postmodernbible

Shrek 2

Saturday - we did it - we got to see Shrek 2. Went as a family - nice surprise for the kids although they are being so argumentative and sulky at the moment - don't know where they get it from - I am never ever ever argumentative or sulky!

Having been so disheartened by Day After, I was worried about coming out of the cinema again so down! No worries. Shrek 2 is fantastic. Probably better than Shrek 1 if that was possible. A great rollercoaster ride of fun. It is interesting how they have fitted everyone in and how the story runs so well at different levels. Of course, the fun is to watch for the little things - keep an eye on the three blind mice - Pinocchio in the thong, and watch for the shop signs on Far Far Away's Sunset Boulevard - even Tower Records makes an appearance - and Versarchery!!!!

Great fun...and don't rush out at the end...there is a cameo at the end of the titles!

Pete

I wanna go again!!!

p.s. I AM going to post tomorrow on some postmodern stuff...honest...got some stuff on Eco and Hutcheon I want to blog about...

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW

OK...went to see it...o dear.

You see we have this real issue with global warming...and yet this film just takes that issue and sensationalises the whole thing. Ice Age in a week - such a capitalist thing to do - I mean drive through restaurants, drive through marriages, drive through ice ages! We can't wait for anything these days - I want an ice age and I want it NOW!!!

I just wonder whether this film actually damages the cause - by making it all so fanciful and so Northern Hemisphere and so American-centred - three supercellss over North America, Northern Europe and Siberia drawing down supercooled air from the troposhere - the film simply pnaders to the old Amercia-centred thing of Hollywood. What happened in New Zealand or South Africa, or Australia - you never even get to see the southern hemisphere in the much vaunted satellite shots. What about Northern Europe - how about the loss of life in Moscow and St Petersburg or in Peking or Seoul? What happens to Canada?

The classic line for me - and the moment I gave up on the film and almost did a rant in the cinema (!) - was the news bulletin about Mexico allowing US refugees across the border - the President clinched the deal by agreeing to waive all Latin American debt. As if... As if that would ever happen! As if he had that bargaining chip with over 2/3rds of the States under ice with no chance of resurrecting the US economy. So the only way we are going to get justice for the poor is by the next Ice Age arriving next week. Great!

Let justice flow like rivers and like a never failing stream...

Pete

Cathedrals...

Had a great chat with Michael Sadgrove the Dean of Durham Cathedral. He came down to College as an external examiner for one of our courses. On the way back into Sheffield we had a chat about his role in the fall of NOS and his own sadness about how the experiment failed. We then moved onto emerging church issues and especially the role of Cathedrals but via a few comments on how so many emerging churches tend to be for dechurched rather than the unchurched. I talked about my own conviction that household church (cell) was the model for the future with an element of community and celebration needed on top of this. We were both agreed that Cathedrals could provide a good basis for community-wide celebration. Had a great chat last week with Ben Edson of Manchester's Sanctus One project. Great bloke.

Michael and I also talked about thresholds. This was part of my thesis on John's Gospel - how high is the threshold which the reader needs to cross before they can understand the Gospel from the Johannine perspective. I argue that of all the Gospels John has superficially the lowest threshold - in fact it is perhaps the highest once you understand the Gospel in John's terms...but that's not part of the discussion I had with Michael. Our threshold discussion talked about the way in which evangelicals have sought to lower the threshold - our churches have become seeker-friendly and customer-orientated. Note the emphasis in Liquid Church to follow the patterns of the surrounding culture and morph Christianity to suit culture. Michael and I had a different take - surely it's not so much about similarity with culture but rather different from culture. Why become a Christian if Christianity is the same as being English? If we format church in the same terms as Western Society - consumer orintentated, wealthy, anti-justice, choice-mad - then we have actually robbed the Gospel of its truth.

In fact, some of the major growth areas of Christianity follow the low threshold approach - big evangelical mega-churches. Bring down the threshold, big up the social advantages of being a Christian and throw in a good dose of prosperity doctrine along with lots of multimedia and lots of security given through directive preaching and pastoral support. Just the ticket for an uneasy world - dependancy Christianity, where people are dependant not on God but on the Church-system. Even in the Two-Thirds World, where Christianity is growing fastest, I would hazard a guess that this is the form of Christianity which is growing the most.

