The Complex Christ | Signs of Emergence

Goodbye, for now | New Book

I think the time is right to drop the curtain on ‘Signs of Emergence’  / ‘The Complex Christ’ / ‘Der Jesus Faktor’ and move on. The idea of this blog has been to give some space to extend the ideas presented in that book, and, personally, I feel that’s been successful.

But you shouldn’t keep flogging a dead horse. There have to be periodic moments of silence / jubilee / death / hidden-ness if the moments of speech / action / life are to have any meaning.

So I’m going to stop this blog, and spend some time working on a follow-up book.

The idea, as it stands in various sketches in my note books, is for an extended meditation on the idea of ‘the other,’ leaning left on the poetry/theology continuum, and hopefully drawing on the stories of some fantastic people I’ve met.

I’ve been pondering Jesus’ summary of the Law to ‘love God, and love your neighbour as yourself,’ and re-phrasing it as ‘love the other, love The Other.’ The other within the Self, the other within our communities, The Other that is immanent and beyond all… It strikes me as the core of everything we are about as people of faith. Indeed, since the birth of consciousness, it’s at the core of everything we are about as people.

And yet, with the continuing rise in anti-social behaviour, teenage stabbings in London, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, theological schism, global terror threats and clinical depression, it seems that in our fluid, multicultural, melting-pot, border-less, easyJet world, we are further from accepting the other than ever before.

Yet, despite all this. I think there are signs of hope. And we need to be those signs of hope. Personally, communally, locally, corporeally, we need to be communities that have this love for God and other at our core.

No, I haven’t got a publishing deal, or even spoken to anyone about one. I’m not sure how much that matters, to be honest. I’m just going to spend some time thinking and writing. And if you have any thoughts you’d like to throw in on the theme, any good books to read, do get in touch, come for a beer, leave a comment, or whatever.

Doubtless I’ll be around online again at some point… No idea when. But you’ll find out ;-)

Fare well, for now. And thanks. It’s been fun.

Two Shirts | Excess

It's probably just me, but you ever got all your laundry done, finally cleared out the utility room, got the whole lot ironed, and realised you don't actually have the cupboard space to put it all?

Dirt and excess.

I've often thought about a year's project based on Matthew 6 where I'd aim to give away half of my possessions. Half the number of shirts. Half the number of CDs. Half the number of Macs. But to be honest I just don't know where to start.

Technorati: Excess

Wikiklesia Paperback Available | A Tale of Two Publishers

I'm really pleased to see the Wikiklesia book published in physical form. Go get your copy here and support Not For Sale as you do. I contributed a chapter on the move between text, audio and video, which seems to have gone down well.

Wikiklesia is one of those great publishing projects you are happy to be a part of, with no thought of payment. Good people doing good things... the gifts have cycled well.

Unfortunately this isn't always the case. Many months ago now I was keenly asked to provide a couple of articles for a large and very well known US Christian publication. The deadlines were tight, the turnaround not easy with juggling other things, but hey - they seemed so keen and nice about it! My queries were answered by the editor within hours, they seemed really pleased with what I'd produced... And then it came to payment. I was patient, I can tell you - I don't like hassling people for cash - but suddenly, with the articles published, I couldn't get a squeak out of them.

Finally, after a number of unanswered emails, a cheque for one of the articles arrived, with a copy of the piece for my file, which I was more concerned about to be honest. I've since heard nothing about the other one, which was published months back, but for which I'm still owed.

Should I be bothered? I can take or leave the cash. Some can't, but I'm lucky enough to have income from my teaching. But I just feel that the principle is important. It's basically theft, right? Should writers have to hassle people for what their due, however small it might be? I know for a fact that this publication has treated others in a similar way. Is this the sort of way we'd want a Christian publication to run? I've no desire to write for them again, and if that means I'm shooting my US Christian publishing empire in the foot, well, so be it ;-) I'd rather spend the rest of my days pushing work out for free to projects like Wikiklesia than have the sour taste of having to chase poorly run, industrial-sized Christian publishing houses for cash.

Rant over.

Technorati: Christian | Publishing

The Human Dress | Signs Launch

Thanks to everyone who helped out to give Signs a fantastic launch last night. It was great to phrase it as a time of worship; the guys from the Bridge imagined different sections in terms of doing laundry. Out of that I wrote this piece, meditating on 'the human dress', beginning with a quote from Blake.

"Mercy has a human heart
Pity, a human face:
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress."

One piece of divine fabric,
Unblemished, woven without defect
Knit together in a girl’s womb,
Perfectly fitting this human frame,
Was stitched up, and stretched out
And torn.

Die! said the soldiers,
And they took one and rolled,

They were mistaken,
And we have bought into their mistake.
This cloth was not for sale,
But offered as a free gift.

Taut, pierced, this pelt collapsed around a broken frame,
Pinned out and exhausted, it’s colour drained,
While, in the Temple, another fabric tore top to bottom.
And the weaver escaped
With thoughts for a new design

Hued with mercy,
And lined with love,
Shrouded in mystery.

Technorati: Blake | Bridge | Human Dress

Mission as Entrepreneurial Activity?

Ben has an excellent and honest post here outlining his doubts about the 'missional entrepreneur' that is in popular parlance.

I've posted a comment outlining some thoughts on how the role of the artist might help us imagine this in a new way.

