroom: How Theology Mediates Between Religion and Culture conference, March 26-27 at Concordia in Montreal. I haven't all the details, but I did manage to get the word bricolage into my abstract! Just read an excellent article by Joshua Moritz (Dialog 47:1 Spring 2008) on the emerging church. I'm tempted to pour myself into this paper - but right now I have two papers due next week and I'm lecturing at Ottawa U (Christians and Evolution) two days before presenting in Montreal. Ok, got to get back to work!

Madam Guyon

OK, admittedly I read this book specifically for a project. I have had Madam Guyon's translated autobiography for years and years, having heard it was really good. Wrong! This was painful to read. She is so abused by just about everyone in her life. But she twists this abuse (crosses as she calls them) into the bases of a spirituality. So much so that while I'm with her on in some of the inner life - it is hard to distinguish what is the product of an imagination warped by glorifying her pain and suffering and that which is genuine mercy. Sometimes it is clear that she is spinning the situation - especially in the accounts of faltering conversions. But other times you are left wondering what the rest of the story really is. I have no doubt thought that this is how she sees the story - otherwise she would have been more careful with her words.

What really disturbs me is that the book jacket makes these insane promises about the contents: it will teach you have to deal with adversity, how to be a mature christian, blah blah blah. Bull. It is the story of how one woman copes with incredible abuse. How a brilliant mind denies the very mind that God gave her (and still it shines through at odd moments, likely what inspired Fenelon so much) because her ideal is to be the dumb servant, abused because it was "God's pleasure" to do so??? Guyon does not teach us to be mature, but to have a twisted view of God. In this she is a product of her times - at once resisting the enlightenment and also thrusting forward into an enlightenment mode of actualizing her faith. This book is a confusing tragedy and not a model of any sort of healthy spirituality.

Is there an Evangelical in the House?

I've mentioned before that the shortcoming of studying at a predominantly Roman Catholic Institution (there are many benefits mind you) is that I am not as exposed to Evangelical Theology as I would like. In fact I really resonate with Stackhouse's chapter in Evangelical Landscapes - "Why Johnny can't produce Christian Scholarship". Case in point, I recently ordered three promising (from the descriptions) evangelical texts on political engagement only to be most disappointed by two - the rare thing was that I was not disappointed by the third as well. Actually I'm sure these would be fine texts for folks in the pews who do not want to think too hard about their faith, but I'm less inclined to think that what we need is more light fluffy books. Seriously - look at the world around us. God loves that world. So you would think we would too. But enough about that.

My director has given me the delightful task of finding an evangelical dialogue partner. I made a short list and have handed the task over to my director with my suggestions. I have a certain trepidation about such a relationship though - in my current setting I am the authority on evangelicalism, pentecostalism and things charismatic. I am quick to identify both the strengths and weaknesses I see in the groups I identify most strongly with. But how many of those insights are based simply on my own assumptions - I guess it is time to find out. If I can complain about evangelicals wanting it light and fluffy then I better be willing to ditch the fluffy assumptions I have as well.

Should be a very interesting thesis project.

My Son is Giving Away a Book!

Ever since Jim introduced me to the son I had forgotten I had (apparently), I have treated Esteban like the long lost son he is. His mother and I (despite the problems regarding Esteban's age) are so proud that he is giving away a book. Unfortunately, he seems to want to exclude his dear old parents, yet again, from the gifts he knows he should be sending our way. He has only offered to ship this book to folks in the US. At least he isn't hitting us up for money - unlike his much younger sisters!

Feeling the Tidal Pull

There are times when I feel like I am firmly planted, things are organized and deadlines reasonable. But then there are moments when I get the sense that the tidal wash is eroding the sand I'm standing on. Soon I'll feel the tidal pull. Life, for me at least, is often like a tide. Sometimes it's high and threatens to pull me out to sea and other times it is low and I'm able to see with great clarity the path I'm on. I am not complaining, sometimes those tidal pulls have led me into some amazing waters. They are scary at first, especially when you recognize the hints between your toes, but in the midst of it I need always be grateful that I've learned how to swim. The ebbs and flows of life are not something you can control - but what you can control is how you respond. When I think it is too hard I just remember my many friends that have it worse than me yet still manage to find the sandbars when the waters recede - some of them are positively amazing swimmers too! Today, is one of those tingling in the toes days. I have reading week coming up - but I also realize that I need it and deadlines are looming large on my horizon.

From Random Mess to Collection - Theology of Collecting

As a stamp collector I take great joy in bringing order to random messes. Just tonight I took a couple envelopes of Dutch stamps and sorted them by stamp into a book so that I can fill up my album and trader cards. I am thinking about this as I recall a talk with my friend Sarah regarding methodology. One of my pet peeves with academic life has been the pervasive insistence that one have, name and know ones method. But I feel that no one really takes a methodological approach to helping one name, describe - heck even know ones method. I am pretty sure I have a handle on method (on good days I think that) but I still am wanting it to be neater, tight little defined categories into which I can bring order to the madness that is study.

Sarah was talking about this method of letting the data evolve its own categories. I forget what she called it, but one had to resist the urge to evaluate but rather let the categories emerge as one explored the material in a certain topic/genre. It sounds good for what she is doing - reclaiming the voices of a specific group of women. While it isn't exactly what I need, it does remind me of what happens so often in incipient theology, that is theology which emerges in the actual faith life of believers. The night before another friend commented on how in churches she had attended they had some good ideas they were working with theologically but no idea where those ideas came from let alone how to aptly evaluate those ideas. In fact I think that many Christians have quite naive ideas about where theology comes from which means it is even harder to address incipient theology in any sort of critical way. But theology evolves in communities - it doesn't drop down from heaven (unless you think God is the sort that likes to drop random and incompatible ideas into various religious communities just to see how screwed up they can get - my friend Lori would say that God's not an asshole like that) it rises up from the experiences, readings and traditions of people trying to live lives of fidelity and faithfulness to God. So in a sense the categories emerge for folks in their faith lives. That doesn't mean they don't have good insights or that there is really no true faith or doctrines. But it kills the presumption that we have the market on those things. Stumbling around we tend to get some things right. And if we believe that God is in this process then we should also be confident that stumbling around we get more right than we get wrong - even if sometimes we misconstrue some of our right assumptions.

So here we are back at a mess. And me, I like order. Perhaps that is why I love theology so much - it brings order to chaos. Not simple order by any stretch - and if you saw my stamp albums, you'd wonder why I have so many extras in there. Well order is complicated - it means taking on variance, respecting and even enjoying diversity, drawing lines as to what you will and will not keep, and what you will do with what you want to keep. It is a collection, and a collection follows internal and arbitrary rules - but that is its beauty. The collection is unique. It is wonderful and has an inner logic that brings joy to the one who organized it. Theology, that project I undertake, has that for me too. That is my method.

Working on Themes

I have a list of themes now - still a wee bit of tweaking though. One of the themes that I'm doing, this is a specific one, is Emerging Church. This was suggested by my director, but I'm thinking of changing it up a bit: Emerging Theologies in the Evangelical Church. I'm thinking that this formulation will let me catch a few influential innovations/ contextualizations in evangelical theology. Soooo I'm thinking a decent book on Open Theism (either Pinnock or Boyd), a text on Centrist Theology (Grenz Renewing the Center is my top choice here), Missional theology (I probably should do Guder's Missional Church, but I'm investigating Hirsch's Forgotten Ways). I have room for one more foundational type text.

The other general theme I have a bit of flexability with is Contextual Theologies which I might call Theological Methods and capture the following: Contextual Theology (Bevans for sure), Local Theologies (Schreiter), Incipient Theologies (Cochrane) and maybe something on Worldviews.

