This is potentially one of the most significant developments in education: "The world's top universities have come late to the world of online education, but they're arriving at last, creating an all-you-can eat online buffet of information. And mostly, they are giving it away."
All because they've realised that they are a service industry not purveyors of knowledge as such. The money is in tuition, interaction and awarding degrees. Putting the courses online is not really very different to selling a textbook except that the 'textbook' is badged with the uni name rather than the lecturers.
For small colleges, like my own, the potential benefits: "Small schools like Bowdoin can use iTunes to show prospective students the richness of their offerings" there is also the possibility of using and recycling into our own teaching the online content generated in these projects -which is, recall, like using a textbook (remember the real 'product' being offered is personal tuition and award and possibly some degree of 'identity' as an alumn/a/us). It may also call for a review of the blanket dislike of online sources for citations. Imho, this needs to be seen on a par with books: you need to learn to use good judgement in assessing potential sources. And with the amount of good stuff now being made available on the internet (yes; along with the merely ephemeral and unthinking) it would be foolish to have an automatic bias against an online source simply for being online. In fact the advantage is that it is easy to check an online source.
At our college we have an array of speakers (eg Tom Wright) some of the content of their lectures would make an attractive 'draw' to our site and give us a chance to gain recongnition.
Wired News - AP News:
31 December 2007
30 December 2007
Malaysia, Allah and the politics of religious language
I drew attention to this a week or two back
I particularly warmed to the view that Christians had been using the word Allah before Muslims were 'invented'.
BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Malaysian row over word for 'God'
I particularly warmed to the view that Christians had been using the word Allah before Muslims were 'invented'.
BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Malaysian row over word for 'God'
'Green fatigue'
The good news is that it would seem the great British public is 'on message' wrt global warming, as Pat Thomas (editor of the Ecologist) put it: 'People are now experiencing climate change in their own lives.'. The bad news is that they're cynical about it.
So UKgov needs to put its money where its mouth is and actually do things that really will mitigate climate change. We need leadership or the fiddling while Earth burns urge will kick in. In fact the government may have become a big part of the problem.
>'Green fatigue' leads to fear of backlash over climate change | Environment | The Observer:
There's cynicism because on the one hand we're being told [the problem] is very serious and on the other hand we're building runways, mining Alaskan oil; there's a lot going on that appears to be heading in the opposite direction ... There's a cynicism the government is using the green agenda as an excuse for hitting motorists and people who want to fly"
So UKgov needs to put its money where its mouth is and actually do things that really will mitigate climate change. We need leadership or the fiddling while Earth burns urge will kick in. In fact the government may have become a big part of the problem.
The problem is heightened by the government's own failure to halt rises of carbon dioxide emissions, despite its pledges to cut them drastically. Traffic on UK roads rose in the first three quarters of 2007, peaking at 132 billion vehicle kilometres between July to September. At the same time, numbers of flights worldwide rose 4.7 per cent to nearly 30 million during 2007. In Britain, carbon emissions have risen in five out of the 10 years that New Labour have been in power and are now 2.2 per cent higher than they were in 1997. By any standards the government is doing very badly when it comes to taking effective action to deal with carbon emissions.
>'Green fatigue' leads to fear of backlash over climate change | Environment | The Observer:
Men want lobotomised women
That's the conclusion of one woman having participated in speed dating as a lawyer and as a florist.
"Everything my mother has ever told me about men is true. They didn't care that the florist couldn't recognise a chair. They liked it. The feminist revolution didn't pierce their hearts; it only made it into human resources. If you want to be loved, just scoop out your brain and act like a child. After 40 years of feminism we shouldn't really burn our bras. We should burn our men. Love may be dissembled but statistics never lie. Reader, let me tell you: men want me - and you - to be lobotomised."
I think that this plays into my concern about feminism: it effectively turned women into extra men for the workforce. It didn't challenge chauvinist values, merely gave women the right to hold them too. So no profound challenge about sexuality, as shown eg by pornography, but merely an acceptance that masculine promiscuity was to be extended to women.
Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | Men want us lobotomised:
"Everything my mother has ever told me about men is true. They didn't care that the florist couldn't recognise a chair. They liked it. The feminist revolution didn't pierce their hearts; it only made it into human resources. If you want to be loved, just scoop out your brain and act like a child. After 40 years of feminism we shouldn't really burn our bras. We should burn our men. Love may be dissembled but statistics never lie. Reader, let me tell you: men want me - and you - to be lobotomised."
I think that this plays into my concern about feminism: it effectively turned women into extra men for the workforce. It didn't challenge chauvinist values, merely gave women the right to hold them too. So no profound challenge about sexuality, as shown eg by pornography, but merely an acceptance that masculine promiscuity was to be extended to women.
Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | Men want us lobotomised:
Super-rich turn their children into philanthropists
I wonder how far this may be a result of the very rich having a sense that the wealth gap, beyond a certain point certainly, tends to breed a sense of just resentment, so the way to try to head that off is to be seen to be doing good. "High-income parents are enrolling their children in philanthropy workshops designed to teach them how to use their wealth to do good. A new generation of philanthropists are being encouraged to imagine ways they would change the world, and consider which charities might benefit from their money."
The issues this generates are worth keeping an eye on in my opinion. One is mentioned in the article: that philanthropy tends to devolve into support of pet projects that emotionally resonate with the givers.
This is rather similar to the issue fashionable charity I mentioned a few days back. And I'm not sure that I like the model that potentially social support would be voluntary rather than there being a state dimension: the welfare state at least tries to address social need fairly and broadly not at whims of individual givers which tends not to address underlying causes. My fear is that philanthropy can be an attempt by the rich to buy their way out of the trouble that the underlying system that allows them to gain riches far beyond how hard they work, mainly because they are able to occupy strategic places in the social and economic structures of our society. Taxation is a surer and fairer way of addressing the issues. The rich should regard their tax burden as rent for their occupation of society's strategic positions and for the infrastructure that the majority of us have a hand in providing and maintaining. It is a recognition of reciprocity. Its redistributive potential is also a way to offset the social ills that accumulate with increasing inequality, which a number of studies are now recognising. The rich have a choice, privatisation which will mean increasingly being separated but therefore being increasingly insecure; or seeking the common good by participation in democratically accountable processes around the redistribution of wealth. Philanthropy is part of the package of the former, I fear, when the health of the world requires the latter.
Super-rich turn their children into philanthropists | Money | The Guardian:
The issues this generates are worth keeping an eye on in my opinion. One is mentioned in the article: that philanthropy tends to devolve into support of pet projects that emotionally resonate with the givers.
the youngsters' initial charitable instincts were typical of their age: "All they really cared about was battered dogs and saving the whale. Having had the session with NPC they were more interested in things that relate to children, gang violence, things that happen in east London, say, that are visible and concrete for them
This is rather similar to the issue fashionable charity I mentioned a few days back. And I'm not sure that I like the model that potentially social support would be voluntary rather than there being a state dimension: the welfare state at least tries to address social need fairly and broadly not at whims of individual givers which tends not to address underlying causes. My fear is that philanthropy can be an attempt by the rich to buy their way out of the trouble that the underlying system that allows them to gain riches far beyond how hard they work, mainly because they are able to occupy strategic places in the social and economic structures of our society. Taxation is a surer and fairer way of addressing the issues. The rich should regard their tax burden as rent for their occupation of society's strategic positions and for the infrastructure that the majority of us have a hand in providing and maintaining. It is a recognition of reciprocity. Its redistributive potential is also a way to offset the social ills that accumulate with increasing inequality, which a number of studies are now recognising. The rich have a choice, privatisation which will mean increasingly being separated but therefore being increasingly insecure; or seeking the common good by participation in democratically accountable processes around the redistribution of wealth. Philanthropy is part of the package of the former, I fear, when the health of the world requires the latter.
Super-rich turn their children into philanthropists | Money | The Guardian:
27 December 2007
Everything must change -final notes.
Part seven
Here we begin to look at the equity system and we begin to consider this by asking not so much how we can improve the lot of the poor, but why it is the poor are poor. I couldn't help thinking of Oscar Romero musing on the way he would be applauded for giving to the poor but vilified for asking why they were poor. In many ways, McLaren's thinking here echoes the kind of concerns that have been promoted by agencies such as Christian aid about trade justice: the equity system was developed in conditions that don't now pertain and which have become biased towards the already-haves. In the course of this chapter, we are reminded of some shocking figures about global inequality, not least if which is that the ratio-gaps are getting greater, not smaller and makes the point that seamstresses working 18-hour days for peanuts in appalling conditions are almost certainly working far harder than fat-cat executives: this is clearly not about just rewards for hard work. that said, in chapter 28 McLaren points out that it is too easy to say that the wealth of the rich causes the poverty of the poor. He offers a model which says that systematic injustice gives the double outcome of over-rewarding the haves and under-rewarding the have-nots (my phrasing). In reflecting on the story of the unjust steward and the parable of the labourers hired at different times of day, McLaren points out that God's concerns go beyond mere fairness to sustainable community and includes grace. He notes that the so-called 'unjust steward' was actually restoring things to those who had found their goods and labour exploited under an unjust system. In this chapter, I was particularly interested in the recovering of theologies that recognise social or collective sin.
In chapter 29 we are encouraged to ask productive questions: what benefits will come to the rich if the poor are better off? What dangers and negative consequences will follow for the rich if the poor are not better off?
Chapter 30 begins to envision religion that is not so much organised as organising for the common goods. Much of this is not really new (at least not to me), but I'm really pleased to see it all brought together in an easy-to-read way to bring the concerns and ideas to a wider audience.
Part eight
In this part we consider the role of hope and some encouraging stories about living differently. It is a call to disbelieve the dominant stories that the book exposes and to trust that outlined in this book as being the truer or fuller understanding of Jesus's message. It is a call to action at different levels and a reminder that though things may seem difficult, even impossible, but Jesus is all about the mustard seed faith.
I suspect that this book won't convert hardline believers in the theocapitalist system, and it will have a hard time with those who are in churches where the conventional piety is preached. However, it will help those who are beginning to explore these kinds of issues to be able to think about them from a Christian point of view.
Books etc to investigate further.
Boff, Leonardo. Cry of the earth, cry of the poor
Daly, Herman. Beyond Growth, the Economics of Sustainable Development.
ptsem.edu/iym/lectures/2001/Beaudoin-after.pdf
highbeam.com/doc/1G1-93610958.html
Rauschebusch, Walter. A theology for the Social Gospel
Here we begin to look at the equity system and we begin to consider this by asking not so much how we can improve the lot of the poor, but why it is the poor are poor. I couldn't help thinking of Oscar Romero musing on the way he would be applauded for giving to the poor but vilified for asking why they were poor. In many ways, McLaren's thinking here echoes the kind of concerns that have been promoted by agencies such as Christian aid about trade justice: the equity system was developed in conditions that don't now pertain and which have become biased towards the already-haves. In the course of this chapter, we are reminded of some shocking figures about global inequality, not least if which is that the ratio-gaps are getting greater, not smaller and makes the point that seamstresses working 18-hour days for peanuts in appalling conditions are almost certainly working far harder than fat-cat executives: this is clearly not about just rewards for hard work. that said, in chapter 28 McLaren points out that it is too easy to say that the wealth of the rich causes the poverty of the poor. He offers a model which says that systematic injustice gives the double outcome of over-rewarding the haves and under-rewarding the have-nots (my phrasing). In reflecting on the story of the unjust steward and the parable of the labourers hired at different times of day, McLaren points out that God's concerns go beyond mere fairness to sustainable community and includes grace. He notes that the so-called 'unjust steward' was actually restoring things to those who had found their goods and labour exploited under an unjust system. In this chapter, I was particularly interested in the recovering of theologies that recognise social or collective sin.
In chapter 29 we are encouraged to ask productive questions: what benefits will come to the rich if the poor are better off? What dangers and negative consequences will follow for the rich if the poor are not better off?
Chapter 30 begins to envision religion that is not so much organised as organising for the common goods. Much of this is not really new (at least not to me), but I'm really pleased to see it all brought together in an easy-to-read way to bring the concerns and ideas to a wider audience.
Part eight
In this part we consider the role of hope and some encouraging stories about living differently. It is a call to disbelieve the dominant stories that the book exposes and to trust that outlined in this book as being the truer or fuller understanding of Jesus's message. It is a call to action at different levels and a reminder that though things may seem difficult, even impossible, but Jesus is all about the mustard seed faith.
I suspect that this book won't convert hardline believers in the theocapitalist system, and it will have a hard time with those who are in churches where the conventional piety is preached. However, it will help those who are beginning to explore these kinds of issues to be able to think about them from a Christian point of view.
Books etc to investigate further.
Boff, Leonardo. Cry of the earth, cry of the poor
Daly, Herman. Beyond Growth, the Economics of Sustainable Development.
ptsem.edu/iym/lectures/2001/Beaudoin-after.pdf
highbeam.com/doc/1G1-93610958.html
Rauschebusch, Walter. A theology for the Social Gospel
Bliss in a Box?
