Friday 14 March 2008

Week 10 - Final Revision of Paper

It sounds like this outline will work based on your comments from last week. I'm not sure what other revisions to make to it. I suppose I could add more details but those might be best left to being read in the paper. Anyway, this outline is the same as last week. The paper will be on its way soon!

I. Describe a particular aspect of culture - youth culture in Boulder, Colo.
A. Barker's insights
1. Nature of youth in Barker
2. Contrast with Chap Clark
3. Hurting kids
B. Boulder Colorado's youth culture climate
C. First Pres Boulder's youth culture climate
II. Use the "Countercultural" Model from Bevans
A. Why the model is good for this.
B. Possible dangers needed to avoid
C. How this model will aid in pointing toward the gospel in this culture
1. Relationships
2. Rich Young Ruler Example
III. Specific ways this will address the culture
A. Building Kingdom of God communities
1. For Families
2. Cultural difference
B. Partnering with Families
1. Resources
2. Deconstruction of wealth/achievement myth
C. For Kids
1. Expanding their worldviews
2. Teaching them to deconstruct on their own

Week 10 - Response to Joe E.

Joe's blog wins the most entertaining of the quarter by far. I agree with most of what he said except for one thing. Joe calls to "embrace popular culture." I'd disagree with that one. I agree the church has its head in the sand (for the most part) and I'd agree that alternative cultures created by the church are often weak efforts to be cool. I don't think the answer is to "embrace popular culture." We should work WITHIN popular culture but not necessarily embrace it. As youth workers we should stop scouting out what kids will someday grow up to be our volunteer leaders and interns and start pouring into kids that will be the next generation of movie producers. We need to sow the message of Jesus withing pop culture without fully embracing it.

Monday 10 March 2008

Week 10 - Monday Class Reflections

The Merchants of Cool does a great job of illustrating the peril kids face from "producers." My fear is that we don't ask the question, "What makes them vulnerable?" I'd love to see a companion video that illustrates the way adults have "abandoned" kids and not invested in their lives. We, as parents and youth workers, should not see pop culture as the enemy and ignore the enemy within ourselves.

Friday 7 March 2008

Week 9 - Revised Outline

I. Describe a particular aspect of culture - youth culture in Boulder, Colo.
A. Barker's insights
1. Nature of youth in Barker
2. Contrast with Chap Clark
3. Hurting kids
B. Boulder Colorado's youth culture climate
C. First Pres Boulder's youth culture climate
II. Use the "Countercultural" Model from Bevans
A. Why the model is good for this.
B. Possible dangers needed to avoid
C. How this model will aid in pointing toward the gospel in this culture
1. Relationships
2. Rich Young Ruler Example
III. Specific ways this will address the culture
A. Building Kingdom of God communities
1. For Families
2. Cultural difference
B. Partnering with Families
1. Resources
2. Deconstruction of wealth/achievement myth
C. For Kids
1. Expanding their worldviews
2. Teaching them to deconstruct on their own

Wednesday 5 March 2008

Week 9 - Wednesday Class Reflection

I was struck by how the number of choices and technology means speed is a necessity for producers. If an identity isn't established within seconds, the remote control takes a consumer somewhere else. I hadn't thought about it in this way before - producers must literally craft every second of programming to be captivating or risk losing an audience (and advertising dollars). This "need for speed" means sensationalism will happen a lot. Interesting to me that choice and technology indirectly breeds sensationalism.

Week 9 - Comment on Ben's Blog

Ben's blog got me thinking about "genealogy" in churches and how that relates to our church. I've always wondered, "Why are people so against change - especially in cases where it clearly needs to happen?" Obviously, some people are just fearful of something different but I think there are other reasons too. Change indirectly can say, "You older people messed up." It can bring up feelings of anger, resentment and, perhaps, guilt. Some of these things are behind negative reactions to new ideas. I like the "genealogy" way of thinking - how can we tie "change" to an extension of the good work that the church has been doing for decades? In this way, we partner between generations instead of divide.

Week 9 - Bevans, Ch. 9 (Countercultural)

Countercultural model takes people seriously but calls for a "u-turn" of the mind. Culture is not evil and does not need to be replaced. Encounter or engagement of the culture perhaps a better term. Gospel has primacy over culture because humans and culture are ambiguous. Dangers include becoming sectarian. Baxter led movement to identify Catholics as Catholics, over and above being American.