The rest of the themes are very specific and point to a set of books. One is on George Eldon Ladd, but I am toying with a cluster of Fuller thinkers on Kingdom Theology. I'll probably end up choosing three Ladd texts for that one: The Gospel of the Kingdom, The Blessed Hope and The Presence of the Future.

The other hard task is locating a copy of The Principle of Hope Vol. 2 Ernst Bloch - I have vol. 1, and vol. 3 is readily available but vol. 2 is hard to find online. Gotta love an atheist for the sake of God.

Brilliant Post!

Ben Meyers has provided a wonderful list of advice for budding theologians. Be sure to check it out. Warning: do not drink hot liquids while reading this most serious of lists, don't say I didn't warn you. :-)

Lot to do about Something

I'm really excited today. Had a great conversation with my friend I (that's what I call her). She never fails to jump into the deep end in our conversations. We have been conspiring to start up another Freedom Vineyard group with them too. But also I managed to connect with other Vineyard folk academically swimming in the deep waters of political theology (or at least thinking deeply about how the Vineyard's contextualization of kingdom theology leads to social engagement!). So stoked about that.

I also have some other cool happenings. This week I'm guest lecturer in a course on Music and Spirituality talking about how music is an anchor in liturgical practice. I'm taking my guitar for that! Also I've been asked to give a lecture to a psychology of evolution class on the belief side of the evolution/creation debate. This will be fun because I can examine some ideas of identity construction. The only snag there is that it is a French class and the prof needs buy in from the students for me to come, my expertise is a match. I really have to address my language deficit!

OK, back to work.

The Invisible Hand of Evangelicalism

I had a chance to hear Jan Jans (Tilburg University) this past week. There were several moments that caused synaptic firings in my wee brain, but one was a discussion on greed as the engine of capitalism. That individual greed, described as the individuals pursuit of maximized gains, is assumed to produce a corporate good by fueling the economy. The system goes terribly awry when it is divorced from ethical considerations on the functioning of this invisible hand. In fact the invisible hand is an assumed deus ex machina that follows the proper functioning of individualized action - if I pursue maximum profit, like everyone else, then the invisible hand will automagically cause the system to function in a way that we all benefit. Two big problems result: 1) there is no real way to connect the invisible hand to the individual actions, hence it is hard to critique the system when it fails as it has obviously done even in this current recession and 2) the system is based on a sin.

Ah, but that language of sin is outdated, outmoded and not useful. If we define sin as the adherence to naive religious edicts then it is hard to establish a case for using the language of sin here. But are these edicts really so naive? And is it not also possible to expose a core of humane expectations, sometimes called virtues, that animate most religious legal structures? If so then the language of sin indeed becomes highly useful in critiquing social (even economic) structures. I would argue that this is the case.

Sins fall into certain categories, for my purposes I will define them as actions that disadvantage a partner of a certain transaction. The Hebrew texts begin by establishing the nature of sin: first sin against the creator (Adam) and second sin against the other (Cain and Abel). Implicit in the second creation narrative is also a sinful transaction between Adam and Eve, these initial events serve as a means to explain how sin enters into creation as a distinctly human enterprise with dire consequences. So in this sense, and this continues throughout the first testament, sin is a uniquely human problem and robs at least one participant of the capacity for an ideal life. Adam and Eve are expelled, Cain is marked and Abel is dead. From the get go the notion of sin has tragic and serious consequences. Let us take that standard into our current problem.

In order to maximize profits it is necessary that we create a situation where there are winners and losers. Certainly there are degrees to which this is true. But it is not true that everyone equally participates, or even has the opportunity to participate, in a way that will make them winners. Contrary to the American Lie, uh I mean Dream. The ever growing disparity between haves and have nots, in affluent North America even, is undeniable proof that this is the case, despite the rants that exist about the poor simply being lazy. This is even more evident in the so-called third world which has for too long been the lap dog of the so-called first world.

The critique has to be what else can use as an engine for economy?

But this was all content of the discussion - the synaptic jump in my brain had to do with Evangelicals and how we have modelled our religion in the image and likeness of Capitalism. Let me explain...

We call people to individual salvation and we ask them to manage their own lives well. That is good, but it is not enough. We expect that through these individual actions a social reality will automagically be changed (bettered in the best cases of evangelicalism). We believe in an invisible hand, but one we cannot have direct influence over.

We are right to believe in an invisible hand - but as Christians we name this invisible hand the God of the first and second testaments. If that is the case then we must take seriously the instruction that those testaments provide. Specifically in relation to our interaction with the social aspect of real life. By de-politicizing religion, that is relegating it purely to the private sphere of life, we have literally rendered ourselves socially impotent. Yet, we are by nature political beings. Even in the garden it is recognized that humans do not function as they should in isolation - and this is given the weight of being the words of God. So if our call is to individuals, and I do not dispute that it is, it must be for individuals to become what they are capable of being - political, responsible and active.

This does not repute the invisible hand, rather it recognizes that we participate with God (invisible hand) in making this world a better place. Standing for justice as did the prophets. Working for peace as do the blessed. Speaking of hope as did the evangelists. I am not calling for something less than personal piety - but actually something more. Just as Jesus instructed the Pharisees to practice both their meticulous practice of tithing AND to regard the weightier issues of justice, this is the call we need today.

A system that focuses only on the individual is just as flawed as the system that is based on greed. Sin is overcome when we consider the cost to others (and ourselves). So in the words of Jesus, "go and sin no more."

Is the Emerging Church a Sexy Topic?

I'm just wondering.

Turns out panels work different than we thought, so I'm trying to cobble my piece together. Just sent it off to team Heather for feedback. We might have to host our own conference to do what we wanted. :-)

Anyway, thoughts on the sexiness of the Emerging Church?

I think that from a popular stand point, perhaps it is waning. But academically there is a fair bit of notice going on - but will it be sustained? For that matter what will be the emerging church that emerges next? Is it the Bruce Malone post-liberal stuff? Not quite sure but for sure it is coming.

Continuing my Studies

I made it through the week. My second course is on Liturgy and Spirituality with Prof. Susan Roll. I've known Prof. Roll since she landed at Saint Paul, and taken one or two courses from her already. She's a good professor. I am more interested in the later part of the course, the beginning is too much of a Cathlocentric beginning for me. I want a more flexible definition of liturgy, the class will do this but not the text that we are reading.

Last night I met with a couple other PhD students (we all have the same director) to discuss proposing a panel for an upcoming conference at Concordia University. I hope we do it, if we get accepted I'll share some of the details. I'm a bit wary of taking on too much - met with my director and we are hammering out my themes for the dreaded Comprehensive Exam!!!! One of my tasks is to actually read some respectable evangelical theologies - I did not really get that at Saint Paul. I'm trying to track down course descriptions from evangelical universities - but my problem is I don't know which ones are really good. I found Fuller and Regent so far (Regent needs to work on its site, it was hard to get course descriptions that included required reading texts). I'm open to suggestions.

The start of this process is basically to really think through what I want to spend the next three or so years of my life thinking about. It has to be narrow enough to fit into a 600 page max thesis and big enough to keep me interested long enough to finish it. I'm making progress, but I'm glad she framed it this way. It is making me pause. I am fairly impulsive so this is a good exercise.

Continuing my Research

I need to prepare a few paper proposals this week. One is actually a panel I would participate in and the other is for Congress 2009. I'm already doing work at that conference with the Canadian Theological Society so it makes sense to try and get a paper accepted as well. I want to tie it into my Master's research on the North American Evangelical Emerging Church as well as some work I'm doing for a book on Micro-Missional Faith Communities (co-authoring with Brad Culver). I think I found a niche in looking at the formation of ecclesial identity within such communities. I can root it in the theological insights of James Cochrane (incipient theology) and hopefully introduce a dialogue that has some hope of connecting local theological innovation with formal theological discussion. We'll see.

