The Complex Christ | Signs of Emergence

New MA at Kings

Kings College have a new MA which they wondered if I'd be happy to flag up, which I am.

It's in 'Politics, Theology and Faith-Based Organisations', and you can read more about it in the doc attached below.

Wise Traveller...

Just out is this set of three books of reflections, to which I contributed 8 or 9 pieces.

Nice thoughts for the journey to pop in and out of.

Here's one I submitted for book titled 'Loss'

Fruit

I want to change the fruits of my labours.

When someone says ‘Apple’,
I shouldn't want sleek plastic and titanium,
but England’s Coxes,
heavy hung in dappled orchards.

When someone says ‘Orange’,
I don’t want to know about free minutes and the latest upgrades.
I want to think citrus thoughts;
the appeal of slowly peeling skin.

And when someone says ‘Blackberry’,
I don’t want my head to rush with virtual thoughts
of emails and deadlines and documents and settings
and schedules and coverage and battery life.

I want, instead, my tongue to rush with sweet sensation,
a bowl of fruits shared with friends.
A rug.
Open space and blue sky.

Lech Walesa came to the West and said:
“You have riches and freedom here,
but I feel no sense of faith or direction.
You have so many computers,
why don’t you use them in the search for love?”

Devices all sold to connect me.
When all I had to do was pick some fruit, and share it.

© KB 2007

Walesa's quote is strangely prophetic, I think.
We've all heeded his advice in some way.

Technorati: Blackberry | Fruit | Love | Scripture Union | Walesa

Jesus, The Guantanamo Years

"From an American security point of view, it's not that reassuring to find a single male Palestinian with no hand luggage, traveling alone. I'm guessing Mossad has a file on me. It probably says I'm a bit of a troublemaker, and it almost definitely says I'm lying about who my real father is."

Abie Philbin Bowman's comedy hit from last year's Edinburgh festival comes to the Arts Theatre in London this week...

Technorati: 9/11 | Abie Philbin Bowman | Edinburgh | Guantanamo | Jesus | Arts Theatre

Dave Eggers | Valentino Achak Deng | Sudan

I went to hear Dave Eggers in conversation with Valentino Achak Deng at the ICA this evening. It was wonderful, moving and sad and funny.

Deng was one of the Lost Boys in Sudan. After his town was pillaged by militias, he got separated from his family and joined 4000 or so other young boys on a walk to Ethiopia. Some were ate by lions. Others shot. Others just died of hunger. After 3 years in a refugee camp there, Ethiopian militias turned on the boys and drove them out again. So they walked to Kenya. 10 years later, Deng and some 3000 others were taken to the US. He met Eggers; 'What is the What' is the 'fictional autobiography' of Deng's life. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Much as cynical postmodern life tells me they shouldn't, heroes do still exist. Dave Eggers is one. His 'Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius' is just that. Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern is the best vehicle for new writing around, and The Believer the best writing magazine ever. That's before we get to the inner-city work of 826 Valencia, the Voice of Witness human rights oral history project. Faith has never been mentioned. I don't want it to be. He's simply a person of huge spirit.

One of the questions after the talk was about how much of him is in the book, and how much is Deng, and whether there was a theme running through his work. He commented quickly that he didn't think there was, in particular, and that he had tried to be as 'invisible as possible' in What is the What.

In some ways I'd like to disagree: I think there is a theme. HBOSG is essentially a work of the ego. It is about him-Self,

about getting to know the Self, if you will. His second book 'You Shall Know Our Velocity' tells the story of a suddenly rich American guy going to Africa with the naive intention of giving money to the poor - a project that spirals into disaster, and his own death. And now we have 'What is the What'.

My thoughts? That the trajectory of his writing has been, having examined the Self, putting the Self to death, and disappearing into the service of the other. And that's good enough for hero status for me.

Please buy What is the What. All the money is going back to Deng's town to build a Secondary School and a Library. And please visit his site to find out what you can do to put pressure on governments to act to stop the violence in Sudan and Darfur in particular.

Technorati: Eggers | Sudan

Parasitic, Aggressive Blogs?

Thanks to Ben for the link:

"Blogs,” [Oliver Kamm] wrote, “typically do not add to the available stock of commentary: they are purely parasitic on the stories and opinions that traditional media provide.” In The Guardian, Jonathan Freedland pointed out that the abusive, vitriolic nature of many blogs had turned the blogosphere into a “claustrophobic environment, appealing chiefly to a certain kind of aggressive, point-scoring male — and utterly off-putting to everyone else.”

I'd have to agree. Perhaps you find this one no different, but I find too many blogs way too low on content, and way too high on 'scoring' posts that just seem to be trying to attract stats.

Technorati: Aggression | Blogging | The Times | The Guardian

RSS - Is Your Content Purified to the Point of Sterility?

