August 2004

Yesterday was the last day of the soccer season for two of my boys. A couple of convincing victories and an end of season party to round it off. Boots put away, soccer strip washed and shin pads retired.

This afternoon the cricket gear came out. The pitch was a little moist (as in very wet and muddy) but for a while the afternoon was frequently interspersed with balls hitting the roof of the house. Bowling in gumboots slows the bowlers approach run apparently and the ball “sticks” to the pitch meaning bouncers are about knee high.

Still with the Black Caps to be playing soon (XTRAMSN: Sport: Cricket: Black Caps ICC Trophy Squad Named) it was only a matter of time before cricket was back on the menu. (Unless you live in the snow-bound south).

Looks interesting.

Once you get into the flow of things, you’re always haunted by the way that things could have turned out. This outcome, that conclusion. You get my drift. The uncertainty is what holds the story together, and that’s what I’m going to talk about.

Rhythm Science - The MIT Press by Paul D. Millar (aka Dj Spooky that Subliminal Kid).

The sessions on “Real World Theology” (Stream F) I’m team-teaching with Steve Taylor at the Auckland incarnation of Kingdom Builders 04 are rapidly approaching.

Title in the programme: Theology & Real Life - Applying Jesus to the environment, the foreshore and the information superhighway.

For me it’s both an opportunity and a challenge to take themes like creation, the Trinity and eschatology (Christian hope and end times thought) that I work with in my research and academic teaching and connect them with everyday issues. (Not that I don’t do that in my research and teaching but the emphases are tailored for a different environment).

The challenge here for me is not just to make theology relevant to everyday believers but to encourage them to reflect upon their faith and how it interacts with the real world. To go away looking at the world with altered (and hopefully more Christ-like) vision.

I’m also enjoying learning about collaboration at a distance on a project - something that will become more common for me in the years ahead I think. Nice to work with Steve in particular on a project and learn stuff from him as well.

Anyway, Steve and I do our thing here in Auckland on Sept 9, 10 & 11 (and Steve’s doing a stream on “Future Church” at Christchurch KB04 earlier that week with Kevin Ward).

And yes, I know “information superhighway” is so very nineties. Maybe I should have chosen “blogging” instead.

Some editorial comment on the “Enough is Enough!” march from Dave over at Big News. I’d missed the coverage so the links through to different sites and photos were useful.

Still processing all the different thoughts the images and comments have thrown up.

AKMA runs into problems accessing his library’s free WiFi connection from outside the building. Apparently some think that’s a Fedaral felony. See: AKMA’s Random Thoughts: So Weirdly Wrong

Nice to see “freedom” at work.
More here too: AKMA’s Random Thoughts: For Clarity’s Sake

RAILhead Design: APOD Grabber is a cool, little Mac OS X app that gives you the ability to quickly and easily view, browse, and download images from NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day web site. It also grabs information about the picture and allows you to set the Desktop background too.

Found this excellent image of the night-time Earth today using it. See Earth at Night. You can grab the images as various resolutions but this would make an excellent poster or background.

A while back I blogged about contemporary Rites of Passage and the lack thereof perceived by some.

Now in the latest AA Directions magazine (AA as in Automobile Association) they give their list of modern Kiwi rituals including The Fishing Trip, The Car Rally, The Wedding, The Singalong, The Tattoo, The Hangi, The Match, and The Eco Rescue.

See Natural Habits - What makes us special? A look at modern kiwi rituals

Wired News: Cell Phone Users Are Finding God

Once merely a useful tool for keeping in touch on the go, the mobile phone is fast finding a new niche as an instrument of spiritual enlightenment.

Link found via: TallSkinnyKiwi: (WIRED) Cell Phone Users Are Finding God

An email today from one of the librarians I am continually indebted to pointed me to this small area of cyberspace that I have never visited before.