Technorati: Ben Edson | Mission | Entrepreneur

Keep Your Relationship Together: Remain in the Gift

My brother came back from visiting two friends (not pictured ;-) in France the other day. They had sold up, moved over there with their kids and bought a tiny run down farm in the countryside. They live on/off it at pretty subsistence level with a few cattle to fatten and growing their own veg.

They had told my brother how, about 18 months ago they were so strapped for cash that they took the decision to stop buying any gifts for birthdays or Christmases. They were reflecting now on how, with the hard work and tough life in a 'foreign' country, that financial decision pretty much led to their marriage breaking down. It destroyed any sense of celebration, removed any possibility for generosity, no matter how sacrificial that was.

They've re-instated the gift now, and are altogether a lot happier and healthier.

At Vaux we used to say about worship 'where there is no gift, there is no art.' I think one could also say 'where there is no gift, there is no relationship.' This is what a relationship is: the free exchange our ourselves with another. Not paid for, as in a work situation, not commodified, as in a shop or restaurant. Giving and receiving gifts is part of making this invisible 'gift' visible. Whether it be time taken out to be with someone, or unexpected flowers, or something more special, gift exchange increases the potentiality in any relationship.

Exploring this in one Vaux service, someone came up with the idea of 'Petrol Station Flowers': you're driving to someone's house empty-handed and run into the gas station to grab a limp bunch of cellophaned flowers... No real thought has gone into the gift, and that's reflected in the relationship.

We reflected on how often our worship is no more than 'petrol station flowers'. Running in at the last moment, giving something lame. The divine gifts we have received in grace are much more than this, and on all relational planes we move in we need to consider our own gift practice in response to this.

[Connected Post: 'Gift Exchange and Terror' - "violence only breaks out when the parity of [gift] exchanges is broken". Reflections on Bruce Chatwin and Konrad Lorenz discussing ritual gift exchanges and the roots of aggression and warfare.]

Technorati: Chatwin | Lorenz | Christmas Presents | Terrorism | Vaux

Signs Emerges... | Book Launch

So, Signs of Emergence finally hits the shops on 1st July... I'm really excited about the book coming out in the US and Canada, especially as so many of the ideas within it have sprung from great work done over there.

To all you people who've been queuing up for days outside stores to get hold of one... Oh, sorry, that was for the iPhone! Anyway, it's a book I'm really proud of, which a lot of people have been very kind about, and I hope people enjoy it and find some inspiration in it. I'll post some reviews  here as they come through; for now, thanks to everyone at Baker and Emersion for taking it on.

I'll be out in Ventura, CA at the Soliton gathering from 6th - 12th August, and there's going to be a launch party on the evening of the 10th, so if anyone from the LA area is around it'd be great to hook up with people while I'm over!

Technorati: iPhone | Emersion | Signs of Emergence | Soliton

Spring | The Compost Christ Flowers Again | SymbolLife™

Spent a glorious sunny Spring day on the allotment today. Jonny recently posted a photo celebrating the great weather we've had (on and off) recently. And today was another stunner.

Having oh-so-mocked, it's good to see Grace have an allotment now too... In fact there are record waiting lists at most plots across London. I'm not surprised. In a time when leisure has been sold up and marketed in malls as mass entertainment, genuine re-creation is hard to come by.

The photo tells a lot about why I'm such a fan. The paving slabs were from Freecycle, picked up yesterday. The onions I'd just planted a gift from our neighbour who'd had a double order delivered. The tools shared in a shed we bought for £20 from someone else on the plots. Allotments are all about these simple gift exchanges, and the relationships to others and the earth that they bring. A borrowed wheelbarrow, a helping hand lifting stones, a gift of food, a word of advice.

Of course, we have no need to grow our own food. But doing so is a small part of the attempt we are making to 'live symbolically'. These little acts do not themselves change much, but point to something bigger, and thus perhaps add to a building resonance of hope for a better future. There is actually a long history of the socio-political in allotment gardening, and there are strong connections to parts of the anarchist movement insomuch as it is about taking back under your own control something that corporations have ruled. There are myriad other benefits: good exercise, reduction in food miles... and the simple pleasure of getting 'sur les pavés' and back to the earth. But, most importantly, it's about entering a cycle of gift; if you read Lewis Hyde, you can't help feel the soil pushing through his soul.

Technorati: Allotment | Christ | Compost | Grace | Hyde | Anarchy

Comic Relief | It's [not] All For Charity

Some time ago I wrote a piece on Art vs Justice, which threw about some arguments as to whether art is ethical when people are still dying of hunger. More recently some discussion around that issue came up over on Jonny's blog as to whether art is 'vital' in itself or not.

Tonight my niece came over and insisted on watching Comic Relief Fame Academy, where a bunch of people with perhaps 16 minutes of fame between them sing songs badly and get the public to phone into premium rate numbers to vote for them. Most of the money goes to charity. What riled was that these people - all of whom clearly do well out of their careers -  were accommodated in the 'Fame Academy' and showered with champagne and fine foods... Cut then to a short film interlude about starving children in Africa.

Pete Rollins has written a little about Derrida and his ideas about what the perfect 'gift' would be. He concludes that there is never any gift we give that doesn't bring with it some strings attached. In this case, we seem happy to give to charity as long as we get some sloppy singing or second rate comedy. Without the telethon bit, we're less prepared to simply give.

Connectedly, a report today (not in a paper I like, I must say) suggested that Bono's Brand Red idea (see original debate on this blog) for raising money has pulled in £9m. Great. But on an advertising spend of £52m, completely shameful.