Tuesday 4 March 2008

Week 9 - Cobb, Ch. 9 (Life Everlasting)

Death is a fascination of the culture as evidence by movies and Disney myths. Apocolyptic stories pit good vs. evil for the culture. Film and art attempts to recapture Eden/utopia. Blue and green landscape imprinted on our consciousness by God? Popular culture full of "ghost stories" that attempt to bring meaning to death - but ghosts more prevalent in other cultures. Ghosts represent a rootedness to the past that Americans lack?

Monday 3 March 2008

Week 9 - Monday Class Reflection

The discussion of Foucault and "power" made me sad. It's amazing that power is such a negative word - akin to hegemony. What a testimony to the fallenness of humanity! The original since of power was empowering and creative - God hovering over the waters and bringing things into existence. Interesting that Foucault realized a more biblical, positive sense of what power is.

Wednesday 27 February 2008

Week 8 - Response to Annie McLaren's Blog

Annie Mac's blog about Republicanism=Christianity got me thinking about other symbols we use. A church near my home in Lafayette, Colo. flies the most enormous American flag on its building I have ever seen. Some friends of mine go to church there and I have questioned them about it. Those friends question my salvation because I challenged their flag placement. WOW! The interesting thing is that many of these people really are wanting to follow Jesus. How is it that some have swallowed US patriotism in place of the Kingdom of God and refuse to even entertain any challenges to this notion? It would be interesting to think through how we could help deconstruct this notion for people.

Week 8 - Final Paper Outline

Middle School Kids and Pop Culture in Boulder, Colo.
I. Examine an aspect of culture: Pop Culture in youth (Drawing from Barker)
A. Pop Culture amongst kids in Boulder
B. Pop Culture amongst kids at First Pres Church
C. Analysis of difference, insights from above
II. Use Bevans’ “synthetic approach” to engage the culture
III. How Can the Church Community Address This?
A. Acknowledgment of no simple solutions
1. Problem of “hyper-realism”
B. Parents and their role
C. A holistic approach
1. Networks of Adults
2. Rites of Passage?
3. Deconstructing messages: don’t hide your head in the sand - work though media with kids

Week 8 - Wednesday Class Reflection

"The Church is not the answer. The Church is the question." I do not find Caputo's quote threatening. I find this to be liberating and humble. It seems like this description of faith requires "control freaks" to check their controlling nature at the door. Of course, no one who is a control freak knows they are one - which brings the logical question, "Am I one?"

Tuesday 26 February 2008

Week 8 - Bevans, Ch. 8 (Transcendental)

We can't do "transcendental theology" unless the theologian is an "authentic, coverted subject." Transcendental thoelogy starts by examining oneself and the biases within. God reveals Godself within human experience. Anyone can "do" theology. Experience of past and present "cut" a contextual theology. Criticisms include accusations of being too abstract and oriented toward Western male understandings of knowing. McFague and Gonzales both listed as good examples of transcendental theologians.

Week 8 - Cobb, Ch. 8 (Salvation)

Redemptive violence is key salvation narrative in our culture. Seeking ecstatic experiences can become religion of self-absorption. Music offers a salvific quality of imagining "new ways of being." Love songs reach beyond human relationships to God. Chocolat shows salvation through consumerism and self-fulfillment. Penance rejected by Reformers but hard-work ethic has taken its place. Self-therapy and help offered as salvific in our culture. AA listed as an ideal model for using therapy that does not make the individual's cravings its idol - just the opposite is true.

Week 8 - Monday Class Reflection

There's one toy I'll buy as much as my kids want. My kids fell in love with the movie Cars since the first time they saw Lightning McQueen "kachowing" around the track. They love it for the cars, characters and humor. I love it for the ending. Lightning McQueen loses the big race - because he sacrifices himself to honor another car. It is a deconstruction of the old redemptive violence or triumphalism narrative. It is more in line with the gospel - so I keep buying those little diecast cars.

Thursday 21 February 2008

Week 7 - Cobb, Ch. 7 (Sin)

Popular culture is in agreement that something is wrong with the human condition. Puritans attempted the utopian ideal but obviously failed. Belief that God punishes when we fall short of moral ideal is the "jeremiad" and is ingrained in American consciousness. We hunger for a different world because we feel it is always short of "Eden." This leads to conflict and sin. Humanity's abuse of technology is seen in some fiction as a "second fall" according to the Gothic genre. Four features of gothic stories very interesting. Gothic plots often have sin originate from "without."

Week 7 - Bevans, Ch. 7 (Synthetic Model)

Synthetic model tries to balance all models and everything else. Synthetic does not mean artificial. Cultures are unique and similar to each other. Dialogue essential to human growth. Danger is that it could be too "wishy-washy." Koyama's Waterbuffalo Theology is described as an example. It is a "theology from below." Jose M. de Mesa is a theologian from the Phillipines whose writings outline the synthetic model well. Christology as "vindication" is the best way to speak to Filipinos about Jesus, according to de Mesa.

