Archive for the ‘ Cultured Faith ’ Category

A Geography of Hope

“Children are part of our geography of hope.” An almost throw away comment by Wade Davis in his 2003 TED talk endangered cultures around the loss of language and ethnocide. I completely agree, children are part of it, but it got me to thinking about what ‘it’ is and what else is part of it? [ READ MORE ]

Church leaders and the Ask Culture

I am clearly building on the foundations of others here.  Firstly there is Andrea Donderi whose web post has seems to have generated a few ripples through the blogsphere.  This in turn has been picked up by Oliver Burkeman writing in the Guardian, which has in turn been picked up by a few others including [ READ MORE ]

U2: No Line on the Horizon – an exercise in eisegesis

The meaning and significance of U2 lyrics is the source of many blogs and websites and a few books.  There is a great deal of mystery and misdirection from the band members themselves who rarely give a straight answers to questions about lyrics.  So at best, what follows is an exercise in eisegesis, a reading [ READ MORE ]

Liquid Faith: looking for anchorages in C21st cultures

Next week, trains permitting, I am presenting my first academic paper that relates to my PhD research.  The Conference is the British Sociological Association: Sociology of Religion Study Group gathering in Edinburgh.  The proposal is below and the full paper should appear as a pdf attachment below. ‘The Changing face of Christianity in the 21st [ READ MORE ]

Zombie Categories 2: Congregation / Church

“Because of individualization we are living with a lot of zombie categories which are dead and still alive.” [Ulrich Beck & Elizabeth Beck-Gernsheim, Individualization, Sage: London, 2002: 203] Maybe 10 years ago you would have been able go into any evangelically inclined church building and find some kind of filing system for OHP slides.((1)) The [ READ MORE ]

Staying!

If I’m towards right about ‘journey’ being a zombie category and it is no longer a useful idea for thinking about our ongoing relationship with Christ, then what is?  Most of my thoughts here start with a comment from Brian McLaren at an Emergent conference in 2003 (I think).   During a question time a [ READ MORE ]

Zombie Categories 1: Journeys

I have recently re-read Gordon Lynch’s Losing my Religion [I'll be reviewing this else where] in which he describes his own move away from evangelicalism.  There is a huge implicit assumption throughout the book that everyone involved in evangelicalism will want to move away and continue their journey elsewhere: whether that be within a Christian [ READ MORE ]