Poverty has been commodified. We can handle the short interlude films, but only if we have fat sections of people making fools of themselves. Perhaps the phone lines ring because people just want to pay to see the images go away. Either way, I for one am sick of celebrities being wheeled out to try to get us to give.

Technorati: Brand Red | Celebrity | Comic Relief | Poverty | Claudia Shieffer

Welcome to the World...

Iris Frankie Brewin, born 27th Feb.

7lb 8oz.
At home.
All well.
Could be quiet around this blog.
It sure isn't at home ;-)

Middle Class, White Reactionaries | Theatre and the Emerging Church

There was a superb interview with Edward Albee tonight on the radio which is well worth a download (for this week at least). Superb not for fluid questioning and erudite follow ups, but for genuine engagement.

A couple of weeks ago I gave a school assembly on 'how to write a book' (small pond, education, they're easily impressed ;-) and one of the points I made was that I believed that one writes not to reveal, but to discover, a sentiment mirrored by Albee when pressed about the roots of his plays. "I write my plays to find out why I'm writing them" was his wonderful reply.

Later in the interview he voiced some concerns I have had on recent theatre visits: the economics of theatre are disgusting. The cost of tickets and costs of productions are driving it into the long grass, where only the "well-stuffed, over-comfortable, upper-middle-class, white, middle-aged reactionaries" can afford to be entertained. A great example was Tom Stoppard's play Rock 'n' Roll. The writing was fabulous, the ideas brilliant. But, given this was a play about revolution, about political injustice and oppression, the backing track was shameful. It was virtually all Pink Floyd, the ultimate musical expression of Albee's caricatured audience.

Between each act a screen came down and music was played (shockingly loudly, I couldn't hear myself think, muttered one buffer in the interval about the faint PA) - and the track details were shown on the screen in animated graphics that would have had the entire Vaux cemetery turning in their graves. In other words, great writing, but no idea about some of the really good alternative music around at the time, just as Albee described.

He went on: where are the minorities, where are the young? Where are those on the edge? When it's £40 for a seat... plus a £4 booking fee, (or £50 with a £5 fee - what, is the ticket heavier or something? FFS!) this is clearly an art form that has lost something of 'the gift'.

It's a question that perturbs me about the Emerging Church. Is it all just becoming too comfortable? Where has the edge gone? It may just be personal rather than universal, but I wonder if part of the reason that movements lose their edge is when they begin to exist not to discover, but to reveal. The praxis is lost amidst the performance?

Technorati: Albee | Front Row | Stoppard | Rock 'n' Roll

Art as Pork Belly | The Gift and the End of 'The Original'

Jonny has been posting some great stuff on The Gift. And tonight on Front Row - BBC Radio 4's flagship arts programme - there was a great piece about the inflated price of art.

One expert made it clear that the people buying Pollocks for $140 million, and Warhols for tens of millions have one thing in mind: selling them for even more in a few years.

This is the final tragedy of gift become play-thing of the market. Any spirit within the work is destroyed in the face of the business mind. It has become no more than another commodity - steel, pork bellies - to be sold on for profit.

There are those, thank God, who work to subvert this possibility of their work becoming dollar-focused by putting an end to the idea of 'the original'. And I think it is more here that Hyde's spirit of the gift remains.

Technorati: BBC | Front Row | Pollock | Warhol

Gift Economics...

With Jonny posting some thoughts on The Gift, a book I've reflected on a great deal, I thought people might like links to a series of posts on gift economics I wrote last year, which links it with Veblen's 'Conspicuous Consumption':

Gift / Market / Plunder 1

Gift / Market / Plunder 2

Gift / Market / Plunder 3

Insert Coin [3] | Final Fantasy

[Level 1]  [Level 2]

Emerging Church: Game or Ritual?

As The Believer points out, one aspect of games such as Dungeons and Dragons is that of fantasy. When you enter a game, you are entering 'role play' - becoming someone else. Becoming a fantasy self.

This is something I have critiqued in more detail here. But to summarize, if the Emerging Church risks being seen as a game for some - with rules and power accumulating - then the parallel risk is that it becomes a fantasy, and will inevitably suffer collapse at the end of a fantasy cycle. It will become an ecclesiastic Gizmondo (beautiful article, well worth reading).

So what might be a way forward? How do we avoid the game, with its disjunctive effects, de-marking winners and losers? How do we avoid the unhealthy tendency to masculine competitiveness?

We might meditate on the gospel as a D&D scenario. A wise wizard gathers characters around him. They journey from place to place, meeting monsters, overcoming problems, asking questions. They have a quest, they are immersing themselves in a new kingdom. For some, the quest is a game - there are going to be winners and losers. And certainly, Jesus plays within a defined set of rules. He plays a part.

But, firstly, he also subverts the games different groups want him to play: he plays dirty. By bending the rules he subverts the the boundaries of the game, and thus begins to play in a whole new dimension. Others cry 'foul' and get him sent off... But it's at that point that Jesus refuses to engage in this mission as a game at all. By dying, by 'losing', he presents the ultimate criticism of the competitive, religious fantasies that both his followers and opponents projected onto him.

Secondly, he presents a criticism of the power-accumulation that defines 'good play' in so many games. He empties himself. He works in the economy of gift, passing things on rather than pooling wealth.

Thirdly, he rises again to present an entirely new concept of play. The universe is now fluid and self-organizing. Where there were once rules, there are now governing dynamics. Where there were once blocked walls, places our characters could not go, limiting screens, there is now freedom to roam. Spirit. No temple.