Week 7 - Response to Ben's Blog

Ben talks about being "Weary of Words." I liked his post and agree that our faith must have action with it. It is so interesting for me right now because I am in John Thompson's medieval/Reformation theology course discussing Martin Luther. Luther was so adament that 'action' was unneccessary for God to love us - I agree. But it seems like we're in our current mess because Christians distorted Luther by reducing the gospel to all "talk and head games." The Church's favorite book has been Galatians, but Ben's blog reminds me of James. It seems like that is where the Christian culture is now headed. I think a correction is needed, but can we not overcorrect and become only about social justice and forget about a deep and intimate relationship with Jesus? It seems like all of this should go hand-in-hand.

Wednesday 20 February 2008

Week 7 - Wednesday Class Reflection

It seems like the praxis model typically revolved around a marginalized people group. Liberation theology is the example given in Bevans about this. My question: How do you do praxis model in rich, white suburbs? Am I wrong in understanding it as tied to more marginalized groups? Maybe it is just the practice of listening, reflecting and doing - a practice that can be done with anyone. I ask this question because I like the praxis model and, like many, I know it's possible my ministry may end up being in suburbia.

Week 7 - Barker, Ch. 14 (Politics and Policy)

Cultural studies frequently centers on power, politics and social change. Gramsci saw an ideological struggle between working class and traditional intellectuals. Discourse "describes and regulates cultural identities and social action." Identifiers may be fiction but are necessary. The public sphere regards certain values as good. Bennett advocates for policy creation at the heart of cultural studies. Pragmatism says social change a combination of our language and how that affects policy.

Week 7 - Barker, Ch. 13 (Youth)

Youth is not just defined by biology, but is a "cultural construct... under definitive conditions." Subcultures are binary opposites of mass produced mainstream culture - they arise from a "problem" in the culture. Resistance Through Rituals (Hall and Jefferson, 1976) sounds interesting. Bricolage transforms cultural signs into alternative meanings that help identify the subculture. Girls are relegated to certain roles and spaces in being ignored by researchers. Media is crucial to the formation of youth subcultures. Is youth culture resistance? High control industrialization culture has been transferred over to view of youth.

Tuesday 19 February 2008

Week 7 - Monday Class Reflection

It was fun to talk about Westerns and how they are constructed. I couldn't help but think that the main theme is "redemptive violence." In other words, redemption is achieved through the means of violently defeating the villain. (Actually, most our superhero movies follow this theme too). It's interesting to contrast that narrative to the Christian narrative. Jesus' story is also one of redemptive violence - of a completely different sort. This is forcing me to think about how our culture perceives these different, yet related, themes.

Sunday 17 February 2008

Week 6 - Bevans, Ch. 6 (Praxis Model)

Praxis akin to "liberation theology" through history and reflective action. Praxis model of theology is not just "right thinking" it is "right action." Theology must be acted upon with reflection. Revelation is understood as God in history. Theology must be wrestled with in particular situations. Hall and others look at theologies for different geographies (North America cited as an example). Asian woman theology fights Asian and ecclesial oppression of women.

Week 6 - Cobb, Ch. 6 (Human Nature)

Cop shows demonstrate the culture's quest to understand human nature, morality and purpose. The "ordinary" has been elevated in the last 200 years of culture. What once was "kingly annointing" from God is now for all people. "Identities now constructed through consuming." Shopping MRI brain scans show increased activity in section of brain dedicated to self identity!!! Hyperreality creates endless dissatisfaction. Our memories are critical in defining our reality. Machinization (borging) is a blessing (medicine, technology) and a curse (less relationships).

Saturday 16 February 2008

Week 6 - Response to Emmet's blog

Emmet's blog is perceptive on the "consumer" identification of individuals within our culture. My thought is: How sad!!! We have become passive in our self-identification. Passive in that we are allowing others' products to identify us. I agree with Emmet - this must negatively affect our creativity. Sure, there will always be outstanding, creative minds, but I wonder if the average person is not forced to be active in their self-identity because they are passively receiving identity from products and the marketeers behind them. I don't think there is a conscious choice to be identified by consumption, it happens without even thinking about it. However, I don't think advertisers are naive to this principle - far from it.

Week 6 - Barker, Ch. 12 (Space)

Spaces are part of cultural studies. “Home” and “workplace” are examples of classic Western spaces that have been “gendered.” Space, such as cities, “reveal cultural assumptions and practices.” Cities “use” culture economically such as the branding of space – ex. Sydney Opera House and Bridge. Cities are “command points” of the global economy. LA offered as most postmodern city for diversity, hyperreality and economics. Cities offer unlimited cultural opportunities. Technologies help mediate and control cultural conflicts within cities.

