Last night a theologian saved my life…
Posted by Paul | Filed under web sights
Well, not technically last night, but then the cultural reference would be lost along with the point of this post…
Anyway, today wasn’t the greatest of days, but this mp3 by Jeremy Begbie, on musical pictures for newness, certainly improved things.
Tags: mp3s, web sights
Things I found this week…
Posted by Paul | Filed under web sights
A collection of thought-provoking items found or re-discovered this week.
The essence of idolatry is that high expectations, together with fear, combine to narrow your consciousness merely to interaction with your “god”, while at the same time you delegate power and influence to your god, so that you allow it to take the lead. It then forges or inscribes within you patterns of obedience.Compare this with what has happened in recent years. Financial markets were given control over the real economy. At last, declared the President of the German Federal Bank, politicians have been brought under the control of the financial markets.
Finally, an interesting quote from Craig Detweiler, in an interview with John Morehead
During the Enlightenment era it was important to emphasize truth claims and to be able to argue and defend the faith in a scientific era. But we became wedded to a logical expression of the faith, almost like a “logical seminary” rather than a “theological seminary.” But now that we’re in an artistic age full of metaphors and imagination, we find ourselves behind the times and having to play catch up. So we need a more imaginative, beautiful and creative way to talk about God and interact with film, art, music, literature, etc.
Tags: art, web sights
Wim Wenders at Image
Posted by Paul | Filed under web sights
So once more, sitting in a field and letting the sun shine on me, I ask myself: “Why do I believe in God, Wim?”
“He called me by my name.”
He did. That’s all I can say in the end.
I am thankful for that every day.
Grace.
Most amazing experience of my life.
Wim Wenders
I was pleasantly surprised to see film-maker Wim Wenders as Image Journal’s artist of the month. They also have an article by Wenders entitled Interrogation.
Tags: art, cinema, culture, web sights
in defence of sad songs (2 1/2)
Posted by Paul | Filed under web sights
OK, if you’ve been around long enough to have read the start of this series of posts, then you probably thought it had finished. But, no… In fact, over the last few days I’ve been meaning to write to get round to writing some more.
We do not know how to think theologically about sorrow, we do not know how to make space for it in communal worship, we lack the doxological vocabulary to bring the whole of our human experiences before God and so instead we simply bury them.
…
Do we lack the faith and courage of Old Testament saints to lament? To refuse to keep any dimension of our human experience from God but to come before him as we are – in our joy and our pain?
Tags: art, lament, music, web sights
Things I found this week
Posted by Paul | Filed under web sights
Had a bit of an mp3 binge this week (train delays and long walks at lunch time). Here are the highlights:
Jonny recommended Spirituality of the Cellphone to me. It’s a talk from (Rob Bell’s) Mars Hill. In it Shane Hipps discusses what the church can learn from Marshall McLuhan. The Medium is the Message applied to everything from burning bushes to mobiles. Very interesting.
On the podcast from (Mark Driscoll’s) Mars Hill, a talk from one of their worship pastors — Tim Smith — called Continuous Worship. Not quite what I was expecting from the title — it takes a look who we interact with culture (in fact, it has a reasonable amount in common with the seminar I blogged earlier in the year). Worth a listen if you want an introduction to that whole area.
Seattle Pacific University have loads of really interesting talks available on iTunes U…
Gregory Wolfe (author of the brilliant Intruding on the Timeless) has a talk there Celebrate God with your Imagination. A short discussion of the importance of the imagination in the Christian life. I’m constantly find myself coming back to this so loved this talk.
They also have Darkness on the Edge of Town: The Gospel of Hope according to Bruce Springsteen. I mean, really, what more could you want on your daily commute than an exposition of Springsteen as ‘sonic mystic’, including the influence of Flannery O’Conner on his song writing? (Also with an object lesson on the medium-is-the-message, by way of a discussion on how Springsteen uses the form of the music to reflect the lyrical content.)
Finally, two from Steven Garber. His book Fabric of Faithfulness is a classic on relating belief to life, especially for students. Who Do You Love? and Weaving Together Belief and Behaviour are two talks based on this. Just listen and you too will want to change the world…
Tags: art, culture, mp3s, web sights, worldview
Things I found this week…
Posted by Paul | Filed under web sights
I stumbled across a number of great web sights this week…
First, Byron Borger has a wonderous article Why we are open to the Emergent Conversation: My journey, and books along the way. A sort of reading-biography following his path from Schaeffer, via Os Guinness, Middelton and Walsh, etc., to recent Emergent publications. A good discussion of Chistianity-in-all-of-life and a defence of why conservative Christians can happily read emerging books.
I am not exactly ready to brand myself emergent and I have deep loyalties to conservative Reformed doctrine, evangelical para-church ministries and institutions, and rather mainline expressions of congregational life. We’ve lived in intentional community, been arrested in peace witnesses, and lived in the inner city; we’ve read critiques of Enlightenment rationalism before anybody knew who Derrida was, and we’ve loved rock and roll culture even when our best friends were listening to only Larry Norman and LoveSong. Does that make us emergent? Not exactly. I’m not bragging at all, not even saying we’ve been right in all of this, just saying that to me, this emergent stuff makes sense to be talking about.
…
They ask big questions about hard Biblical matters and want to be authentic and real, without any churchy pretense. They want to impact the world, and are gladly moving towards social justice concerns, getting involved in human rights initiatives and social action missions.
This made my week. Not only does he run the bookshop I always dreamed of starting, Borger is a hero — truly generous and thought-provoking.
Elsewhere, I discovered lowercase people a very interesting on-line magazine from David Dark and friends. Subtitled “the on-line magazine for artists in action.”
lowercase people is a daring new endeavor to revolutionize the way we view beauty, truth and humanity.
…
lowercase people is the collective effort of a community of thinkers, musicians, artists and writers. We are humanity beautiful and broken. We want to see change. We want to dream bigger dreams. We want to collide. We want to make better art and better music. We’re curious. We’re moving outside of the lines. We’re thinking out-loud. We are the lowercase people. Consider joining us as we begin to dream and think out loud.
Finally, there is a new book out about faith and cinema: Faith, Film and Philosophy: Big Ideas on the Big Screen. Dallas Willards contribution is available on-line: Liberation Through Sensuality: Cinematic Moral Vision in an Age of Feeling. Definitely worth a look. In 10 pages he gets from Pleasantville to
…the person of good moral character does not stand back and hope for something to happen, so they won’t have to soil their hands. Rather, they act for the greater good in the situation—often, to be sure, “with fear and trembling”—but they do act. They act with genuine love, as a matter of the will and character, not just feeling. This is what it means to be responsible.
Tags: art, cinema, culture, web sights, worldview
A random walk over culture, art, christianity, etc. with occasional photographs...