postmodernbible

Human Skin as a Touch-Screen Interface (via @lukerobertmason at Warwick Uni and @annlytical)

via circuitstoday.com

This is a very interesting article. A number of people have talked about adapting technology to create a form of skin input device and here are the first two ideas. Not sure either of them are the killer application yet but they are on the way. Throw away the handset and embed the technology in your own body. Next they'll be talking about contact lenses as screens...oh, they did already? Very interesting given my upcoming paper on Haptic Theology and the conference in Graz...

http://pmphillips.posterous.com/human-skin-as-a-touch-screen-interface-via-lu

Review: Homemade Worship by @rendcollective #unexpected

I've been hearing lots of great things about the RendCollective and so saw that their latest album was available on iTunes and succumbed to the 'buy now' impulse. 

I was excited to have to potter home listening to the album on my new headphones.  What was I expecting - well, some angst ridden postmodern folky music with real depth and passion. Not sure where I got that idea from.  Certainly I thought it would be closer to Mumford and Sons or Elbow. Perhaps with a dash of Coldplay or Owl City in there somewhere.  Someone told me afterwards that it is Celtic Rock. Ah right, well, perhaps.

Instead I found it was a tad different. Some of the tracks are inspiringly brilliant and I sum up these at the end. Perhaps I am just in that kind of a mood but they tend to be the more contemplative and Celtic songs. There are others which I don't like and that may be that they are just too contemporary. But I like a lot of contemporary music. I even like Glee and can laugh during Eurovision. But I'd have to confess some of these toonz made me think more of Eurovision than of Mumford and Sons. That was a sad surprise. But other people will love the live happening beat.

Thanks for the richness of 'Alabaster' though - truly wonderful. Saved the image and story from Gaganess. (Let the reader understand!)

These are my views - tons of other people are giving it five stars!  So read other reviews too! 

The album opens with a jaunty number called Praise like fireworks.  I have to say this is more Glee than Mumford and Sons with backing vocals and 'yeah' flourishes. It's a foot-tapper. Some strange lyrics ('my concrete heart') and somewhat run of the mill cadences. I felt like a grumpy old git by the end of this - not sure I would want to sing this in Church on Sunday - glib, self-certain, shallow both musically and, I'm afraid, theologically. 3/10

The next song is the RendCollective's version of Be Thou my Vision - using some modern version which doesn't really fit into the rhythm of the song too well in places - listen particularly for "You are my battle---------shield, sword for the fight". More chronic crooning backing vocals. It's a kind of speeded up version of the usual melody, I suppose and is singable but I found it lacked depth and passion for such a historic hymn. 3/10

Then comes the drum machine and 'ohohohohohoh'. There's more feel to this song and I suppose it feels more contemporary than the previous songs on the album. I spent some time exploring what the lyrics were - I think it is 'I've counted up the cost', but I thought for the first few times of listening that it was 'I've conjured up the cost' and wondered whether it was a literary reference to CS Lewis and Old Magic or an attempt to bring in Harry Potter Theology. Sadly not - just my poor hearing skills! But I have to say that the 'ohohohohohoh' thing in the background it sooooooo annoying.  Now, the CODA is a different thing altogether - a piece of sublime beauty! Wish the whole song had been delivered in that style. 4/10 (CODA 10/10)

'Second Chance' picks up the quieter strains of The Cost with vocal and guitar.  This is the most played song so far. I could listen to this again and again. Anthemic. Excellent build and skillful use of other instruments to build the song. Wonderful. "Oh your cross, it changes everything". "The second chance is heaven's heart" - that's an interesting theological statement but I think that it is pretty straightforward.  Even if we mess everything up, God's grace is enough to get us back. Love this song. 10/10

Bizarre opening to 'True Intimacy' - don't listen to it with a headache. This is pure Eurovision. Great words, I think...but too pop for me.  Needed some depth in lyrics and music. But I think this song will really appeal to lots of people and I can see it being sung in big festivals - "There's nothing greater than kno---Wing you" could have scanned better... 6/10

'Build your kingdom here' - another jaunty number with some cracking scan issues with the lyrics.  This seems to be an issue for them. Often lyrics don't match the scansion of the music and so words tend to be broken over lines or rhythm. This is fine but on every song it tends to suggest a rather broken lyric rather than a folksy playing. This song will be popular - with its call for revival and Celtic humming backing vocal - nice rhythm to it. All it needs is a cheesy key change to be brought in at the right point. 6/10