Subtitled “Tired of the usual liberal perspectives on the issues of the day? Then you have come to the right place…” Peter Glover’s web site www.word21.com has a couple of articles on “cyberchurch.” In particular,

The Church in Cyberspace - Going where no church has gone before? (PDF)

The Cyberchurch, The Megachurch and the Myth of New Ways of Doing Church. (PDF)

Now Glover writes polemically and at times stridently, so if you’re looking for material to support your cyberchurch/blogging venture you’re going to be disappointed (or even considered apostate). However as I tell all my students to read and talk to people with a variety of views and then form their own opinions and positions I’m posting the links here.

They’re opinion pieces from someone who is deeply concerned about the nature of the church and its relationship to cyberspace. As with any sort of empassioned piece the rhetoric and polemicism get in the way of some of the constructive questions.

Questions to do with the nature of the church and its relationship with cyberspace are relevant questions and need to be discussed with a variety of views being aired.

Updating the previous entry reminded me that the latest issue of Stimulus is out now: August 2004 - IT, culture & the Church.

Tim Bulkeley, the coordinator of “Virtual Theology”, edited this issue and it has articles in it by him, Steve Taylor, Tim Bednar and yours truly.

Some stuff appears to be online (like Nicola Hoggard-Creegan’s article) but you may need to contact them if you want to get hold of a copy outside of NZ.

There have been various threads of discussion recently in the blogosphere about the depth of blogging and its role as a medium for doing theology. (See Maggi (1) & (2), Steve (1) & (2), Dan and me (1) & (2). (As well as many others out there)

For some it represents the cutting edge of theological endeavour, for others a forum to enter into that domain for a first time, and for some it serves as a useful outlet for the “traditional” theology they do.

I’ve been asked to participate in a colloquium on “virtual theology” early next year and one of the possible topics to address is: Does the fluidity of digital media create a different world-view affecting how theology is done?

Themes such as the nature of authority, multiplicity and simultaneity of information, and virtual presence will all come up at some point.

So I watch with interest the ongoing discussion.

The colloquium is sponsored by the RJ Thompson Centre for Theological Studies here in Auckland and aims to bring a group of trans-Tasman (Australasian) scholars to explore and discuss themes related to doing theology (& related disciplines) in the context of an electronic world. The coordinator is Tim Bulkeley (who also blogs here: SansBlogue).

Seen on jonnybaker: test your political leanings a link to The Political Compass. Here you can take a quick quiz (5 minutes) and see where you lie on the socio-political spectrum (with comparisons to well-known political figures).

Connecting with the earlier post about “I, Robot” Damaris have a brief study guide to the file at: Culture Watch - I, Robot

They also have Part 3 of the interview with Douglas Coupland I’ve blogged about before too. See: Culture Watch - Interview with Douglas Coupland (Part 3)

Full article at Weblog: Fuller Prof Ordered to Leave U.S. - Christianity Today Magazine. Interpretation of what a religious professional is and the Homeland Security departments definition of “approved” seminary for employing them forces Finn Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen out of the country.

Slacktivist comments here on it as well: slacktivist: Mysterious Ways

My fieldtrips for my research often tend to be to the movies. Movies such as the Matrix trilogy, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Star Trek: Nemesis and today I, Robot serve as a source for thinking about human nature in relation to technology.

In her book on technoculture Lelia Green comments on the increasing number of contemporary narratives that are being told about machine-human interaction.

Cyborgs and science fiction form an area of popular culture which seems to have increased in importance as technology has become more integral to our cultures and our communities. This burgeoning interest in narratives about the future, and about parallel universes, may indicate a desire to understand and explore the present. In speculating about others we are also speculating about ourselves.

Furthermore she says,

Through films such as Blade Runner and The Matrix, our society tells itself stories about what it is to be human in a world where humans are increasingly influenced by, and dependent upon, technology and technocultures. Here the myths of loss and longing are played out in the context of technologically driven futures, where machines can feel feelings and have roles with more humanity in them than the �people� characters do.

I’d definitely put “I, Robot” in this category.

