nevermind the bricolage

The Language of Dissent...RIP

Belgian theologian Edward Schillebeeckx slipped the mortal coil on December 23 at age 95-not a bad innings. While probably unfamiliar to many people, Schillebeeckx, a Catholic, who taught for many years at the University of Nijmegen in Holland, was very influential. He was brought in for questioning about his orthodoxy quite a few times by his Catholic Superiors over the years. Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the time criticized his Christology, apparently Schillebeeckx did not view the Resurrection as an objective act of faith. He was finally condemned in 1986 for his views on the sacramental nature of church offices, which were apparently not considered to be up to scratch with the conventional views, probably true, but that is what made his thoughts so compelling. Many argue that the revival of eucharistic practices in many Protestant churches is because of the contribution of this man's theological thinking. He was an early proponent of a more democratized, and less hierarchical, church, something else that got him into trouble with the powers that be. I have said a number of times that there is a rich vein of theological exploration to be had amongst a variety of global Catholic theologians--the strange synchronicity of an outwardly monolithic and rigid church that seems to birth iconoclastic thinkers and practitioners (Boff, Romero, Gutierrez, Haight, Fox, Caputo, Nouwen, Vattimo etc.). If you are still involved in the church game in some form, his works would be of considerable help in coming to terms with the complexities of faith, the challenges of authority, power and structure, and the ways in which a sacramental view of things makes space for dissent--a must-have commodity in any healthy environment. RIP.

John's Head

This cheery tale is the subject of this week's lectionary gospel reading.
"John's disciples came and took his body and buried              
   it. Then they told Jesus." (Matt. 14:12)                         

   We told him the story as we ourselves had heard:                 
   big party at the palace, music, wine,                            
   Herod's niece gets up to dance ... and she's beautiful,          
   wearing a gown thin as web, rattling                             
   a tambourine above her head. The King's face is                  
   bright red from drinking, but his eyes follow every move.        

   She finishes, and there's nothing he wouldn't give her.          
   She turns down jewelry, wants John's head on a platter.          

   We tried to tell Jesus what it's like at the palace,             
   how a King's word is binding, how the guests demand it;          
   but some said Herod didn't have to do it,                        
   and others said there'd been no prophecy.                        

   Then Jesus asked the strangest thing:                            
   "Where is John's head?"                                          

   We didn't know, and how should we answer?                        
   We'd all heard him speak to the crowds                           
   in parables. Did he mean John's head                             
   as in John's head? Or did he mean                                
   John's head as in John's leader? In that case                    
   we might have said, "You, Lord."                                 
   But maybe he meant the place                                     
   John's thoughts came nearest to, and                             
   the answer would be simple: "Heaven."  ...
Thom Sletterlee, poet.

The Wound

"God enters through the wound," said C.J. Jung, back in the day. I was reminded of this thought from one of the masters of modern psychology when I read something in Pete Rollins latest book, The Fidelity of Betrayal( a must-read as far as I am concerned). Speaking about the Bible, literalism, interpretation, and a host of other bible-related things, Pete writes, "The words of the text, like Christ, are wounded." I thought this was a phenonmenal way of characterizing both an approach to, and an understanding of, the biblical text.

Snake in the Room

"The text itself places us into various situations where the God we read about is one whom we must question, not out of our weakness and selfishness but rather from out of the very depths of our faith." This quote is from Pete Rollins' fab new book, The Fidelity of Betrayal, which follows in the footsteps of a number of people I greatly admire who are attempting to get at religionless Christianity from one direction or another. Pete uses the lens of betrayal, and starts with Judas, but then digs deeper into the biblical text and goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden stories to lay a foundation for an entirely other way of looking at God, Bible, Church, Faith etc. I mention this only because we experienced Pete's quote in class this week. A talk about technology in general, turned into a talk about technology and music and then suddenly turned into a talk about technology and God, and led us into some pretty rocky terrain, that proved quite difficult for some, if not all of us, in class. Messing with perceptions of God can be very difficult for some people

MLK

Martin Luther King was the focus of noonday prayer today. "I have a dream..." not, "I have a strategy, or a ten-point plan, or five steps to this or that, a dream." Have been thinking a lot about dreams lately. It emerged particularly over Christmas when I discussed the role that dreams play in the birth narratives of Jesus. If people hadn't responded to those dreams, it would have all played out very differently. Yesterday I was talking to a theology student about the subconscious/unconscious mind and the role that it plays in the emergence of faith/religion/god. Christianity has generally synched itself with the rational mind, which is seldom the language of dreams. I have a friend who is going to Brazil on a spiritual journey and taking part in an ayahuasca ceremony once he gets there, that falls into the realm of the non-rational I think!!! Dream today.

All Theology Is Personal

The LA Times has a weekly section, well page, called Belief, that offers a look at some aspect of religion in society. This week they simply had three small articles, none of them particularly related to the other. The first was about youth culture's interest in spirituality and its pretty general abandonment of any kind of regular attendance at formal worship events. The third article focused on the meaning of Epiphany through the eyes of the rector of St. John's Cathedral. But it was the middle article that caught my attention. It was about a little fracas, well, a charge filed against one church by another, in an attempt to prevent a same-sex blessing from happening. I was taken by a comment made by the minister who attempted to stop the blessing. He said

Pavement Cracks and Postmodern Theology

We wrapped up the Postmodern Theology, Film and Youth Culture class this week. I ended with a little reflection on the Tate's latest installation, Doris Salcedo's, Shibboleth and its intersection with the present condition. Salcedo says that her piece addresses racism, the 500'+ crack in the museum's floor representing the divide between Europeans and the rest of the world.

Tom Ford

One of my favourite things this term has been a directed reading with three women students. We have been exploring the body and theology, each of them focusing on a specific issue of the body and its intersection with theology and culture. We have spent the last couple of weeks talking about Umberto Eco's work, On Beauty, which traces the way in which beauty is portrayed, presented, and idealized in society. The idealization of the female form and the challenges this presents has been a major topic, as has the ongoing sexualization and objectification of the body in culture, particularly in advertising. So Tom Ford's latest ad campaign for his new men's fragrance took on special significance when I came across it in a recent U.K. edition of GQ. Ford has used sex an awful lot in his career, following a provocative trail blazed particularly by Calvin Klein, whose ads have been known to cause a scandal or two in the past.

Body Talk

I've been doing a directed reading with three very bright and courageous women at Fuller. Each of them is studying a specific element of body theology--one is exploring the work of artist Tim Hawkinson as a lens to explore attitudes towards the 'unseemly' parts perhaps, another is exploring the role that design plays in cultural responses and desires related to physicality, and the third member of the group is looking at the larger issues of gender and identity as they play out against culture and theology. It is really a great group and I am enjoying the exploration and the conversation. The group is fairly flexible and at present just beginning the reading--I think some good stuff will come out of this. I have already sketched out a theology and body syllabus, which I think I'll pitch to the powers that be.
        We also had a pretty good conversation

Sci-fi Theology

"Most new theology these days is being done by science fiction authors. The re-imagined TV series Battleship Galactica is just one fine example of science fiction tackling religious questions seriously."
So declares Kevin Kelly on his semi-blog, The Technium. That movies and television are tackling philosophical and religious issues is without question as far as I am concerned. I was taken by this comment particularly because of the class I am teaching on Film, Pomo Theology and Youth Culture. I think it is quite difficult for some of the students to grasp that there is theology being done in the films we are watching. All too often the language, or the visuals, or both, cloud their rather boundaried view of how and what theology is.