Week 6 - Barker, Ch. 11 (TV, texts, etc.)

No other medium more powerful than TV for cultural studies (Internet???)... TV news gives us a representation of reality (not reality itself). News "sets agenda" for culture and is manipulated in times of war. Soap operas have influence on culture's perceptions of women and wider social issues. The audience is "active" and creates its own meanings from the "texts" of TV. TV is "shrinking" the world by the mass spreading of ideas. Who controls media a critical factor of cultural studies.

Thursday 14 February 2008

Week 6 - Wednesday Class Reflection

It's incredibly difficult for me to imagine that the intense individualism of determining one's life path from a field of choices is only 40 years old. As a 34-year-old, choosing one's career, spouse, religion, etc. is so ingrained in me, it seems like it's been our cultural norm forever. I can't even imagine a world that would look different - at least not in the West.

Wednesday 6 February 2008

Week 5 - Response to Todd's Blog

I love Todd's thought - are Christians mere cultural critics, or do we have some alternative to offer? My short answer is: so far, we've blown it. We need to not be seen as the "bulldogs" of the culture wars and instead be dialogue partners in cultural conversation. That means getting in the game. I would love to see church communities that encourage their young people to grow up and become TV, movie and music producers who can sow Christian worldviews instead of figuring out ways to get our best and brightest employed by the church.

Week 5 - Wednesday Class Reflections

I'm a "hegemonist" - at least when it comes to advertising. I can't escape the belief that media and pop culture often sets the "mental agenda" for many of us, especially our young. I understand that traditional consumers are becoming producers and so confusing the landscape. But, as with the MTV example we cited today, there are still commercials. I don't think MTV cares what goes on the air - as long as advertisers see good ratings and demographics. When advertisers let consumers be the producers of their ads, you might start to sway me away from my hegemonic thoughts. I've worked with kids for 12 years - you'll have a hard time convincing me they, and we, aren't being swayed, even manipulated, by advertising.

Tuesday 5 February 2008

Week 5 - Bevans, Ch.5 (Anthro Model)

The anthropological model elevates humanity in relationship to the gospel and believes that challenges to humans from the gospel might be culturally oppressive motivations. God's revelation is found within human culture. The starting point of this model is human experience. Theologian's role is that of a "midwife" - giving birth to a people's own theology and not imposing their own. Positives are that we start where people are. Negatives are that we "romanticize" culture and not accept outside influences.

Monday 4 February 2008

Week 5 - Cobb, Ch. 5 (Images of God)

Cobb zeroes in on popular culture's portrayal of God. Specifically, attention is given to God being distant from, forgetful of and/or regretful about humans. Ferucci's God seems to be in process himself. Morrow's God commits "suicide" in order to force humans to mature. Cosse's novel theorizes that the undeniable "proof" of God's existence must never be revealed because it would do more harm than good. Technology has served "God-like" functions for many today. Internet is creating "one mind." Movies like Natural Born Killers explore God far away from the institution of the church.

Week 5 - Monday Class Reflections

Our class discussion today about the "Translation" model was good but I would have loved to hear more about Ryan's thoughts on it. Maybe there is no "template" per se on how to approach "Translation," but I could have used more of a framework for understanding how to approach a culture from this context - maybe in the form of some key questions or ideas to keep in mind.

Week 5 - Barker, Ch. 10 (Sex, etc.)

Feminism and cultural studies share concerns about identity, representation, hegemony, etc. Interesting section outlining biological differences in gender including strengths and weaknesses. Argument is made that "difference" and "equality" are not mutally exclusive. Psychology (Freud, Kristeva, etc.) posit theories of feminist cultural studies. Language is said to be a major producer of what sexual identity means. Boys are said to be treated as independents are, therefore, not develop emotional communication. Women's images are defined and issues like objectification, body-image, motherhood, etc. Cultural texts offer "subject positions" but not all male and females take those positions offered.

Week 5 - Barker, Ch. 9 (Ethnicity, etc.)

Racialization is the idea that race is a social rather than biological construction. Ethnicity is how groups identify what they are and are not. National identity is another form of identification gained through media, pop culture, etc. Diaspora is when ethnic groups become spread out but still connected through a network. Hybridization is the combination of different "cultural mixing." Stereotyping "reduces and essentializes.. difference." Racism is the "patterns of cultural respresentation" within society. Great discussion of how blacks are represented in TV - everything from the Huxtables to black news anchors and their effects on our racial thinking. Cultural studies needs to diagnose why we struggle to live with difference.

