Time Out of Joint:

"... you followed a star?"

George Stevens 1

George Stevens 2

 

 

As the audacity of Christmastide passes on twelfth night

The final lines of W.H. Auden's For the Time Being ...

 

poetry of place: hallow space

the forgotten children of darfur

^{Matt 24:19"}How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers!"

we've seen this art project before in the balkans but the way children see war is telling. check out this article about the art of war by the children of Darfur . . . who witness the gates of Hades opening before them!

a little backyard magic

 

 

Happy Birthday to an American Treasure

Happy Birthday to Woody Guthrie who was born on this day in 1912.

an American treasure and the third patron saint of far country tell's trinitarian expression. do yourself a favor. become a better human being and listen to some woody guthrie today.

As an introduction i would try out Mermaid Ave and Mermaid Ave Vol. II by Billy Bragg and Wilco. For those of you who want to go the whole way then try Dust Bowl Ballads or This Land is Your Land.

I only hope I can be half the theologian that Woody Guthrie was a musician. Listen to his unpretentious naivete and poetry . . . his connection to the land and to life . . . and the truth in his words.

happy birthday woody.

Adbusters spawns Geez

I'm in the process of responding to Johannes di Silentio. I'm trying to come up with a short essay on what in the hell Dietrich Bonhoeffer has to do with J.R.R. Tolkien.

In the meantime, i came across this news. If anyone is familiar with Adbusters, and their  battle against popular materialism and consumerism, they will know the name Aiden Enns (who also was responsible for the brilliant Buy Nothing Christmas campaign). Geez is a new magazine advertised as an "Alter Call From the Fringes of Faith".

The advise given to Geez by Ched Myers of Bartimeaus is "Have one foot in the church and one outside. And keep your weight on the one outside."

I'm not sure what I think about this yet. I love the idea of crazy Anabaptists and Quakers printing a magazine. I love the idea of a Theological magazine printed with artistic and creative integrity and authenticity  . . . But I'm just not so sure it'll have enough "meat". I'd like to see a couple of Theological advisers listed to maintain some theological integrity.

I don't really like Ched Myer's advise."Have one foot in the church and one outside. And keep your weight on the one outside." This attempt at heretic-lite liminal theology seems to be vogue in the Emergent context but misses the point of authenticity, imagination, and the prophetic voice. The message IS the protest. The message IS authentic. Don't TRY to be a heretic . . . the message is already heretical to the principalities and powers of this world . . . aim for authenticity and imagination!!

This liminal (one foot in the circle one foot out) paradigm is fraught with problems and driven by the hope of progress ( a Hegelian idea that stumbled through the quagmire of the 20th century).

I don't know. Check out some sample articles and make up your mind:Opportunism or an Ernest attempt to make a difference: what do you think?

thanks to Relapsed Catholic on this post . . .

ah, to see the world differently

What does theology and art look like when it comes together in the 21st century? What does 21st century "evangelism" look like when informed by theology and imagination? We'll the best example I have isn't from a church. Last Sunday I heard this amazing piece from Ira Glass on "This American Life" (NPR).

An improve theater group which carries out missions in public spaces. they reveal wonder, mystery and enchantment in common spaces . . .

Check out the story at the NPR link and check out the improve groups link then imagine . . . just imagine what "evangelism" would look like --not as a sidewalk rant, not as a house to house canvasing, not as a harbinger of fire and brimstone, but

as crisis to an inattentive world and to enchanters casting spells on the weary and mundane . . .

NPR: check out "Last Week's Show" entitled "mind games". http://www.thislife.org/

http://www.improveverywhere.com/

more to come on this . . .

10:35 Monday morning (the doors to the Sistine Chapel have just closed)

More thoughts on this post:

texture of the real

one of my favorite pics from edinburgh. plant, light, wall. something numinous breaks through . . .

Sehnsucht and Restoration Pt. 2

We are separated from reality. What we experience daily is not the real but a social distortion. We are restless beings who long for the restoration of the real.