Michael Bull has written a book examining the way the ipods get used by people in urban cultures. In this Wired News interview he says a number of things that are worth pondering, and particularly for Christians it is important to ponder this. "It's good to switch things off sometimes, and maybe that ability is decreasing. People take (their iPods) to Yellowstone (National) Park, or when they go watch humpback whales.... Maybe the 21st-century culture is a culture where we don't want to be alone without thoughts, so we need a mediator. The only way we can get quiet is by constructing noise."
I'm thinking about two dimensions of this: one is the use of music in public space and in 'private headspace' (via headphones) to create or enhance atmosphere; something that churches have traditionally done with organ music, for example. Another aspect thoegh is the notion of unplugging perphaps in order to attend to what is actually going on: mindfulness, if you like. The danger would be to force a choice between these things: either ambience-control or unplugged. Both have their uses. My worry would be that people lose the ability to do the latter at times: the ablity to attend to things, to contemplate is important to our ability to learn, to discover and to hear God. Do we need to add unplugging to a list of suggestions for the use of Lent.
Bliss in a Box: Professor iPod Tells How IPods Insulate City Dwellers:
I'm thinking about two dimensions of this: one is the use of music in public space and in 'private headspace' (via headphones) to create or enhance atmosphere; something that churches have traditionally done with organ music, for example. Another aspect thoegh is the notion of unplugging perphaps in order to attend to what is actually going on: mindfulness, if you like. The danger would be to force a choice between these things: either ambience-control or unplugged. Both have their uses. My worry would be that people lose the ability to do the latter at times: the ablity to attend to things, to contemplate is important to our ability to learn, to discover and to hear God. Do we need to add unplugging to a list of suggestions for the use of Lent.
Bliss in a Box: Professor iPod Tells How IPods Insulate City Dwellers:
24 December 2007
The Journey of the Magi: reinventing Christmas
Sue's recent post has surfaced some thinking I've been doing about celebrating Christmas. I'm taking on board thoughts about re-inculturating Christian celebration of Advent, Nativity and Epiphany. I would propose that we now call that whole period 'Christmas' and 'Yule', using the word Nativity for the period 24 Dec to 5 Jan.
So where am I up to and what's it got to do with the journey of the Magi?
I'm proposing, I think, that just after All Saints'/All Souls-tide we should start preparation for Nativity, an informal Advent that is something like the forty day preparation for Easter, like it used to be and still is in the Orthodox east.
I'm considering having a seven-branched candlestick which we'd light the first candle of on the Sunday following All Saints' Sunday and the final one would be lit, then, on the Sunday preceeding the feast of the Nativity. I'd suggest we use the liturgical colour blue, shade into purple at the start of December and perhaps a couple of weeks before Nativity begin to use other colours and start to use Christmas carols in worship.
The Magi could be a way to mark this approach. On that second sunday in November they would begin their symbolic journey, Posada style, passing through various places, accumulating traditions as they go through to Epiphany when they would arrive at the crib. Around Nativity we'd have them arrive in Canaan and face Herod, the feast of the Innocents would gain a bit more prominence (as perhaps it should) ...
I'm still thinking about how to theme the Magi's stations, but I'm taken with the idea of them somehow linking things in the 'secular' realm and in the other religions' spheres into Christological perspective. Thus drawing positively on the way that their story sees their occupation and spirituality both, presumably, as astronomers and astrologers (in our terms) fulfilled by the Christ event. An inspiration for theological reflection on the secular, much needed I think.
What do you think ... I'm starting to flag this up now because it would take some planning and I'd like to invite others to consider and add ideas or contrarisms.
Over to you. If you like the idea please blog it or send it on to others.
Sue Wallace: The Magi's Journey
So where am I up to and what's it got to do with the journey of the Magi?
I'm proposing, I think, that just after All Saints'/All Souls-tide we should start preparation for Nativity, an informal Advent that is something like the forty day preparation for Easter, like it used to be and still is in the Orthodox east.
I'm considering having a seven-branched candlestick which we'd light the first candle of on the Sunday following All Saints' Sunday and the final one would be lit, then, on the Sunday preceeding the feast of the Nativity. I'd suggest we use the liturgical colour blue, shade into purple at the start of December and perhaps a couple of weeks before Nativity begin to use other colours and start to use Christmas carols in worship.
The Magi could be a way to mark this approach. On that second sunday in November they would begin their symbolic journey, Posada style, passing through various places, accumulating traditions as they go through to Epiphany when they would arrive at the crib. Around Nativity we'd have them arrive in Canaan and face Herod, the feast of the Innocents would gain a bit more prominence (as perhaps it should) ...
I'm still thinking about how to theme the Magi's stations, but I'm taken with the idea of them somehow linking things in the 'secular' realm and in the other religions' spheres into Christological perspective. Thus drawing positively on the way that their story sees their occupation and spirituality both, presumably, as astronomers and astrologers (in our terms) fulfilled by the Christ event. An inspiration for theological reflection on the secular, much needed I think.
What do you think ... I'm starting to flag this up now because it would take some planning and I'd like to invite others to consider and add ideas or contrarisms.
Over to you. If you like the idea please blog it or send it on to others.
Sue Wallace: The Magi's Journey
23 December 2007
Fashionable charity
With charity advertising well-esconced on our tv's and in our newspapers, clearly they run the risk of falling into the celebrity paradigm
So perhaps it is a Christian duty to search out the less 'sexy' in order to make sure that there is a counter-balance to the modern version of those who shout loudest getting the attention [those who shout sexiest?]. It certainly should get us asking what should be our priorities for charitable giving. One of the reasons that I'm a little cautious about things like red-nose day, is that it seems to me that while they undoubtedly promote a lot of good, the habits of mind they are playing, actually reinforcing, are not those that would promote the kind of regular focus on the needs of the world that are really required in order to make a real difference. Giving as an occasional pass-time is good as far as it goes but in order to really change the world we need to find ways to encourage people to engage with the real problems, of which we are actually a part of creating in too many cases. The irony of events to fund projects in the two-thirds world with methods that are deeply rooted in the system that has gone a long way to creating the conditions that the charities are seeking to remedy ...
Anyway, the other point I wanted to make, on the back of this, was that I have been for a long time convicted that as Christians our praying is rather the same. We pray for the latest and neediest matter off the tele, or from the 'papers but what about the things that don't make it to the papers? Are our prayers and prayer priorities to be led, in effect, by the editorial biases of the BBC news or ITN news -or Rupert Murdoch's empire?
Further reflection on this is to be found here.
BBC NEWS | Magazine | Giving to a lost cause?:
Some [charities] just aren't 'sexy'. And then there are those which are bound to raise moral outrage in some quarters whenever money finds its way to them. Bolton-based charity Befriending Refugees and Asylum Seekers (Brass) shies away from rattling tins on the streets of the Lancashire town, perhaps wary that not everyone might be sympathetic.
So perhaps it is a Christian duty to search out the less 'sexy' in order to make sure that there is a counter-balance to the modern version of those who shout loudest getting the attention [those who shout sexiest?]. It certainly should get us asking what should be our priorities for charitable giving. One of the reasons that I'm a little cautious about things like red-nose day, is that it seems to me that while they undoubtedly promote a lot of good, the habits of mind they are playing, actually reinforcing, are not those that would promote the kind of regular focus on the needs of the world that are really required in order to make a real difference. Giving as an occasional pass-time is good as far as it goes but in order to really change the world we need to find ways to encourage people to engage with the real problems, of which we are actually a part of creating in too many cases. The irony of events to fund projects in the two-thirds world with methods that are deeply rooted in the system that has gone a long way to creating the conditions that the charities are seeking to remedy ...
Anyway, the other point I wanted to make, on the back of this, was that I have been for a long time convicted that as Christians our praying is rather the same. We pray for the latest and neediest matter off the tele, or from the 'papers but what about the things that don't make it to the papers? Are our prayers and prayer priorities to be led, in effect, by the editorial biases of the BBC news or ITN news -or Rupert Murdoch's empire?
Further reflection on this is to be found here.
BBC NEWS | Magazine | Giving to a lost cause?:
Everything Must Change: part 5
Sorry for the delay in posting this; I've been caught up more with writing my lesson plans for next term and in some church stuff.
Part five
Here we begin to unpack more thoroughly some of the themes that were outlined earlier, starting with the 'divine peace insurgency'. The trouble is that religious narratives are being used in the contemporary world to justify violence against enemies. In fact, the Hebrew bible has quite a bit of nastiness in it involving religiously sanctioned violence and even the Jesus of the gospels seems to have a less fluffy side involving a glorious return to put all his enemies under his feet. So McLaren's task in chapter 19 is to highlight the way that the gospels' deeper subtext is actually subversive of the violence-justifying ideologies, including those that might look to the Hebrew bible to do so. In particular a helpful reflection on the encounter with the 'Canaanite' woman and the following feeding of the four thousand where the seven baskets full of crumbs can only plausibly correspond to the seven gentile nations that were supposed to be driven out of the promised land. Once again, it is an appeal to the culturally contextualised understanding of Jesus that shows the deeper and fuller meaning and offers little comfort for those who would justify sacred violence.
In the twentieth chapter we are taken through a sobering reminder of the economics of weapons and war and see how the USA has, in effect, become Empire. with an ultimately illusory pursuit of absolute security and in chapter twenty-one we're reminded how in the pursuit of that security, paradoxically , makes it more and more unachievable. It becomes difficult to understand why 'we' continue in the war business unless we factor in the economic angle based on economies of scale: it's cheaper to produce lots of weapons and sell the surplus. And then there is the mythic status of war which produces a whole lot of emotional highs to which we, as societies, become addicted. So, in the next chapter we are introduced to warriors anonymous which talks about replacing our craving for violence with the challenge to struggle for justice and the relief of want and aid in times of disaster.
During the course of this section, McLaren calls for a rapprochement between pacifists and just war defenders around exploring what would truly make for peace. I amen this call but wonder whether part of the problem is really that just war thinking has been so thoroughly co-opted that it cannot now be part of the solution. As McLaren points out in an earlier chapter, in the words of Einstein: no problem can be solved by the consciousness that created it.
Amazon.co.uk: Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope: Books: Brian D. McLaren
Part five
Here we begin to unpack more thoroughly some of the themes that were outlined earlier, starting with the 'divine peace insurgency'. The trouble is that religious narratives are being used in the contemporary world to justify violence against enemies. In fact, the Hebrew bible has quite a bit of nastiness in it involving religiously sanctioned violence and even the Jesus of the gospels seems to have a less fluffy side involving a glorious return to put all his enemies under his feet. So McLaren's task in chapter 19 is to highlight the way that the gospels' deeper subtext is actually subversive of the violence-justifying ideologies, including those that might look to the Hebrew bible to do so. In particular a helpful reflection on the encounter with the 'Canaanite' woman and the following feeding of the four thousand where the seven baskets full of crumbs can only plausibly correspond to the seven gentile nations that were supposed to be driven out of the promised land. Once again, it is an appeal to the culturally contextualised understanding of Jesus that shows the deeper and fuller meaning and offers little comfort for those who would justify sacred violence.
In the twentieth chapter we are taken through a sobering reminder of the economics of weapons and war and see how the USA has, in effect, become Empire. with an ultimately illusory pursuit of absolute security and in chapter twenty-one we're reminded how in the pursuit of that security, paradoxically , makes it more and more unachievable. It becomes difficult to understand why 'we' continue in the war business unless we factor in the economic angle based on economies of scale: it's cheaper to produce lots of weapons and sell the surplus. And then there is the mythic status of war which produces a whole lot of emotional highs to which we, as societies, become addicted. So, in the next chapter we are introduced to warriors anonymous which talks about replacing our craving for violence with the challenge to struggle for justice and the relief of want and aid in times of disaster.
During the course of this section, McLaren calls for a rapprochement between pacifists and just war defenders around exploring what would truly make for peace. I amen this call but wonder whether part of the problem is really that just war thinking has been so thoroughly co-opted that it cannot now be part of the solution. As McLaren points out in an earlier chapter, in the words of Einstein: no problem can be solved by the consciousness that created it.
Amazon.co.uk: Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope: Books: Brian D. McLaren
Nuclear waste could power Britain | Science | The Observer
Okay, I'm a nuclear-power skeptic, but even I thought, when I first looked at this article, that if we have the stuff sitting there, it might be better to use it better. However, that was to reckon without this: "The Sellafield reprocessing plan would cost several billion pounds, a price that infuriates opponents of nuclear energy. 'There is no economic justification for this plan,' said Roger Higman, of Friends of the Earth. 'It would just be another massive subsidy for the nuclear industry. We should invest in renewables.'
Problem is still that it is uneconomic and presumably a better investment return comes from renewables. In addition the plutonium economy would involve yet further degradations to civil liberties. ID-cards and plutonium go together. One wonders whether there is a clue here to government agendas?
Nuclear waste could power Britain | Science | The Observer:
Problem is still that it is uneconomic and presumably a better investment return comes from renewables. In addition the plutonium economy would involve yet further degradations to civil liberties. ID-cards and plutonium go together. One wonders whether there is a clue here to government agendas?