In a piece on the myth of 'Internet Neutrality' The Guardian quoted Professors Marshall Van Alstyne and Erik Brynjolfsoson, who, way back in 1997, wrote that,

"With the customised access and search capabilities, individuals can arrange to read only news and analysis that align with their preferences. Individuals empowered to screen out material that does not conform to their existing preferences may form virtual cliques, insulate themselves from opposing points of view, and reinforce their biases."

From their paper "Global Village or CyberBalkans: Modeling and Measuring the Integration of Electronic Communities"

This made me ponder: is my RSS selection doing anything to really challenge my preferences? Or, as Jung might put it, is my content 'purified to the point of sterility?'

Join me in a challenge: add a feed that you disagree with, that prods you, that is uncomfortable. And read it.

Here's mine: Richard Dawkins' Official site.
Any others?

Technorati: Dawkins | RSS | The Guardian | Van Alstyne

Kapoww...ouch ¦ Comic Bloomers

This is one of the funniest things I've seen for ages. Real comic strips from way back. Really funny.

The Trap

Last Sunday saw the start of a 3 part documentary series called 'The Trap'. It is by Adam Curtis, the guy who brought us the award-winning 'The Power of Nightmares - The Rise of the Politics of Fear.'

The Trap is very much in the same style - wonderful archive footage and superbly scripted voiceover. This time his thesis is that the 'freedom' that Western democracy has brought us is actually a much narrower thing than we are led to believe. Rather, as a result of Game Theory that arose during the Cold War, we are encouraged to see that being highly suspicious of one another is our best strategy.

The first part was one of the best pieces of television I've ever seen. Dumbing down this isn't. Catch it on repeat if you can, and book in Sunday night at 9pm on BBC2 to get the next installment.

Technorati: Adam Curtis | BBC | Television | The Trap

Emerging Heroes...

Lego have quite rightly jumped on the Emerging bandwagon, and released this great set of 'Emerging Church Heroes' figures.

Alan Hirsch

Jonny Baker

TSK

Si Johnston

Pete Rollins

Mobsby

Steve Collins

Nic

Greg Russinger

Collect them all and get a free darkened room to keep them in ;-)
(Thanks Jordon for the link)

Web 2.0 Banking | Put Your Money Where Your Mouse Is

Taking 'Social Networking' and web trust networks to a whole new level Zopa is a platform for investors and borrowers to get together, totally by-passing the main-stream banking networks.

You can invest a small amount each month by direct debit, or a larger lump sum. By spreading your investment around they minimize the risk of no return, and actually speculate very good rates of return.

Why invest here? Because this is about your money helping to get projects off the ground that the High Street Banks won't touch. And because it's effectively peer-to-peer you can track exactly what your money is doing. Faceless finance this isn't.

The church has a good history of setting up local Credit Unions to help those with little access to mainstream financial services. I wonder if the Zopa concept could be the Credit Union for the Emerging generation?

Technorati: Finance | Web 2.0 | Zopa

Giggs Gets 700

I just had to take a quick break from paternal matters to give a heads up to a truly amazing event. I doubt you'll read this over at Emerging Chelski or ProtestScousers, but today Ryan Giggs makes his 700th appearance for Manchester United. He made his full debut - check this out - 16 years ago yesterday. He's scored 140 goals, won the Premiership 8 times, the FA Cup 4 times, the Champions League and the Intercontinental Cup... And he could still, as a pundit put it recently, find his way out the door of a phone box with the ball, no matter how many players you crammed in there with him.

Has the modern game ever seen anyone like him? I don't think so. And he's no Beckham-esque celebrity to boot. Sure, we may lose to Liverpool today, but whatever happens, this 700th appearance will be something I doubt you'll ever see another player do for the one and only club they've ever played for, in the city they were brought up. If only he'd not put that Welsh shirt on I'm sure England would have won a major championship with him on the left too...

So here's to a long-lived miracle, and one of the best goals ever scored! FA Cup Replay...against Arsenal... Unbelievably sweet.

Technorati: 700 | Arsenal | Manchester United | Ryan Giggs

A Humanist Jesus?

Interesting post here, via Steven Johnson.

"Paul was wrong. Our faith is not foolish if Jesus is not literally and physically risen from the dead. We know our faith is true, because we know that death has not defeated him. As a humanist, I do not discard the rich legacy and richness of the Christian tradition, rather I claim to be the true heir to the Christian patrimony. Christians embrace a shallower version of Jesus. I know this because I continue to be transformed by Jesus's love and he continues to inspire my humanist faith"

Technorati: Humanism | Steven Johnson

Wireless Crucifix | Transmitting Now...

