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Well I got a bit of bad news yesterday; the Open University have changed their postgrad research regulations so that my application recently cannot now be considered until next year with a view to starting in October 2005; I had been hoping to start theis coming spring. I also notice that the fees have increased so that there is no longer an advantage to studyig with the OU with regard to fees and the downside to that is that I will have to find a much bigger revenue stream to assist me if I go ahead. So I'm also looking at Durham theology department who probably now will be asking a similar fee.
What would I research? Well the OU proposal was "Pagan Rites and Alternative worship: corporate spirituality and patterns of affiliation in 'liquid modernity'."
The main focus would be to examine the place of ritual and religious affiliation in postmodern spirituality and under 'liquid modernity' through comparing and contrasting these two types of corporate-ritual-using groups. This would be to follow and test the intuition of Sarah Pike: "I would add another dimension to the theory of secularization and personalization: the rise of alternate ritual spaces in which people find religious community." [, p.172, New Age and Neopagan religions in America].
However, I had a deal going with God [which I now have to take seriously and wonder also whether it was right to say this] that if the OU thing fell through that I would look at doing the original idea at Durham; ie 'The powers and corporate humanity' which would jump off from NT language regarding Thrones, principalities and powers etc and loink up with Girard's [and others'] thought about mimesis and develop some of James Alison and Alsitair McFadyen's ideas in order to head towards a Christian approach to cultural and social theory.
So What should I do? Ideas in a comments box ...
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