Nuclear waste could power Britain | Science | The Observer:
Energy Cool: Sailing Our Way to a Smart Energy Future � Celsias
Sail power could return to shipping but in the form of a kite. "Skysails seeks to adapt advances in kite design and understanding to the merchant marine (and luxury yacht) fleets. As per Skysails founder, Stephan Wrage, I thought the enormous power in kites could somehow be utilised.”.
Estimates of savings in carbon emitting fuels vary between 10% and 50%. This could start to be significant given that shipping is responsible for between 2% and 4% of global emissions.
Energy Cool: Sailing Our Way to a Smart Energy Future � Celsias:
Estimates of savings in carbon emitting fuels vary between 10% and 50%. This could start to be significant given that shipping is responsible for between 2% and 4% of global emissions.
Energy Cool: Sailing Our Way to a Smart Energy Future � Celsias:
22 December 2007
Tony Blair converts to Catholicism
Not sure what I think about this ...
"Mr Blair's conversion was confirmed by his official spokesman.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, wished the former prime minister well in his spiritual journey.
'Tony Blair has my prayers and good wishes as he takes this step in his Christian pilgrimage,' he said.
'A great Catholic writer of the last century said that the only reason for moving from one Christian family to another was to deepen one's relationship with God.
'I pray that this will be the result of Tony Blair's decision in his personal life.'
Mr Blair was received into the Catholic Church by the Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, in the chapel of the Archbishop's House in Westminster last night, a church spokesman confirmed.
Cardinal Murphy-O'CoTony Blair converts to Catholicism | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited:nnor said: 'I am very glad to welcome Tony Blair into the Catholic Church."
Mondrian — a podcast
I like Mondrian, and if you do too, you might just like this podcast.
smARThistory � Blog Archive � Mondrian — a podcast
smARThistory � Blog Archive � Mondrian — a podcast
eLearning via facebook
I'm investigating elearning tools at the mo as our college is starting to talk about elearning quite in earnest I judge. I'd never considered Facebook as a possible forum but the author of this article does and has produced some elearning stuff for facebook. The 'killer' objection might be the fact that facebook is distracting, but then there's this good riposte to that.
eLearn: Opinions:
why don't we consider the acquisition of productivity skills to be just as important as basic reading and writing skills for future workers of the twenty-first century? It's essential that students learn how to overcome distraction. They should be encouraged to participate on sites like Facebook to increase their presence on the social graph and learn about collaboration and network interactions—all while developing skills that will help them cope with a world that will always be full of distractions.
eLearn: Opinions:
What I want for Christmas
A former Labour govt minister has put words to my Christmas wish "I think the prime minister going off for Christmas tomorrow perhaps should come out and make a straightforward announcement: 'we're dropping the whole ID card system'"
Hoey: Htt Kate Hoey, reported at 'Confidence shattered':
Hoey: Htt Kate Hoey, reported at 'Confidence shattered':
Learning
Scientist Craig Venter, ruminating on the learning of science for children makes a more generalisable comment: "teaching them in place of memorization, to explore, challenge, and problem solve in an attempt to understand the world around them, and most especially the world they cannot 'see' or feel directly."
It sounds remarkably like a theological training brief.
Edge 230:
It sounds remarkably like a theological training brief.
Edge 230:
Thin-Film Solar
It's started appearing at last. Can't wait to see it at Maplins and the Natural Collection. "Thin-film solar technologies often use non-silicon semiconductor materials including copper, indium, gallium and selenium (CIGS) to create photovoltaic cells that convert sunlight into electricity. Without the expensive and often sparse silicon, the cells are cheaper in terms of materials costs. The non-silicon materials can also be printed on flexible or light substances, which can create new applications for solar. But thin films, aren’t yet as efficient as silicon-based solar, and can remain pricey due to their high production costs."
FAQ: Thin-Film Solar � Earth2Tech:
FAQ: Thin-Film Solar � Earth2Tech:
New word: Anthromes
It is a portmanteau word made from anthropogenic biomes. See the Wired article and its referent.
Mapping the Humanized World | Wired Science from Wired.com
Mapping the Humanized World | Wired Science from Wired.com
When censorship shades into persecution
I've been hearing rumours of this kind of thing before, but it seems that the idea has just been given legal effect in Malaysia.
This is because the idea is to stop non-Muslims from using terms that Muslims associate with specifically Muslim things: God, houses of God, etc. Presumably this will have the effect of making Christian inculturation more difficult. It's an anti-syncretic move, if you like. Of course there are problems with this not least of which for Arabic speaking Christians Allah is simply the normal word for God, so it's not really syncretism and either this law is a sledge hammer working on a nut or it's more than syncretism they're after. I'm also not sure how things would measure up given that Arabic is not the first language of most Malaysians, Muslims included, but Malay is and there are presumably dimensions in this that are to do with loan-words and social identity which would be interesting to hear/see more of.
Bill Poser at the Language Log is right on the theological issue too, imo.
htt. Language Log: A New Approach to Censorship:
The government of Malaysia ... has informed the The Herald, a Roman Catholic newspaper, that its license to publish will not be renewed if it continues to use the word Allah in reference to God.
This is because the idea is to stop non-Muslims from using terms that Muslims associate with specifically Muslim things: God, houses of God, etc. Presumably this will have the effect of making Christian inculturation more difficult. It's an anti-syncretic move, if you like. Of course there are problems with this not least of which for Arabic speaking Christians Allah is simply the normal word for God, so it's not really syncretism and either this law is a sledge hammer working on a nut or it's more than syncretism they're after. I'm also not sure how things would measure up given that Arabic is not the first language of most Malaysians, Muslims included, but Malay is and there are presumably dimensions in this that are to do with loan-words and social identity which would be interesting to hear/see more of.
Bill Poser at the Language Log is right on the theological issue too, imo.
If one believes in the existence of multiple deities, it make sense to distinguish one from the other. If your favorite deity is Thoth and mine is Isis, it makes sense to keep their names distinct to avoid confusion between the two, but if, as Muslims believe, you believe that there is only one god, you can believe that other people have false ideas as to what God is like and what she wants but you cannot reasonably believe that the god that someone else worships is different, for that would imply the existence of two gods.
htt. Language Log: A New Approach to Censorship:
21 December 2007
Loving God, willing the good: blessing and hallowing the Name.
My search feed directed me to this from Divine Intimacy, by Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, O.C.D.
This goes some way to dealing with the issue about whether praising God is something that God would desire; it seems to us to be so fraught with narcissicism. I think I'd have to add that it needs to be understood in a Trinitarian framework, or it does seem more difficult. However, this quote does open up the possibility of seeing theologically how loving God begins to issue in praise.
Dominican Idaho: Because it never hurts to remember::
The love which will lead us to God does not consist in sentiment; it is an act of th will. To love is to 'will the good'; to love God, is to 'will good to God.' The good which we can desire for God is that which Jesus Himself taught us to ask of our heavenly Father: 'Hallowed be Thy name; Thy will be done.' Since God is the infinite good upon which everything depends, the good that He desires and that by which He is pleased is none other than His own glory and the acomplishment of His holy will.
This goes some way to dealing with the issue about whether praising God is something that God would desire; it seems to us to be so fraught with narcissicism. I think I'd have to add that it needs to be understood in a Trinitarian framework, or it does seem more difficult. However, this quote does open up the possibility of seeing theologically how loving God begins to issue in praise.
Dominican Idaho: Because it never hurts to remember::
health myths
I only just bit my tongue the other day as yet another person referenced the idea that we only use 10% of our brains and how great or dangerous we'd be if we used the rest. It doesn't, of course, stack up with brain research. And I'd tried that 2 litres of water a day thing, and found that I went to the loo more often, so it did seem to me that I was merely eliminating the extra, which made me suspect that I didn't really need it all. It seems that I was right. Go read this in order to debug yourself of some more myths.
Heard the one about reading in dim light being bad for your eyes? It's just a myth | Science | The Guardian
Heard the one about reading in dim light being bad for your eyes? It's just a myth | Science | The Guardian
Vatican note defends evangelisation
Against opinions that evangelisation is an infringement of human rights and that we should seek to encourage others to be more faithful to their own religions, the Vatican has recently issued a note of clarification. In it we are told. "To lead a person’s intelligence and freedom in honesty to the encounter with Christ and his gospel is not an inappropriate encroachment, but rather a legitimate endeavour, and a service capable of making human relations more fruitful." Which is helpful given that some Vatican documents have seemed to head in a universalist direction and been quoted as such in some quarters. Of course, the actualy position is far more nuanced. The note
So far, it pretty much echoes the kind of approach that I have come to take: that evangelism, appropriately done (and the note says "The Church severely prohibits forcing people to embrace the faith, or leading or enticing them by improper techniques"), is actually offering people their 'right' to hear the gospel and that God's grace operates for salvation way beyond the formal boundaries of the church.
I think the interesting thing in this is about relations with other Christians and churches. "In this connection, it needs also to be recalled that if a non-Catholic Christian, for reasons of conscience and having been convinced of Catholic truth, asks to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church, this is to be respected as the work of the Holy Spirit."
I have to say that I'm less convinced that such a move would be necessarily to be interpreted straightforwardly as the work of the Holy Spirit. But then how do we interpret the work of the Spirit in and among [a] fractured church/es? I have felt in the past that I was called to be an Anglican. My claim implies a degree of divine legitimacy for the Church of England, presumably. It'd be interesting to ask whether the official RC view could accommodate my vocational self-understanding. I suspect there would be a tension in trying to evaluate it officially. On the one hand it can't be too positive about it else it may find itself granting a degree of okay-ness to another ecclesial entity not in communion with Rome which would undercut its own self-understanding as the fulness of the expression of church. On the other hand, to grant some kind of recognition to separated bretheren as Christians brings with it the need for pastoral care and sacraments ...
Church Times - Spread the word, says Vatican note:
acknowledges that non-Christians can be saved “through the grace which God bestows in ways known to him”. None the less, it argues that “the Church cannot fail to recognise that such persons are lacking a tremendous benefit in this world: to know the true face of God and the friendship of Jesus Christ, God-with-us.” And it quotes Pope Benedict XVI: “There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the gospel.”
So far, it pretty much echoes the kind of approach that I have come to take: that evangelism, appropriately done (and the note says "The Church severely prohibits forcing people to embrace the faith, or leading or enticing them by improper techniques"), is actually offering people their 'right' to hear the gospel and that God's grace operates for salvation way beyond the formal boundaries of the church.
I think the interesting thing in this is about relations with other Christians and churches. "In this connection, it needs also to be recalled that if a non-Catholic Christian, for reasons of conscience and having been convinced of Catholic truth, asks to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church, this is to be respected as the work of the Holy Spirit."
I have to say that I'm less convinced that such a move would be necessarily to be interpreted straightforwardly as the work of the Holy Spirit. But then how do we interpret the work of the Spirit in and among [a] fractured church/es? I have felt in the past that I was called to be an Anglican. My claim implies a degree of divine legitimacy for the Church of England, presumably. It'd be interesting to ask whether the official RC view could accommodate my vocational self-understanding. I suspect there would be a tension in trying to evaluate it officially. On the one hand it can't be too positive about it else it may find itself granting a degree of okay-ness to another ecclesial entity not in communion with Rome which would undercut its own self-understanding as the fulness of the expression of church. On the other hand, to grant some kind of recognition to separated bretheren as Christians brings with it the need for pastoral care and sacraments ...
Church Times - Spread the word, says Vatican note:
Arabic Hymn of the Nativity
Thanks to Matt Stone for this. For me the interest is also that this Christian hymn at first sounds like what we associate with the adhan, the call to prayer in a masjid (mosque). And to hear this plays a part, for me, in realising that there is a far more ancient set of traditions that Islam drew on for its religious expressions (another being the prostrations in prayer which probably came from the practice of Byzantine monks in the middle east, in fact I'm actually wondering whether there is mileage in looking at Islam as a form of laicised monasticism).
Anyway, enjoy. And the linguists might also enjoy spotting similarities to Hebrew and odd words and phrases that you recognise from elsewhere.
I'm also interested in the way that essentially static images (mostly icons) are used to give an interesting and helpful 'moving' storyboard.
Journeys In Between: An Arabic Christmas Carol (Byzantine Hymn of the Nativity)
Anyway, enjoy. And the linguists might also enjoy spotting similarities to Hebrew and odd words and phrases that you recognise from elsewhere.
I'm also interested in the way that essentially static images (mostly icons) are used to give an interesting and helpful 'moving' storyboard.
Journeys In Between: An Arabic Christmas Carol (Byzantine Hymn of the Nativity)
Underdogs and the moral high ground of victims
Research on 'underdogs'; that is the attitudes to those perceived as such shows that
The research doesn't tell us why but; "The researchers propose that those who are viewed as disadvantaged arouse people's sense of fairness and justice -- important principles to most people."
which is probably true, but the implications are possibly greater if my hypothesis that the underdog thing is linked to the victim thing which then becomes a rhetorical device to win arguments if only one can frame ones interest as an underdog or victim. At one level it is hopeful that there is this bias to the underdog on the other hand it probably means that there really is a rhetorical leverage. And perhaps one of the interesting things about the Israel-Palestine situation is that the victim/underdog card is being played by both sides in different ways.