Had my first class yesterday, Methods and Approaches in Contemporary Ethics, with Ken Melchin. The course will focus on religion in the public space and dig into the thinking of Charles Taylor and Bernard Lonergan. I'm more interested in Taylor's thinking but I should get my head around Lonergan as well. We have a class of 8 students, that is not a bad size. I think they have a smaller masters programme this year. I'm the only PhD student in the class and I'm thinking the course as is will be good. We are starting with an intro to the conversation via Rawls and Habermas, now that will be a bit insane.

Packing up the Christmas Tree

All too soon the Christmas break has come to an end. I have just a few tasks left to do - store the tree that I just boxed up, get some groceries and vacuum the main floor. Sharon will be busy putting paint on a wall this afternoon. The house is much quieter with just Chelsea home in the morning. I'm finishing up some stamps today, Switzerland is my goal. I have half of a good sized stock book full to either mount in my album (not that many, I have a respectable Swiss collection) or sort into my trading boxes. I actually sort my traders onto dealer 102 cards. Not that I am pretending to be a stamp dealer, it is just easier that way. For me the relaxing is in the process, which is quite complex. When I get stamps I first sort the on-paper (meaning someone has carefully torn away the rest of the envelope and left the stamps stuck to the paper - I like this as often well meaning folks damage stamps trying to remove them for me!) into colours. Yup - that matters. It is the colour of the envelope that is a problem. White ones are great! But colours can bleed onto stamps in the soaking process. Then I soak them in three bowls: lukewarm water till then almost fall off the paper, water with a bit of salt and baking soda to neutralize acids, and finally a clean water rinse. I dry them on wax paper covering whatever surfaces my loving wife allows. This I call the soaking party - you should join me it is lots of fun!

Dry stamps and stamps already off paper get put into a tupperware container on my desk. This was overflowing at the start of my Christmas break (in fact I had a box beside it full too!). I tend to toss anything that is damaged and my oldest daughter has been playing with those stamps. I then sort the stamps from my bin into 12 boxes (of various sizes)each full of envelopes (almost one for each country). These boxes are labelled: Machins, Regional Machins, Europe Collected, Oceana Collected, South America (which is also Central America and the Caribbean), Great Britain, Europe, Africa, North America, Asia Collected, and Australasia. These boxes are always full of goodness, ready to sort.

From the boxes I sort the envelopes into stockbooks - one country at a time. Actually I only do this for countries I collect. The others get packaged into auction lots that I take to the club's auctions or sometimes put up on ebay. A few are accumulations that I plan on making into a collection at some point - Austria is one such culprit as I have two lovely full baggies of Austria in those boxes. In the stock book I end up with rows of the same stamp. This is important because often stamps have printing variations. Today I was looking for fibres embedded in Swiss stamps. The colour of little threads in the paper will tell me which printing a stamp is. Actually one stamp had an added feature of a pike (weapon) with either 3 or 4 lines left of the guys hand. I have a lovely little 10X loop with a light that I keep constantly at hand. The other thing I check a lot for is watermarks and the interval between perforations (along the edges of the stamp). Once I have identified just which stamp is which from a row, I see what I need in my album. I prefer postally used stamps (even when the mint, or unused, version is worth more) so I sometimes switch up a stamp in my album because I now have one with a much nicer cancellation. I then update my want list and find the appropriate section of my card files for the traders. If I don't have a 102 card for that stamp variation I make one and price it at 1/3rd the catalogue value (my catalogues are from 2001, but a trip down East should net me more recent ones! Thanks to my uncle-in-law Raymond). As you can imagine my file boxes of traders are quite full. I have been getting these nice red dealer boxes - I have three of those so far. But I also use the boxes the cards come in and kleenex boxes fit perfectly sans cover. I will take a box with me to the club or us it to easily find stamps my few penpal friends ask me to locate. Everything is Scott numbers except the UK used to be Gibbons numbers, now it is both. The reason for that is I have a full colour Stanley Gibbons checklist for my favourite country to collect. You might have guessed this from seeing 3 boxes just for the UK! I love Machins.

Alas, today I will clean up the last of the collection and get my desk ready for a semester of studies. Sharon asked me what I think about when I'm working on my stamps. I told her, 'nothing at all' as that is sort of the point. I'm one of those guys who is always thinking. Stamps distract me long enough to rest. Mental work is quite taxing - despite the way that society has devalued it.

This is a bit of how I spent my holiday. I hope yours was restful too. Now back to weightier things.

Charismatics

I had an awesome visit from an old friend last night. He was off interning with the now infamous Todd Bentley. The thing I like about him is that he has a good head on his shoulders, and he isn't afraid of critiquing a movement that he also deeply respects. I'd say that his challenge is getting appropriate critical distance, but who doesn't have that challenge? (if we are being honest) However, we had a wonderful talk about hermeneutics, presuppositions and dangerous tendencies within the Charismatic world. Now to be upfront - I felt a bit out of the loop as to the players in that world, but it is the world I come from too. We both agree that the deep need is for Charismatics to interface with theologians and for theologians to interface with Charismatics. As it is most Charismatics, and this is a judgment I am making, consider having the "Spirit" as mitigating their need to have anyone teach them anything. It should not surprise us then that Charismatics have a huge range of innovations functioning in their midst - both the truly horrid and the truly brilliant. But there are no real tools for assessing innovation or even correcting some of the more disturbing innovations.

I might take up this task in detail here on the blog. It is dear to my heart. I still know (sometimes personally) half of the players in the Charismatic world. And some I deeply respect. Others, not so much. But for this post I want to focus on this notion of having the "Spirit". Which at its worst is the same old elitism that erupts in every movement that thinks it has the "whole truth", and at its best is a cry for a deeper spiritual intimacy for all Christians.

My buddy would talk about this "having the Spirit" quite a bit in regards to the inability of Charismatics to learn from others. This notion, if I am reading him right, is not that only the Charismatics that have access to the Spirit of God (and by that I mean immediate, unmediated access) but that somehow only the Charismatics have somehow ascertained the true way to maintain that access. The problems with this sort of pneumatological proposition are what led to my exodus from Pentecostalism. But lets focus on what the implications are here.

If, as is proposed and often admitted, Charismatics have immediate and unmediated access to the Spirit, by which they can only mean direct communication from God, then there should be specific fruit evident. At least my critical mind would go looking for the fruit. What should/would that fruit be? Unity? Mercy? Justice? Restoration? Healing? Peace? Love? Joy? Fulfillment? I would think none of those should escape an assessment of any theological innovation. Of all those, I think only healing has had any sort of evaluation - and that is usually the more dubious emotive healing experience of the ecstatics and not the continual assessment that can only take place years after such events have occurred. (Even still has anyone compared ecstatic healings with long term prayerful healings?) As a close second perhaps joy is also looked at - but I'm not convinced that some of the ecstatics junkies I've met really qualify as having the type of deep joy I read about in scripture.

Now I'm not building this case to discard the innovations (even the ecstatics), but to say that there needs to be a way of assessing these phenomena and bringing some of the better innovations into prominence in the corporate ecclesial psyche. In other words what gift can these Charismatics make to Christ's Church?

I am suggesting that the notion of immediate and unmediated is deeply flawed.

It functions like this. Influential Charismatic X has an experience. They reveal this experience to other Charismatics. It is given the same weight as say scripture or tradition. Such experience becomes integrated into the normative spiritual experience without any real evaluation (innovation). Others have similar experiences (supposedly - that is they at least mediate them in the same way) and it becomes normative within an ever growing population. The late John White talked about the psychology of this in "When the Spirit Comes with Power" which I highly recommend.