Saturday 2 February 2008

Week 4 - Bevans, Ch.4 (Translation Model)

Translation model never changes content but seeks to adapt message to a particular cultural context. Translation is concerned with meanings, not just words and grammar. This model starts with the essential doctrine, views culture and experience as subordinate and sees all cultures as "similar." Critiques include seeing cultures as all similar, defining what exactly is the gospel "above" culture and its tendency to use propositional truth claims instead of "God's presence." Hesselgrave believes God's use of symbols makes them universal. Pope John Paul II was a "translation" model advocate and sensitively warned to not give people "culture" rather than the gospel.

Week 4 - Response to Amy Kaherl's blog

It was so interesting and refreshing to read Amy's blog. I hated Wednesday's class (sorry, can't deny it!). I am interested in economics, but struggled to perceive the connection between Jesus' kingdom, the emerging church and Marxism (as we discussed it). Perhaps it was too quick of a gearshift for my little brain. Amy's blog was helpful to that end. It was also good to read Amy's blog and see how we are all wired differently. Last Wednesday (not "Marx Wednesday") and Monday's classes were my "cup of tea." I LOVE the emergent church discussion and conversation about where God might be breaking through today. Thanks, Amy, for helping me see some relevance in Marx Wednesday and making me think a little differently.

Week 4 - Barker, Ch.8 (Subjectivity & Identity)

Identity emerged as a central theme of cultural studies in the 90s. Identity is a cultural "production" and a "description in language." Social identity is formed by outer and inner world of subject. Sex, language, attitudes, emotions, etc. all help compose what we construct as "identity." Foucault sees individuals as "products of discourse" that are "fractured" into multiple identities. Giddens and Foucault disagree on whether we are "active and knowledgable" agents in identity creation. Idea is that both inner and outer forces create our identities. Feminism attempts to gain control of the language that would define female.

Week 4 - Barker, Ch.7 (Postmodernism)

Postmodernism discussions begin with understanding modernism. Modernism is characterized here by the period including the rise of technology and industrialization that offers global wealth and threatens global destruction. It is both humanistic and carries "high culture." Foucault, drawing from Nietzsche, begins to break away the foundation of modernism casting doubt on universal truth and a "grand narrative." "All truth is "culture-bound." Is there a "public sphere" in which to form general opinions? Postmodernism collapses boundaries between previously separate entities (ex. high and low culture).

Week 4 - Cobb, Ch.4 (Theological Tools)

Paul Tillich's "Ultimate Concern" is that something in life that orders all other things - if it is not God, it is idolatry. When we experience "The Holy" (something transcendent that inspires "a dread that fascinates us") we have found our Ultimate Concern. Ontological faith is when we are in the presence of something mysterious and powerful. Moral faith is when we are terrified by how good that something is. Symbols represent "The Holy" but are not holy in and of themselves. Symbols, myths and liminality are listed as other tools to use in studying cultures.

Wednesday 30 January 2008

Week 4 - Wednesday Class Reflection

Marx's idea that capitalism separates people from the products they produce and, therefore, there own since of identity made me think if there is something the church needs to be wary of here. While I disagree with Marx's theories, I wonder if sometimes the church separates people "producing" their own product of spiritual experience. In other words, we "outsource" our faith to the spiritual "professionals" who spoon-feed us weekly at church - cutting us off from personal experience. We live vicariously instead of intimately with Jesus. We need to be churches that create environments where we never cut off people from being "producers" of faith themselves.

Thursday 24 January 2008

Week 3 - Response to Denise's Blog

I'd like to respectfully disagree/think-through some of Denise's comments regarding the "emerging church" and Wednesday's discussion. I don't think the paradigm discussed Wednesday means the abandonment of tradition - hymns, creeds, etc. all have contributed greatly to the community and will continue to. Perhaps Denise you could comment back on what traditions specifically you are concerned will get lost? I would think our discussion might appeal to you as these smaller "Kingdom of God" community groups are really reaching back to the earliest of Christian traditions - namely, we live as a community like Jesus did in the world; with passion for justice, peace and proclamation. I don't see this as a threat to tradition - I see it as the fulfillment of our greatest tradition... one that tends to get lost.

Week 3 - Bevans, Ch. 3 (Models)

Models are "disclosive" of reality but not reality itself. They are helpful for understanding and thinking about things, but they aren't complete and should be augmented by other models. Bevans outlines different models of contextual theology. Anthropological is the most "left" position and countercultural furthest "right." Bevans advocates that each model can be used with the others. Some models work in certain contexts but may not be the best for others. The remainder of the book will focus on these models.