Interestingly, it seems that games are heading that way too. Check out Spore (review here) - a game from the creator of the Sims series that begins in the primordial soup, and can zoom in and out between organism and galactic levels. Players evolve species - and their characteristics are totally within their own control. The game doesn't have a stock list, its governing dynamics simply work out how a fish with 3 legs and a huge head might move. Species then create cities, interact on-line with other cities other players have created, and take on whole different galaxies. Due to be released in Spring next year, it promises to be an extraordinary experience.

If we can face down the fantasy-self of the emerging expressions we are a part of - as Christ did in the desert - we can evolve something truly new. But unless we do so, we are destined to create something competitive and regulated, with its own winners and losers, its own D&D neeks and sports jocks. Let's hope we do so. Let's pray we don't go Gizmondo: promising so much, disappointing so many, costing someone a fortune.

Technorati Tags: Arcade Game, Dirt, Dungeons and Dragons, Gaming, Gizmondo, Religion, Spore

Soliton II | The Other

Si has posted some reflections on Soliton, and makes some excellent points about the terrible way in which The Bridge community have been treated by the local city council. A pregnant mother. Homeless. On Christmas Eve. Would your church have turfed her out? They didn't, and they've been turfed too.

But their mission of hospitality goes on, and permeated everything to do with Soliton. Which has left me reflecting: what else is the gospel, other than a gospel of welcome? Jesus summarised the law as 'love God, love each other', and I've written here before that I'm increasingly drawn to simplify this to 'love the other'. God the 'Other', asylum seekers as the 'other', our secret, hidden selves as the 'other'.

So how do we go about this? Some thoughts that came up in conversation in the sessions:

• Be generous. Gift exchange, as we explored in Peter's journey into seeing the Gentile believers as not-other, is an important way of breaking down barriers. It may be the very thing that separates us from the apes (as I explored here) and inextricably linked to the indwelling of the Spirit.
• Visit your dirt pile. Meditate on that which you consider dirt, and thus explore the boundary systems you are using to define inclusion/exclusion. Christ's radical attitude to dirt made him a major threat to the social control the religious of the day enjoyed. Have we too created a church 'purified to the point of sterility', as Jung put it?
• Hospitality begins at home. Generosity to your self does not mean going out and treating yourself to a new plasma screen. It does mean accepting yourself. As Tillich put it bluntly: 'Simply accept the fact that you are accepted'. The model that Christ showed may be helpful: in his baptism he experienced God's acceptance. In the desert that followed he battled to accept who he was. And this led to his ministry, in radical acceptance and love for the other, wherever he found them.

What was so refreshing about the whole Soliton experience was that all of these traits were not just talked about, but lived out. It was a generous, dirty, accepting, hospitable place. Too often we find ourselves in places that appear to love either God or the other. But here was a place where the other was God. One that recognised that our mission to love the other is simply a journey to the place where God already is: the place of radical acceptance.

Technorati Tags: Emerging Church, Love, The Other, Soliton

The 3rd Economy: Gift, Market and Plunder [3] | Relationships and Transactions | Hunters and Plunderers

[ Gift, Market and Plunder [1] ] | [ Gift, Market and Plunder [2] ]

In the previous two posts I've begun reflecting on Thorstein Veblen's Conspicious Consumption thesis about 'the leisure class' - a group of people he identifies who feel that work is somehow below them:

'The upper (leisure) classes are by custom exempt from industrial occupations, and are reserved for certain employments to which a certain degree of honour attaches. Chief among the honourable employments in any feudal community is warfare; and priestly service is commonly second to warfare.'

He also adds to warfare and priestly service governance and sport, and goes on to explore how:

'When the community passes from peaceable savagery to a predatory phase of life [...] the activity of the men more and more takes on the character of exploit. Tangible evidences of prowess - trophies - find a place in men's habits.'

I've suggested that this implies a change in the thinking I set out in the book, and adds a third economy to the pair of market and gift. I've decided to call this the 'plunder economy', and, like the other two, has its own relational characteristics, which I want to set out here before exploring what the implications are for us in terms of urban spirituality.

I've often used the examples of food transaction to think about these different economies. The economy of the gift is characterised by having someone round for dinner. It would be a) offensive to offer to pay for the meal at the end of the night and b) strange if the gift was not reciprocated in some way at some later date. In the gift economy there is a movement of the empty place - and thus a virtuous circle of relational potential built up.

The market economy is analogous to going to a restaurant, or the supermarket. You pay your money, and get your food. The scales are balanced, so there is no 'empty place' to move, and thus no relational potential. For better or worse, the market is typically relationally benign. You don't go hugging the chef after a meal and demanding they must come over to your place some time. The money deals with it.

So as an example of the plunder economy, I'll suggest another culinary situation: stealing food from a shop, or walking out without paying. In many ways, plunder is thus 'anti-gift'. There is an empty place again, but it is a place of hurt, a place where relationships are destroyed, not built up. And this empty place is in danger of moving on, as people seek to fill their empty place by plundering themselves. A vicious, not virtuous circle.

On the surface then, it seems we can summarise things this way:

Lewis Hyde has expressed much of the idea of gift using hunting as another analogy. (See my chapter on Gift in The Complex Christ) But we can now expand on this and contrast it with Veblen's view of the Victorian 'leisure' hunter as plunderer. Hyde's hunters saw their activities as part of a cycle. The forest gives prey to them, they give the food to the priests, the priests offer it back to the forest. Veblen's hunters are in no way part of such a cycle. They take from the forest, and hang the stuffed heads on the walls as trophies. By thus emptying the forest, but not replacing, they will destroy the eco-cycle. And what they fail to recognise is that this will, by turn of the vicious circle, destroy them.