A further interesting question is why this 'bias to the underdog' doesn't translate into more just and fair global institutions. Is it that the underdog thing only really operates with observing third parties?
Why Do People Support Underdogs And Find Them So Appealing?:
No matter what scenario the participants were presented with, they consistently favored the underdog to win.
The research doesn't tell us why but; "The researchers propose that those who are viewed as disadvantaged arouse people's sense of fairness and justice -- important principles to most people."
which is probably true, but the implications are possibly greater if my hypothesis that the underdog thing is linked to the victim thing which then becomes a rhetorical device to win arguments if only one can frame ones interest as an underdog or victim. At one level it is hopeful that there is this bias to the underdog on the other hand it probably means that there really is a rhetorical leverage. And perhaps one of the interesting things about the Israel-Palestine situation is that the victim/underdog card is being played by both sides in different ways.
A further interesting question is why this 'bias to the underdog' doesn't translate into more just and fair global institutions. Is it that the underdog thing only really operates with observing third parties?
Why Do People Support Underdogs And Find Them So Appealing?:
Brains interpreting speech sounds
When I studide phonetics and phonology in the late 1970s we already knew that the perception of speech sounds was more complicated than just marshalling heard data. As this article points out:
I think that this is related to the ventriloquist's trick for dealing with labial sounds.
The best example of perception versus reality we worked with was to discover that consonents following vowels were actually largely determined in terms of perception by the vowel itself: we could remove the acoustic signatures of the consonant and people could still tell from the vowel what the removed consonant was.
The importance of this, of course, is that we have to recognise that our relationship with 'reality' is far more convoluted than naive positivism (the kind that Richard Dawkins seems to fall back into regularly) would have us believe.
Indeed, many of us have had the experience of hearing someone say something, asking them to repeat it because we couldn't make it out, and before they can repeat it, it all clicks into place in our mind as our brain processes the sound further and comes up with an interpretation: all of a suddent we seem to have heard it perfectly: the linear illusion is restored.
New Brain Mechanism Identified For Interpreting Speech:
if a person's voice says 'pa,' but the person's lips mouth the word 'ka'' One would think you might hear 'pa' because that is what was said. But in fact, with the conflicting verbal and visual signals, the brain is far more likely to hear 'ta,' an entirely new sound
I think that this is related to the ventriloquist's trick for dealing with labial sounds.
The best example of perception versus reality we worked with was to discover that consonents following vowels were actually largely determined in terms of perception by the vowel itself: we could remove the acoustic signatures of the consonant and people could still tell from the vowel what the removed consonant was.
The importance of this, of course, is that we have to recognise that our relationship with 'reality' is far more convoluted than naive positivism (the kind that Richard Dawkins seems to fall back into regularly) would have us believe.
Although we experience speech as a series of words like print on a page, the speech signal is not as clear as print, and must be interpreted rather than simply recognized
Indeed, many of us have had the experience of hearing someone say something, asking them to repeat it because we couldn't make it out, and before they can repeat it, it all clicks into place in our mind as our brain processes the sound further and comes up with an interpretation: all of a suddent we seem to have heard it perfectly: the linear illusion is restored.
scientists now know the Broca's region is plays a major role in this process.
New Brain Mechanism Identified For Interpreting Speech:
Computer modelling of brains
Before people start getting excited about emergent consciousnesses being 'grown' in computers, let's just note what can and can't be done.
Lab comes one step closer to building artificial human brain | Technology | The Guardian:
Filed in:
"Markram is not holding his breath, waiting for some emergent consciousness to arise from the silicon brain. What he is after is something more prosaic, but also a lot more useful than a talking machine. By understanding the function of the brain, we can also begin to understand its dysfunction.
Disorders such as depression, schizophrenia and dementia are the price we pay for having complicated brains. 'We don't understand what goes wrong inside those circuits,' says Markram. 'We're still in empirical medicine. If a drug compound works: good. If not, we try another one.' Blue Brain could accelerate experimentation tremendously. It will be much more efficient than wet-lab experiments and it will reduce animal experimentation.
However, Steven Rose, emeritus professor of biology at the Open University, is sceptical that a biologically accurate model of the entire human brain can be built, given our current state of knowledge and technology. The integration between the different regions of the brain is just too complex to recreate on a computer simulation. 'I'm not against people playing with models,' says Rose, 'but the idea that you can use it for anything very sophisticated as opposed to looking at real animals with real behaviour at the moment seems to me to be pie in the sky.'"
Lab comes one step closer to building artificial human brain | Technology | The Guardian:
Filed in:
The Year's 10 Craziest Ways to Hack the Earth
Crazy perhaps, but you never know some of these could end up being part of the solution... my favourite is the cloudmaking ships.
The Year's 10 Craziest Ways to Hack the Earth
Just a thousand ships would offset temperature rises resulting from a global CO2 doubling, Latham said. He and Salter recently joined with climate-modeling guru Phil Rasch to determine the ships' potential to upset weather systems, including rainfall. "Questions like that have to be answered first," Latham said. "But I'm much more confident than I was a year ago."
The Year's 10 Craziest Ways to Hack the Earth
18 December 2007
Desmond Morris on women running things
I'm offering this with no comment because I'm still thinking about it but think that I'd like to be able to find it again sometime. "women ran society, men were in the hunting ground. The sad thing for women is that, over a period of time, the hunting grounds became the city centres, and so instead of being on the periphery, men were now in the centre of the cities running things. The cities were the hunting grounds, although now the hunting was metaphorical. Urbanisation favoured the male."
Stephen Moss on Desmond Morris, the man who wrote the groundbreaking book The Naked Ape | By genre | Guardian Unlimited Books:
Stephen Moss on Desmond Morris, the man who wrote the groundbreaking book The Naked Ape | By genre | Guardian Unlimited Books:
Trendy trees add to waste mountain
Eco-friendly tree tips
� Buy British trees certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
� Buy 'living' trees and replant in the garden (and remember to water during the summer).
� Recycle your tree after Christmas.
� Remember: an artificial tree is for life, not just for Christmas.
Eco-friendly decorations
� Use old, misshapen ones from the loft.
� Make your own.
� Check out 'free' websites such as Freecycle.
� Look for secondhand and Fairtrade decorations in charity shops.
Trendy trees add to waste mountain at Christmas | Environment | The Observer:
� Buy British trees certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.
� Buy 'living' trees and replant in the garden (and remember to water during the summer).
� Recycle your tree after Christmas.
� Remember: an artificial tree is for life, not just for Christmas.
Eco-friendly decorations
� Use old, misshapen ones from the loft.
� Make your own.
� Check out 'free' websites such as Freecycle.
� Look for secondhand and Fairtrade decorations in charity shops.
Trendy trees add to waste mountain at Christmas | Environment | The Observer:
small is dutiful
Okay, this is a commentabout leading a smaller political party, however, I was struck by the similarity of this remark to reflections I'd had about leading a smaller church.
Makes you think ...
Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | Charles Kennedy: There's no harder party to lead than the Lib Dems:
A smaller-size party and parliamentary membership does not necessarily equate to lesser demands; if anything, the opposite can be the case. The scale involved brings with it assumptions of proximity and availability; delegation can be difficult to achieve, because for many inside and outside the party 'only the leader will do'
Makes you think ...
Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | Charles Kennedy: There's no harder party to lead than the Lib Dems:
Therapeutic Value Of Meditation
Though there are reasons to think that maybe meditation techniques do help healthwise (this blog has alerted to some research to show that it may, see also here, and here and also here) So it is important to recognise that these are indicative but as yet the methodological issues haven't been resolved, according to this study, to give a green light, rather it is more an amber light.
Of course this is research largely about medical and cognitive benefits; the spiritual benefits and pitfalls are another thing.
Therapeutic Value Of Meditation Unproven, Says Study:
'This report's conclusions shouldn't be taken as a sign that meditation doesn't work,' Bond says. 'Many uncertainties surround the practice of meditation. For medical practitioners who are seeking to make evidence-based decisions regarding the therapeutic value of meditation, the report shows that the evidence is inconclusive regarding its effectiveness.' For the general public, adds Ospina, 'this research highlights that choosing to practice a particular meditation technique continues to rely solely on individual experiences and personal preferences, until more conclusive scientific evidence is produced.'
Of course this is research largely about medical and cognitive benefits; the spiritual benefits and pitfalls are another thing.
Therapeutic Value Of Meditation Unproven, Says Study:
Constructivism and Christian Teaching
I've mentioned constructivism in education before. And I have been thinking, but can't find a reference to show I've written it down on this blog, that an implication of the Adam naming the animals scene is to support a constructivist approach to learning. Taking the basic insight from the posting just referred to, "God seems to want to see what we will make of the Creation, how we will understand it and wonder at it and how we will speak of it. And when I write 'speak', I mean to include the languages of the arts as well as the more 'scientific' or formal linguistic registers." And it seems to me that this is a constructivist approach. Not a radical version where there is no objective reality and we entirely construct our own world, but a moderate version which accepts the [God-] givenness of the world but sees God as leaving room for us to see what we make of it and be creative with what we discover and how we 'taxonymise' it. This contrasts with a strong sovereignty view of God, such as that shown in the Qur'an, which minimises human creativity and responsiveness. It seems to me then, that this article comes to reasonable conclusions, on the whole when it concludes
I would however aver from the bit about not being within a Christian worldview: for the reason outlined above, I would say that moderate constructivism is demanded by a Christian worldview.
Constructivism and Christian Teaching:
Constructivism is a theoretical framework that has gained prominence in education in recent years. It is clear that this framework is based on premises not acceptable within a Christian worldview. However the methods implied by this framework are in most cases consonant with good Christian teaching. Although the Christian teacher cannot accept the assumptions, there are modified premises, which are consistent with the Christian worldview This may explain why a framework apparently so contrary to Christian thought may still produce an acceptable approach to teaching.
I would however aver from the bit about not being within a Christian worldview: for the reason outlined above, I would say that moderate constructivism is demanded by a Christian worldview.
Constructivism and Christian Teaching:
17 December 2007
Everything Must Change: Part three.
Part three starts with chapter ten and contrasts a conventional view of Jesus with an emerging view. The former tends to be tightly focussed on personal salvation whereas the latter is more of a holistic view. McLaren takes a look at the downsides of the conventional view which tend to be about it being easy for it to acquiesce in the kinds of injustices and excesses which started the book mainly by defining primary duties to looking after our own 'in groups' of family and the saved.
McLaren then resituates Jesus in his earthly context by drawing out the implications of Empire in the Roman variety by focussing on how it only really worked well for well-connected males close to the heart of Empire. For everyone else there were various degrees of being exploited.
We are then invited to consider the cross as a symbol of coercive Roman power; the means of keeping people in place and a warning to those who might think of rebelling. This moves us into chapter 11 and the reflection that coercive power tends not to achieve a total degree of coercion but rather to breed rebellion and bitterness and, more significantly for the development of the argument, counter narratives: stories embodying self understandings in contrast and rebellion to the prevailing hegemonic ideological myths of Empire (my phraseology, McLaren doesn't frighten his readers with such stuff). He shows how the Jewish people in Palestine under Roman occupation tended to develop four basic counter-narratives exemplified by the stances respectively of the zealots, the Saducees, the Pharisees and the Essenes. These turn out to be the main logical positions of any counter-narrative. The analysis begins to bite when McLaren relates these to positions found in north America today among Evangelicals: those who like the Essenes draw into separated subcultures, Then there are the culture warriors who seem to resemble the zealots, then the holiness/purity people like the Pharisees, and the Saducees represented by those who pretty much adopt a 'my country/party right or wrong' approach.
We are then introduced to an analogy drawn from Steve Chalke where the message of Jesus is likened to a box containing a jigsaw puzzle, but where the wrong lid has been put on which tends to mislead in various ways: do we insist on the picture on the lid despite the evidence and even perhaps alter the pieces to fit the picture better, or give up on the whole thing because we can't get a match, or decide that the lid has been switched?
What if, we are invited to consider, Jesus was offering a different counter-narrative: a transformative reframing which relativises the claims of empire?
Chapter 12 is entitled 'No Junk DNA', and begins with an encounters with a genetic expert who ends up giving an expert opinion that,despite, a common misconception, there probably is no junk DNA, just DNA that we do not understand at this point. We then read about the possibility that in the view of many Christians there is, in effect, a lot of junk revelation which does not appear to contribute to the main conventional 'gospel' message. The rest of part three is given over to the task of testing whether, in fact, this junk revelation has more purpose than conventional evangelicalism had given it. McLaren does this by looking at twelve features of Jesus' ministry. One is the way that Jesus refuses to be co-opted by the counter-narratives of either the Sadducees or the Pharisees and seems to have people in his disciple band from different counter-narrative communities, and indeed imperial collaborators. His habit of table fellowship with the 'unholy' was not in the counter-narrative of the Pharisees. And note the way he sidesteps questions whose answers could place him in a particular counter-narrative box.