However, for the two-thirds world, that is a huge threshold. For my students from Gambia and Ghana and Nigeria and Pakistan and India, the price they pay for being a Christian is massive. They are stigmatised by their communities and to adopt Christ is to die to the world. How is this borne out in UK Christianity? How, by going to Soul Survivor or to one of the megachurches, do I die to post-Thatcherite, Blairite, media-frenzied, wealth-sickened, bloated Englishness? By becoming part of the Church do I have to actually make any cultural stance other than maintaining where I am - perhaps even improving where I am?

The alternative is the high threshold community. Note Islam provides just that alternative - a religion of purity rituals, a new language, a new way of life. And Islam is growing in this country much more than Christianity. Islam has not lowered its thresholds to make itself more popular and with easier access. In fact with the wars and so on, it may even be harder to become a muslim. But that is not stopping people doing it. Of course, some of this may be orientalism - the seeking for the exotic...but is that all there is here?

Also, note some of the stuff we have been saying on the blogs about the pilgrimage to Santiago di Compestela - how many thousands of young people doing that walk this summer - 70,000! No low threshold here. No caving into the capitalist agenda of being at work and getting your 60 hour week done! Taking time out to be with God and with friends. High threshold and high numbers. Think of the popularity of Taize (and to a lesser extent Iona and my beloved Lindisfarne). Again high thresholds - Latin songs, chants not Matt Redman's latest! A monastic community centred on service, and the (young) people flood in.

Michael and I shared some of this discussion. In the end what we focussed on was transcendence. What form of Church actually finds the numinous of God - the otherness, the transcendence. Surely Church is about being the gateway of heaven and worship in its many and varied forms needs to be the same. Gateways are thresholds...perhaps we need to ask more what thresholds we offer.

Pete

Work...do I go or do I stay?

every now and then I get that itchy feet feeling. you know, the shall I stick it out here or is it time to move on. I had a chat with my PhD supervisor the other day and she took my PhD thesis off to show to some publishers. She thinks it needs to get into print. But she said I needed to get some comments clipped from the externals reports and I just haven't had a moment to do it...all students and marking and students and management stuff here at the college and people to interview and sad telephone calls to make to unsuccessful candidates.

there's a position at Drew being advertised...looks interesting and working with Stephen Moore who I know vaguely from when he was in Sheffield. But then, I know God wants me here. But at the moment being here means about 65 hour weeks. One of my colleagues has just gone on sick with burnout and that just ends up with more of the muck flying my way! So why does God want me here. What kind of a God do I believe in?

Anyway, fancy hearing some snippets I might choose - of course they're not going to be bad ones - so it'll make me feel good!

"The dissertation makes an orginal and valuable contribution to Johannine Studies because of its quality and depth of analysis and because it develops an orginal methodological approach which casts new light on the Prologue"

"The candidate's interpretation of the Prologue in Chapter 6, in which he examines a number of exegetical issues (especially grammar and syntax) and draws upon a variety of methodological tools, is particularly illuminating, since it offers many fresh insights into the function of this important biblical passage"

"Throughout the dissertation, the candidate engages confidently and critically with relevant secondary literature, and a wealth of bibliographical information appears in the footnotes."

"Among the contributions of the thesis is that it has a more reflected and theoretically sound view on intertextuality than many works in biblical studies today."

Well, some views of the thing...

Of for the days of peace when I can get back to my research...do you think there is a research library in heaven?

Pete

Well, you can't beat a nice trip to London can you. Had a great day at the HQ of CTBI yesterday somewhere near Blackfriars Bridge, discussing a new course the College is going to be setting up with them about enabling mission. Great ideas - loads of community issues and ecumenical buzz...really exciting.

I then went round the corner to the Tate Modern and had a few minutes exploring the new head to head exhibit in the Turbine Hall...wow! Loads of heads from 16th-21st century and from lots of different cultures. Amazing stuff. Worth a peek if you are around!