In that scenario what is missed is that mediation happens all the way along. (That is it is neither immediate nor unmediated). The Influential Charismatic X interprets their experience, even if it is to put a narrative around it. Charles Parnham was talking about tongues long before Asuzu (and Seymour was sitting in the hall listening to those lectures). We all have theological assumptions operative, so experiences are instantly mediated through our assumptions and our worldview(s). Now there can be worldview changing experiences, this is well documented, but even these are mediated and reined in through our internal need for coherence. We never land far from where we start. In other words it is naive to assume immediate or unmediated access to the Spirit.

Does this invalidate our experiences of the Holy Spirit? Not at all. It simply contextualizes them and better it lets us critique the innovations they lead us to. So if flopping on the floor leads to the fruit we outlined earlier - I will be the first one joining you in flopping! But if it is really only a way for me to feel good about myself, then lets work together to something more mature and more beneficial for the Church and ultimately the world that God so loved.

New Year

Happy New Year everyone. May you find rich blessings in this new year.

Problems with Salvation Language

I've been reflecting a lot on how frustrating evangelical speak can be. There was a thread a while back on the Canadian Evangelical Theological Association's yahoo group that was dissecting the idea of "inviting Jesus into your heart". The consensus was that this is not a very helpful analogy. We love these quaint little sayings that actually say absolutely nothing. And we wonder why people outside of the evangelical world do not take us serious.

The one that really bugs me right now is the saying that God/Jesus "saves our souls". Think about that for a minute - what does it actually mean? After trying to tease some meaning out of that hopelessly Hellenistic slogan I had to conclude that unless one does a careful exposition of the concept of soul from scripture - this pretty much means God is only concerned with some disconnected part of me that can neither be proven or disproven, so is easily bifurcated from the tangible aspects of life. Let me explain.

Most Westerners think of soul as that part of us which lives on after death. I suspect that many think of it as a composite of our beings, sort of a seat of personality, but that is a much more lengthy study than I'm prepared to undertake in a blog post. The idea is that soul is related to heaven - it is what we rationally connect with an after-death experience. Death being the great bugbear against which a saved soul is the perfect ward - or is it. What it really boils down to is purely semantics, that is it is just words we use to comfort ourselves in the face of the inevitable unknown. If having my soul saved is nothing more than this then I think I'll pass. Fortunately, there is another way of approaching the soul issue.

In the Christian tradition the idea of resurrection should challenge Hellenistic notions of a separation of soul and body. Unfortunately this supposed separation has led to the vilification of the flesh, another thread for another time. But we must not be so quick to separate our realities, as if the body was just some disposable husk we can't wait to shirk off. This devaluation of the body has been employed to justify all kinds of injustice - slavery and human trafficking continue today because we can somehow commodify the body. In scripture soul and body are not so quickly isolated (if at all).

The second issue is that if Jesus came just to save an abstract part of our being, albeit one that seems quite important and possibly the animating aspect, then why incarnate? What model does condescending into bodily form produce? For Jesus it is all connected. Body, spirit, soul - however you want to slice it up, it is all met together in the person of Jesus. If it was only our souls then would not ecstatics suffice? In point of fact they do suffice for many and serve as convincing arguments for obscuring ones own hermeneutics.

The third issue is that if the soul is really our animating whole seat of personality - how can be excuse our bodily existence? How can we ever justify bodily actions that do not prove a change in our souls in the here and now? I guess this is what frustrates me most - that Christianity is reduced through popular images to a pie in the sky religion while the world goes to hell in a handbasket. That sort of Christianity is not worth participating in.

Not enough effort is given into the trite little sayings we Christians throw around. Less thought is given to the worldviews behind our sayings. When we do so we risk making God into a god of convenience and a god of escapism. Neither is the God who so loved the WORLD (COSMOS) that John's gospel speaks of. Let me quote a bit of proverbs by way of conclusion. Let me first affirm that God saves all of me(you) and that must mean everything or it means nothing at all.

Do not withhold discipline from a child;
if you punish him with the rod, he will not die.
Punish him with the rod
and save his soul from death.
My son, if your heart is wise,
then my heart will be glad;
my inmost being will rejoice
when your lips speak what is right.
Do not let your heart envy sinners,
but always be zealous for the fear of the LORD.
There is surely a future hope for you,
and your hope will not be cut off.
Listen, my son, and be wise,
and keep your heart on the right path. (Psalm 23:13-19, NIV)

Merry Christmas

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas day! I just popped onto the computer to send off an email, then I'm back to playing with my kids. Santa found me and dropped of a wonderful dice bag that came with a bonus bottle of rye! Soooooo sweet.

How I Relax

I just sorted out the state of my stamp collection, that is what albums have I actually put together to house the countries that I collect. While some of my collections are better than others, I do love putting my own personal touch on my collection. So for instance in my German collection I have several pages detailing both world wars as well as a section on hyperinflation. I incorporate philatelic pieces into these sections and it makes them a bit nicer than just stamps on a page. But there is nothing wrong with stamps on a page - especially the joy of filling a page with stamps! Here is what I have so far:

Canada - up to 2001 (when I got back into collecting) in really nice Unity albums (3), after that I collect the year sets from the post office. Also I have an album of provincial stamps.

Germany - a big album for German States, West Germany, early Germany and occupation stamps. I have a second album for East Germany (DDR) and another with Berlin, Saar and Danzig in it.

Great Britain - a big hand made album. I also have a second album for Machins. In other albums I have Ireland and the Channel Islands.

Apart from that, in various albums, I have:

Australia
Australian States
Brazil (some)
Ceylon (I only collect pre-Sri Lanka)
Chile
Columbia
Hong Kong
India & States
Malta
Netherlands (Holland)
New Zealand
Peru
Switzerland
United States
Uruguay
Vatican City

Eventually I will add the rest of South America, possibly Central America and Austria. Now that I have a good handle on what is made up I can dive back into sorting. Oh such fun.

Tis the Season...

I have Internet again, yay! Even though I was off I did have a new cell phone with free internet for three months. Of course that is super slow, but it let me keep up with Facebook. I finished off my coursework with a truly delightful read of Russell Moore's "The Kingdom of Christ". He is quite careful until the second to last chapter, but even there it is a very worthwhile read. I highly recommend this to anyone who is interested in the development of evangelical theology in North America. His proposal of a growing consensus amongst evangelicals based on a tensional (now/not yet) understanding of the Kingdom of God is intriguing. The only unfortunate thing is that this is pretty much the book I would have written for my PhD dissertation! Ah, well I think I have some outs yet.

Christmas Cake

Ingredients:

* 2 cups flour
* 1 stick butter
* 1 cup of water
* 1 tsp baking soda
* 1 cup of sugar
* 1 tsp salt
* 1 cup of brown sugar
* Lemon juice
* 4 large eggs
* Nuts
* 1 bottle wine
* 2 cups of dried fruit

Sample the wine to check quality. Take a large bowl, check the wine again. To be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink. Repeat. Turn on the electric mixer. Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add one teaspoon of sugar. Beat again. At this point it's best to make sure the wine is still OK. Try another cup... Just in case. Turn off the mixerer thingy. Break 2 eggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

Pick the frigging fruit up off floor. Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers just pry it loose with a drewscriver. Sample the wine to check for tonsisticity. Next, sift two cups of salt. Or something. Check the wine. Now shift the lemon juice and strain your nuts. Add one table. Add a spoon of sugar, or some fink. Whatever you can find. Greash the oven. Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over. Don't forget to beat off the turner. Finally, throw the bowl through the window. Finish the wine and wipe counter with the cat.

Bingle Jells!

===
Thanks Gabe, I thought this was quite cute.

Ugh. Still not Internet.

I'm at a hotspot, seems Sympatico will not have me up properly until the 18th!

I'll post something then.

No Internet

Somehow Sympatico deleted my internet service??? Anyway, I'm back up now. Did you miss me?

