benedson

MIF Carnival - a trickster event.

There's a bit of a keffufle in Manchester at the moment about a procession that is being organized by the artist Jeremy Deller.  It's part of the Manchester International Festival and Deller wants the procession to reflect the city of Manchester, and so he's wanting to include a float with 'unreprentent smokers' on it smoking and also some boy racers! 

The MEN is outraged, and I received a email yesterday from a friend, who is a councillor, canvasing option as to whether Manchester City Councillors should lobby 'against it or is it a legitamate piece of art'.

My take on it is that it is a classc piece of trickster art and is a great example of the roles that carnivals and mardi-gras' play in upholding the social order that is currently in place.  Lewis Hyde explores this theme saying that:

'The stock anthropological and literary understanding is that carnival celebrations, despite their bawdiness and filth, are profoundly conservative.  Especially in highly ordered and hierarchical societies, carnival reinforces the status quo because, first of all, it provides the exception that proves the rules'.

So, should the councillors lobby against it...no, of course not they should celebrate it as it upholds the social order that they are part of.  Perhaps they should even celebrate it and seek to include more taboo things as by include the taboo the status quo is upheld.  

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Tags: MIF, Ben Edson, trickster

Thinking about missiology...Orthopathy and Findhorn

Some of us will be familiar with the terms orthodoxy and orthopraxis - and those who have a life will never have heard of them...However, I've recently come across a new term was coined by Seong Ahn in 2003,  Orthopathy.  And I'm fascinated by it...

Orthopathy is an attempt to construct a new missiology for the contemporary paradigm, the ‘Era of Experienced Innocence’.  The Era of Innocence was the first paradigm; a paradigm that sought an authentic understanding of truth and hence orthodoxy emerged.  In the second paradigm the ‘Era of Experience’ orthopraxis emerged; ‘the head words of this era were, transforming, revolution, identity, society, responsibility, ethos and Missio Dei, to name but a few.  The principle of doing theology was indigenization and contextualization’ (2003, 16).  Orthopathy seeks a missiology that is focused on right feeling, rather than right thought or right actions, it is thought that through orthopathy right action and right thought will naturally emerge.  ‘The head words of this era are relationship, emotional intelligence, symbiosis, community, interdependence, pathos and Missio Hominis’ (2003, 16).    Central within this new missiological understanding is respect for the other human being, because with respect, a human being can keep his or her dignity in any situation.

Ahn: It is a cognitive love, because it inchoates the love of the second Great commandment that “love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Through this love, it builds up the community and gives priority to the relations. This type also tries to start from how others feel. Therefore, it cherishes the sensus fidei, the believer’s sense of faith, the feeling for faith’s basic themes and consequently, it enables a democratic theology or a popular theology.  

Whilst at Findhorn I encountered the centrality of orthopathy.  A mantra that was repeated over my time there was ‘Don’t think about it, feel it’.  If I questioned things I was told that I thought too much.  I think that there were a number of reasons for this response, firstly – the importance of the present within the Findhorn foundation.  The present was quite simply all that we were called to be attentive within, future distractions were just that – distractions for the attentiveness of the present. 

Secondly, I was quite stunned at the naivety of faith within this context – on a couple of times I pushed people on theological issues and the response usually lacked any credibility.  The only comparison that I can make is to an early naive form of Christianity, where we ask and God provides.  A person shared with us his experience of having a broken down boat, which needed a new engine – it was going to cost £30,000 – within day’s he’s received a check for £18,000 and had located a second hand engine that cost this amount.  Whilst, I don’t want to dismiss this experience and it may have well been divinely ordained, but there was no critical thinking on how this influenced their wider theology and understanding of the providence of God.  This naivety of faith would not stand up to serious intellectual critique but does that matter?

I do not think it does because feeling is dominant, orthopathy is central.  Mission is about instilling the right feeling in people rather than enforcing a doctrine or a particular way of acting.  This means that when you encounter Findhorn your emotions are highly charged by the experience, a number of games are introduced over the course of the week to create intimacy so that your feelings become you dominant way of operating.   Don’t think but feel it – It’s not about head knowledge but heart knowledge.

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Tags: BenEdson, Missiology, Findhorn

What do our FB Status updates say about us?