To C.S. Lewis the "spell" of the gospel narrative is that it produces this yearning --we are literally enchanted by the good, the just, the righteous . . . we are enchanted by the numinous.

C.S. Lewis recalls several important transformative moments in his life when he felt this yearning. A yearning that came through narrative. Lewis felt that there are moments in narrative when one is touched by something other.

Touched by what? Sehnsucht.

An encounter with the Numinous, with the divine that produces a longing to return to what is lost. These are in-breakings of the kingdom of god . . . in-breakings of the eternal, in-breakings of the really real. These moments are tastes of a reality abandoned by a fallen world. We encounter these eternal numinous moments in and through the finite.

Bonhoeffer says that the only real reality is that of God in the world. But what is it like to encounter God in the world? What is the texture of this experience? Lewis would point to this yearning, this longing. Sehnsucht.

These moments simultaneously refresh us --with the good, the just, the righteous-- and frustrate us. We experience the already and not yet of the finite encounter with the divine. We are called to participate in the reality of the divine here and now and yet we wait for the culmination of things. The new heaven and the new earth. We are called to remember the future!

Our task is to excavate the trace of God and help the world turn the corner and live into the reality revealed by God.

In the Judeo-Christian tradition the Sabbath acts as a weekly reminder of this reality. A rehearsal of the future in the here and now. A day where time stands still and eternity breaks into the present.

We are called to rebuild. we are called to bring restoration. NOT PROGRESS . . . which is a myth, but a restoration of the reality of God in and through the world.

Chaos and Primeval History

Working through my translations of Genesis chapter 1 and 2 as of late. Incredible material. There is a story of the Rabbi's who were debating why Genesis begins with a Bet (B) rather than an Aleph (A)? It only makes sense that the holy scriptures which contain the thoughts and secrets of God begin properly --at the beginning-- with (A)leph.

But the wisdom of the Rabbi's came to a different conclusion. Genesis begins with a (B)et to remind us that we can study the scriptures from cover to cover and still not know the first thing about it.

The topic of CHAOS has peaked my interest. Specifically "Chaos vs. Order" and the Creativity of God found in/and birthing from Chaos. Question: How does Chaos relate to our own creativity in the service of the Kingdom of God?

In what ways are we called to reveal the order of the kingdom in the Chaos of the world? In many way's imagination and creativity is a form of enchantment. As a matter of fact JRR Tolkien believed that there are two forms of "magic" in the world. The first form of magic (goeteia) is power driven. It stands to dominate, control, manipulate, and destroy the created order of God.

The other form of "magic" (magia) he called Enchantment. This was the power wielded by the Elves and gifted of Middle-Earth. Enchantment only stands to disclose the true created order of God in Middle-Earth. It is used to serve, heal and restore.

We really only see Gandalf the Wizard use/reveal/disclose his power twice in The Lord of The Rings. The first time is when he stands to challenge the power of the Balrog (the demon of the under world) at the bridge of Khazad-Dum. " I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass." The other time we see this power revealed is in defense of Faramir's force in retreat from Osgiliath. With a burst of light from his staff, Gandalf drives back the attacking Nazgul.

Why do I bother to give these examples? Because here we see an example of enchantment used to correct, heal, restore the ordered creation of God. We see the creative actions of Gandalf used to confront evil. Tolkien also saw the role of the imagination, creativity and art in the same way.

Tolkien calls us "sub-creators" but I think this term is theologically faulty. God does not "sub-contract" to his creation. God draws us into participation with God. This is what I call poiesies or a "poetic-partnership". Like Gandalf, we are called to reveal the reality of God's creation in the midst of chaos. We are called to participate with God in the ministry of reconciliation of the world back to God.

Apart from God chaos may overtake and destroy. However, God takes chaos and brings order from it. Like Melkor's attempt (in Tolkien's Silmarillion) to sing an off key in God's symphony. Chaos is an attempt disrupt God's creation. But God takes the chaos and turns it into something never before imagined.

This is our call that begins . . . but is never completely answered in Genesis chapter one. Chaos in the Primeval History of creation.