Great Post and Sad News

I meant to post a link to this post yesterday, Drew often tackles issues that others avoid. I think he makes some interesting points about the way we use scripture, it is worth thinking through.

But...

I got some really sad news today. The minister of my parent's church died suddenly today. He was with my dad at the time. I'm a bit shaken up. He was one of the good guys and it was just a few weeks ago that we had dinner together (in Truro). My prayers are with his wife and their children. I already miss him. I know my dad is really going to miss him too, they were really good friends.

Promise from Moltmann's Theology of Hope

I really enjoy this read. Moltmann is wonderfully engaging. If you haven't read any Moltmann - don't deprive yourself any longer. In Theology of Hope he builds a strong case for eschatology as the center of a Christian theology. Now, those of you who hear eschatology and start getting ruptured over the rapture - eschatology actually means last things and escapist notions like a rapture really don't cut it. His emphasis is that the 'not yet' opens up a future that is pregnant with possibility. Eschatology is about a particular view of history that is shaped by an understanding of God as revealed through promise. To get a handle on this Moltmann draws our several key ideas about promise from the First Testament:

1. "A promise is a declaration which announces the coming of a reality that does not yet exist." (103)


2. "The promise binds man to the future and gives him a sense of history." (103)


3. "The history which is initiated and determined by promise does not consist in cyclic recurrence, but has a definite trend towards the promised and outstanding fulfilment." (103)


4. "If the word is a word of promise, then that means that this word has not yet found a reality congruous with it, but that on the contrary it stands in contradition to the reality open to experience now and heretofore." (103)


5. "The word of promise therefore always creates an interval of tension between the uttering and the redeeming of the promise." (104) I really like this point, it is exemplified in the tension of the Kingdom as both 'now' and 'not yet', but more on that in another post.


6. "If they are God's promises, then God must also be regarded as the subject of their fulfilment." (104) God is not abstracted from the promises as a sort of deistic clockmaker god, yet at the same time this is not a fatalistic claim that God is the only actor in history. Earlier in the text Moltmann states clearly that our lives in this world are not adiaphorais, meaning having no good or bad effect on our world. Think tension and participation.


7. "The peculiar character of the Old Testament promises can be seen in the fact that the promises were not liquidated by the history of Israel - neither by disappointment nor by fulfilment - but that on the contrary Israel's experience of history gave them a constantly new and wider interpretation." (104) That is "[t]he 'not yet' of expectation surpasses every fulfilment that is already taking place now." (106)

Exciting Timesin Canadian Politics

This topic is generating a tonne of heat over on facebook. I thought I'd throw it out here as well. As you can see I am for the coalition, in fact I am ecstatic the the Bloc Quebecois has decided to support this coalition - they are working harder for national unity than the Federalists??? Harper has to be on the way out and I think he can kiss goodbye any gains the Conservatives have made in Quebec. I find it so offensive his attacks on the Bloc. Why he can't own up to his own culpability in engineering his downfall, is simply beyond me. His penchant for bullying and US style politics led to the last election. And contrary to the little dream world he has concocted, he did not get a mandate to rule like he has a majority. He won a minority, that means Canada expects him to behave himself and cooperate for the good of the country. Obviously he is incapable of this.

I'm probably biased though - I can't say that I've ever really trusted Harper. I just thought with all the rhetoric about a more civil parliament he would have at least tried. Enough is enough and I say Harper has to go. Obviously I would rather see the Green party represented, but at this point if we have elected leaders willing to lead through cooperation then by all means we need to let them. That is why I support the Liberal-NDP coalition.

Jesus and Repentance

"John was known for his practice of baptism, which was understood as a sign of repentance (Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3); but Jesus, according to John's emphatic note (4:2), did not practice baptism himself. This corresponds to a notable absence of instruction on the need for formal repentance, restitution and sacrifice. St Luke emphasises this especially. Zacchaeus offers restitution spontaneously, after Jesus has entered his house and not as a condition (19:18). When the Prodigal Son tries to deliver a speech of penitence, it is brushed aside (15:20-4). If there is, in Jesus' teaching, anything like a condition for being forgiven other than faith itself, it is, as we find St Matthew emphasising, forgiving others. And this is a condition only because it shows we have taken God's act of forgiveness seriously as a world-changing event which leaves no relations in the state that they were. On this understanding, however, it is clear that faith implies a change of life. Repentance is included in, rather than excluded by, the priority of faith."
-- Oliver O'Donovan, The Desire of the Nations, p.113-114.

Consider the implications, if this is a valid position, on our understandings of evangelism.

Interesting Vid on Evangelism

Found this on Scott Paeth's blog and it raises some important questions about strategies of evangelism. I wonder if our strategies have become way too important to us. If we are committed to seeing people come into relationship with God, then why does that have to look one specific way? It was suggested to me that the dirty little secret of evangelicalism is that we don't really like to evangelize. By that it was meant that evangelism is an often long and messy process with no guaranteed payoff. Strategies are an easy substitute and almost guarantee that if someone becomes part of your church they will have a lot of the same values you have already formed and intact - they won't rock the boat.

Fun with Church Signs

I saw this sign on the way home from my own church service.


This church is notorious for signs that make me go, "huh?" This one got me thinking - what is it that Jesus doesn't. So I thought maybe you all could make some suggestions.

Very Important Video

Jamie had this posted. It is very worth watching.



In my experience 'stuff' is the most stressful aspect of my life. Would love to hear your thoughts.

Be Not Afraid

"The lover of truth has no truer friend that an intelligent critic."
- Oliver O'Donovan

Magisterium

In a recent conversation, over on facebook, my friend Cameron keeps invoking the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church. I have been thinking about this. I know from discussions at Saint Paul that what actually constitutes this Magisterium is a bit of a debated topic. For instance there is the teaching office of the Bishops, but the concept of Magisterium includes other voices such as the Magisterium of the poor. The reality, as I understand it, is that this is not a concrete well defined body of teaching, but rather a charism possessed by the whole Church and brought to consciousness to lend weight to ecclesial decisions. Sort of like the tradition of pseudopigrapha in the writings of the early Church.

Regardless of how this charism is expressed, I am wondering if this is a useful concept. In the Protestant Evangelical world, the one with which I am most implicated, there is a resistance to a definitive body that imposes dogma on the rest of us. Yet, at the same time we can be some of the most dogmatic of Christians. I think the biggest roadblock to a Magisterium in the Prot-Evangelical world is our commitment to individualism and personal revelation. This is a debate for another thread, but it doesn't mean that a Magisterium is a bad thing, just not something that would readily fly for Prot-Evangelicals. Or would it?

There is a strong leader-follower mentality in the Prot-Evangelical world. This is most clearly seen in our Fundamentalist roots. Another way of naming it is cult of personality. In this model it is a few dominant voices, claiming unmediated access to revelation as support for their truth claims, who lead the majority of followers. There is little wrestling together for what might seem good to us and the Holy Spirit, rather it is presented as a propositional reality. At least in the idea (abstract as it is) of the Magisterium, there is an attempt to acknowledge this process. The Magisterium, as I understand it, is never a single individual and almost never a dominating subgroup. Although I think there are Roman Catholics who wish this were the case.

All I Can Say Is Amen

He ends with a quote from Clarence Darrow - how very fitting.

Jim West's Desktop Challenge

I had to respond immediately. I call this one - My Girls. They are truly my inspiration. BTW can you tell where I'm posting this from?

