Don’t ask why vol 2.1. Just cos. Any way the more important element is that I have posted 10 new ‘blogs’ as part of an ongoing e-magazine project with a focus on the gates. Definitely worth reading and responding to… and maybe provoking you to write on an aspect concerning the gates.
(I will not focus on blogging in the next week or two – maybe a Revelation video, but the articles in the magazine will be the main focus.)
In this magazine we have:
- Dyfed reviewing Roger Mitchell’s thesis Church, Gospel & Empire.
- Chris Bourne takes up a challenge concerning the possibility of a ‘religion’ gate. I have previously said that we definitely do not want such a gate. The problem is again one of terminology. So see what you make of this article.
- Money and discussions are touched on directly in a few articles: Deb Chapman, Joanna Storie, Nigel Dutson have written articles. I also have one there on creational wealth.
- There is an article on art continuing to shape society in spite of money and power moving from the Western world.
- And finally I have two articles. One on another angle about the loss of ‘Christian’ values in a nation. Here I suggest that it is a fallacy to try to defend the ‘Christian nation’ stance, and that followers of Christ are to shape society, they are to define norms, but not primarily at the legislative end of things. And one article on Values. I entitled this ‘Values: Unelectability’ because with values of honesty, openness and honouring an opposition that this would undercut self-promotion. So often advancement is based on self-promotion and advertising. To take a Jesus-path perhaps it renders us ‘unelectable’… or maybe not. The thought of the ‘maybe not’ is something that I am fascinated by.
So I hope you enjoy and interact with these articles.
Also book reviews are really welcome. The subject area of the gates is a broad term. Anything that will help us grapple with the complexities of the Bible, theology and praxis.
Just a few ‘house’ rules. There is not a party line, these are perspectives, but nothing that absolutely writes everyone off who takes a different viewpoint is the spirit I am looking for. There is not one ‘Christian / biblical’ approach. An article that says ‘Christian schools are the only way’ is no better than ‘Christian schools are of the devil’. We are living in a fallen world so looking for a redemptive way through – a pathway that will be incomplete and imperfect. So come on the writers!!!
The articles can also be downloaded in e-book format.
Martin: I have lots of thoughts about academia since that is where I am employed. What are the parameters for an article and how does one submit one? c.
Cheryl… (and others) Love you to write something on academia. Looking for something that will engage people to think ‘christianly’ in the sense of ‘Jesus-ly’ about what these aspects of society are about. Not to thinnk simply according to what is propagated…
Why education, how education, the outcome etc.
Can be anything from 300-3000 words, and of course can be a series of articles.
Just send to me and (prob September) I would look to put it up there. I want to wait till I have 10 articles and publish them together.
I ‘third’ this idea, Cheryl. In fact, I would be more interested at present in a piece on academia than I would on education, at least in terms of how the academy reflects and expresses the dominant interests of our political and economic priorities and almost as a symptom chart of ‘show me where it hurts’. But this might not be what you have in mind.
As a gate, or part of a gate, the academy is hugely misunderstood in many parts of the church and it would be fascinating to know what you think of it as an arena for transformation.
Incidentally, in our last exchange on Roger’s blog you mentioned the work of Illich. I have not seen any of this but from other sources it seems that he had much in common with Ellul and he does interest me. Perhaps some of the socio/ethical points of Illich could be part of such an essay.
actually that’s a great idea. Illich had strong ideas about education though I don’t remember a specific essay on it. I”ll have to go have a look at what are now long neglected bookshelves (neglected so I could focus on water systems – much more critical eh). Illich did challenge the dominant ethos in terms of a school at one point. It was during the whole emphasis on development in Latin America, in the 60′s I think. He moved to Mexico and started a language school, but the point of it was to train priests and others intent on doing ‘development’ to reject that model. He maintained that people in Latin America were doing quite fine with a well developed subsistance culture and agriculture and that ‘development’ actually harmed them. He also maintained (and there is an essay with these thoughts) that modern culture disabled human beings as it meant we do not know basic survival skills anymore. So yes, thoughts of Illich are behind my thinking. And yes, I would love to do a bit of an analysis on how the academy demonstrates so many of the problems in our culture from how the teachers and their skills are devalued to how students are trained not to think but to conform in order to satisfy industry standards and the corporations that now financially dominate the academic world. Oh, and the whole issue of private vs public education (home schooling by Christians included in that withdrawal from the collective, public realm). Okay, I’m getting too excited here, back to those water systems. I’m about 2 weeks away from a real revision being done. . . gotta stay focused on the thesis. If I read the review of Roger’s book will that give me enough understanding that I don’t have to do the difficult work of actually reading it? c.