Plunderers are therefore a symbol of those who consider themselves outside of life's cycles. Outside of the normal economy of work. Outside of the cycles of gift that sustain us. And outside of any ramifications that might have. They, like the celebrities I have mentioned are one modern equivalent, consider themselves immortal.

And its to the implications of this 'set apartness' - you might call it holiness, self-righteousness - of the plunderer that I want to turn to next. Because I think we have been guilty of collusion with this economy more than we might think.

Technorati Tags: Books, Consumption, Environment, Leisure, Plunder, Veblen, Work

The 3rd Economy: Gift, Market and Plunder [2] | Individual Ownership and The Root of Warfare

In the previous post I began to set out some further thoughts on gift, springing from my reading of Thorstein Veblen's 1899 satire Conspicuous Consumption. I want to continue to develop the thoughts outlined there about the 'leisure class' that Veblen describes.

Essentially, we might now see them as the aristocracy, or celebrities. They are those who do not feel they ought to work. Tara Palmer-Tomkinson is perhaps the best example I can give for a UK readership. I'm sure there are similar figures in other countries. These people are allowed to work, but classically only in 'governance, sport, priesthood and warfare.' *

Veblen notes:

Technorati Tags: Consumption, Leisure, Technology, Veblen, War, Work

The 3rd Economy: Gift, Market and Plunder [1] | Christian Leadership and the Leisure Class

As some of you may know, I've been working on a novel for the past few months, playing with themes, among others, of the links between identity and consumption. One of the books I've picked up to feed the furnace has been Thorstein Veblen's 1899 satire Conspicuous Consumption (an excerpt from his longer work The Theory of the Leisure Class, available as part of the lovely Penguin 'Great Ideas' series), and I'm glad I did, as it's nudged me to re-thinking some of the ideas on gift within The Complex Christ. These are unrefined thoughts, but I wanted to set out a few posts on what I've mulled over.

Firstly, an outline of Veblen's ideas.

His thesis begins with an examination of what he calls the 'leisure class' which 'is found in its best development at the higher stages of the barbarian culture; as, for instance, in feudal Europe or Japan. This leisure class is basically what we might now call the aristocracy, but his labeling is quite deliberate and, I think, rather contemporary. What obviously separates them - and Veblen gets us to think about this in more ancient cultures, rather than just in terms of stately homes etc. - is their employment:

'The upper (leisure) classes are by custom exempt from industrial occupations, and are reserved for certain employments to which a certain degree of honour attaches. Chief among the honourable employments in any feudal community is warfare; and priestly service is commonly second to warfare.'

Actually, Veblen continues to list four main lines of activity for the leisure class: government, warfare, religious observance and sports. And, as World Cup fever truly grips (perhaps for only 4 more hours as England face Ecuador at 1600) it is interesting to note our continued fascination with the leisure class - we might call them celebrities now I suppose - who play for £120000 a week.

I want to explore the links Veblen identifies between warfare, consumption and leisure in another post. What interests me briefly here is whether Christian leadership is still seen as part of the 'leisure class' -  a get out from real work, an escape of some sort.

Perhaps I'll do no more than present the question; what I would like to add is this fascinating quote from a letter a great friend and critic of Thomas Merton wrote to him. It talks of 'the monastic', but made me think on the insularity of some full-time Christian work:

"The point of being a Christian in the city is to try to humanize modern technology and modern society, and you [Merton] are trying to escape this. Let us admit that at the outset I am radically out of sympathy with the monastic project. […] All monasticism rests on a mistaken confusion of creation with this world, and so they suppose that by withdrawing in some symbolic fashion from creation they are leaving the world. But creation is precisely not the world, but its antithesis, and so what they do is essentially the opposite of salvation. They withdraw from creation into the desert taking ‘this world’ with them and then they dwell apart from creation, but in a newly erected kingdom of the prince of this world. You have not withdrawn from this world into heaven, you have withdrawn from creation into hell."

Rosemary Ruether writing to Merton. In Merton: A Biography, Monica Furlong, p 287

Technorati Tags: Books, Consumption, Leisure, Merton, Ministry, Ordination, Religion, Veblen, Work

Seeing Red ¦ The Commodification of Poverty

There's been a lot of media attention given to Bono's initiative 'Brand Red' recently. The Independent is edited by him today (nice cover by Damien Hirst). And yesterday saw the launch of a Motorola phone which, when bought, gives £10 to development charities, and, when used, gives 5% of call charges too.

I have to say I'm sceptical. I like Bono. I think his heart is right in the right place. But I wonder if those eyes have seen through expensive shades for too long, if he's just spent too much time among the glitterati, and whether this Red idea is simply the commodification of poverty.

As you know, I'm a fan of the concept of 'gift', and this idea seems to me to be anti-gift. We buy the phone because we are buying into a brand. Not because we really care. If the only way we can get people to help those in dire need is to have to offer them something cool in return for their pennies, then I think there's something very wrong.

The Independent today carries an interview by Stellar McCartney with Giorgio Armani. In it he states:

"The best way to make a contribution in fashion is to promote the idea that a fundamental interest in preserving the environment is itself fashionable."