Issues to do with dehumanization, human-machine fusion, technological dependence, the essence of humaness, the relationships between the concepts of body, mind and soul, and the place of love all come out in this film. More so, I think, than did in the slower-paced and “deeper” “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” (though there are moments in that film that are equally provoking).

I enjoyed “I, Robot”, both as an intellectual vehicle for my research and as a story. The ending of the movie with it’s “what next?” questions leaves it open for continuing discussion. Hopefully, they don’t make a sequel.

Wired Magazine Issue 12.07 (July 2004) was themed around “Human Being 2.0″ with lots of interesting articles related to “I, Robot”.

Article seen on the AdBusters web site about Republican attempts to mobilise support for Bush directly through church groups. (CultureJammers: Onward Christian Voter)

The article comments,

It’s no surprise that Bush is counting on the religious right to put him back in office, but how far is he willing to go? And since when is it okay for churches to engage in partisan activity?

Define “partisan”? Does that mean the church cannot express a view on any issue at all. Some of Jesus’ teachings seem pretty partisan to me. The main point in the article seems to be that if you’re seen to be polically partisan you lose your tax-free charitable status. Couldn’t that be seen as a bribe?

Funny sort of a day today. Asked to speak at the School of Theology postgrad seminar on my experiences at the ANZATS conference in Melbourne last month and on participating in the uni postgrad poster expo/competion last year. Sort of felt like a “what did you do in the holidays?” school project.

This year it looks like there’ll be more scope for posters outside of the science/engineering fields so hopefully there will be more theologians out there wanting to get involved with this year’s poster expo. Got very wet going to give the talk as I had to park a long way off campus even though I’d added in extra time to find a park. Dripped my way through the talks.

Also had to complete and hand in my annual PhD review today. It was good to do - I’ve been thinking that progress is slow but when I started writing down all the stuff I’ve done (conferences, papers, expos, chapters etc.) I found it all quite encouraging.

Nice to take time to look back and get some encouragement to go forward.

Even though I’ve been busy preparing theology lectures and generally stressing out being busy recently I’ve been reading these too.

Just finished Alan Jamieson’s Journeying in Faith. To be honest I think I got more out of A Churchless Faith but as with that book the stories told by the various people interviewed were the highlight for me. I admit I found some of the middle chapters dragged a bit but the final chapter “Belonging In and Beyond the Church” will be one I will revisit. After reading it that was the section that I’d like to see expanded upon. (Triggering thoughts with Miroslav Volf’s “exclusion and embrace” motifs)

Also on the bedside table are Stephen Baxter’s Evolution and David Slack’s Bullshit, Backlash and Bleeding Hearts: A confused person’s guide to The Great Race Row. Finding both stimulating reading.

Also on the reading agenda are Evangelical Ecclesiology: Reality or Illusion? (The shift I perceive in some parts of evangelicalism away from a broad movement toward becoming a narrow “denomination” disturbs me) and The Dynamics of Human Life.

I’m in the process of reading the anthology Dark Matter : A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora edited by Sheree R. Thomas. I’m finding it both enjoyable, confusing in places and extremely challenging all at the same time. There are short stories and essays in the collection.

Derrick Bell’s short story “The Space Traders” (1992) has been my favourite so far. A story about an alien offer to the US for technology and resources to solve their financial, ecological and energy problems in exchange for all the African Americans living in the US. Some challenging material on the nature of democracy, business, government, racism, slavery and pragmatism in it.

Samuel R. Delany’s essay “Racism and Science Fiction” (1999) is an interesting read too. (Maybe this was picked up by the Star Trek Deep Space 9 episode Far Beyond the Stars)

If you have a chance track the collection down in the local library.

From David Slack’s web site a a short quiz about aspects of the Treaty of Waitangi.

See A Question of Proportion: Questionnaire.

At the end of it you can see how you rate against others who’ve done the quiz.

Finally, a chance to prove that you really are the “expert” you proclaim to be in the tea room.