Smells and Bells

I had a great time preaching at First United in Truro. I always feel a bit clumbsy when I am in a highly structured service, but someone had placed a huge quilt (one that is touring Canada) so that it obstructed view from the guest preacher's chair. I was happy to not be the centre of attention for the whole service. I couldn't have put together a better service - the music and prayers were all themes that have become so close to my heart: unity, justice and faithfulness. But two things overwhelmed me. First, this is the church I spent my youngest years in. I was shocked to realize how commanding a view the preacher (and choir) get of the balcony seats where I used to hide out - Doh! But more than that I was flooded with memories and the memories triggered smells (or maybe vice versa, but as it is a scent free (practice) church I'm not sure). I could smell the pine of the great Christmas trees that the young people always used to gather beside before being dismissed for the children's programmes. I could smell the wood of the pews that was an anchoring presence in my early life. I even met with the couple who'se house always made me think of a shade tree - and they still sparkled.

As we were greeting folks leaving the church, a number of ladies told me they had had me for Sunday school - I apologized to them all. But one lady actually thanked me for apologizing, she said I would never do anything I was told. But she was very proud of me, I could see that in her eyes. For me that was worth the whole trip.

Well I'm back to Ottawa today, and back to the daily grind of my studies. Oh, I called this Smells and Bells because they had a wonderful bell choir playing throughout the service, when I realized this I was thinking my daughter (my oldest came with me) would just love how beautiful they sounded. It was quite something.

From Guest Lecture to Guest Speaker in Just One Week!

The lack of words here does not mean I've forgotten my regular readers. But merely that I have been busy. Yesterday I was guest lecturer at Saint Paul University. Prof. Heather Eaton is doing a course on Religion, Culture and Diversity and needed someone to tackle Evangelicalism. So I put together a lecture on contemporary Evangelical Identity. This included a look at the significant developments of Evangelical Identity in the 20th century - material from my masters work. But the big issue I wanted to cover was how the Evangelical self-identity creates barriers in academia. I found John Stackhouse's Evangelical Landscapes (especially "Why Can't Johnny Produce Christian Scholarship") especially helpful here. It seemed really well received.

I'm still putting my message together for this weekends anniversary celebration in Truro. Quite and eventful week for me.

Going Preaching

My mom sent me this blurb from their local newspaper. The worship committee of First United Church (Truro) has asked me to come and celebrate their 248th anniversary with them. I'm really excited.

My message will be called Honouring Our Journey, and I hope to encourage them to reflect on God's faithfulness as we travel through life by sharing a bit about my own journey. I am incredibly honoured to have been asked to speak at this church. I have a great deal of respect for Gordie the pastor there. However, I think they chose the wrong picture - wouldn't this glamour shot have been so much better.

Unfortunately this was taken much too late for the article. This is what PhD students do at their super secret seminars, or at least what they do when a classmate pulls out their crazy sunglasses at the end of the class!

Bad Posture

Went to see the doctor today. Seems years of sitting improperly in front of a laptop have taken their toll on my neck. I've had really bad neck pain for at least two years now. My wife was trying to scare me into seeing the doctor, she was worried I had done some serious damage, but the doctor gave me some exercises that he felt should help. I also need to think through my computer use habits (also my posture when reading is not so good). Habits are not easy to modify - I was trying to adjust just now on the computer and devolved into my usual slump with scary ease.

In other posture news, the markets are rallying today with the impending news of a new president to the South of us here in the Great White North. I am actually unimpressed with how much of a sense of importance my fellow Canadians are placing on this election as opposed to our own election. No I do not wish I could vote in the US election. I think it will be interesting to see how the Obamania pans out if he is elected tonight. I was saddened to hear of his Grandmother's passing though. Much as I'm unimpressed with national politics these days, I think this temporary optimism, sown in the markets, does not help with the realization that the world needs all of us to do our part if it is going to be a better place. I'm disturbed by any posture that surrenders that control to others in a sort of public fatalism. That is the posture that is really at the roots of our problems in North America. We are so self-absorbed and disconnected with a world that so desperately needs us - especially those of us who claim a religious orientation of hope.

If I do my exercises perhaps my pain will eventually give way to new muscular strength. Unless the world learns to exercise our public ability to act it will be more than our necks that are one the line. Something I'm thinking about.

A Primer on Worship and Reformation (review)

This is the review I submitted to LibraryThing.

I did not know what to expect from Douglas Wilson’s little book, from the title “A Primer on Worship and Reformation: Recovering the High Church Puritan” I actually expected something more historical. Wilson has another agenda in mind. This book is an interesting look at Wilson’s experience of present day evangelical traditions, and as far as observations go, he makes some good ones.

The book begins with some observations about culture and evangelical Christianity, he is not covering new ground here, but he does adequately identify some of the significant challenges of our day. However, he does not stick with his analysis long enough. As Wilson moves to his judgement the language becomes one of manifesto – “we have to fight...” and “we need to see...”. This is not a proposal but a definitive answer to the issues of our time. The problem is that these are Wilson’s answers and he does not have enough critical distance from them to convince anyone but the already convinced. This is a common downfall in such literature.

Another point that troubles me is that this book despairs over other expressions (proposed solutions) within Christianity. The worst of this is the anti-Roman Catholic sentiment. I tried to look past that to see how Wilson validates his claims. But really this is just another call back to “fundamentals”, a proposal that has not worked very well in the past. Despite my disagreement with Wilson’s project, I do think this is a better offering in the genre of manifestos than typically comes out of Fundamentalist evangelical traditions. I think that he does identify issues worth wrestling with. And I think we would agree that the evangelical traditions are in need of reformation, however, we both offer quite different prescriptions to these traditions.

1.5 stars out of 5.

Gone Convocating!

Yup. Today I will be handed my Masters of Arts in Historic and Systematic Theology diploma. I'm leaving the house in just a few minutes. This has been a hard won degree. See you all on the other side!

Not So Evil, Aw Shucks...

There you have it.

Two Ends of the Scale

On one hand I am so excited that Fresh and Re:Fresh is about to be published. I'm also ecstatic that I have been asked to guest preach at the church I grew up in, it is their 248th anniversary service - what an honour. And this weekend is my masters convocation, what could be more satisfying than that? But at the same time I'm realizing just how burned out I am. I have been going full time for three years with barely a break and I was hoping that this semester would be a lot lighter than it is turning out to be. I have been putting off starting a new church group simply because I don't have the energy. It is not a fun realization.

It was a bit of a relief to actually admit to being burned out. But at the same time it is quite difficult knowing what to do about it. I know I need rest, and in fact I've been escaping quite a bit more than is healthy (mostly into watching tv series on the internet) and I've had stress related neck pain for at least two years now (in the last year it has the tendency to migrate into my head with very painful results). But the worst thing is that I stopped being present to my friends and family in the way I used to. Last year I blamed it on the intense masters programme, but as I set out some goals around family time I am realizing that it is something much deeper. If it comes down to family or continuing studies, studies is not going to win. In fact Sharon would really like me to take off a semester and be a stay-at-home dad, not sure how that screws up my scholarships though? But after that last SSHRC session I think I have a fundable project.

On the happy side, it has been really nice to spend some quality time with the family. We spent Sunday afternoon at the McKenzie King Estate, the waterfall is dried up right now BTW. Elyssa is coming Down East with me when I preach at First United. She is so excited about going on an airplane. It will also be really nice to see some of my old friends. I took yesterday off and hung out with Sharon in the day, and my buddy Vince in the evening (Vince needed some help with his resume, it is looking quite spiffy now). I really don't have much to complain about in terms of family and friends - I'm really blessed in that department. For me it is making sure that the people who are most important to me are not lost in the midst of all my busyness.

Just a note about the book. I had the amazing opportunity to write the last chapter, just before Roxburg's (someone I really appreciate!) conclusion. The chapter is called Treasures in Clay Jars and it is the story of Freedom Vineyard in dialogue with Louis Barrett's distinctives of a missional church. This is an important book as it gives you a sense of what the Canadian emerging church is doing.