I disagree. If environmentalism, or aid, is simply a fashion statement, it will go out of fashion like bell bottoms and floral shirts. And this is the problem. Brand Red is a brand. And the companies involved are involved to make money, not to give it away. The want to align themselves to something that is 'cool'. If Armani was serious, he'd fundamentally change his business practice. He'd rather window dress.

I'm not sure starving children or aids orphans want to be seen as cool. They don't want people buying more clothes and mobiles so a cut of the profits can go to them. They want you to not buy the damn thing, be happy with what you have and give them the lot.

"If a man has two shirts, he should buy another one, Brand Red, and give the profits to the poor." No. Give the poor the other damn shirt.

Technorati Tags: AIDS, Bono, Capitalism, Justice, Poverty, Fashion, RED

Generocity

My brother in law, Simon, and his partner Maro are going to be heading out  with VSO shortly. They've started a blog which I've added to my sidebar, and I thoroughly recommend passing by there.

The strap-line they've come up with is 'Bringing Global Justice Home' and what I really like about what they're doing is, as usual with me, to do with interconnection. This isn't just about going to some far-flung place to help out. It's about connecting that with places back here too - starting with Edinburgh, where they met and lived. True justice is always about these interconnects. It's not just about helping the victims, nor just about exposing the violators, nor judging the violations, but about helping people to better mutual understanding, whichever side of the divide they are on.

They, like VSO, could always do with our support. So if you feel like giving to support something really good, thoroughly global and thoroughly local, give their 'support' link a click too.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Environment, Justice, Poverty, VSO

Via Crucis Grid Blog: The Cross

"

An image which frequently appears among the archetypal configurations of the unconscious is that of the tree or the wonder-working plant."
Carl Jung

The Golden Bough, the Burning Bush, the Tree of Life, the Forbidden Fruit, Golden Flower, Ambrosia... The healing plant has a long history, and appears to be 'rooted' in our very subconscious as a potent symbol of life and transformation.

So how does the Cross fit in? It is clearly part of the 'healing plant' archeype, but perhaps with some essential differences. For the tree that Christ hangs on on this Good Friday has been ripped from the ground. It has no roots anymore. It has been 'manufactured' by humankind. Given shape and form by technologies. This healing tree is therefore in touch with death.

As God hangs dying, the two poles of creation and death meet, and within their potential difference lies our healing, our re-rooting, our re-grafting. Separated from the earth, hung above it, God is then thrust in death into the earth's dirty bowels. It is here, in these places where the two poles are forced together that our ressurection begins.

On Music

This year's Reith Lectures, to be broadcast shortly on the BBC, are to be given by Daniel Barenboim under the title 'In the Beginning was Sound'. I'm hoping they live up to the excellent title, which reminded my of Claude Levi-Strauss' Overture introduction to his seminal work on myths The Raw and The Cooked, which he dedicates 'To Music'.

For Levi-Strauss, music is:

"the only language with the contradictory attributes of being at once intelligible and untranslatable, the musical creator is a being comparable to the gods, and music itself the supreme mystery of the science of man."

Nature, he goes on to argue:

"spontaneously offers man models of all colours and sometimes even their substance in a pure state. In order to paint he only has to make use of them. But...nature produces noises not musical sounds; the latter are solely a consequence of culture..."

I have argued in the book that the city is the place where we best see the divine and human co-operating. We take the raw materials of creation and process them into glass, concrete and steel. So the city stands as a testament to both the beauty of that co-operation, and the dangers of doing so assymetrically.

What I love about Levi-Strauss' comments is that it puts music on a similar plane. Nature is full of colour and sound. But music only comes when we co-operate with nature and arrange those sounds. Music is therefore another symbol of the possibilities of the divine/human co-operation.

In other words, at best,it is essentially metaphysical. Good is an epiphany. Music touches us, universally, in ways that no other art form can even begin to. It appears to have direct access to the most ancient areas of our brains. The areas that existed before language (making it, as it were 'pre fall').

And this is the beauty of music: it takes us to that ecstatic place - ex stasis - off the ground, where language has nothing to add.

Last night I went to hear Sigur Ros. It was for the most part a good gig, but the final piece they played was one of the amazing pieces of music I have ever heard, and fully supported Levi-Strauss' opinions above. It was the last song on their second album. A translucent screen came down over the band, so all we could see of them were distorted shadows back projected. (Nic told me the best way to enjoy the Sigur gig would be to keep my eyes closed. He was right: the visuals were not great. I've always thought MTV a paradox; surely music that needs video support is inherently impoverished?)

It was as if we were meant to see through a glass darkly. We weren’t to look. For this most euphoric of moments, the visual was minimized. This from a band whose lyrics are basically glossolalia… Beyond language. And the power of the sound, the volume and the sheer richness was overwhelming.

It was music that was literally ‘obliterating’. Destroying text or language or explanation. One felt as if one wanted to be annihilated by it. That if one could jump into it, one could actually rejoin the divine myth. And this, I believe is the promise that true music sings to us: the promise that one day we will be finally caught back up in the divine composition.

Now that's what I call worship.

(Thanks to Jana for the photo)

Technorati Tags: Art, Beauty, Creativity, Levi-Strauss, MTV, Myth, Sigur Ros

Pay per View | Poverty is an Expensive Business | Grace

In a landmark government ruling today, a British utility company has won the right to compel their customers to have water meters installed. It's probably a good thing, as their use tends to encourage less use, and the UK - with the south east in particular is facing a huge drought this summer.