Week 3 – Barker, Ch. 6 (New World Disorder?)

It is widely believed we live in a period of sweeping globalized change. Economic structures are shifting in Fordism’s fall to Post-Fordism and shifting class structures. How are these structural shifts related to our identity within the culture that these realities influence? Globalization is not just economic but our symbols of meaning and values are increasingly globalized as well. Culture is not just being “exported” from the West to the rest of the world – the world is influencing an overall culture. Individual state’s roles are changing as they are not able to defend themselves and pursue economic autonomy – more authority is being given to “supra-states.” New Social Movements are replacing party politics?

Week 3 – Cobb, Ch. 3 (Theology and Culture)

Can we be open to the vitality of popular culture and “suspect of its congenital defects?” Tertullian view – what does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? Tertullian and Chrysostom see theater making normal life boring and perverting God’s creation. Augustine – aspects of culture should be put into the service of the church. Just because a pagan did something does not mean we should avoid it. Tillich = “Theology of Culture.” Church not always the ultimate bearer of truth – God reveals where and through whom God desires. After WWII, Tillich became less romantic about culture and the nature of people.

Week 3 - Wednesday Class Reflections

Today was the best class yet, by far. I'm so intrigued by this idea of smaller communities living in a "Kingdom of God" paradigm. I'm even more intrigued by how larger, existing churches could transform into something like this. Specifically, the implications for youth ministry would be huge. If we could encourage these types of communities to form, I think youth ministry, as we know it, would cease to exist. We would have a caring network of adults all caring for kids. That is not to say that youth ministry wouldn't continue to operate, but it wouldn't be a necessary "relational surrogate" as it is now. The adult relationships would be "hard-wired" into the structure of the faith community.

Tuesday 22 January 2008

Week 3 - Barker, Ch. 5 (Biology)

Culture and biology are inextricably interwoven. The science of our bodies, their origin and function affects the way we think, emote and behave. This, in turn, helps shape the cultures we live in. Our health and the way we define health penetrates to the core of who we perceive ourselves to be. This self-perception in turn affects everything from our beliefs about the world to our immune systems. These are complex systems that cannot be understood in reductionist ways - especially in our era of radically changing cultural demands and technology that create more stress and dysfunction.

Monday 21 January 2008

Week 3 - Monday - MLK, Jr. Reflections

I had the privilege of reading King's Strength to Love last quarter. Chapter one details King's belief that our love needs to be both tender and strong enough to stand against incredible opposition. Sounds basic enough until you keep in mind that this is a man who's earned the right to say it. My thoughts today go this incredible man whose non-violent revolution changed the course of our nation more than any other man in the last 50 years.

Friday 18 January 2008

Week 2 - Response to Harmony's Blog

Perhaps a disagreement/pondering for Harmony. Her statement that Jesus would be approving of mass communiction "as long as it didn't hurt anyone" is intriguing. I can't help but think, "It is hurting someone." As a youth worker, I see kids' blindspot to media's negative influence. I'm NOT saying it's all bad (maybe that's what Harmony is saying too), but I think Jesus would have harsh "millstone-esque" words for some media purveyors. Is it OK to ask, "Has media made us dumb?" LONG paper could be written here - but I think Jesus would have issues with how we are being affected and hurt by the "system" - often subconsciously.

Week 2 - Cobb, ch. 2 (Cultural Studies)

Gramsci's hegemony helps us think through reciprocity of pop culture production and consumption. Great examples about how revolutionary voices are co-opted by the system it seeks to change (see Marley example). Style is how people shift producers' intentions (bricolage = "makeshift repair"). Poaching is taking culture and stealing its meaning to "topple existing power structures." Simulacrum - there are no realities, only images; and images of images. Can reality compare to the hyperreality we've created?

Wednesday 16 January 2008

Week 2 - Wednesday Reflection

"Where does Jesus fit?" was great. It leads me to the incarnation. God lowering himself from deity to humanity is a bigger "demotion" than anyone's lowering from high to working culture. The incarnation shows Jesus penetrates working class culture because, the God who could have lived in some palace, chose to hammer and sweat with the simple. But he comes to "high" culture because Jesus meets us as we are, affluent or not. Jesus doesn't stick his nose up at culture ala Arnold or Leavis, he redeems it - as he did all of humanity in the incarnation.