Incidentally, we can see the impact of seeing the Jesus events against the imperial background when McLaren invites us to re-consider the story of the rich young ruler: someone who has probably been profiting by the imperial system in which he is working as a ruler. Jesus' call to him is to serve those whom the system has been exploiting rather than being mainly an issue of whether he loves money. And the parables about stewards gain a new poignancy when we realise that stewards, as the managers of the estates of the elite would have been in a rather 'interesting' position especially in the story of the 'unjust' steward. Further examples are given of this kind of understanding. The next chapter continues the reflection on how reading the gospels against the Imperial narrative makes sense of the 'junk revelation': consider the gospel canticles in Luke. McLaren illustrates the 'problem' by rendering the magnificat into what it 'should' have been according to the kind of evangelicalism in which he was brought up. “The Mighty One has provided forgiveness, assurance and eternal security for me -an holy is his name”, “He has helped those with correct doctrinal understanding, remembering to be merciful to those who believe in the correct theories of the atonement ...”. Ouch! But, so true.
And yet we are also reminded of the way that Jesus handled the aftermath to his Isaianic manifesto which also was a big deceleration of the kinds of expectations of the more zealot sort. Chapter 14 opens by inviting us to consider the meaning in the wider context of Peter's confession of Christ at Caesarea Philippi and then onto Jesus before Pilate. It doesn't say anything that isn't said elsewhere but it does help to grasp more firmly the conceptual shift that many would have to make in their reading of these passages.
Amazon.co.uk: Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope: Books: Brian D. McLaren
McLaren then resituates Jesus in his earthly context by drawing out the implications of Empire in the Roman variety by focussing on how it only really worked well for well-connected males close to the heart of Empire. For everyone else there were various degrees of being exploited.
We are then invited to consider the cross as a symbol of coercive Roman power; the means of keeping people in place and a warning to those who might think of rebelling. This moves us into chapter 11 and the reflection that coercive power tends not to achieve a total degree of coercion but rather to breed rebellion and bitterness and, more significantly for the development of the argument, counter narratives: stories embodying self understandings in contrast and rebellion to the prevailing hegemonic ideological myths of Empire (my phraseology, McLaren doesn't frighten his readers with such stuff). He shows how the Jewish people in Palestine under Roman occupation tended to develop four basic counter-narratives exemplified by the stances respectively of the zealots, the Saducees, the Pharisees and the Essenes. These turn out to be the main logical positions of any counter-narrative. The analysis begins to bite when McLaren relates these to positions found in north America today among Evangelicals: those who like the Essenes draw into separated subcultures, Then there are the culture warriors who seem to resemble the zealots, then the holiness/purity people like the Pharisees, and the Saducees represented by those who pretty much adopt a 'my country/party right or wrong' approach.
We are then introduced to an analogy drawn from Steve Chalke where the message of Jesus is likened to a box containing a jigsaw puzzle, but where the wrong lid has been put on which tends to mislead in various ways: do we insist on the picture on the lid despite the evidence and even perhaps alter the pieces to fit the picture better, or give up on the whole thing because we can't get a match, or decide that the lid has been switched?
What if, we are invited to consider, Jesus was offering a different counter-narrative: a transformative reframing which relativises the claims of empire?
Chapter 12 is entitled 'No Junk DNA', and begins with an encounters with a genetic expert who ends up giving an expert opinion that,despite, a common misconception, there probably is no junk DNA, just DNA that we do not understand at this point. We then read about the possibility that in the view of many Christians there is, in effect, a lot of junk revelation which does not appear to contribute to the main conventional 'gospel' message. The rest of part three is given over to the task of testing whether, in fact, this junk revelation has more purpose than conventional evangelicalism had given it. McLaren does this by looking at twelve features of Jesus' ministry. One is the way that Jesus refuses to be co-opted by the counter-narratives of either the Sadducees or the Pharisees and seems to have people in his disciple band from different counter-narrative communities, and indeed imperial collaborators. His habit of table fellowship with the 'unholy' was not in the counter-narrative of the Pharisees. And note the way he sidesteps questions whose answers could place him in a particular counter-narrative box.
Incidentally, we can see the impact of seeing the Jesus events against the imperial background when McLaren invites us to re-consider the story of the rich young ruler: someone who has probably been profiting by the imperial system in which he is working as a ruler. Jesus' call to him is to serve those whom the system has been exploiting rather than being mainly an issue of whether he loves money. And the parables about stewards gain a new poignancy when we realise that stewards, as the managers of the estates of the elite would have been in a rather 'interesting' position especially in the story of the 'unjust' steward. Further examples are given of this kind of understanding. The next chapter continues the reflection on how reading the gospels against the Imperial narrative makes sense of the 'junk revelation': consider the gospel canticles in Luke. McLaren illustrates the 'problem' by rendering the magnificat into what it 'should' have been according to the kind of evangelicalism in which he was brought up. “The Mighty One has provided forgiveness, assurance and eternal security for me -an holy is his name”, “He has helped those with correct doctrinal understanding, remembering to be merciful to those who believe in the correct theories of the atonement ...”. Ouch! But, so true.
And yet we are also reminded of the way that Jesus handled the aftermath to his Isaianic manifesto which also was a big deceleration of the kinds of expectations of the more zealot sort. Chapter 14 opens by inviting us to consider the meaning in the wider context of Peter's confession of Christ at Caesarea Philippi and then onto Jesus before Pilate. It doesn't say anything that isn't said elsewhere but it does help to grasp more firmly the conceptual shift that many would have to make in their reading of these passages.
Amazon.co.uk: Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope: Books: Brian D. McLaren
16 December 2007
Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope: part the second
In chapter six McLaren invites us to revisit the questions about what are the biggest problems facing the world and shares some of the ones he considers most on the ball, including the Copenhagen consensus, the millennium development goals, Rick Warren's PEACE plan and the UN questions about development. He also reminds us of Einstein's dictum that no problem can be solved by the same consciousness that created it. He then mentions the work of the New Vision group who identify three main challenges [global poverty, environmental destruction and increasing violence] and diagnose the common root to be a disease of ideology.
Chapter seven could have been entitled 'The Suicide Machine'. It explores the metaphor of human systems (machines) which have become interlocked to produce human extinction, ultimately. This machine, he analyses to be composed of three interdependent subsystems. One is dedicated to prosperity, another to security and the final one to equity.
Chapter eight looks at that analysis in terms of how it sits within the earth's ecosystem. This employs a helpfully designed diagram to make the points clearer about energy flows and the size of the economy relative to the ecosystem. Much of the information is well-known, but not necessarily by some of the target readership, and the way that it is put over may be helpful to those who are familiar with it already in giving a way to share our concerns simply and with some hope of being effective.
In the next chapter we consider the importance of what McLaren calls “framing stories”. He gives some examples of how the stories we tell ourselves about who we are will tend to affect the way we live; we will live out these stories both individually and corporately. The chapter then explores how each of the subsystems can move into dysfunction supported by various narratives legitimising the overall continuance of the dysfunction, the comparison to addiction and denial is well made. It is here that the “theocapitalist narrative” is identified and so labelled. It is against this background that McLaren now raises the possibility that Jesus may offer a 'framing story' that stands outside of the consciousness that created our global crises.
Amazon.co.uk: Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope: Books: Brian D. McLaren
Chapter seven could have been entitled 'The Suicide Machine'. It explores the metaphor of human systems (machines) which have become interlocked to produce human extinction, ultimately. This machine, he analyses to be composed of three interdependent subsystems. One is dedicated to prosperity, another to security and the final one to equity.
Chapter eight looks at that analysis in terms of how it sits within the earth's ecosystem. This employs a helpfully designed diagram to make the points clearer about energy flows and the size of the economy relative to the ecosystem. Much of the information is well-known, but not necessarily by some of the target readership, and the way that it is put over may be helpful to those who are familiar with it already in giving a way to share our concerns simply and with some hope of being effective.
In the next chapter we consider the importance of what McLaren calls “framing stories”. He gives some examples of how the stories we tell ourselves about who we are will tend to affect the way we live; we will live out these stories both individually and corporately. The chapter then explores how each of the subsystems can move into dysfunction supported by various narratives legitimising the overall continuance of the dysfunction, the comparison to addiction and denial is well made. It is here that the “theocapitalist narrative” is identified and so labelled. It is against this background that McLaren now raises the possibility that Jesus may offer a 'framing story' that stands outside of the consciousness that created our global crises.
Amazon.co.uk: Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope: Books: Brian D. McLaren
Everything must change
I've been wondering whether having a go at summarising and reflecting on books as I read them could be helpful to me, and maybe to readers. So I thought I'd give it a go with Brian McLaren's latest. Here are my reflections on the first half-dozen chapters.
McLaren starts by recognising that a number of potential readers could be put off because of a cultural skepticism about the kinds of themes he's dealing with. I wonder whether this is true; in my case, I want to read this book because those themes are being dealt with. Nevertheless, the skepticism is real and forms a backdrop for all of us. It seems to me that for McLaren the more important potential audience are those who are more fully aware of the difficulties with organised Christian religion, particularly in its north American forms and who may be rejecting it because of its failure to be or embody good news.
McLaren was an English teacher and it shows, arguably, in some really nice soundbites. And I write 'nice' because they express my own thinking well. For example,
I couldn't help asking other questions: why do we need to have singular and firm opinions on the protection of the unborn, but not about how to help poor people and how to avoid killing people labelled enemies who are already born? Or why we are so concerned about the legitimacy of homosexual marriage but not about the legitimacy of fossil fuels or the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (and in particular, our weapons as opposed to theirs)? Or why are so many religious people arguing about the origin of species but so few concerned about the extinction of species? [pp.3-4]
The first chapter alerts us to the need to come up with a better Christian “framing story”. And the importance of doing so is well put and alluded to when McLaren writes,
The popular and domesticated Jesus who has become little more than a chrome-plated hood ornament on the guzzling Hummer of western civilisation, can thus be replaced with a more radical, saving, and, I believe, more real Jesus. [p.6]
Chapter two begins by confessing the two big questions that have stayed with McLaren since his twenties: what are the biggest problems in the world and what does Jesus have to say about them? For me, it is significant that a third question arises for him from those, because, again, it is mine. Why hasn't the Christian religion made a difference commensurate with its message, size and resources?
He outlines about a trip he took, on invitation, to Burundi and the word amahoro, 'peace'. In moving to chapter 3 we are introduced to the 'one' sermon that McLaren's host Claude had heard growing up in church: you're a sinner, unless you believe in Jesus you're going to hell. Claude pointed out to his Burundian, Rwandan and Congolese audience that none of them had heard anything about Hutus, Tutsis and Twa being reconciled. But this is not just an central African issue: all too often the Church, Christians have not been about reconciliation and welfare, though the world has sorely needed them. A recovery of the message of Jesus about the Kingdom is needed.
Chapter five brings us a scene from a meeting with South African pastors in a township where unemployment and AIDS are chronic. A health worker challenges them that their preaching of healing, being born again, colluding with not talking about sex and of tithing for prosperity are contributing to the problems not alleviating them. He outlines some of the kinds of programmes they could be developing but haven't been. McLaren characterises this kind of preaching and way of being church as chaplaincy to a dysfunctional and failing culture and a PR dept for a destructive ideology. To be sure he also mentions some areas where churches are becoming part of the solution, but the challenge remains.
It's probably helpful that McLaren makes these points in narrative and so via the voice of others directly affected. The health worker had to put up with accusations of heresy, though he was a committed pentecostal Christian. McLaren helps the presentation of his case by being more indirect at this point.
In chapter six we are introduced to post-modernism very helpfully and accessibly first by some historical placing to do with post-colonialism and the experience of two world wars and then very succinctly by reference to the roots of overweening certainty found in Descartes' foundationalism. I had to admire his adroit choice of examples and core issues as well as the presentation of them in well-crafted language and accessible thought.
McLaren starts by recognising that a number of potential readers could be put off because of a cultural skepticism about the kinds of themes he's dealing with. I wonder whether this is true; in my case, I want to read this book because those themes are being dealt with. Nevertheless, the skepticism is real and forms a backdrop for all of us. It seems to me that for McLaren the more important potential audience are those who are more fully aware of the difficulties with organised Christian religion, particularly in its north American forms and who may be rejecting it because of its failure to be or embody good news.
McLaren was an English teacher and it shows, arguably, in some really nice soundbites. And I write 'nice' because they express my own thinking well. For example,
I couldn't help asking other questions: why do we need to have singular and firm opinions on the protection of the unborn, but not about how to help poor people and how to avoid killing people labelled enemies who are already born? Or why we are so concerned about the legitimacy of homosexual marriage but not about the legitimacy of fossil fuels or the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (and in particular, our weapons as opposed to theirs)? Or why are so many religious people arguing about the origin of species but so few concerned about the extinction of species? [pp.3-4]
The first chapter alerts us to the need to come up with a better Christian “framing story”. And the importance of doing so is well put and alluded to when McLaren writes,
The popular and domesticated Jesus who has become little more than a chrome-plated hood ornament on the guzzling Hummer of western civilisation, can thus be replaced with a more radical, saving, and, I believe, more real Jesus. [p.6]
Chapter two begins by confessing the two big questions that have stayed with McLaren since his twenties: what are the biggest problems in the world and what does Jesus have to say about them? For me, it is significant that a third question arises for him from those, because, again, it is mine. Why hasn't the Christian religion made a difference commensurate with its message, size and resources?