What interests me is the inexorable move towards a metered society. Pay-per-view television. AOL wanting pay-per-email for businesses. Per-mile road tax. Advances in technology are allowing companies and states to be able to track our use of their wares more stringently, and thus get us to pay for our exact use.

A problem? Perhaps not. But the worrying trend we have seen, led by mobile companies and now taken up by many utilities, is to put a premium on pay-as-you-go services, and allow those with the capital to pre-pay effectively cheaper access. This is classic capitalism: if you've got money, you can more easily make more. Poverty is an expensive business.

As I outline in the book, one of the key challenges the church faces is to work out how best to offer an alternative to the all-pervading market economic. To be an organisation that has its gift-practice sorted will be to be a hugely prophetic and inviting place.

In a heavily metered world, grace, free, immeasurable, fully pre-paid, will surely become even more the most exquisite and beautiful thing people have ever encountered (until the collection plate is passed round.)

Technorati Tags: AOL, Grace, Capitalism, Taxation

Is The Need to Create the Same as the Need to Save?

So asks Damnflanderz with his usual perception, responding to the post on Grizzly Man.

Thoughts?

I'd say there's some truth. But perhaps the need to create is the need to be saved?
Do we create to sanctify, or create to be sanctified? Or is sanctification not part of it?

"Where there is no gift, there is no art."
But where there is no creation, is there no salvation?

Technorati Tags: Art, Creativity

St Paul's Cathedral To Become Café Church Shock

OK, that's not quite true, but they've been turned down for a Lottery grant... for being 'too exclusive' and been told they 'must attract attract new audiences.' The Baker head-hunt from CMS "Café Mission Society" starts here.

More troublingly, what's the centre-piece of a £4.5billion rich organization doing going cap in hand to the Lottery for anyway?

End of the Original: Old Masters vs Artists of the Digital

"The dominance of the art market - not to mention the art object - is being challenged by hackers, code warriors, and artistically motivated nerds who prefer networks, websites, and $19.95 posters to glitzy shows and art-star fame."

Thus begins the article 'My Art World is Bigger Than Your Art World' in December's issue of The Believer (I'm a huge fan). The scope of the article is wide, covering 'net.art', the history of 'video art' and the work of some 'hacker art', exemplified by the piece 'Super Mario Clouds' by Cory Arcangel (screenshot below, cartridge above) which he created by hacking the code of the Super Mario game. The result of this intervention is a 'minimalist game environment - no iconic Mario figure in red coveralls, no coin-generating brick blocks, and no poisonous mushrooms - all that remains are the puffy white clouds gently drifting across a clear blue sky'

Beyond the artistic merits, or otherwise, of such pieces, the article raises a far more interesting - and for my thoughts on Emerging Church issues, pertinent, question about what constitutes 'an original'.

The art world makes its money out of the concept of 'originals' - a case of the economics of scarcity - and artists have long sought ways to subvert - or at least appear to subvert - the 'insularity and pomp of art-world conventions'. Photography was an early example. As mechanical image, could it be called art? And, more to the point, how could one distinguish one print from the negative from another? There was no 'original', and thus the art world had to invent ways of creating an 'aura' around a piece, by limited edition numberings, signatures, framings etc.

Warhol took this idea of mechanical reproduction further in much of his work, as did Duchamp with his signed 'bog-standard' urinial. But all of these examples, with a little tweaking, can be distilled to some 'original', whether it be photographic negative or screen. What is interesting about the work of the digital artists that the article explores is that, with many of the media they are working in, there is simply no concept of original at all. And this causes the art world a great deal of trouble, for how can it create profit, aura, buzz, exclusivity...power, if it cannot control access to the object?

In building this argument the writer notes:

"A work of video art is simply a video signal on a tape. Early analog video technology is termed 'lossy' - meaning that with every successive copy there is a noticable degradation in quality. Analog technologies still had some claim to the construction of an 'original' - the photograph had the negative, and the video has the master copy, from which further copies are struck. The negative and master thus have more value than their offspring.

"Digital video formats released by Sony in the 1990's changed this condition completely, as they alloweds for perfect reproduction. Video is now simply a piece of code - a string of ones and zeros that, unlike its analog parent, is wholly duplicable. Enabling the production of infinite clones with no discernable value hierarchy thus renders 'original' a meaningless term."

Reflecting back on Arcangel's work with the Super Mario hack, his release of the method for producing his pieces, and admission that the 'original' cartridge got lost, again forces us to re-think whether the term has any meaning for his work. Anyone following the right instructions can perfectly create the 'work of art' that he did. So what of it can be bought or sold? What value does it have? There are millions of Mona Lisa prints for a penny, but only one priceless original. If you could have a perfect reproduction to gaze at, would it spoil your visual enjoyment?

The question then comes round to 'what is art?' It is clearly not just about enjoyment of a created environment. We like the 'aura' of the gallery where the 'original' hangs - exclusive, live, real... It gives us a sense of power - because the original is invested with such power by ArtWorld™.

Paul said with relief that he was glad he hadn't baptized many of the Corinthians. Why? Because he didn't want to participate in the heresy of 'the original'. Being baptised by him was no different to being baptised by anyone else. There was no special power the closer you got to him. "Is Christ divided?" he asked? No. We all have the same access to Christ by the Spirit, unmediated by the high priests of art, culture, church or anywhere. This is dangerous speech, a gift many think 'the common people' are not responsible/wise/intelligent/cultured enough to handle. But the truth is, it is a free gift, one which is devoid of human power, which is all about the Other, not about us.

