postmodernbible

Christian New Media Conference - you are booked in, aren't you? #codec #refract #cnmac10

Saturday, 16 October 2010

9:30am to 5pm
City University London

As Christians we have a duty to be salt and light in the digital world. So why not spend a day with expert practitioners as they share with you the skills and knowledge you need to know to make an impact online.

The conference is made up of main sessions covering topics of interest to everyone and break-out seminars focussing on specific subjects, including a dedicated stream entitled 'A Theological Refraction on the Internet'.

The conference is suitable for all levels of experience.  Whatever your new media questions, we're sure this conference will provide the answers.  Seminars are as follows:

	ACTION	CONTENT	KNOWLEDGE	THEOLOGY
1st Breakout choose from:	Making the Most of Email in a Local Church	Writing great content	Introduction to the Digital Environment	Homo Connectivus 1
2nd Breakout choose from:	How to do digital mission	Getting the most out of Facebook & Twitter	Get the website you need & want	Homo Connectivus 2
3rd Breakout choose from:	Reaching young people through New Media	How to get Podcasting	Getting people to find your site	Short Papers 1
4th Breakout choose from:	Fundraising Online	How to make and distribute a Viral Video	New Media Legal Master Class	Short Papers 2

For full conference agenda and bookings click here.

We are pleased to announce that the Early Bird Booking discount has been extended so, so be sure to book your tickets at only £25.00 each as places are strictly limited!

Sponsored by...

via email.premierchristianmedia.co.uk

Guest Voices: What matters more than biblical literacy? - On Faith at washingtonpost.com #bigbible #biblefresh

The only cure for biblical illiteracy is to move from being a Bible owner to a Bible reader and dive into the most-translated, best-selling book of all time.

via onfaith.washingtonpost.com

More reaction in the States to Pew Forum's recent survey (see below). Here America's Bible Society President, Lamar Vest, argues that Biblical Illiteracy is caused by complancency rather than ignorance. It's a really really good point.

We have lots of Bibles. But we don't think we need to read them and so familiarity breeds neglect if not contempt. The only way to improve Biblical Literacy is to get people back into the text! Read your own Bible - stop leaving it to the holy joes!

Pete

BBC News - 'Jesus' Easter egg launched in UK #churchofengland #fairtrade

via bbc.co.uk

Well, well, well...

I did a piece on attitudes to Easter for the BBC last Easter (see the blog post and link to the BBC film clip http://bit.ly/aKWd2M). So quite pleased that the Jesus story will be associated with Easter. Would be good if it could get into the supermarkets rather than be left to the Church Schools.

Intriguing...

Pete

Conference on Biblical Literacy with 2011 Trust - centred on KJV - #biblefresh

via shef.ac.uk

An interesting conference here at the end of May 2011 looking at the role of Biblical Literacy in the Curriculum. The project - a conference and an exhibition - is funded by the Knowledge Transfer Programme and is looking especially at the impact of the KJV on society. The key people behind the project are Prof Hugh Pyper and Dr James Crossley. The project is being co-ordinated by a doctoral student at Sheffield, Iona Hine. Interesting both Hugh Pyper and Iona Hine were former school teachers. It will be an interesting conference for educationalists, sociologists, theologians.

It's academic to be sure and I am not too sure that there will be much emphasis on the devotional use of scripture.

Pete

Bishop appoints cathedral's first ecumenical canons - Yorkshire Post (via @MethodistMedia)

via yorkshirepost.co.uk

Interesting appointment of Methodist Church General Secretary Rev Dr Martyn Atkins as an ecumenical canon of Sheffield Cathedral (although Martyn actually lives in Chesterfield in the Derby Diocese and works in London!). This is an intriguing development in the use of greater freedoms which the Church of England already has at their disposal. It may be that the potential for breaking the ecumenical roadblocks between greater integration between the Church of England and its sister churches may already be contained within the Ecumenical Canons (no not people, church laws) already part of Church Law.

Pete

Black Coffee Reflections » Thoughts on Scripture from NT Wright’s The Last Word – Post 1 – You Should Read It » There are some who call me Tim…

Primary Audience – my local church
Secondary – Anyone interested in reading/applying Scripture and reading books regarding it and anyone interested in the work of NT Wright

If you know me personally, you may have heard me talk about how you should be reading NT Wright. If you are an easy sell, I would start with The Last Word. For us evangelicals, a lot rises and falls on our view of Scripture. When reading Wright, the questions concerning his position on Scripture always surface so it makes a bit of sense to begin here. Further, I did not read them in this order and I wish I did.
Wright begins The Last Word by discoursing on thoughts regarding modernity and post-modernity. Wisely, he does not build his case around either but instead aims to offer “a way through this entire mess and middle and forward into a way of living in and for God’s world, and within the community of God’s people, with Christian and biblical integrity” (p. 10).
He is annoyed with the shallow level of debate often depicted in name calling, “fundamentalist” and “radical” and I too share too his frustration with how both sides, conservative and liberal, and the many sides in between try to undermine each other. One position assumes the other has hidden motives or does not love God as much as they do. One side will use the motto, “It must be Biblical” or “The Bible says” and assume that the other side is not committed to that end. One will ignore millennia of tradition, a plethora of the voices of the church fathers, new voices, and reduce the argument to a place that does not acknowledge that one is using a hermeneutic (a method of interpretation).
For instance, the popular term “the Bible says” is a difficult one because everyone believes the Bible is saying something – in fact, we/they believe it’s saying what we/they are saying, otherwise we/they wouldn’t be saying it. Most of these heated debates are anchored to a commitment of Scripture, rooted in a deep love for Christ, and determined to be living in the Spirit that pleases the Father. The problem is that we like to assume that those who differ from us fall short to our piety and devotion to the Lord.
I am among the many who have ceased in using the term in hopes that the person I am in conversation with is also committed to the integrity of Scripture. Perhaps if we commit to the seeing the perspective of “the other”, we can know and experience the deeper truths contained in our Scripture. This is I find to be both difficult and exciting.
More so, I cannot help but apply that to the evangelical reaction towards Wright himself. We are very suspicious of any thought produced from any mainline, charismatic, high church, Orthodox or Catholic church. This post is not an argument from ecumenicalism but perhaps an encouragement to extend grace towards those in different traditions that interpret the Scriptures differently than we do. I know many evangelicals love the Scriptures but it is impossible for me to concede that we love it the most when we account for our collective biblical literacy or even the simple act of bringing a Bible to our corporate worship services. This is not chastisement, and I am not ashamed to be an evangelical, I just want to be a Christ-follower that has not deluded himself into self-righteousness (and would appreciate those within ours and other traditions to do the same).
I hope you consider reading The Last Word - It’s a great read. You can pick it up from Amazon here.