Many of his pieces are available here including the one on de-schooling society: http://www.davidtinapple.com/illich/
I’m feeling quite smug, he did know Ellul quite well and admired him greatly. There is a tribute on that page as well. Isn’t it odd when you stumble across someone who has worked at this level and articulates so many of the things you have felt for years… often in the same terms that you have used. Really glad you mentioned him.
And in answer to your last question. I will need to find the pounds to buy the book before telling you why, but I doubt that Roger’s book can be distilled so easily… but then what would you expect me to say… cheeky!
Oh, I had forgot that one by Illich. Thanks. I’ll give it a read when I’ve finished with water systems. As for Ellul, I always struggled with his book on the city, he seemed so negative about the city. I have never got past that one with him. But then I read it eons ago, when I was young and oh so smart. Perhaps its time to give him a go too. So much waiting for me after I am released from this PhD work. c.
Not trying to steer you in any way, just an interesting connection. I was looking through some links via Illich and came across John Gatto, the American educator (well represented on youtube). Very interesting to hear someone who has dug away at the coalface and is doing at ground level what Illich talks about in terms of the institution and Ellul had as ‘la technique’.
Obviously more or less subversive views of education as a system have been around for as long as the system itself, but Gatto does have some charm and wit in his approach.
Oh, and not meaning to distract you from revising your thesis at all, of course.
A big thumbs-up for Dyfed’s summary of Roger’s book. Really helpful.
I tried to read Chris Bourne’s article… will someone please tell me what he is trying to say? I came away from it none the wiser about what he even thinks of the idea!
And why is the idea of unelectable politicians so darned attractive?
and another big thumbs up from me on the review of Roger’s book. Thanks Dyfed.
I’m ashamed to say I don’t plan to read it as I am too busy reading “Bring up the Bodies” by Hilary Mantel, the fictionalised account of Thomas Cromwell and his dealings at the court of our wonderful old King Henry. Now that’s what I call empire spirit!!
I also struggled a bit with Chris B’s article. I guess the terms “religion” and “gate” are extremely amorphous in their own right and so combining them together doubles the problem.
all good stuff
Nigel
@Chris… Your comments made me laugh. Sure someone needs to sort out Chris B’s ideas and tell him what to think then he could write and tell everyone else what to think. Then we would know whether to vote for an unelectable politician or not!!!
Glad of the responses – terminology (@Nigel) is never easy… or normally only easy when there is a fixed package and then the terminology carries the freight we want.
And the idea of academia and an article – reading the exchanges is a great idea. Whether it sits simply within education, but we will put it there for now.
One little thought, Martin. I am not holding my breath waiting for something to arise on the media gate. It might be necessary to deal with the shape of the categories a bit. I doubt that many who work in media-based arts and the media could draw a line between the two. Film and television has come up in several arts based posts, for arts based reasons. Having said this, I think there are distinctions that could be useful, although I don’t really like where the line falls. For example, news and commentary and documentary could be defined as media, as could most public discourse. But do we want to draw the media/arts distinction around non-fiction and fiction, for example? And even if we found a line that was agreeable, would these really represent gates in the way that we are discussing them?
Yes have wondered about the distinction… there is obviously a huge cross over. I drew a distinction from the idea of aesthetics / pleasure (so added entertainment to the arts) – God creating the trees as they were good to look at; media drawn from God as speaking, self revealing: hence media was linked to communication… but then the arts don’t communicate??
There is a wonderful artificiality in the distinctions, so… looking forward to your definitive work on ‘media’???
Yeah, right. Watch this space.
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No, really, watch it. Is it doing anything yet?
I guess my only concern is to make it easy for people to know which topic covers whatever they want to say… and in this case I am fairly confident that the question will arise whatever the answer. There might be some merit in media and entertainment, with the arts as a separate one. Hardly watertight, but there is a big distinction in the intention of the maker and the way things are engaged with by the ‘audience’, and indeed in the ways that people participate. But then, having written several outlines for documentary films, the issues of dramatic structure and viewpoint are as artful as for any movie. The only thing I would be dogmatic about, in both cases, is that neither of them belongs under the rubric of ‘leisure’ which is where both are usually put in the press.
This is such an engaging discussion for me. As a musician, artist and film maker, I really have no clue where to draw the line. Example: this week I made a journal of a trip we took to Herrnhut. I wanted to convey the deep sense of flowing Holy Spirit water that we experienced. I also wanted to make it a work of art. So many levels of meaning and many lines and times were crossed. So where would it belong: art, media/journalism, worship, entertainment?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdFVglYowQo
Could something occupy or pass through several gates at once? Would you experience a different gate depending on what you are bringing to the party at that moment? Is the “heaven gate” always accessible? In a holistic context of creativity do we need artificial distinctions?
Stop it Chris! You made me laugh too much out loud (I was watching the space) and it hurt (hurt my back on Saturday)…LOL!
J