My favourite head was of Osbert Sitwell - done in brass - really shiny and gold...it seemed to radiate a kind of art nouveau kind of attitude - the heair lines so precise and his eyes two blank voids. You could almost see yourself reflected in his skin...weird. I seemed so mesmerising...and all at a kind of slant, one sided, skewed. It seemed so right for today not for when it was actually made. I wanted to get a really close up picture of it but apparently you're not allowed to take pictures of the exhibit - blah! Found this pic of the web but it doesn't do it justice at all - just looks alike C3PO on a bad day here!

I then pootled off to the Thistle Victoria to have tea with my friend Jim Partridge from Spring Harvest in the Grosvenor Lounge. Jim is a great guy and if you don't know him, you should. We had a great time chatting about life, the universe and everything. We moved onto a chat about where leadership is in the church today. I mean yes there is the boring old farts like me (I'm 37 and old already!) but where are the teens and the twentysomethings. Where is the creative dynamic people coming through? Have we so stifled the yoof that there are no leaders there.

I know their must be loads of them...but...well...

Victoria Thistle is a great place to meet - relatively cheap tea room just to the right of the main entrance, really comfortable with lots of posh people trying to look posh! And there were me and Jim in our jeans! Ha! Ha! Ha! I had a lovely cup of Earl Grey - beats Starbucks anyday and probably pay their staff better too!

Simon Barrow from CTBI told a great joke from Bartlett in West Wing - apparently he was watching Series 6 the night before with the TV Critic people he stays with while he is working in London (Jammy Git!!!):

A pessimist is someone who says "Things can't get any worse!"
An optimist is someone who says "Oh yes it can!"

On the tube I heard a great conversation - two young people talking about faith...the young lad was talking about being a muslim...it's the only true religion...it takes in Christianity and all that...there is only one God and he has no fathers or sons...She was his girlfriend or at least he wanted her to be...No I believe in Jesus...I'm a Catholic...Father, Jesus and Mary...No, he replies, your wrong and one day you will see...It's not about going to Church - believe and obey, do as Allah and his Prophet tell you...No, I believe in Jesus, he loves me. [at this point I am wanting to jump up and scream Hallelujah, I wanted angels to descend from the roof of the train and the lights to go all misty and harps to play!]...You are so wrong...he goes silent for ages...then comes in again closer and touches her leg, soothes her, you want the quiet stuff, you want the loving, you want the peace...yes I do...you believe and we can have that...No, look don't you see, I believe what I believe, you believe what you believe, leave it at that.

Jesus said that whoever acknowledges him in public, he will acknowledge them before his father in heaven. I don't know where that lass stands before the Lord, but I reckon it will be well in front of me! And I pray that the lad is there with her!

Don't you just love this postmodern world...and its 'renaissing' love affair with the spirit.

Gotta go...

Pete

Big Brother and a trip to London!

Big Brother - the official BigBrother UK website from Channel 4

I have succumbed. I am now watching this drivel. I mean how ironic can you get. They determine that this is going to be Evil Big Brother and so they fill the house with a whole assortment of idiots who would mix well in a Vaudeville House of Horrors. Poor Stuart - he seems to be the only sane one in there - perhaps he is actually a Werewolf like Professor Lupin.

Some excellent stuff coming out about community rules and identity. But the rubbish you have to watch to get one little bit of good is amazing...

Praying it gets better!

Does this mean I am now officially sad?

Coming down to London for a meeting on Wednesday - Churches Together crowd and then meeting my good friend Jim Partidge at the Thistle in Victoria for Afternoon Tea (!!!) and a good old chat/mentoring session. Anyone know of anything I should make sure I see while I am in the smoke and before I catch the late train back...anyone fancy a drink and chat?

Pete

The Official Harry Potter Website

The Official Harry Potter Website

We went to see it on Saturday afternoon - finally. Having been working about 16 hours a day for the previous week on our Festival, I was absolutely knackered. I thought it would be a good time out with the kids. Well, they enjoyed it. But I was disappointed - where was the magic, the sense of adventure, the high and low points. It was all a bit of dreary b-horror suspense kind of stuff. How boring is the next one going to be...