I love Desert Soul - great sense of mystery to the song and some good lyrics which tend to scan well. "I'm lost without your creative spark in me, I'm dead inside unless your resurrection sings".  Like 'Second Chance' - brilliant song well presented and with heart.  Like this one a lot - lovely Celtic cadences in the Anthemic build section. 10/10

Oooh folk guitar at the beginning of this one - 'Christ has set me free' - like this on first hearing although... - despite some lyric brokeness - although there is no place here for postmodern angst or PeterRollinesque doubt. Christ has set the bloke free from darkness and cynicism and everything is rosy and wonderful and brilliant. Christ has set us free from negativity and impossibiliteeee.  I am not so sure about that kind of glib theology. Is that really what Christ is about. Interesting that Christ stands out here when so many other references have been to Jesus. It's an OK song but trite. 5/10

'Keep me Near' - Celtic through and through - images of God's tide, presence, weakness, focus, grace.  Well produced and musically simple but satisfying. 10/10

'Alabaster' - again one of the quieter songs, builds wonderfully. Very very worshipful song recounting the story of the anointing in a really moving way. 10/10

The album ends with 'Shining Star' and we're back to the land of Eurovision!  Presumably its a Christmas anthem. I expect to see it on Glee sometime soon - although again with the lyrical hesitancy which is part and parcel of the album.  Punchy, repetitive, pop with trumpets. It will go far. 5/10

So overall not sure what this says.  My highlights from the album are:

• Alabaster
• Keep me near
• Desert Soul
• Second Chance

It's worth the album price for those four songs - especially Alabaster. But I will have to hope the rest grow on me!

Cheers

Pete 

http://pmphillips.posterous.com/review-homemade-worship-by-rendcollective-une

Was Jesus Jesus before Jesus? #theologyheadache #jenson

Someone asked me for some information about John's Gospel and the pre-existence of Jesus. I gave them some material and then read an article by Robert Jenson which I had found the other day and wanted to read through in any case about the 'logos asarkos' - I'll explain more in a bit.  

The basics are Jesus was born in Palestine somewhere around 6-4BCE to a teenage mum called Mary. Not many people would query that, I suppose. But is that the start of the story? For the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark n Luke), it seems so - although note that Gathercole's excellent book suggests a good 'Pre-Existence Theology' even in the Synoptics.

But John is much more explicit and begins his Gospel with a prologue in which the Logos ('word' is the most common translation) is with God in the beginning - in other words exists before Jesus - pre-exists Jesus. So some people want to see Logos as Jesus before Jesus. Although since the Logos is not used as a title in this way ever again and it is Jesus who rise from the dead and ascends to the Father, presumably the Logos merges with Jesus somehow? But this is really difficult because how then was the Logos Jesus before Jesus if the Logos is added to Jesus to become Jesus?

But if the Logos isn't Jesus before Jesus - what is 'it'? It is enfleshed ('sarx egeneto' - becomes sarx, ensarkos) in 1:14 as Jesus (1:17) and so could be seen as logos asarkos (logos without sarx) before 1:14? Is it an idea or characteristic which is enfleshed? God's communication which is enfleshed? Wisdom - probably the most likely? and so before Jesus was born there was only a binity - the Father and the Spirit - or the Trinity of Father, Spirit and Wisdom became the Christian Trinity of Father, Spirit and Son? (Argh, heresy!)  But what about Jesus telling those people on the Emmaus Road of all the times he is in the Hebrew Bible or of Abraham seeing him (John 8) - before Abraham was I am. Seems pretty clear that the Johannine Jesus believes he was Jesus before Jesus and Gathercole thinks the Synoptic Jesus thought the same (obviously!).

I'd agree with this. My own study of the Prologue argued that there is no such thing as a Logos Christology because the Logos is just a literary device to delay the naming of Jesus.  So when John uses the device at the beginning of the Gospel, he simply means Jesus was in the beginning with God. Jimmy Dunn wouldn't agree but you can't have everything. Since Logos never appears again and throughout the Gospel, Jesus makes a strong case for his own eternal existence, then we can be sure that what we have in John is an eternally existent Son Christology not a Logos Christology.  I think John assumes that who we know as Jesus was known in Judaism as Wisdom or Shekinah or King of Righteousness (Melchizedek) and that enfleshment made this hypostasis/identity known in a new way and so a new name - Jesus.