He outlines about a trip he took, on invitation, to Burundi and the word amahoro, 'peace'. In moving to chapter 3 we are introduced to the 'one' sermon that McLaren's host Claude had heard growing up in church: you're a sinner, unless you believe in Jesus you're going to hell. Claude pointed out to his Burundian, Rwandan and Congolese audience that none of them had heard anything about Hutus, Tutsis and Twa being reconciled. But this is not just an central African issue: all too often the Church, Christians have not been about reconciliation and welfare, though the world has sorely needed them. A recovery of the message of Jesus about the Kingdom is needed.
Chapter five brings us a scene from a meeting with South African pastors in a township where unemployment and AIDS are chronic. A health worker challenges them that their preaching of healing, being born again, colluding with not talking about sex and of tithing for prosperity are contributing to the problems not alleviating them. He outlines some of the kinds of programmes they could be developing but haven't been. McLaren characterises this kind of preaching and way of being church as chaplaincy to a dysfunctional and failing culture and a PR dept for a destructive ideology. To be sure he also mentions some areas where churches are becoming part of the solution, but the challenge remains.
It's probably helpful that McLaren makes these points in narrative and so via the voice of others directly affected. The health worker had to put up with accusations of heresy, though he was a committed pentecostal Christian. McLaren helps the presentation of his case by being more indirect at this point.
In chapter six we are introduced to post-modernism very helpfully and accessibly first by some historical placing to do with post-colonialism and the experience of two world wars and then very succinctly by reference to the roots of overweening certainty found in Descartes' foundationalism. I had to admire his adroit choice of examples and core issues as well as the presentation of them in well-crafted language and accessible thought.
What the Pope really said about climate change
Showing, yet again, the apparent inability of newspaper editors to actually understand nuanced and carefully stated positions that don't fit neatly into their nice little news-story httpcategories, we have had reports of the Pope being a climate change skeptic. Actually that's not true. His concern, though was to make sure that justice issues are not lost in climate change mitigation processes.
Ben Goldacre: Twisting the Pope's words on climate change | Comment is free | The Guardian: See also the whole speech.
'Prudence does not mean failing to accept responsibilities and postponing decisions; it means being committed to making joint decisions after pondering responsibly the road to be taken, decisions aimed at strengthening that covenant between human beings and the environment....Human beings, obviously, are of supreme worth vis-�-vis creation as a whole. Respecting the environment does not mean considering material or animal nature more important than man. Rather, it means not selfishly considering nature to be at the complete disposal of our own interests, for future generations also have the right to reap its benefits.'"
Ben Goldacre: Twisting the Pope's words on climate change | Comment is free | The Guardian: See also the whole speech.
15 December 2007
Belief and unbelief and doubt are different in kind
... neurologically speaking, that is. Different parts of the brain are involved in each. However committing ourselves to beliefs, or not, does require and emotional engagement.
That last statement is almost old-hat now. What we may want to put a question mark against is the 'representation' bit. Representation may not be an adequate model to work with neurologically speaking.
It does seem to underline why arguments about politics and religion are sometimes the most heated: they are about world view and have to pass through the more emotionally charged processing areas of the brain. The question is whether there are ways to make progress in these kinds of areas. Does knowing this help us in reconciliation, for example?
Different Areas Of The Brain Respond To Belief, Disbelief And Uncertainty:
'What I find most interesting about our results is the suggestion that our view of the world must pass through a bottleneck in regions of the brain generally understood to govern emotion, reward and primal feelings like pain and disgust,' Harris said. 'While evaluating mathematical, ethical or factual statements requires very different kinds of processing, accepting or rejecting these statements seems to rely upon a more primitive process that may be content-neutral. I think that it has long been assumed that believing that two plus two equals four and believing that George Bush is President of the United States have almost nothing in common as cognitive operations. But what they clearly have in common is that both representations of the world satisfy some process of truth-testing that we continually perform. I think this is yet another result, in a long line of results, that calls the popular opposition between reason and emotion into question.'
That last statement is almost old-hat now. What we may want to put a question mark against is the 'representation' bit. Representation may not be an adequate model to work with neurologically speaking.
It does seem to underline why arguments about politics and religion are sometimes the most heated: they are about world view and have to pass through the more emotionally charged processing areas of the brain. The question is whether there are ways to make progress in these kinds of areas. Does knowing this help us in reconciliation, for example?
Different Areas Of The Brain Respond To Belief, Disbelief And Uncertainty:
Anti-drinking Campaign Ads May Be 'Catastrophically Misconceived'
It's important to do the kind of cultural anthropological analysis that this research does in order to realise that educational advertising really does have to understand first the connotative and social meaning of the things they are dealing with. In some ways this states the obvious.
However, it needs joining up with reflection on how, then, current 'edutising' is actually heard and therefore how to give messages that will actually be heard. Part of the problem in Nordic and Anglo-Saxon societies is precisely the 'heroic' mindset which I postulate goes back to viking and similar ancestral culture where hard drinking was part of the feast mentality and became a macho bonding thing. Unless we address that culture properly, we will not get very far. No matter how much 'European cafe culture' we try to import via drinking hours and town planning. It's a quasi mythic thing; the fact that there are exaggerations and stylised templates for telling the 'I was so drunk...' stories tells us that, in Barthesian terms, we are dealing with myths. The act of drinking too much grants individuals access to the myth and the social status and bonding that it is there to offer and preserve. The myth needs subverting or replacing. Subversion is rarely successful 'from above'...
Anti-drinking Campaign Ads May Be 'Catastrophically Misconceived':
“Extreme inebriation is often seen as a source of personal esteem and social affirmation amongst young people,” said Professor Christine Griffin from the University of Bath, who led the research with colleagues from Royal Holloway, University of London and the University of Birmingham.
“Our detailed research interviews revealed that tales of alcohol-related mishaps and escapades were key markers of young peoples’ social identity. These ‘drinking stories’ also deepen bonds of friendship and cement group membership. Not only does being in a friendship group legitimise being very drunk - being the subject of an extreme drinking story can raise esteem within the group.”
However, it needs joining up with reflection on how, then, current 'edutising' is actually heard and therefore how to give messages that will actually be heard. Part of the problem in Nordic and Anglo-Saxon societies is precisely the 'heroic' mindset which I postulate goes back to viking and similar ancestral culture where hard drinking was part of the feast mentality and became a macho bonding thing. Unless we address that culture properly, we will not get very far. No matter how much 'European cafe culture' we try to import via drinking hours and town planning. It's a quasi mythic thing; the fact that there are exaggerations and stylised templates for telling the 'I was so drunk...' stories tells us that, in Barthesian terms, we are dealing with myths. The act of drinking too much grants individuals access to the myth and the social status and bonding that it is there to offer and preserve. The myth needs subverting or replacing. Subversion is rarely successful 'from above'...
Anti-drinking Campaign Ads May Be 'Catastrophically Misconceived':
12 December 2007
New Way of Being Church
If you have doubts, as I do, about the four W approach to small group work (cell church in particular), then I commend looking at New Way of Being Church. It has a more organic feel and a rootedness in base community experience which produce a pretty wholistic aproach.
New Way of Being Church - Home Page
New Way of Being Church - Home Page
Occasional fasting gives physical health benefits
Because Mormons have a few distinct habits that could have health ramifications, studies of them in relation to other USAmericans who otherwise share pretty much the same lifestyle, is proving to be pretty helpful research-wise. And here's a further result looking at heart health: "only fasting made a significant difference in heart risks: 59 percent of periodic meal skippers were diagnosed with heart disease versus 67 percent of the others."
The Mormon discipline is to fast one day in a month.
Wired News - AP News:
The Mormon discipline is to fast one day in a month.
Wired News - AP News:
12 Days ... messed about a bit
I'm a sucker for singing comedy: and this is a nice exemplar for the run up to Christmas.
Enjoy.
YouTube - Straight No Chaser - 12 Days
Enjoy.
YouTube - Straight No Chaser - 12 Days
Humans are still evolving - and it's happening faster than ever
Six-day creationists look away now. The referenced article reports studies on human genetic drift. One of the more interesting points, for me, was this:
Just so. It's the reappearance of our old cultural friend the human-nature dichotomy: our persistent view that nature is 'out there' not something we are part of. The interesting thing is, and this has been noticed by others, culture is now an evolutionary driver.
Humans are still evolving - and it's happening faster than ever | Science | The Guardian:
'The widespread assumption that human evolution has slowed down because it's easier to live and we've conquered nature is absolutely not true. We didn't conquer nature, we changed it in ways that created new selection pressures on us,' said anthropologist Dr John Hawks
Just so. It's the reappearance of our old cultural friend the human-nature dichotomy: our persistent view that nature is 'out there' not something we are part of. The interesting thing is, and this has been noticed by others, culture is now an evolutionary driver.
Humans are still evolving - and it's happening faster than ever | Science | The Guardian:
Mormon beliefs explained
The blog I found this on has the comment
"don't know enough about Mormon theology to know if this bit of propaganda is accurate or not "
Well I'd like to know too. From my time with Mormon missionaries and their literature it seems to be accurate at those points that I recall learning about, But does anyone one know if it has any inaccuracies? For example, I have a question about the dark skin etiology: I thought that they'd rescinded that.
AlterNet: Blogs: Video: The Cartoon Mitt Romney Doesn’t Want You To See [VIDEO]:
"don't know enough about Mormon theology to know if this bit of propaganda is accurate or not "
Well I'd like to know too. From my time with Mormon missionaries and their literature it seems to be accurate at those points that I recall learning about, But does anyone one know if it has any inaccuracies? For example, I have a question about the dark skin etiology: I thought that they'd rescinded that.
AlterNet: Blogs: Video: The Cartoon Mitt Romney Doesn’t Want You To See [VIDEO]:
What a difference a /d/ makes
My suspicion is that this gaffe is partly down to the propensity for Brits to adopt Americanisms into their singing accents. As is well-known, many north Americans do not phonetically distinguish post (or inter?)-vocalic /t/ and /d/ -turning them both into a flapped 'r'. This gave rise to difficulties in the recent England match against Croatia where a Brit sang the croatian national anthem and made a pronunciation error.
Apparently, the chuckle that gave the Croatian players has been given as one reason for their winning the game.
Language Log: What a difference a /d/ makes:
According to the lyrics posted here, the second quatrain of the Croatian national anthem should go as follows:
Mila kano si nam slavna,
Mila si nam ti jedina,
Mila kuda si nam ravna,
Mila kuda si planina!
Dear, you are our only glory,
Dear, you are our only one,
Dear, we love your plains,
Dear, we love your mountains.
However, Mr. Henry rendered two repetitions of 'kuda' in the last two lines as 'kura'. ... he instead sang 'Mila kura si planina' which can be interpreted as 'My dear, my penis is a mountain'.
Apparently, the chuckle that gave the Croatian players has been given as one reason for their winning the game.
Language Log: What a difference a /d/ makes:
11 December 2007
Scary vicar
Thanks to Matt Stone for uncovering this sketch which I saw on tele a few weeks back. The worrying thing is that there is a lot of well-studied stuff in this. The critiques made by the vicar are plausible, just appllingly delivered and with a total lack of love. That's why it's funny: well observed.
YouTube - Bad Vicar - That Mitchell and Webb Look
Nuclear Power – the carbon footprint rising
Part of a very interesting article on nuclear power, problematising considerably the claim that it is a solution to CO2 production associated with energy. Following an analyisis of how quickly useful uranium would be depleted, we then read:
"All processes of the nuclear system ..., except the reactor itself, consume fossil fuels and consequently emit CO2. The nuclear CO2 emission depends on the ore grade, ... With decreasing ore grade, the CO2 emission increases: ... The world average ore grade today is about 0.15% U3O8. and the world average CO2 emission is around 120 g/kWh (with a large spread). When poorer ores are to be mined, the specific CO2 emissions increase steeply with decreasing ore grade."
Nuclear Power – the Energy Balance � Celsias:
"All processes of the nuclear system ..., except the reactor itself, consume fossil fuels and consequently emit CO2. The nuclear CO2 emission depends on the ore grade, ... With decreasing ore grade, the CO2 emission increases: ... The world average ore grade today is about 0.15% U3O8. and the world average CO2 emission is around 120 g/kWh (with a large spread). When poorer ores are to be mined, the specific CO2 emissions increase steeply with decreasing ore grade."
Nuclear Power – the Energy Balance � Celsias:
This Is Your Brain On Violent Media
Does violence on TV or in films cause or strongly influence violence in real life. Well, here's a smoking gun of research if not the in flagrante: "“Our findings demonstrate for the first time that watching media depictions of violence does influence processing in parts of the brain that control behaviors like aggression. This is an important finding, and further research should examine very closely how these changes affect real-life behavior.”"
This Is Your Brain On Violent Media:
This Is Your Brain On Violent Media:
The story of stuff
Models of the Church: another model
Ian Mobsey identifies an addition to Avery Dulles typology of the Church. I think he's right: "the unspoken model that seems to have seeped in with little questioning due to the financial pressures of the modern world - is the model of 'Church as business'. What has increasingly astounded me, is that there is so little written about this model, which has been absorbed by many churches, particularly those that are large."