via blackcoffeereflections.com

Tom's books making a splash as usual - good post here on his 2006 classic.

Tom's book on Matthew for Lent will be the focus of our housegroup Lent series at http://bigbible.org.uk - although will a distinct social media spin for those who are geared that way!

Pete

Encouraging Biblical Literacy in Children’s Ministry | What's In The Bible #biblefresh #bigbible

via whatsinthebible.com

I saw this on google the other day amidst a discussion about children's biblical literacy - something which #biblefresh is still getting to terms with. Veggie Tales was so well received (and continues to be so) although I never managed to get over the cultural hurdle to understand it. So here is a new resource - 13 DVD series to take you through the Bible from start to finish with the aid of puppets. Great!

Pete

U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey - Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

via pewforum.org

A rather breath-taking piece of research here from The Pew Forum. I'm going to be taking a look at the full report and seeing how it matches with our findings about Biblical Literacy in the UK. I do wonder how this would pan out in the UK - I wonder whether we could do a UK version?

Pete

A reminder of CODEC's Biblical Literacy Survey 2009 #bigbible #biblefresh

via pmphillips.posterous.com

I've put the briefing sheet up on as a post on my 'posterous' account - follow the link to the site and click on the banner heading near the top of the page.

Pete

What's the Story?

Now there’s a question for a supposed educator to ask! What’s more is that the teaching I am here to do is primarily intended for those who in one forum or another will teach others.

In light of the report released over the weekend, it seems that American public education is not doing well against the rest of the developed world, as our students scored 17th in math and 24th in science. What’s not reflected, however, is that statistics for the U. S. schools include all students, while in some of the other nations in the survey, only the top students go to the schools which are included in the measurement. But that’s not my concern here.

I wonder if the biblical literacy of American Christians would fare much better when placed against Christians in other parts of the world if measured statistically (somehow). What would such a testing instrument consist of? Biblical knowledge? Number of passages memorized? Proper chronological placement of the names and events in biblical history? Familiarity with the Articles of Faith/catechism of a given denomination? What value these possess is only instrumental; it is valuable only insofar as it serves a greater purpose. But what is that purpose? Once that is answered, is Christian education/educational ministry/spiritual formation as currently practiced the most effective means of fulfilling that purpose?

I suspect we have been influenced by the assumption that knowledge magically becomes appropriate activity. Our job is to give the facts, the use of which will take care of itself. It’s the assumption that comes with the modern western mindset, which told us for a couple of generations that education was the key to all solutions needed in our culture. While some of the technological advancements have indeed enhanced our lives in many areas, the social issues remain as intractable as ever. We haven’t succeeded in reducing such things to scientific analysis and solution. Nor has the church consistently succeeded in turning Sunday Schools, Christian schools, home schools, Christian colleges (and seminaries) into training grounds for the kinds of spiritual problem-solving our broken world needs.

As with pubic education, there are other factors than what happens in the school itself which may decisively impact the success of the educational experience. Familial, communal, and cultural influences are often far too strong to be countered by what teachers attempt to do. sometimes those factors find their way into the school system itself, such as when collectives of workers at all levels take greater concern for their status than for the education of children, syphoning limited funds from their main purpose.

My question today is about that which limits the effectiveness of our attempts at training Christians. Is it the same as above, or is it more than that? Do we need an entirely different way, a modification of the current models, or a removal of those outside factors to the extent possible, continuing then with business as usual? How should we teach the faith? Is it even possible to do so? Let’s think about this together.

via theostory.wordpress.com

Intrigued by this blogpost and the comments (extensive) below it. A good conversation to have. Of course, Dale Martin has written on this (Pedagogy of the Bible) and the limitations of US-based seminary and theological education. Here in the UK we did the National Biblical Literacy Survey in 2009 and Ill re-post the briefing sheet on our results of that.

I think we can measure Biblical Literacy, not in terms of knowledge but in terms of social penetration. How deep into our culture does the Bible get? Of course, Western culture has traditionally been steeped in the Bible and as such our culture(s) are richly biblical. The challenge will be in maintaining this richness - since we are becoming less and less biblical, it is likely that more and more of our culture will seem pointless and arcane to future generations. It's one of the key jobs of the church to re-tell the stories and re-create the social biblical imaginary.

Pete