But that's very divine and we could easily lose the humanity of Jesus in all of that - as lots of people accuse John of doing. What about the baby - was the baby a member of the Trinity and a full human being?  How? How was the baby fully human and fully divine? Where did the fertilised egg come from? Did that give Jesus his humanity - Mary as egg donor to God rather than just as God's test-tube? What does Theotokos (Mary's title as 'god-bearer') mean? Where did the divinity come from? Does God have sperm? (sorry that was crude and probably heretical) But how do we square the circle between Jesus being unique creature, enfleshed (ensarkos) logos, baby in a manger and Jesus being Jesus before Jesus?

Jenson argues that this is just silly.  He states three points from his Systematics:

1. Romans 1:3-4 argues Jesus is 'determined as the powerful Son of God according to the Holy Spirit by reason of the resurrection from the dead'. Spirit is the purpose/telos, Father is the source/arche. But it's not about pre-existence.
2. Jesus active presence in old Israel (Jenson's term) is best seen as Shekinah - manifestation of God's Glory. But that doesn't need a specific entity - it is a characteristic of the godhood.
3. A divine hypostasis is a subsisting relation not a specific entity. (WHAT??? I really wish theologians would write in simple English for a change!) In other words, God is God only in relation to Spirit and Son. God's relation with the Son precedes Mary's pregnancy. The Son's relations to the Father and the Spirit precede his birth, life, death, resurrection in that that relationality is eternal.

Jenson feels pretty chuffed with this outcome and argues that any further conversation about the existence of the Logos before John 1:14 is just a Vorstellung in futile search of a Begriff. Again more poncy theological jargon (sorry betraying my annoyance - I, of course, never use poncy theologischedummkopfsprache) - means 'an idea in futile search of a term'.

Back to Gathercole for me because I just don't think Jenson has got it right here!  

What do you think?

Pete

p.s. I just know someone will say I just need to believe/pray harder/think less and everything will be alright...

http://pmphillips.posterous.com/was-jesus-jesus-before-jesus-theologyheadache

The Way of Death is paved with... #didache #epiphany #assisteddeath

I am taking a brief look at the moment at the Didache. It's a pastoral resource/manual for the early Church probably written toards the end of the first century or the beginning of the second century CE (or AD).  It offers some interesting guidance on how to live the Christian life and is subtitled - The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles.  Despite that grand title, it isn't accepted as part of the New Testament but is seen as one of those non-canonical books which we can study as part of our reflection upon the Christian way of life but not actually authorised by the Councils of the Church.

Anyway, today I was reading Didache 5 and it just struck me how much it echoed some of our contemporary issues. Here is the financial crisis, the abortion dilemma, celebrity culture and grasping after excess; here is Etonian arrogance and mob violence; here is mafia and fornication:

5.1 But this how we characterise the way of death: first of all, it is evil and accursed. It is known by acts of murder, adultery, lust, sexual deviation, theft, idolatry, magic, sorcery, robbery, false witness, hypocrisy, duplicity, deceit, arrogance, wickedness, stubbornness, greed, obscene talk, jealousy, arrogance, pride, pretension. 5.2 [The way of death is full of] persecutors of the good; those who hate the truth; who love falsehood; who do not recognise the reward of justice; who do not adhere to good and proper discernment; who are not on the look out for the good but for the wicked; people who live a long way from gentleness and patience; who love vanity and chase its rewards; who show no pity for the poor; who do not press themselves to help the oppressed; who do not recognise the one who made them; murderers of children; destroyers of the image of God; people who turn from the need; who tred on the downtrodden; advocates of the rich; lawless critics of the poor; utterly sinful. Children, may you be delivered from all these things.

As I read it, I was reminded of an essay by Robert W Jenson [which I can't find a link to sadly, but may be the ideas are followed through in this book although it will be in essays by other people]  in which he explores Pope John Paul II's description of contemporary Western society as 'a culture of death' in Evangelium Vitae.  JPII was, of course, carrying on from the Second Vatican Council which had this to say about the way in which contemporary society could deny life:

Whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or wilful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where people are treated as mere instruments of gain rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others like them are infamies indeed. They poison human society, and they do more harm to those who practise them than to those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are a supreme dishonour to the Creator.