This is spot on. And one of the cultural drivers I would hypothesise is church leadership in many churches, particularly the New Churches, which is drawn from the business community and from managerial backgrounds heavily influenced by the MBA culture.
What I'm less convinced by, on reflection, is Ian's next sentence: "Clearly this model is not based on the significance of Christ, but purely on business cultural import." I would say that the model of God as investor in the parable of the talents or of God as owner implied in the parable of the unjust steward or the Pauline idea in 1Cor3 of us as fellow-workers with God (particularly in that chapter where the other metaphors are patent of 'enterprising' interpretations). And indeed the idea of an organisation as an enterprise can enable a reading back into 'church' language of more business friendly ideas. There's probably more, but I'm just thinking outloud at the moment.
The thing to remember is that metaphors and models tend to pick out of the datastream particular features while neglecting others. The art of theologically reflective leadership is to become aware of the positives and negatives of the models and metaphors and to use them appropriately. Church as business enterprise can help us to aim at excellence, a service/mission mentality/focus, professionalism, wise stewardship of resources, risk/enterprise and good administration. On the other hand it can make a church self-satisfied, self-absorbed and self-justificatory by ostensible 'success'. It can make churches instrumental with people. It can also mean that good and important things that God is doing or wants doing are missed because they don't fit well with the success criteria currently employed by the church.
We should recall too that money can be a form of communication; we need to learn to hear it's language aright...
Hyper-reality: Ian Mobsby musings: The new unspoken model of church: church as business:
This is spot on. And one of the cultural drivers I would hypothesise is church leadership in many churches, particularly the New Churches, which is drawn from the business community and from managerial backgrounds heavily influenced by the MBA culture.
What I'm less convinced by, on reflection, is Ian's next sentence: "Clearly this model is not based on the significance of Christ, but purely on business cultural import." I would say that the model of God as investor in the parable of the talents or of God as owner implied in the parable of the unjust steward or the Pauline idea in 1Cor3 of us as fellow-workers with God (particularly in that chapter where the other metaphors are patent of 'enterprising' interpretations). And indeed the idea of an organisation as an enterprise can enable a reading back into 'church' language of more business friendly ideas. There's probably more, but I'm just thinking outloud at the moment.
The thing to remember is that metaphors and models tend to pick out of the datastream particular features while neglecting others. The art of theologically reflective leadership is to become aware of the positives and negatives of the models and metaphors and to use them appropriately. Church as business enterprise can help us to aim at excellence, a service/mission mentality/focus, professionalism, wise stewardship of resources, risk/enterprise and good administration. On the other hand it can make a church self-satisfied, self-absorbed and self-justificatory by ostensible 'success'. It can make churches instrumental with people. It can also mean that good and important things that God is doing or wants doing are missed because they don't fit well with the success criteria currently employed by the church.
We should recall too that money can be a form of communication; we need to learn to hear it's language aright...
Hyper-reality: Ian Mobsby musings: The new unspoken model of church: church as business:
10 December 2007
Madonna of the Magnificat
Christine Sine passes on this interesting reading of the Madonna of the Magnificat by Botticelli "contemporaries of the artist would have seen something very differnt from what we see. They would recognize every figure in the painting as a member of the Piero de’ Medici family. "
So is this then an artist sucking up to power, or at least knowing which side his bread is buttered on? Probably: a guy's got to eat. But then again ...
Botticelli might not have been the complete sellout to the ruling classes that this appears. The open book near the centre of the picture portrays the Latin text for the canticle of Zechariah of the left and the Magnificat on the right with its wonderful song of praise to our God who “has scattered the proud in their conceit, cast down the mighty from their thrones, lifted up the lowly, filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty.” Mary not only sings of revolution but with the quill pen in her hand she is also shown to be a revolutionary women of letters, and the right hand of Jesus, the hand of blessing rests on his mother’s recvolutionary words.
So, to the tune of the Internationale:
"Sing we a song of high revolt;
make great the Lord, his name exalt!
Sing we the song that Mary sang
of God at war with human wrong.
Sing we of him who deeply cares
and still with us our burden bears.
He who with strength the proud disowns,
brings down the mighty from their thrones.
By him the poor are lifted up;
he satisfies with bread and cup
the hungry men of many lands;
the rich must go with empty hands.
He calls us to revolt and fight
with him for what is just and right,
to sing and live Magnificat
in crowded street and council flat."
(I think that this was a Fred Kaan hymn)
Anyway, with that ringing in your ears, read Christine's whole peace.
Madonna of the Magnificat � Godspace:
06 December 2007
Men, women and talkativeness...
People take note of this recent research: "Contrary to the prediction, men were more talkative ... than were women. As expected, men used more assertive speech, whereas women used more affiliative speech"
A Meta-Analytic Review of Gender Variations in Adults' Language Use: Talkativeness, Affiliative Speech, and Assertive Speech -- Leaper and Ayres 11 (4): 328 -- Personality and Social Psychology Review:
A Meta-Analytic Review of Gender Variations in Adults' Language Use: Talkativeness, Affiliative Speech, and Assertive Speech -- Leaper and Ayres 11 (4): 328 -- Personality and Social Psychology Review:
05 December 2007
Beyond the Age of Petroleum
Just fyi -from the USA: "the Energy Department signaled a fundamental, near epochal shift in US and indeed world history: we are nearing the end of the Petroleum Age and have entered the Age of Insufficiency. The department stopped talking about 'oil' in its projections of future petroleum availability and began speaking of 'liquids.' The global output of 'liquids,' the department indicated, would rise from 84 million barrels of oil equivalent (mboe) per day in 2005 to a projected 117.7 mboe in 2030--barely enough to satisfy anticipated world demand of 117.6 mboe. Aside from suggesting the degree to which oil companies have ceased being mere suppliers of petroleum and are now purveyors of a wide variety of liquid products--including synthetic fuels derived from natural gas, corn, coal and other substances--this change hints at something more fundamental: we have entered a new era of intensified energy competition and growing reliance on the use of force to protect overseas sources of petroleum. "
Beyond the Age of Petroleum:
Beyond the Age of Petroleum:
04 December 2007
When the going gets tough the tough go shopping ...
Interesting article, this. It starts by reminding us of what is known:
And then moves to some interesting ideas which ought to be of interest to Christians and others of good will in Western cultures.
The malaise is, as some thinkers in spirituality and some theologians have been saying for some time, a spiritual one within western culture which needs more than the fixes currently offered or conceived in popular culture because it is that popular culture that is the problem, formed in response to the insecurity but adopting the maladaptive strategy just mentioned.
Hmmm. Yes; we need to work towards helping people to recognise where fulfilment is and isn't found (and that means the uncomfortable task of showing that the ideology we call 'consumerism', really does have no clothes. That we have to help people take stock of the fact that shopping only brings a temporary relief and has an almost inevitable 'let down' once the purchase is made. The parallel with substance addiction is all-but inescapable (I guess that would make it, at least for some, a process addiction). But, as the article points out, sudden withdrawal may be catastrophic as it would amount to a precipitous drop in the velocity of circulation of money (this is my more economic paraphrase) which would amount to a steep deflation and economically would be rather like pulling the rug out from under the table we dine at: things would come crashing down and there would be quite a lot of suffering as means of support were withdrawn from the most economically precarious and concentrated in the hands of the most capitally secure. So the management of such a withdrawal would be needed, and -I would argue- a transition to an economy based on service rather than on 'stuff'. A message that Christians can back, along with many other spiritual seekers and religious adherants.
Some of the comments are interesting too. Someone called Steve Jones writes:
And there is the sting in what I mention above in relation to money and deflation: "Lower consumption means a much lower tax base because of the recent move to consumption taxes.", so we'd need to reconsider taxation and welfare: though I'm thinking that a land value tax would be a great help in this regard.
But the big achilles heel, as a number of comments point out in various ways is that in wartime Britain there was quite a big bearing down on civil liberties to achieve the lower consumption. It wasn't just propaganda that did it, probably not mainly even, after all, there was the black market ... I suspect that strategic taxation and careful regulation as mentioned by Steve Jones is actually quite important, without going into the kind of quasi police state that was wartime Britain.
Anyway, developing a spirituality which is robustly anticonsumerist without being a bad neighbour is quite important: taking in the insights of addiction treatment including 12-step programmes, being economically savvy and offering a fulfilling and celebratory goods-based downward mobility ... funny, I seem to recall all sorts of groups over the last 30 years saying this kind of thing: have we woken up and realised they might have been on to something, then?
Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | Eat, drink and be miserable: the true cost of our addiction to shopping
there is a madness at the heart of this economic model with its terrible environmental costs. It's best illustrated by a graph used by the US psychologist Tim Kasser at a Whitehall seminar last week. One line, representing personal income, has soared over the past 40 years; the other line marks those who describe themselves as "very happy", and has remained the same. The gap between the two yawns ever wider. All this consumption is not necessary to our happiness.
And then moves to some interesting ideas which ought to be of interest to Christians and others of good will in Western cultures.
Kasser's graph has both hopeful and disturbing implications. On the hopeful side, this is good news: a low-consumption economy wouldn't mean misery. But what's disturbing is how we continue to shop when it doesn't make us happier. He argues that our hyperconsumerism is a response to insecurity, a maladaptive type of coping mechanism.
The malaise is, as some thinkers in spirituality and some theologians have been saying for some time, a spiritual one within western culture which needs more than the fixes currently offered or conceived in popular culture because it is that popular culture that is the problem, formed in response to the insecurity but adopting the maladaptive strategy just mentioned.
a win-win scenario; a low-consumption economy oriented towards facilitating the real sources of human fulfilment. Most of us dimly recognise that huge lifestyle changes are necessary, but we're waiting for someone else to initiate the process. It's a question of "I will if you will" - the title of a thoughtful report last year from the government's Sustainable Development Commission.Hearteningly, we know it can be done - our parents and grandparents managed it in the second world war.
Hmmm. Yes; we need to work towards helping people to recognise where fulfilment is and isn't found (and that means the uncomfortable task of showing that the ideology we call 'consumerism', really does have no clothes. That we have to help people take stock of the fact that shopping only brings a temporary relief and has an almost inevitable 'let down' once the purchase is made. The parallel with substance addiction is all-but inescapable (I guess that would make it, at least for some, a process addiction). But, as the article points out, sudden withdrawal may be catastrophic as it would amount to a precipitous drop in the velocity of circulation of money (this is my more economic paraphrase) which would amount to a steep deflation and economically would be rather like pulling the rug out from under the table we dine at: things would come crashing down and there would be quite a lot of suffering as means of support were withdrawn from the most economically precarious and concentrated in the hands of the most capitally secure. So the management of such a withdrawal would be needed, and -I would argue- a transition to an economy based on service rather than on 'stuff'. A message that Christians can back, along with many other spiritual seekers and religious adherants.
Some of the comments are interesting too. Someone called Steve Jones writes:
What the government is doing regarding climate change is passing the buck on to the individual.I think he has a point worth pondering more.
It could easily ban incandescent light bulbs, air conditioners, insist that public buildings only be heated to 18 centigrade, give the subsidies the Germans do to those who invest in renewable energy, bring in strict laws regarding energy efficiency for new houses, stick an additional tax on electronic goods that don't go into proper standby, insist of aircraft fuel being taxed at the same rate as petrol and diesel, forbid subsidies from local or regional authorities to local airports or budget airlines, and a fair number of other measures.
Expecting the consumer to follow his conscience is a recipe for making people feel miserable and harrassed without significantly reducing energy use.
And there is the sting in what I mention above in relation to money and deflation: "Lower consumption means a much lower tax base because of the recent move to consumption taxes.", so we'd need to reconsider taxation and welfare: though I'm thinking that a land value tax would be a great help in this regard.
But the big achilles heel, as a number of comments point out in various ways is that in wartime Britain there was quite a big bearing down on civil liberties to achieve the lower consumption. It wasn't just propaganda that did it, probably not mainly even, after all, there was the black market ... I suspect that strategic taxation and careful regulation as mentioned by Steve Jones is actually quite important, without going into the kind of quasi police state that was wartime Britain.
Anyway, developing a spirituality which is robustly anticonsumerist without being a bad neighbour is quite important: taking in the insights of addiction treatment including 12-step programmes, being economically savvy and offering a fulfilling and celebratory goods-based downward mobility ... funny, I seem to recall all sorts of groups over the last 30 years saying this kind of thing: have we woken up and realised they might have been on to something, then?
Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | Eat, drink and be miserable: the true cost of our addiction to shopping
03 December 2007
How others see us
A TV programme following a group of 'anthropologists' from a south sea island who have not been exposed to western culture as they study the British.
