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I only just found out that Professor Zygmunt Bauman has been giving a series of Lectures at the London School of Economics. Entry is free and last lecture is 8th November.Bauman wrote the hugely influential book, ‘Liquid Modernity’. Pete Ward used Bauman’s theories for his research and book ‘Liquid Church’. I could kick myself for not knowing about these, earlier. Transcripts are available of the lectures at the links above.
Pete and I did a day together at the London Institute of Christianity, where he presented his Liquid Church ideas, and I offered a critique (available here as MP3)
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Alan Jamieson (one of my favorite authors and people) writes:
‘Sadly many expressions of the ‘emerging church’ seem like children who have grown up in a single parent environment.’
Suggesting roles of ‘father’ (the changing cultural milieu) and ‘mother’ (the historical church), he writes a provocative and stimulating post, here about how new forms of church are being birthed. See you there for some commenting.
Technorati Tags: Emerging Church, Theology
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We had a few days away this week, enjoying the rain in the UK, as a family. One night at a restaurant, my wife whispered to me “look over there, that man with the silver hair, is he one of my relatives?’
I scanned the room a surreptitiously as I could until I found the man she had seen, expecting to see an uncle of hers. I turned back to my wife, “do you mean Lord Carey?”
Seems Lord Carey, the 103rd Archbishop of Canterbury, now retired, was eating pancakes with his family for a birthday party. My wife new his face was familiar, and did the usual, ‘have I met him at church, at a conference’, and landed on the idea that he must be a distant relative. My wife now insists that Lord Carey looks just her uncle Alan
It gave me a chuckle. Lord Carey was staying at the same place as us, and it was strange seeing the former Archbishop of Canterbury in his swimming trunks at the swimming pool. It seemed so incongruous, like when you used to see your school teachers in the real world shopping, but even more so. The Right Reverend Carey, once the head of the Anglican Communion, in a role that reaches back to Saint Augustine who arrived in Kent in 597 A.D, sitting next to me at the swimming pool.
Technorati Tags: Church
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When I talk about being on a doctoral programme, people often assume I am doing a P.hD, which I’m not. It’s a common misconception that anyone who has a doctorate has a P.hD. In fact there are many kinds of doctoral courses, that lead to you having the title Dr.
Broadly they break down into three types, professional and academic, and contributory. (Medical doctors in the UK are very different, with the title Dr being used once they have achieved Bachelor of Medicine (BM or MB) and Bachelor of Surgery (BCh or BS), and may go on to do postgraduate research and become a Dr from an academic post-graduate degree).
Technorati Tags: D.Min, D.Phil, DMin, Doctor, Doctor of Ministry, DPhil, Emerging Church, P.hD, PhD, Professional Doctorate, puppy, Resource, Theology
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jonnybaker: Re:source new course starts Jan 2006:
I got this from Jonny Baker, looks great!
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There is a backronym (is the phenomenon that word exists first and is then expanded to a phrase, unlike an acronym which involves a phrase being reduced to a set of initials which can then be pronounced as a word), a DIG. So computer geeks, DIG (domain information groper) the DNS (an acronym for Domain Name Server), in other words searching and fetching information.Over the last few years we have grown used to searching, and google have made our lives easier with their search tools. But we are moving away from searching, and the DIG, has become the art of ‘digging’, and something much more than fetching DNS information.
But it is still to do with the art of information alchemy, and finding things, often real things. Yahoo describe the art of digging as:
‘Digging is the new social phenomenon and the latest celebrity craze sweeping the nation. It’s the art of acquiring collections of cool stuff through a passionate mix of researching, shopping, fact finding and trading.
It used to be about trawling through old shops, but these days it’s about digging for information. Modern cool hunters use the Internet to pursue their passions and chase down the rare, the quirky, and the collectible.’
Of course the word lends itself to and leaches meaning from the phrase ‘to dig something’…i.e to get a deep emotional satisfaction or longing from something, or someone.
So my ‘digs’ can be music, fashion, gadgets, books, and they include the place and how I got them. So move over blog roll, here come my ‘digs’.