I remember thinking that Jenson was pretty much on the ball with his argument about the culture of death. Self-destruction is the name of the game and may well be part of society's fascination with vampires and horror and excess.  It may lie behind such things as the right for self-determination and assisted suicide. We want to die and God help anyone who gets in our way. We're free to live the life that we want wherever this leads us to - preferably to self-destruction.

Jenson argues that too many of us in the Church have succumbed to this culture:

What ails Christians in this nation and this time, and ails also those who fancy themselves and indeed are called to be leaders of the faithful, is the infiltration of nihilism, the infiltration of that mere nothingness which sin, death, and the devil have in common, and which emerges in its own nonentity in an ex-Christian culture.

Nihilism in one enemy we cannot co-opt. Nothingness is just that, a black hole of being, and like an astronomical black hole sucks in everything that approaches it. Accommodation to the empty thud of late-modern pop music, to the short attention span of th baby boomers, to decadent Americanism's horror of distinctions and decisions, will only further damage the souls of those the church pursues by such accommodation. Pastors and church leaders in our time must be wary indeed, lest we turn out to be nihilism's agents.

(Robert W Jenson, Introduction to Sin, Death and the Devil, pp.5-6)

Needless to say, Jenson and the Didache make it absolutely clear that Christianity stands apart from this Way of/to Death.  Both argue for Christianity as a radically life-affirming theology/philosophy/worldview.  How do we move our own ways of working and living away from the cultural norms for self-destruction through to a life of renewal, thriving and growth which reflects the Christian Way to Life?

An epiphanic quote to finish:

"In the beginning was the Word...In him was life, and the life was the light of [humanity]. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." What, then, is 'the culture of death'? The culture of death is the darkness. It is the darkness that has not, and will not, overcome the light. That is the Gospel of life, and the Gospel of life is the Gospel. The Gospel of life is the kerygma and didache of the Lord of life. In the words of Evangelium Vitae, "Jesus is the only Gospel: We have nothing further to say not any other witness to bear."

(Richard Neuhaus, 'The Gospel of Life is the Gospel' in Sin, Death and the Devil, p.117)

Amen!

http://pmphillips.posterous.com/the-way-of-death-is-paved-with-didache-epipha

CODEC's Lindisfarne Gospels Digital Arts Project with @Tim_Hutchings

In 2013, the magnificent Lindisfarne Gospels are coming to Durham.

You can see the Gospels in all their glory over at the British Library page - assuming you have right plug in and so on...find the link here - Pinnacle of Anglo-Saxon Art. The picture above is a screen shot of the first page of John's Gospel.)

CODEC have been discussing with a number of people the possibility of setting up a Digital Arts project linked to the visit of the Lindisfarne Gospels - although exploring much more about the history and faith of the North East and further afield and the contemporary use of the Bible.  We've already spoken to a number of people at Durham University, Durham Cathedral and Durham County Council as well as lots of other groups.

Thanks to the generosity of a couple of trusts, we have now been able to bring onboard Tim Hutchings as a postdoc researcher to help us move forward. Tim is a sociologist of digitial religion/theology (so he tells me!) and brings a wealth of experience to the project having worked for the last year the the HUMLab at Umea University in Sweden with lots of digital artists. Here's some more from Tim who also presented at this year's CNMAC11 conference...or you can follow Tim on Twitter at @Tim_Hutchings or see his work on Digital Kingdom's here

Over the next few weeks/months, Tim will outline the project in more detail and be putting in a whole host of bids to various funding partners.  If you're interested in being involved in the project, then send Tim an email.  We're especially interested to hear from programmers, digital artists and gamers/coders, who might like to play around with some ideas as we develop the project.

For now...here's the bare project aim and outline in its very preliminary form...

Project Aim:

To communicate key aspects of regional history, identity and faith in the North East through contemporary arts focussing especially on emerging digital media as an analogue of the use of art and technology in the production of Eadfrith’s 7th century Lindisfarne Gospels, which will be housed in Durham in the Summer of 2013.

Project Outline:

The project will use digital arts to explore the interface between regional history, identity and faith; create a portable exhibition about contemporary Christian communication and use of the Bible; curate complementary arts and media exhibitions and experiences – including possible use of key urban locations, public galleries, and 'digital pilgrimage routes’.  The project will establish collaborative working arrangements with other universities in the North of England, with academics, schools, churches and community projects in the region to explore contemporary understandings of history, identity and faith.

Over to you, Tim!

Pete

http://pmphillips.posterous.com/codecs-lindisfarne-gospels-digital-arts-proje