Great tip via the Moot site - this cheeky electronic crucifix, which transmits the Lord's Prayer in ASCII at 916Mhz to all around. The blurb on the site (affilitated to the wonderfully imagined Interactive Televangelist Program - part of the Faith-Based Electonics Group) is pitched beautifully:

Many people affix crucifixes and other religious iconography to the walls of their homes for metaphysical security. Crucifix NG goes a step further, bathing a physical space in an anointed electromagnetism. The signal is strong enough to fill the average size room, perfect for use at home or at the office, and is received by any object that acts as an antenna....

The power of Crucifix NG is even stronger when one considers that the human body itself is an effective antenna. While we are not tuned to perceive electromagnetic signals at 916 Mhz, our body receives these signals nonetheless. In a gallery context, all people within range of the signal receive the Lord's Prayer, their bodies imbued with an anointed electromagnetism, and it is beyond their ability to accept or reject this transmission. It simply happens to them. And as the transmission is entirely invisible, the only evidence of it is noted on the placard next to the device. Even then, the gallery visitor has no verifiable way of knowing that the signal is being either transmitted or received. After all, it is a faith-based initiative. The battery will eventually run out. And it may not matter.

I'm knocked out with some evil virus at the moment, so could do with a couple of these around the house ;-)

Technorati: Crucifix | Electronics | Interactive Televangelist Program | Religion

The Open Office ¦ Liturgy Share

The Artists Formely Known as Vaux have just launched a project called The Open Office. (Here's one of us at work ;-)

What we're hoping to achieve is simple: an open-source, online space to resource a liturgical rhythm of life. A monastic office... but for the emerging city.

Over the years we've written a whole load of great pieces, and it seemed a shame that they were only really used once. And over the course of this year we are trying to create new pieces for whatever's going on: daily prayer, birthdays, dedications of children... even A Prayer for a Meal on a Tired Evening After a Day of Struggles in the City. A full list of what's there so far is [ here ].

But this is about us; the aim is for as many groups as possible to join and share their resources too. If you'd like to be able to post, leave a comment here or email theopenoffice {at} vaux [dot] net and we'll send you an author invitation. Include the name of your group so we can add a category for you. Then read the posting guidelines and get sharing.

Blog Frustration: Comments and Feeds

I've been using Typepad for a while now, and I think it has really moved on recently. One thing that's been really bugging me though is the lack of work that seems to have been put into comments.

Ok, so there's hardly a huge amount of comments traffic here yet, but the thing that annoys me about Typepad - given that this is meant to be a conversational medium - is that comments aren't readily integrated into these feeds. Nor is there any simple way to do this. Services like Co-comment are great... but not brilliantly serviceable yet. So while people can read posts and do lots of other stuff like add them to Del.icio.us or Digg them, they can't see or make comments unless they go to the site.

What stats I have show that I get a lot of people reading this via my Feedburner feed, which is great. Hello to you all! As Vista approaches and the rest of the world catches up with RSS (see Wired article), I think this is the way most people are going to handle content. The actual site will be visited less and less. So I've been trying to tweak the feed to make it as useful as possible to people. I've added various 'flares' and an option to receive the feed by email.

Anyway, having had a dig around, I found some good hacks on getting comments feeds [ here ] and have thus just published a separate feed for comments from this site [ here ]

How does anyone else get round this? And does anyone else think it's about time Typepad got over the bling thing and did some real work making comments work better?

Technorati: Comments | RSS | Typepad

Eno Interview | 'Evangelical Atheism and Secular Spiritual Places'

Excellent interview with Brian Eno on Front Row today.

Well worth a podcast or download. For one week only.

In reply to a question about his music being 'spiritual' he admits to be being an 'evangelical atheist' but that he is 'jealous of the spiritual experiences the religious have access to.' His recent work seeks to provide 'Secular Spiritual places.'

[Unlucky mate, you were on the Vaux playlist frequently ;-) ]

Technorati: Eno

MacOSaiX...

...is one of those great free bits of Mac software, and if you have a large iPhoto library (or just access to Google Images) you might want to download it and have a play. Very flexible. Very simple. Pick a target image, choose your source image folder(s) and let it get to work.

Technorati: Jesus | mac | MacOSaiX | Mosaic | photography

Before you can love thy neighbour, you've got to meet them first... | Social Networking

Which is where Peuplade comes in. (You can read the BBC's article on it here.)

It's a Parisian social networking site that is helping people to meet their neighbours.  Which is great. Sort of.

Of course it's a positive thing that people are meeting up. But it worries me that it has taken the mediation of a website to do so. The proof of the pudding will, of course, be in the eating: will the site reinvigorate community and neighbourly feeling so effectively that it won't be needed in the future?

I hope so. I am currently reading The Challenges of Ivan Illich - a series of essays by some of Illich's collaborators - and there is a piece there entitled 'Hospitality Cannot be a Challenge' which I think is pertinent...

Google Reader

Nice online RSS feed-management from Google