Week 2 - Barker, Ch. 4 (Linguistic Turn)

Language constitutes cultural meanings. Saussure pioneered "semiotics" - study of signs. Meaning developed in word grouping. Derrida = meaning never fixed but "deferred and supplemented." Deconstruction takes apart and seeks assumptions of text. Foucault – meaning = "Panopticon" - prison surveillance courtyard. Post-Marxism = class not merely economical but product of discourse. Lacan takes Freud = "phallus" = universal signifier. "Unconscious" where meanings are generated. Rorty says truth = human construct and not possible outside human "texts."

Tuesday 15 January 2008

Week 2 - Bevans, Ch. 2 (Issues in Contextual Theology)

Theologizing takes different expressions in different cultures. In the west - predominantly academic. India = best expressed through dance. Theologian = "midwife" that gives birth to the theology that people create.
Creation-based theology sees the world as generally good. Redemption-based theology sees the world as a mess and God needs to "replace" nature in grace.
What are criteria of orthodoxy? 1. "God is love." 2. Does it go against something basically Christian? 3. is it accepted by God's people? Schreiter = five helpful criteria -pp.23-24.

Week 2 - Barker, Chapter 3 (Ideology)

Arnold and Leavis defended high culture. Williams = more inclusive. Culture not from individuals but collective - shared meanings. Williams stressed anthropoligical approach that opened up study. Culture = "whole way of life." Who forms meanings - receivers or producers? Marxism = "economic mode of production shapes the cultural superstructure." Sony Walkman (shows textbook dating) - example of the circuit of culture. Production, Identity, Representation, Regulation, Consumption and back. Gramsci's hegemony - ruling class uses culture to gain "assent." Challenges = culture too varied to maintain any hegemony. Ideology: "the 'binding and justifying of ideas' of any social group requiring no concept of truth.

Monday 14 January 2008

Week II: Monday

One definition of culture included the word "organic" - something that arises without external interference; no "pesticides" are added - it arises naturally. I don't believe culture is organic. Having worked in broadcasting, I've seen how decisions are made. Manipulation happens. I realize media is only one element of "culture," but it is always assuming a larger role. I'm not claiming expert status but firmly believe media brings a sizeable application of "pesticides."

Wednesday 9 January 2008

Week I: Response to Annie McClaren Blog

Annie's thoughts about kids skateboarding at the church bring up a difficult topic: what do we do when two cultural realities conflict? Annie's argument (and mine too) as a youth worker would be - if we don't let these kids skate on church grounds, we are essentially telling them they are not wanted here. Meanwhile, the church is dealing with the cultural reality of the litigious society we live in. In other words, the church is thinking - if we do allow them to skate here, we open ourselves up to possible serious injury and negligence in injuring a child. This could result in a lawsuit and subsequent harm to the ministry of the church. Both viewpoints have some validity to them. I came from a church that had a kid rupture his spleen in a snowtubing accident - it was a double-tragedy. The kid was seriously injured and the church was sued and paid an enormous sum of money that hurt both the reputation and the ability of the church to minister because of financial difficulty.
Here's the big problem: The above conversation DOES NOT happen at most churches on this level. In my experience, there is no effort to really brainstorm as a team and determine, "What is the best way to do this?" Surely, there are creative solutions out there that would honor the needs of the church and its ministry, recognizing these kids, skateboards and all, ARE its ministry.

Week I: Wednesday

I have to admit to being excited and a little discouraged after today's class. Excited because I see opportunities for the gospel to be communicated in fresh ways through "family and relational lines" in our culture through organic movements. Discouraged in that it seems like trying to inject new DNA into an 85-year-old man. I come from a mainline background where this type of thinking is drowned out by the cacophony of trying to determine whether to serve decaf or caffeinated coffee on Sunday mornings and how to keep "insensitive" people from taking it into the sanctuary. Setting up intentional efforts to organically witness in our community's bars, coffee shops and bookstores seems a million miles away. My question: has any old mainline denomination really ever reinvented itself? Has any old mainline denominational singular church ever reinvented itself? I'd LOVE to see a model of it!!!

Tuesday 8 January 2008

Week I - Barker, Chapters I-II (Intro and Central Problems in Cultural Studies)

Chapter I - Cultural studies are impossible to fully represent in one voice – Barker gives a good reminder that there is SO much here, this, or any, book cannot be completely comprehensive.
The concept of Hegemony – the ruling class seeks power gained by winning consent from the oppressed groups. Can happen in stuff like advertising, etc. Cultural studies will examine the way we become the kind of people that we are. Marxism and capitalism all come into play here – is there hegemony in the capitalist system of suppressing the proletariat?