The Emerging Church must avoid the 'aura' offered by mega-churches, experts or names. They have wise experience to offer - let's not forget that. But they don't mediate our access.

The Spirit hacks us with the same code. We are all a unique original. Priceless. Signed. Not cloned. Not reproduced by Graham, Robertson, Gumbel, Wimber or McClaren (insert Male Pastor Name here). Without "value hierarchy." It's a gift. It can't be bought or sold. Or gallaried; hung up in a stale white cube.

So remember, whatever you do, View the Source.
That's the bomb.

Happy New Year.

Ode To Joseph

Joseph is one of those characters that has always intrigued me. His is an apparently strange story in the nativity, and we hear little, if anything about him afterwards. But behind the scenes he is quite an extraordinary figure.

He is engaged to Mary, probably about 14 or so. Who gets pregnant. What the?!! And then claims "God did it." But he sticks by her... Pretty much. She's farmed out to a cousin for a while perhaps. But he does then take her to Bethlehem to register with him in the Augustine census.

I've been lucky enough - if you can call it that - to go to Bethlehem with The Amos Trust and spend some time with Palestinian Christians. It was a powerful 10 days, as Jonny has testified with his Backbone CD. These are people who's families have been Christians, living and working and dying in the same soil as Christ himself, for thousands of years. They are the 'living stones' scattered among the old ruins of the religious sites. Both need tending to preserve our future.

One of the most amazing parts of the trip was a visit to the Church of the Nativity. As our Palestinian guide explained, Bethlehem is such a short trip from Jerusalem, with nothing of any significance further south, there would never have been an 'inn' there. Plenty in Jerusalem. And if Joseph was coming to register in his family's town, he would naturally have stayed with family. But there was 'no room'. In other words, his family chucked him out. He'd brought a pregnant girl with him out of wedlock to the biggest family reunion in years, and frankly that was totally out of order. They appeared to have sheltered in a cave under the house where the animals were kept. This wasn't generousity on the part of some kindly innkeeper. This was savage neglect on the part of a family who dare not entertain disrepute.

This, for me, makes Joseph an extraordinary figure. Not only was he prepared to accept Mary and her unlikely story, he was prepared to take her to his family, to publicly announce his faith and acceptance of her. And then to uproot his family for years to protect them.

It's unclear what his family later made of him, or Jesus. But if we are to believe the family tree as presented in the gospels, it's pretty clear that plenty of his forebears had had some pretty alternative relationships too. This is God's bloodline: messy, different, challenging... but faithful, trusting and ox-strong. It's an inheritance Jesus must have been thankful for.

Christmas Card from the Milkman

Just received a Christmas card. From the milkman. I think we both know what it's really about.

In some situations, you get a card from someone and think 'Oh - must write them one back!'. I'm pretty sure the milkman isn't after a card in return. In fact I'm pretty sure he's not all that fussed what sort of Christmas we have. How could he be? Swinging by at 5am he's never even met us.

Advent: Journeys and Gifts

Perhaps it was the mixture of darkness, waiting and the great mulled wine afterwards, but Advent was always my favourite time of year at Vaux, and as this will be the first year for about 7 years when we won't be doing something I thought I'd offer some resources from the services we did on this theme.

Firstly, a link to the liturgy 'Journeys and Gifts' from the Vaux archive, which explores the coming incarnation through the 3 traditional gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. In typically obtuse style, the service sheets ended up being triangular. Beautiful, time-consuming and totally unnecessary. Summed a lot of what we did up nicely.

Secondly, a video-liturgy simply entitled 'Wait', personally one of my favourites of all the things we produced.
This was filmed one night at the local station (screen-shot above), and is simply a single shot of the bank of 3 platform monitors that the drivers use, plus a remix of Sigur Ros' Svefn g englar, followed by a liturgy on waiting bouncing off Whitman's poem 'finally comes the poet'.

"As Christ waited, waited to be emptied of power self sufficiency, so we should wait.
For one advent, finally shall come the poet, the true son of God, singing songs."

It's around 12Mb, but streams nicely over broadband. If you'd like a full-size version on DVD, just get in touch.

Thirdly, a 4-voice meditation which combines themes from the nativity with Rumi's words "Whoever brought me here will have to take me home."

Emerging Church and the Holy Spirit [4]

The language of the Spirit has been hijacked by the charismatic/pentecostal movement, which is probably why people in Emerging circles have been shy of using it. What some of them appear to have seen from their side of the fence is that this shyness amounts to a rejection of the Spirit, and what they interpret that to mean is a lack of 'power manifestations.' What I have been arguing in these posts is that:

1. We need to reclaim the language of the Spirit and not be afraid to use it and
2. We need to think much more widely about what spiritual gifts are.

On the second point, using some of Lewis Hyde's work on gift, I've argued that gift-exchange is actually the very fuel that runs the church, the inter-connect that is the fabric of our relationships. We don't relate on a market-exchange plane, where the scales are balanced, but on a gift-exchange plane, where things are left unbalanced, and the relational potential is heightened in every transaction.

Furthermore, true gifts always operate in a circle of 3 or more, meaning that the relational cycle is never bi-polar but involves 'the other'. In such a system I don't necessarily receive from the person I gave to, leading to multiplex relational networks that operate on multiple levels. The circle of 3 of course hints at the trinity, which is the ultimate model of generous exchange and relationship.

So how does this work out in some practical ways?