I'm fascinated by people's Fb status updates.  They tend to slight more thought through than tweets and not as responsive.  I often wonder what people are wanting other users to think of them from their status updates.  Some people use it as a confessional, for others it seems a place to air 'dirty laundry', or it's a place for self-promotion...

Often a person will post something and I will think to myself - What are they trying to say about themselves from that post?  It may not be deliberate, it may be an unconscious projection.  If I had more time in my life it'd be a fascinating piece of research...Here are a few with their names removed - what is your interpretation? 

 

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Tags: BenEdson, Facebook

Greenbelt Worship 09

Where else would Tim Hughes, Taize, Larche and Ikon be on the same programme.  It can only be Greenbelt - don't forget to book you tickets!

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Tags: Greenbelt, Ben Edson

Jacob the Trickster create Israel | Part 1

Israel vexes me greatly.  I lived their for a year, spending time with Palestinians and Israelis and whilst there I wrestled with the complexity of the politics, the theology, the land and of the people.  I'm currently thinking about the relationship between Jacob and Israel and whether the theological formation of Israel, in a wrestling match, can help in our political engagement today.

I've been trying to get my head around why God blesses a rogue (Jacob)...Jacob tricks a blessing out of his father and then in the wrestling match he gets blessed again.  The wrestling match is i believe Jacob - the tricksters - finest hour, where he wrestles with a being, perhaps it’s God, perhaps it’s an angel, perhaps it’s a Canaanite demon perhaps its symbolic of his conscience as he prepares to meet his brother. However what we can be sure of is that the night meeting happens in anticipation of what the day meeting with his brother, Esau, will be like.  The two encounters, the night-time encounter and the day-time encounter, go together they have been placed next to one another for a reason.  They contrast with one another.  One is unprepared and is hard work – the other has a well-prepared plan and seems to be rather easy.

The first encounter is the wrestling and I think that it is most plausible that the hidden one is Yahweh, God.  On his way to appease his brother, Jacob must first deal with his God.  If this other one is God, then what kind of God is it who will be pressed into a draw by Jacob?  And what kind of man is that who can force a draw out of God?  This is no ordinary man, this is no ordinary God and hence this is not an ordinary story…and therefore it shouldn’t be read as an ordinary story.  It’s a story that has a wider meaning, it tells us something new is going to happen and that the newness emerges in the three exchanges of dialogue that take place straight after the wrestling match.

Genesis 32 v. 26: in this one Jacob is the stronger character – he refuses to let go unless he is blessed

v. 27-28: In the second one the stranger is the stronger character – he gives Jacob a new name and by implication a new being.  Israel is born and Jacob is no longer – Jacob a name meaning ‘heel/trickster/over-reacher/supplantar’ is gone and replaced with Israel, sometimes taken to mean God preserves or God protects but whatever it means we know that a new being has been called forth.  In this wrestling match and exchange of dialogue, Israel has faced God, been touched by God and gained a blessing from God.  The encounter leaves all options opens, neither God nor Israel come out on top, but in the giving of the blessing something of the power of God has been entrusted to Israel.

v. 29 is the final exchange – and in it, in an act of braveness, Jacob speaks first.  He assumes priority, he reverses the roles and asks the name of God.  He wants to know the name of God, he wants to know the mystery of heaven.  He seeks to cross a boundary, but the stranger doesn’t answer but instead returns to the first exchange and gives a blessing.

When daylight comes the stranger is gone, but so is Jacob…only Israel remains  - A new identity and new blessing.  Jacob is changed into Israel a new blessing and a new crippling.  The power of the blessing, but the crippling injury - The two cannot be separated, weakness and power, power in weakness. Perhaps a hint or anticipation of the cross…His first encounter is over and he lives, so with new power and with new weakness he goes forward to the second encounter.

I'm going to explore what this says to us political with regard to the current situation in Israel/Palestine in my next post...but that won't be for a few days...

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Tags: Israel, Ben Edson, Jacob, Palestine,

Christianity, Contemporary Art and Beauty

'I have come to the conclusion that if Christian critics and intellectuals can’t find Christ in the contemporary art world then all I can suggest is that they have not looked closely enough. And looking closely is what an art critic as well as a Christian is supposed to do. For it is in looking closely at the world, including art, that we can open ourselves up to the presence of Christ. And that is risky business, indeed; perhaps too risky for many who serve as the cultural gatekeepers of our souls'.