"Most surprising is what Yapa, Joel, JJ, Posen and Albi find either enjoyable, or shocking. In the Norfolk countryside, they were deeply upset by the practice of artificially inseminating pigs ('a crazy thing ... undignified ... goes against nature'), but delighted by ferreting for rabbits, which they considered a sort of land-based fishing. In Manchester they were staggered by the phenomenon of homelessness (in Tanna, your family provides a home, come what may), but felt relatively at home in a nightclub, since ritual dancing is an important part of their culture. In London, where they spent a week in a penthouse flat in Docklands, they learnt to love Marlboro Lights and fish and chips, but were left cold by the hustle and bustle of city living. The Kastam are also strangers to the sexual revolution, finding it hard to comprehend how a man and a woman can be equal partners in a f marriage. They are staggered at the amount of time Britons spend cleaning and washing up, which is regarded as a waste of time and effort. "
I hope I can see the prog.
Strange island: Pacific tribesmen come to study Britain - Independent Online Edition > This Britain:
"Most surprising is what Yapa, Joel, JJ, Posen and Albi find either enjoyable, or shocking. In the Norfolk countryside, they were deeply upset by the practice of artificially inseminating pigs ('a crazy thing ... undignified ... goes against nature'), but delighted by ferreting for rabbits, which they considered a sort of land-based fishing. In Manchester they were staggered by the phenomenon of homelessness (in Tanna, your family provides a home, come what may), but felt relatively at home in a nightclub, since ritual dancing is an important part of their culture. In London, where they spent a week in a penthouse flat in Docklands, they learnt to love Marlboro Lights and fish and chips, but were left cold by the hustle and bustle of city living. The Kastam are also strangers to the sexual revolution, finding it hard to comprehend how a man and a woman can be equal partners in a f marriage. They are staggered at the amount of time Britons spend cleaning and washing up, which is regarded as a waste of time and effort. "
I hope I can see the prog.
Strange island: Pacific tribesmen come to study Britain - Independent Online Edition > This Britain:
Forget the green technology - the hot money is in guns
Naomi Klein: "If you are looking for a sure bet in a new growth market, then sell solar and buy surveillance: forget wind, buy weapons."
In other words prepare for a return to the dark ages. And note, people, that by doing so you will make that return more sure. If we don't invest in the risky business of collaborative solutions then we will face the risky consequences of a fragmenting society where might is righter and we and our descendants (for most of us will end up in the have-nots) will be excluded and those who are rich will live like barons but pay for it with insecurity and ever mounting security bills.
The issue is about perceptions and futuring.
Again, comments are interesting.
Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | Forget the green technology - the hot money is in guns:
In other words prepare for a return to the dark ages. And note, people, that by doing so you will make that return more sure. If we don't invest in the risky business of collaborative solutions then we will face the risky consequences of a fragmenting society where might is righter and we and our descendants (for most of us will end up in the have-nots) will be excluded and those who are rich will live like barons but pay for it with insecurity and ever mounting security bills.
The issue is about perceptions and futuring.
This trend has nothing to do with real supply and demand, since the demand for clean-energy technology could not be higher. With oil now reaching nearly $100 a barrel, it is clear that we badly need green alternatives, both as consumers and as a species.... we can choose to fix, or we can choose to fortress. Environmental activists and scientists have been yelling for the fix. The homeland security sector, on the other hand, believes the future lies in fortresses.
Again, comments are interesting.
Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | Forget the green technology - the hot money is in guns:
In a parallel universe, this theory would make sense
This article is worth having a look at if you're an amateur science watcher and have been intrigued or puzzled about quantum physics and multiple universes. While the latter makes for interested sci fi (Sliders and some episodes of Voyager, for example). So in a 'reality check that points out that this theory really is just a theory (and is taken on faith, what's more) and that it falls foul of Occam's razor as things currently stand. Yet maybe one interpretation can hold its head up high: "Oxford physicist David Deutsch, one of the founding fathers of the exciting field of quantum computing, later proposed a variation on Everett's idea in which all possible universes already exist within a quantum multiverse. What we perceive as our reality is just a weaving through this vast shadowy multiple reality, creating our own version of events. While supporters of the multiverse interpretation argue that it is the most sensible explanation, the majority of physicists are sceptical, mainly since it is essentially unprovable."
This is another of those articles where reading the (extensive) comments is actually even more valuable than reading the article that generated them.
Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | In a parallel universe, this theory would make sense:
This is another of those articles where reading the (extensive) comments is actually even more valuable than reading the article that generated them.
Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | In a parallel universe, this theory would make sense:
That open-ish letter from Muslim leaders ...
It's probably fair to say that Barnabas fund are on the more skeptical wing of Christian opinion towards Islam. Actually with good cause, given their involvement with supporting Christians who are being discriminated against, even persecuted. So while we may want to be cautious about how we process some of this information, we still ought to take note and allow it to form us as 'wise as servants, gentle as doves'. So it is interesting to read a more in depth response to the post-Ramadan message to Christian leaders from Muslim leaders which was widely read in more popular press circles as a call to peace based on common values. Noting that the signatories were from 'liberal' as well as more Wahhabi, even Jihadist, circles, we are advised to be cautious and to understand some possible background issues that would not be apparent to those formed and schooled in western and Christian milieux.
Now I confess that I'm worried that we allow taqqiya to be an excuse for being distrustful, but then even with that not factored in, it is not unreasonable to ask whether there are not nuances apparent to Muslim readers that would not translate well into our habitual fields of discourse. And I can think of many situations where messages are being composed and then read on more than one level, some of them significantly different.
I was pleased to see this response calls attention to something I have noted before in relation to 'Abrahamic Faiths' fora; that of marginalising religious communities that do not belong to Qur'anically acknowledged religions. So,
Just so, we will need to be wary of colluding with this agenda. We need also to challenge constantly and firmly a further tacit assumption of the open letter.
What may be even more concerning is the possible 'hidden' message/agenda of some of the letter:
Presumably that's how they can show unity by keeping the Wahhabis and their more radical offshoots on board. We need constantly to remember that certain central ideas about religion that we have are actually basically Christian and don't necessarily find equivalents in other faith-systems. A common misconception in the West is that all religions teach love of neighbour. While there is a level at which this is true, it is also misleading. For example,
Westerners also tend to think that Love is central in ideas of God (even atheists for whom it forms a major plank of the argument against God but which would be sublimely unconnective with Islamic conceptions where the retort would be pretty much, "Tough, deal with it") but this is also not necessarily so. As the appendix notes;
I wonder, in fact, how far Muslim converts from the West actually understand this in many cases. I also wonder whether there is a subliminal awareness that an implication of 'God is love' is plurality within unity and that is what is found hard. The appendix also alerts us to a major dissenting tradition within (but only just) Islam.
And this is a hopeful thing for peace, since it is this tradition, with the kind of distinctive emphases just mentioned, that sidesteps the harsher aspects which become so clear with Wahhabism. Not surprising then that the major and bitter divide in Islam is between the Wahhabis and the Sufis; forget Sunni and Shi'a ...
Barnabas Fund: RESPONSE TO OPEN LETTER AND CALL FROM MUSLIM RELIGIOUS LEADERS TO CHRISTIAN LEADERS, 13 OCTOBER 2007
PS I've discovered from my stats that this post has been picked up by another site and there are comments about some of the issues from it over there.
While addressed to a specific group of Christian leaders, the fact that it is an open letter widely disseminated by the world media means that world public opinion is another intended audience. Furthermore, certain terminology in the letter, as well as the choice of Qur`anic quotations cited, suggest that the letter is also intended for the global Muslim audience. It is not unusual in Islamic discourse for different messages to be delivered to the different audiences. This is permitted by the Islamic doctrine of taqiyya (dissimulation) which allows Muslims to practise deception in certain circumstances. It appears that the Christian vocabulary of the letter is intended to guide Christian readers to the erroneous conclusion that Islam and Christianity are basically identical religions, focusing on love to God and to the neighbour. The hidden messages for Muslims are contained in the many polemical quotations from the Qur`an.
Now I confess that I'm worried that we allow taqqiya to be an excuse for being distrustful, but then even with that not factored in, it is not unreasonable to ask whether there are not nuances apparent to Muslim readers that would not translate well into our habitual fields of discourse. And I can think of many situations where messages are being composed and then read on more than one level, some of them significantly different.
I was pleased to see this response calls attention to something I have noted before in relation to 'Abrahamic Faiths' fora; that of marginalising religious communities that do not belong to Qur'anically acknowledged religions. So,
The letter looks at the world as if comprised only of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. There is no mention of other world religions like Hinduism, Buddhism etc., or indeed of secular and agnostic or atheist people in the world. This may reflect the traditional Islamic classification of non-Muslims into Jews and Christians on the one hand, and "infidels" or "pagans" on the other hand. While Jews and Christians are seen in Islam as worthy of a place in an Islamic society, albeit with a second-class status, infidels are not considered to have any place at all (indeed, according to classical Islam, they should be killed if they will not convert to Islam). This is perhaps why "infidels" have been marginalised in this letter.
Just so, we will need to be wary of colluding with this agenda. We need also to challenge constantly and firmly a further tacit assumption of the open letter.
... a basic fallacy of this letter is the view that Western states are basically Christian and that, when pursuing their national interests, religious Christian motivations are foremost in their minds. This is a very common Muslim misconception, and is an indication of how much more important their faith is to an "average" Muslim than to an average westerner
What may be even more concerning is the possible 'hidden' message/agenda of some of the letter:
many Muslim readers would detect in the very act of selectively quoting from the Qur`an a hidden message that this is not a letter of appeasement, but a call to Islam in the tradition of Muhammad and his Companions and of the early Caliphs. There the call is always to submit to Islam and to accept Islamic dominance.
For instance, the fatiha (sura 1 of the Qur`an) is quoted and presented as the greatest chapter in the Qur`an, reminding humans of their duty of praise and gratitude to God for his mercy and goodness. Included are verses 6 and 7:
Guide us upon the straight path. The path of those on whom is Thy Grace, not those who deserve anger nor those who are astray. [emphasis added]
In Muslim interpretations and commentaries on these verses, it is explained that those who deserve God`s anger are the Jews, while those who are astray are the Christians. Indeed, the Saudi-sponsored English translation of the Qur`an by Hilali and Khan explicitly incorporates this interpretation in the very text of the Qur`an:
Guide us to the Straight Way. The Way of those on whom You have bestowed Your Grace, not (the Way) of those who earned your anger (such as the Jews), nor of those who went astray (such as the Christians).
Most Westerners, reading the verse as quoted in the letter, simply do not realise what it means. But for Muslims reading the letter, the meaning is clear: a call to Christians and Jews to avoid God`s anger and judgement by accepting Islam.
Presumably that's how they can show unity by keeping the Wahhabis and their more radical offshoots on board. We need constantly to remember that certain central ideas about religion that we have are actually basically Christian and don't necessarily find equivalents in other faith-systems. A common misconception in the West is that all religions teach love of neighbour. While there is a level at which this is true, it is also misleading. For example,
The letter suggests that loving your neighbour is a concept common to both Islam and Christianity. But it ignores the fact that the Muslim concept of love for your neighbour can only operate within the limited scope of shari`a. Therefore in Islam there can be no absolute love for all humans, as in Christianity.
Westerners also tend to think that Love is central in ideas of God (even atheists for whom it forms a major plank of the argument against God but which would be sublimely unconnective with Islamic conceptions where the retort would be pretty much, "Tough, deal with it") but this is also not necessarily so. As the appendix notes;
God`s love is the central theme of the New Testament and therefore of the Christian faith. Love is God`s main attribute and very essence. The main message of the New Testament is that God is love in His very being, and that this love was revealed in Jesus Christ and His supreme act of love, His self-giving in his sacrificial death on the cross (John 3:16; 1 John 4:7-12).
In Islam, however, the focus is on submission, so love is never more than one of many minor themes. Modern Muslim apologists in the West sometimes assert that God is a God of love. This is not a concept which traditional orthodox Islam would accept, but appears to be a modern stance of adaptation to the environment they find themselves in. ... According to Islamic teaching, God`s essence and nature cannot be known. Therefore a statement like "God is love" (which appears in the Bible, 1 John 4:8,16) would be theologically wrong in classical Islam.
I wonder, in fact, how far Muslim converts from the West actually understand this in many cases. I also wonder whether there is a subliminal awareness that an implication of 'God is love' is plurality within unity and that is what is found hard. The appendix also alerts us to a major dissenting tradition within (but only just) Islam.
It was left for Islamic mysticism (Sufism) to try to redress the balance and introduce the theme of love into Islam. Sufism offered an escape from the dry and intellectual legalism of the orthodox Islamic teachers and scholars. It focused instead on the human yearning for an authentic personal experience of God. Sufism taught that this experience could be had by a spiritual interpretation of the Qur`an aimed at finding its secret meaning, and by the disciplines of asceticism, repetition of God`s names, breath control, meditation and trance.
And this is a hopeful thing for peace, since it is this tradition, with the kind of distinctive emphases just mentioned, that sidesteps the harsher aspects which become so clear with Wahhabism. Not surprising then that the major and bitter divide in Islam is between the Wahhabis and the Sufis; forget Sunni and Shi'a ...
Barnabas Fund: RESPONSE TO OPEN LETTER AND CALL FROM MUSLIM RELIGIOUS LEADERS TO CHRISTIAN LEADERS, 13 OCTOBER 2007
PS I've discovered from my stats that this post has been picked up by another site and there are comments about some of the issues from it over there.
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