It's My Party and I'll Cry It I Want To

With just shy of 1 million votes, that is 6.8% of the popular vote, my party failed to translate any of the really good contests into a single elected MPP. It was pretty disappointing watching the results last night. Especially when at one point the little ticker at the bottom of the screen reported on Green win and then it went away - robbed, I felt robbed. Locally my candidate didn't do so well, but it was going to be a hard slog against John Baird (conservative environment minister) and David Pratt (former Liberal defense minister). But I was hoping for more from high profile (and well spoken) Greens like Adriane Carr, Mark Nagy, Lori Gadzala, etc. or even Elisabeth May herself. My did pull a solid second place, but there also was no Liberal candidate in her riding?

I'm not happy with the gains the the Conservatives made. Obviously Newfoundland was a blow to them, but they won a solid minority. I shudder to think what that means for my country. The economic woes of our current moment turned out as a boon for the conservatives, I was afraid of that. People are afraid of change. We will have to brace ourselves as economics trumps justice to the detriment of our embattled planet and impoverished world.

What is odder to me is the apathy. Lowest turnout, that was expected, but the unwillingness to vote if you are not going to win is ridiculous. I really do not get this fatalistic approach to voting. Seriously, what do people expect? You get one vote, throwing in with who you think will win does what? Makes you feel like a winner? The worse option, refusing to vote, means you will get exactly what you don't vote for. But I think Harper counted on this. Why else would you set an election so close to Thanksgiving? A time when folks have other turkeys to deal with then an election. $290million dollars went into this travesty. Not voting is what makes this a waste of money - we had an opportunity to roast the real turkey but instead we re-elected him.

Hey It's My Church Too!

The reality of the Christian Church is one of division and disconnection. You have your Roman Catholics, your Eastern Orthodox, your Evangelical Protestants, your mainline Protestants, and a bazillion subdivisions in each of these. Yes, even the Roman Catholic church is a divided reality, they just have a great knack for keeping all the different fruits in one basket. (BTW I think baskets of fruit look purdy.) So this is the reality of the situation and there are a lot of folks passionate about bringing it all back together - if only so-and-so would change this little distinctive, uh well you get what I mean.

Unity (aka ecumenism) is an interesting problem for the Church. We love our distinctives. I for one am not willing to abide a patriarchal hierarchy such as our Roman kin enjoy. And I'm convinced that I shouldn't have to - both by my reading of scripture, my experience and my study of history. Flattening the distinctives of our movements into some sort of lowest common denominator or worse into a Darwinian loss of the weaker movements is not the way to unity. Unity is not something enforced but something embraced.

Unity begins with embracing that we all share a common starting point, despite our differences. One might be tempted to define this dogmatically, rooting it in a creedal formula, but I envision something a bit more unifying - history. We share a history - no matter where our movement took shape in this history, we all (as Christians) start with the experience of the primitive Church that told the stories of Jesus. That history belongs to every one of us who claim the name Christian - no matter what objections we have to what they've done with their heritage.

Unity continues to flourish when we begin to revel in diversity. If Social Trinitarianism has taught us anything it is that unity is only achievable in diversity (the other option is really totalitarianism). Diversity is helpful because it allows us to see the strengths and weaknesses of our own tradition/movements through the strengths and weaknesses of others. Iron sharpens iron is the proverb that comes to mind. Difference is the only thing that highlights our own uniqueness. Diversity is a prerequisite for robust life.

Unity results in strength. All that fundamentalism ever does is build polemics. It is a tiring defensive posture that has, frankly, eroded the public confidence in Christianity. It doesn't preserve, rather it stagnates. It can only end by turning in towards itself until it has no friends, a sad state I've witnessed over and over again. That is not strength, that is weakness.

Strength comes from knowing what and who you are. That we bring ourselves, unique and confident, into the diversity that is unity. That each of us makes up a part of the people of God, we identify with the Church as being our Church. This strength is the path of restoration of our place in the world as ones who speak for the poor, the lonely and the outcast. It is when the Church is united like this that we will once again be relevant to the world that God so loved.

Great Tool!

My director was encouraging me to make sure I managed my time well, academic work at the graduate level is highly self-directed. The reason it takes folks so long to complete is because they do not manage their time well. Life is always busy, the academic work usually gets relegated to the bottom of the pile. I'm completely guilty of this, and it has been a great source of frustration for me. So I sat down with my loving wife and we hammered out a schedule which averages me 32 hours/week for school. It also helps me know when I have time for cleaning, making meals, loving on my family, pastoring Freedom, etc.

Having a schedule is all fine and good, but I need a way to keep on target, see what items are left to complete, and be able to estimate when I can complete tasks (within my 32 hour framework). Having done a bit of project management I could make this way more complicated than it needs to be, but rather than that I decided to find a tool that will let me track my time on specific tasks. As a student my preference would be for something free! I found it in a programme called ToDoList.

ToDoList lets you organize and time your activities. You can set due dates to manage your time and prioritize your items. At least that is how I am using it. If you get it spend some time figuring out the interface and then make your list, it will be time worth spending (there are manuals but manuals are for when you really screw things up, right?) Here is what I do:

• Divided my reading course into texts I need to read, grouped by papers I need to write. More granularity means that I can track how long I spent on each task.
  
• I then ordered them, set the priorities and checked off the books I have already read. This tells me how much of the project (%) is complete. Progress is always encouraging.
  
• I am very interested in what types of reading are more time intensive. This will really help me in the future when choosing books to prepare for courses - I can make sure the more time intensive ones get read early. This is easy to do, click on task and then the little clock icon - when you stop click the icon again, the clock can be started and restarted as much as is needed.
  

Give it a try.

Quote to go with the Last Post

"In a sense, "political theology" is a pleonasm; any theology, no mater[sic] what the subfield, no matter what the topic being treated, must be political. It must attend to the way that the Christian message has been privatized and has thereby lost much of its meaning and relevance. It must reckon with the forward-looking character of human experience, particularly in modernity. It must grapple constructively with the ways that the "understanding" that is operative in the classic definition of theology as "faith seeking understanding" is tacitly or explicitly shaped by our current social-historical context (that is, by "praxis"). It must show that and how Christian hope is not inimical to human longings (or, to quote Guadium et Spes, the joys, hopes, griefs, and anxieties of modern men and women), but their most profound fulfillment."
- J. Matthew Ashley in the Introduction to Faith in History and Society (Metz), 17.

Saved?

Is salvation located as a process in history or as something completely transcendent from history? If it is only about an eternal destination external from history then we might as well sit this one out and wait for the real deal. Good luck with that. But if it is embedded in history, redemptively embracing the suffering of this world as the incarnational appearance of Christ suggests, then our action in history takes on a whole world of meaning. We are either participants in God's redemptive passion for this world, or we are opponents of what God is doing. When we take history seriously, then we are doing political theology.

Failure of The Capitalist Dream

"Individualism is thus not respect for the individuated being of the free person, but simply the human unrelatedness of men and women when organized solely in terms of economic competition."
- Charles Davis, Theology and Political Society, p.178-9

I had a friend ask me some questions about communism recently. We need to be careful to distinguish between Marxism and communism, as Davis points out Marx was also critical of communism that was not intellectually engaged in its efforts to emancipate humanity (Davis, 132). Certainly communism has failed as a project. But just as certainly capitalism has also failed. One needs only take a deep breath of the panic that is engulphing the world to realize our advanced society has an Achilles heal, one that Marx was able to see clearly. We no longer own our own efforts in this world (a dream that was supposed to provide us with even more leisure - but tell that to families managing more than 2 jobs while strangers look after their kids!), we all work for "the man". And while "the man" gets richer, we become less, not more, free. Davis hits it right on the head - we aren't freer, we are more disconnected and meaningless. Something to think about.

