In a lecture the other week a student asked me in a lecture whether I felt any pressure to write blog entries. Did I feel incomplete or stressed if I hadn’t posted anything for a day or so? My answer was, in good lecturer fence-sitting style, “yes” and “no”.

I don’t think that I need to post things in order to be. Sometimes I read blogs and think that the person is simply filling in the gaps to prove to others and themselves that they still exist – “I blog therefore I am.” So, if like for the last week, life is such that posting is inconvenient or impossible then I don’t lose (too much) sleep over my blog just lying here in cyberspace.

On the other hand blogging helps me collate information and ideas as I come across them. It’s like a diary or journal (my first blog was called “Web Wanderings”, a travelogue). The danger being that you can hang yourself out far more publically than in a diary.

When Paul talks of “praying without ceasing” I imagine that has a lot in common with blogging. In fact prayer might be thought of “blogging with God”. Daily ramblings, concerns, joys, hopes, disappointments all written on a divine web log. With space of course for a comments field

Maybe I should be more concerned when that blog has no entries for a few days.

“Technology is the knack of so ordering the world that we don’t have to experience it.” (Kim Stanley Robinson, The Martians)

Newsgaming.com is a group based in Uruguay producing video games with a political edge. They argue that the medium is useful for communicating and exploring issues based on current events.

Certainly their September 12th game is disturbing, with its exploration of collateral damage in the war against terror.

When I wrote up my masters thesis (a long time ago) I had a JRR Tolkien calendar on the wall. The picture for the hardest and darkest month was of Frodo and Sam at the top of the cliff in the dark wondering how to get down. Recently I’ve found Dave Pritchard’s Lord of the Rings: an allegory of the PhD?

It begins

The story starts with Frodo: a young hobbit, quite bright, a bit dissatisfied with what he’s learnt so far and with his mates back home who just seem to want to get jobs and settle down and drink beer. He’s also very much in awe of his tutor and mentor, the very senior professor Gandalf, so when Gandalf suggests he take on a short project for him (carrying the Ring to Rivendell), he agrees.
(see link for the rest)

If we follow the plot so far I’ve made it to Rivendell. Only the hard stuff to go.

The Dept. of Theology at the University of Birmingham, UK have a useful web portal to

a range of web resources that are relevant to the study of religion, theology and popular culture. Some of these websites are for academic journals, or for research projects based in academic institutions. Other sites are aimed at a more popular audience, but can be useful sources of information and can illustrate how religious groups interact with different forms of popular culture.

You can find it at: Theology and Popular Culture Gateway

Saw this the other day. I’ve been thinking (& lecturing) about the imago Dei recently and its implications for humanities relationship with the world and this seemed helpful possibility if they finish it. And it has an Antipodean flavour.

From their web site at: Earth Bible

The basic aims of the Earth Bible Project are to

1. develop ecojustice principles appropriate to an earth hermeneutic for interpreting the Bible and for promoting justice and healing of Earth;
2. publish these interpretations as contributions to the current debate on ecology, ecoethics and ecotheology;
3. provide a responsible forum within which the suppressed voice of Earth may be heard and impulses for healing Earth may be generated.”

Been finishing off my poster presentation for Auckland Uni’s Exposure03 event next week which has been hard work. There’s nothing like trying to take your theology into the marketplace to get you reexamining your assumptions and how you present it to a different audience. How will it stand up against medicine, science, engineering, law and arts presentations? Should I even be concerned about that and just let it stand on its own merits? I think they’re important.

Typically posters have the scientific: aim, method, results (graphs etc.), conclusions model. Works well if you’re into experiments – does not work well if you spend most of your time reading dead theologians etc.

Will post a copy of the poster when it’s done.

Back to the lecture prep.