Technorati Tags: Current Affairs, Technology
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There is a new browser on the block called Flock, that looks like it has the blogging community in mind, with del.icio.us and Flickr integration that is trying to go head to head with Firefox. There is a beta download for Windows, Mac and Linux. It’s also trying hard to be the browser that implements web 2.0 standard/features first.
So if your looking for a browser to integrate posting to your blog, tracking blogs and using blog tools, as well as the usual firefox tools, this might be your cup of tea. From my early goes with it, it’s looks great, but is very very slow, and buggy, but they have released it early so we can help them iron out the bugs.
I used it for this post, and the drag and drop and integration with flikr (again drag and drop) is amazing.
Technorati Tags: Blogs, Flock, Resource, Technology
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Buy in UK – £6.78, buy in USA – $12.23.I met up with John Franke the other week, John is a great friend, and after living in the UK for some time he is an ardent Arsenal fan (which my son approves of greatly!). John co-authored a book with the late Stan Grenz, that is a set text in so many seminaries today, Beyond Foundationalism.
John’s latest book, strikes out from where that text left off, although John suggests it is more of a prequel, and it is much easier to read. It’s slim at 200 pages, and set to become another key text for people wanting to understand theology in a post-modern context.
What I love about the book, is that John put’s himself into it, theology is part of his journey and story, this is not esoteric academics, but someone who has been trying to make sense of his own questions and those of his students in the real world.
So if like John you value your evangelical heritage, appreciate the process the reformers undertook, and want to engage meaningfully with our post-modern context, this is the book for that. I love John’s sub title, for the book, ‘A Post-conservative evangelical approach’.
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The gospels, and OT, and some pauline quotes, have the phrase :Ephesians 6:2Â (New International Version)
2″Honor your father and mother”My mother would often use this to make me feel guilty. It was a co-dependent way to manipulate me, and was used in terms of you will do what I want, ask, need, as the bible says to honor your parents.
It took until I was 35 to realize that honoring my parents could not include, being co-dependent, rescuing them from the decision and choices they were making. In fact to honor them was to set boundaries, to help them live as adults, and accept the consequences of ther behaviors, that was being a better son.
I met a guy the other day, who is a family therapist, and he suggested I write the things that honor my parents, the things I am grateful for, and he’s right. In the midst of the pain, from the post below, there is a lot I am grateful for.
My mother always wanted me to do well, and said I was great, and was going to go to university, when I came from a family and background where no-one did. She instilled in me the belief that my life was bigger than the problems we had as a family. Also she was loving, and affectionate, and never criticized me for failing, but said ‘just do your best’.
She also got me into music, and came along to everything I played and performed at, even though I am sure she never like the classical music that was played. She was there to see me.
And my mother got me into a school the other side of town, in the days when you had no choice over school, and it was a life saver, as the school near me was a haven for drugs and crime. Thank you mum for that, it set me up for life.
My father, when he was around was loving, funny, I still remember some terrible jokes he told me when I was about 8-10 years old.
Technorati Tags: Diary
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As I posted a few days ago, we had Conrad Gempf, with us for last saturday morning at our church weekend away at Ashburnham. Conrad is the author of a few recent great books, and my former NT lecturer at London School of Theology.We’ve been experimenting with interactions instead of preaching in our congregational space, and have used bible text’s in an Ignation kind of way. So I was intrigued to hear that Conrad had written some narratives that were ways to listen to Gospel stories, and have him use them with us on the retreat.
Conrad explained some of the method, in that he tells the gospel stories from the point of view of a minor character, someone we can identify with to catch the subtle nuances of the story. Also after years of atomizing texts to get to the meaning, this is a way to get right into the text to be immersed in it, and experience it.
Our community loved the two pieces Conrad read to us, and the most common response was that it brought the bible alive, and made them want to read the stories themselves. So we offer you the two pieces, the story of Mary crying on Jesus feet, and of Jesus being arrested with Peter’s denial of Jesus, with Conrad’s permission (also podcast for them is here).
These are great narratives for groups to listen to and then discuss what they experienced, or just for individuals wanting to get into the bible. I wish a publisher would record all the ones Conrad has done up, and release them. BTW I thought NT Wright had a great voice for recordings, but Conrad definitely has a voice for radio.
