Posted by Paul | Filed under web sights
Things I discovered just before Christmas…
I’d somehow missed the International Arts Movement’s store. There are a lot of interesting mp3s from their previous conferences, including an interesting interview between James Romaine and Betty Spackman and two great talks by Jeremy Begbie.
Begbie is such a vibrant and creative thinker — a great example of what Christian thinking should be like: fresh, robust and alive. I found his talks at IAM are exhilarating. Here a few snippets to encourage you to listen:
* Artists of the new world specialise in excess. In the resurrection God does not just restore the old order, but a new order, characterised by excess.
* Artists of the new world exhibit the justice of the new world, but this goes beyond balancing wrong with right; it transforms the oppressor with an excess of forgiveness.
* Artists of the new world delight in non-order — ‘defiant jazz’. Like the resurrection and pentecost, the new world shows order and unpredictability. This unpredictability is something different to disorder — it’s playfulness, non-order.
Things wikipedia taught me No. 3045: Francis Schaeffer wrote to encourage Steve Taylor after his first album I Want to Be a Clone. It increasing seems that 99% of the people who influenced me over the years have some connection with L’Abri…
On a different tack, I was really pleased to discover that Newfrontiers are planning a conference on culture, work, etc. next March — Everything. It’s great to see them starting a conversation in this area…
Tags: web sights
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December 28th, 2009
Posted by Paul | Filed under photos
Tags: photos
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December 24th, 2009
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
Yesterday’s reading in the excellent advent collection Watch for the Light was from William Willimon. Here’s an extract:
Charles Dickens’ story of Scrooge’s transformation has probably done more to form our notions of Christmas than St. Luke’s story of the manger. Whereas Luke tells us of God’s gift to us, Dickens tells us how we can give to others. A Christmas Carol is more congenial to our favorite images of ourselves. Dickens suggests that down deep, even the worst of us can become generous, giving people.
Yet I suggest we are better givers than getters, not because we are generous people but because we are proud, arrogant people. The Christmas story – the one according to Luke not Dickens – is not about how blessed it is to be givers but about how essential it is to see ourselves as receivers.
We prefer to think of ourselves as givers – powerful, competent, self-sufficient, capable people whose goodness motivates us to employ some of our power, competence and gifts to benefit the less fortunate. Which is a direct contradiction of the biblical account of the first Christmas. There we are portrayed not as the givers we wish we were but as the receivers we are.
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This strange story tells us how to be receivers. The first word of the church, a people born out of so odd a nativity, is that we are receivers before we are givers. Discipleship teaches us the art of seeing our lives as gifts. That’s tough, because I would rather see myself as a giver. I want power – to stand on my own, take charge, set things to rights, perhaps to help those who have nothing. I don’t like picturing myself as dependent, needy, empty-handed.
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It’s tough to be on the receiving end of love, God’s or anybody else’s. It requires that we see our lives not as our possessions, but as gifts. “Nothing is more repugnant to capable, reasonable people than grace,” wrote John Wesley a long time ago.
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This is often the way God loves us: with gifts we thought we didn’t need, which transform us into people we don’t necessarily want to be.
Tags: books, grace, provocations
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December 15th, 2009
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
I’ve been looking at Matthew Crawford’s Shop Class as Soulcraft recently. A very interesting read, essentially looking at the value of work that engages with creation directly and in a committed way (though that isn’t quite the way he would say it, I’m sure).
Here is one fascinating quote:
[According to the common view creativity] is what happens when people are liberated from the constraints pf conventionality.
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The truth … is that creativity is a by-product of mastery of the sort that is cultivated through long practice. It seems to be built up through submission (think a musician practicing scales, or Einstein learning tensor algebra). Identifying creativity with freedom harmonizes quite well with the culture of the new capitalism, in which the imperative of flexibility precludes dwelling in any task long enough to develop real competence. Such competence is the condition … for genuine creativity…
Tags: art, creativity, culture, work
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December 6th, 2009
Posted by Paul | Filed under photos
It’s been a while since I posted anything, so… when in doubt upload a photo.
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December 5th, 2009
A random walk over culture, art, christianity, etc. with occasional photographs...