Sign on the Lawn

I was raised with no sign on the lawn, in fact politics was something you kept private. It would be unthinkable for my parents to discuss their voting choices let alone stick a sign on their front lawn. And while it has been a few years since I've realized that political discussion is healthy and good, and should be done openly, I've always wanted to, but resisted, putting up a sign on my front lawn. Not anymore.

This year I am proud to display my green disposition.

Now let me be clear, I would never think to tell my congregants or even the readers of my blog how to vote. But I'm sure going to tell you that I think you need to vote. I arrived at my choice through deep personal convictions regarding social justice, ecology and inclusion. For me that is embodied in the Green Party. But I have a lot of respect for folks who have been led by similar convictions to choose other parties to support.

What is really interesting to me is how good it makes me feel to be upfront about my political convictions. Partly because I'm doing politics where I think politics really needs to happen - right in the public space.

Healthy Doubting

Recently my daughter became aware of the differences between Muslims and Christians (one of her best friends is an Egyptian Muslim boy). So she used to ask her friends if they believed in Jesus, of course Ahmed, the boy, said yes. In fact he was convinced all Egyptians believed in Jesus (I won't tackle that one or his declaration one day that God gets angry with us if we eat pork). So in order to discriminate she started asking her friends if they were Christians. One of her friends was curious about that, so I love the respect Elyssa showed when she asked that girl to ask her parents if they minded her sharing about Jesus. But I loved even more her approach to sharing Jesus. Once she got to tell her friend about Jesus she relayed the story to her mom. One of the things Elyssa shared was sometimes she wondered if the Jesus and God were just something the devil made up.

Now at first that was incredibly funny (and still is). But I also think it is quite profound. She has been hanging out with some more fundamentalist Christians at a kids club, and we've had many deep conversations. I encourage questioning, I think it is very healthy. I also am greatly encouraged that she does not feel obliged not to doubt! Doubting is very natural and even reasonable. Especially in light of the injustice of this world. One has to be quite callous to not suspect God is a rich man's invention when you witness the abject poverty experienced throughout much of the world. The question of theodicy, or how can God and evil co-exist, is the fuel for much of the best theology in our time. And well it should be.

Doubt should lead us to wrestle. What do we know that we know? Doubt is the tool that most adequately reveals true faith. Doubt peels away the layers of surity we use to insulate the fragile core of our faith. I find that evangelicals, in particular, do not deal well with unsurity. But an honest assessment of life reveals contradiction, injustice and suffering. To pretend otherwise does not strengthen our faith any more than believing through sheer force of will. Folks who dismiss doubt are not interested in truth, they are interested in self-security which they are convinced only surity can bring. Those are the folks who have the most to lose when their faith is challenged.

Doubt does not mean giving up your faith, but recognizing that faith is what calls us to conversion. Conversion is not about repentance (although repentance is often the fruit of conversion) but rather about changing the way we understand life. Conversion is the beginning that we continually return to, like Job whose view of humanity is forever altered when he names his new daughters. Conversion is prompted by the need exposed by doubt, especially when doubt raises a cry for hope in the real core faith of ones heart. Doubt is the friend of faith as much as surity is faith's enemy.

Last night at supper Elyssa was keen to offer up her prayer of thanksgiving for the meal. Her prayer was filled with both faith and questions, she asked God to reveal if Noah was a real person, because she "really wants to know." Her maturing faith delights me all the time.

How the Conservatives See the Arts

Michel had this posted on his blog, worth watching. Not with the kids around though - it is a very frank video.

Worst Preacher is Crowned

Scott knows a thing or two about competition sports. Yesterday he wrapped up the Worst Preacher Ever contest and crowned the winner: Benny Hinn! Yup, the guy who convinced me that faith healers should focus on healing and just shut their mouths has emerged victorious. Not without stiff competition either. Benny faced the horrid and heretical preaching styles of Joel Osteen, Jack van Impe, Pat Robertson and even Todd Bentley. Yet, none of these could stand up the the sheer magnitude of aweful preaching that is Benny's legacy.

Congrats Benny! Wear your crown with pride.

Baum on Doctrinal Development

Baum insists that in every generation evil changes (p.188). How the church responds in each moment is both a testimony to the creativity of the gospel and our resistance to upsetting the status quo. In any event Baum provides some real food for thought.

What I am proposing here is, in traditional theological terms, a theory of doctrinal development. It is of great theological importance to insist that such a development is never simply an adaptation to a new cultural consciousness or to new social conditions of life, but is or ought to be, at the same time, a creative response to the sinful world. Theologians dealing with the development of doctrine often neglect this second aspect. For this reason, they either restrict doctrinal development to logical or psychological deductions from previously held doctrinal formulations, or understand it simply as a translation of the Christian message into a new cultural consciousness. Gregory Baum, Religion and Alienation, p.189.

Baum on Idolatry

For if idolatry be understood as the absolutizing of the finite and the elevating of a part to be the ultimate measure of the whole, then the Church's unmitigated claim to absolute truth and ultimate authority becomes problematic. From the biblical point of view, the Church itself could become an idol. Church doctrine and ecclesiastical authority promote idolatrous trends in religion whenever these institutions no longer present themselves as serving the divine Word and as mediating a divine mystery that transcends them; the Church becomes an idol whenever it identifies itself with the kingdom of God. The Church is tempted by idolatry when it wants to multiply the absolutes and regard its teaching and its hierarchy as the ultimate norms for judging all forms of Christian life and faith.
---Gregory Baum, Religion and Alienation, 64.

I have been thinking a lot about the need to gain critical distance from our religion in order to understand who we stand with/for. BTW this is a very fine book by Baum.

How Paradigms of Theology Function

I have been reviewing an undergrad course I took on Liberation Theology and came across this nifty little chart. I'm pretty sure these come from someone, but I didn't note who. There are some good insights into methodological biases here, but I'm also cautious as to the potential to caricature theological paradigms - theology is rarely this neat. However, there are good starting points here.

Congress 2009 - Carleton University

I took on the role of local arrangements coordinator (LAC) for the Canadian Theological Society (CTS) at the upcoming Congress 2009. Congress 2009 is the Canadian Congress for Humanities and Social Sciences, and will be held at Carleton University late May. Today I gathered with Carlton staff, LACs and Programme Coordinators (PCs) from the various societies meeting at the coming Congress. We were treated to a very nice buffet, a foretaste of the catering to be sure. And it seems like a fairly well organized event. Of course I was one of the few not in at least dress casual, when will I learn. But no one seemed to mind. And my buddy Peter (also doing a PhD at Saint Paul) is LAC for the Canadian Evangelical Theological Association (CETA).

I know, you are wondering why I didn't go rep for that one. Well, I only became aware of it after accepting the responsibility for the CTS. I'm definitely going to check out the CETA, in fact I might submit a paper for consideration - not sure if I can do both the LAC duties and get a chance to present, but I'll find out soon enough. My good friend Kat (also a PhD student at Saint Paul) was supposed to do my job, but wasn't sure about her springtime plans, so it fell to me. I'm happy to do this, it will be really helpful on my academic resume, but it looks like a lot more work than she first told me.

I almost didn't make it. Yesteday Chelsea power-puked (she is the fruit of my loins) all over the backseat of our Vue. Yuck. So I had a sick girl and Sharon was working. But Sharon found someone to work the second half of her shift so I could attend the planning meeting. But in the meantime I've gotten zero work done for my course. But I did help a dear friend with his dad's stamp collection and had a great chat with the primate for the Independent Old Catholic Church of America, who happens to also be a local stamp auction guy. He's a lot of fun, and was terribly interested in Freedom's Eucharistic journey. I got the sense he would be more comfortable if I were ordained in some way akin to the orthodox tradition, but whatever. My ordination doesn't come from or through man, but through the call of God on my life and the recognition of the body I serve. As we pray in the Eucharist, it is at Christ's command we celebrate. But George is a lot of fun to chat with, he definitely loves Jesus.