This is from a fascinating article by Daniel Siedell on theotherjournal.com exploring a Christian approach to contemporary art. He also talks about the importance of beauty, something that resonates with me missiologically - Bosch talks about Poiesis defined as 'imaginative and creative representation of evocative images'. He says that people do not only need 'truth' and 'justice' but that they also need beauty, and that often in the tug betwen truth and justice the element of beauty gets lost.

Many alt.worship groups are now engaging with contemporary art, and as I think about this -  and for Sanctus1's engagement in arts through 40 Days, Gift and Dirty Mother -  I am convinced that one reason is the rediscovery of missiological importance of beauty.

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Tags: Art, Beauty, Ben Edson

Howies Wallpapers....

I'm loving some of the new Howies wallpapers.  Laura and I curated one of my favourite Sanctus1 services based on a Howies Catalogue, the service was called 'High on Hope'.  There are a few images that could be developed in an interesting theological way and through that, no doubt, a service will evolve... The three that I'm thinking about in regard to a service are:

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Tags: BenEdson, Howies, Sanctus1

The Earth Has Rights Too

This from Planet Positive about proposals for a 'new law that would give The Earth rights in the same way that The UN Charter Human Rights gives people rights. In essence this would mean that in law speak, businesses would have a duty of care towards the earth and its eco-systems and that if this duty of care was seen to be broken, then recompense could be sought or action prevented. This would lead to the development of The World Charter for Nature that would enshrine our human duties and responsibilities towards the planet'

I warm to it but have reservations.

I also wonder about how thins can be replicated theologically.  Can we enshrine a theological charter that recognises the image of God in the earth, the imago dei, in the planet as well as humanity? 

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Tags: environment, planet positive, ben edson

Blog cull

I've been thinking about church for too long now and am getting slightly bored with the conversations, so I've culled a load of my blog feeds and added some new ones that interest me at the moment.  So if you're interested here are some of my new feeds:

Howies Brainfood - Howies Blog
My Oesophagus... - a friends battle against cancer
Sophia Network Life at Field End - Planet Positive blog 2
Battle's Blog - Planet Positive blog 1
Life in Ludumbashi - a friend has moved to Congo to assist in the settling up of a project for street children
Greenbelt blog
Clay Shirkey - Internet guru...

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Tags: benedson, blog

Subverting our perspective...

The story of Christ washing the disciples of the feet encapsulates many of the unique characteristics of Christ as Messiah.  The actions and words show that he is a very different type of saviour to the one that they were expecting, he is not an all conquering David but rather a man who prefers subtle yet provocative acts of subversion.

First, the logistics of foot washing.  Jesus gets up from the table, ties a towels around his waste and begins to wash the disciples feet.  Now presumably at this point the disciples are still seated, so Jesus is kneeling at the feet of the disciples.  They are above him looking down on him.  Psalm 121 say: ‘I lift my eyes up to the hills, from where will my help come from?’ There is this sense of looking upwards to find God.  Yet in this story we have the disciples not looking up to the heavens to find the messiah, but down to the earth.  Down to the ground, the ground that Jesus walked on.  Jesus is a different type of messiah, a messiah grounded in everyday human experience, grounded in his humanity, grounded in serving those around him.

The act of foot washing changes the perspective through which the disciples view the messiah. They are now looking down on him – a different physical perspective.  It is interesting that the phrase ‘looking down-on-someone’ means that we don’t respect them, that we think we are better than them.  And here Jesus willingly places himself in a location where he will be looked down upon, both literally and culturally.  I can only think of one other person that looked down on Christ, that was Zaccheus, a short man, who was always looked down on, climbs a tree and looks down on the messiah.  Jesus invites Zaccheus for dinner and immediately Jesus is looked down-on by the religious leaders of the time. Through the act of foot-washing the one in authority becomes the servant, and the one who is being served looks down on the one with authority.  Christ subverting power structures and what it means to have authority.

Finally this act pulls me prematurely toward the cross.  On the cross, a vulnerable broken man is looking down on all of humanity.  But Christ is not looking down from a position of power, he is looking down from a place of brokenness.  A man who ultimately has the power to take himself off the cross and raise himself above all of humanity in a mighty act of power, once again becomes a servant.

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Tags: maundaythursday, power, subverstion