The study of signs, or semiotics, is important for cultural studies. Saussure believes that cultures make meanings out of signs that have significance to their ways of being. Derrida believes signs have too many meanings to simplify it to Saussure's "binaries" and instead believes in a postmodern web of unlimited meanings. Anti-essentialism means truth is only known in specific cultures and places. It lacks "firm universal foundations." Postmodernism is an "anti-essentialism approach that stresses the constitutive role of unstable language in the formation of cultural meaning." Barker talks about ethnography, textual and reception studies as a means for methodology for cultural studies. Attention is given to how these can be difficult based on the biases present in the person doing the studies and the linguistic uncertainty with which findings are communicated.


Chapter II - There are a variety of problems in cultural studies including language, change, location, etc. Barker outlines the debate between political economy vs. cultural autonomy as "an unneccessary binary division." Meaning is the product of signs and social practices - I wish this author would give more concrete examples of what he's talking about! I am intrigued by the idea that audiences create meaning by how they "accept the texts." Cultural studies is complicated by globalization - how do we define traditional boundaries of cultural in a world with the Internet and corporate marketing?
Great point is made that control of the world political is no longer governed by a few - there is broad governance, making homogenous culture or any challenge to culture difficult to achieve any sort of sweeping change. I think it is hilarious that this author says "most cultural studies" writers are "cryptic" when he's basically so far told us that we can't really know anything because of postmodernist realities.
Interesting discussion about rationality and how it can lead to the desire to dominate. The argument is that rationality has not brought us progress, but oppression. Another problem listed is that of "culture and the body" - in other words, we are emotional creatures, not just rational ones, that are subject to "biochemical actions." Discussion on truth is interesting - honestly, I get so confused by this stuff. Just because I think it is "true and good" does not necessarily mean I'm right, but I see the huge need for cross-cultural understandings of truth. Confusion!!!

Monday 7 January 2008

Week I - Bevans, Chapter 1 (Contextual as Imperative)

Hmmm... Interesting stuff regarding the three "loci" of theological understanding. I agree that our theological perceptions are shaped by our cultures, but I'm pretty sure God is not shaped by those perceptions. Interesting line from Charles Kraft - "theology that is perceived as irrelevant, is in fact irrelevant." Problem here - I'm not convinced God's Spirit is limited to whether someone is culturally "hip" or not. This would seem to indicate that if someone "lags" in cultural understanding, the gospel message they might bring is irrelevant. I'm not sure I believe that because ultimately, I think God is moving, despite my astute ability to articulate God culturally. That doesn't mean articulating the gospel in a culture isn't important, but Kraft's forceful phrase is over the top in my judgment.

Good, interesting argument about great theologians work always being contextual - Luther hit the culture's need for "personal relationship" with God. What is the contextual "need" of our current culture?
Incredibly powerful example of the Masai culture in Africa where water poured over the head of a woman means that she is cursed to barrenness. What does one do with that when it comes to baptism?

Bevans argues there is growing dissatisfaction with theologies that don’t give voice to people – especially marginalized people. He makes the great point that there is no more impressive argument for contextualization is there than that God became a human. I like the quote, "A gift that cannot be recognized as such is hardly a gift."
Overall, I Agree in principle with Bevans points, but it makes me nervous that, in our desire to change and be relevant, we won’t communicate an accurate picture of the unchanging One. This takes incredible creativity and trust in God to lead us.

Week I - Cobb, Chapter 1 (Popular Culture)

I'm going to like this book. The historical background of the emergence of images and how those images have now been mass produced and shaped in our world is totally fascinating to me. I especially found the concept of "Disneyization" helpful. How the "highbrow" features of culture were "translated" into a consumable form for the masses by productions like "Fantasia." I couldn't help but think - "has the church 'disneyized' the gospel?" Lots of good conversation there over positive and potentially negative outcomes of applying that concept to the gospel. The definition of culture as a french word meaning to "cultivate the soil" was helpful for thinking through the term and how we think of it. Can't help but think of the movie The Matrix when reading about the Frankfurt School's thoughts about culture. The idea is that culture/media is the ruling class's effort to suppress the lower classes and "convince them they are happy with their lives..." I'll have to think on this one some more but this is FUN stuff.

Week I: Monday

Good intro today about how scholars, etc. are starting to treat cultural studies of our own culture in the same way that we have approached missiology to the rest of the world. I'm really excited about this class. As a broadcast journalist major in college, and sports broadcaster for seven years in Denver, I know what is going on through the minds' of people in the media industry. Critically dissecting what happens to our audience culturally will be interesting - especially because these types of discussions don't happen often (or ever) from the "producers" point of view. The biggest question is: What will audiences like? Anyway, I know there is more to the class than media, but I've got some big anticipation for that section!