July 2007

Firstly, a (mini) colloquium on Media and Religious Authority on Tuesday, which included some of the Virtual Theology colloquium participants from a while back, along with Heidi Campbell. A good time to catch up with people, to meet Heidi in person for the first time, and to start to thrash out some ideas I’m interested in relating to various dimensions of religious authority in comic book and graphic novel genres.

More about it at:

• SansBlogue: Media and Religious Authority
• fishers, surfers and casters » Virtual Theology Colloquium
• When Religion Meets New Media: Media and Religious Authority Colloquium

Then Friday and Saturday I participated in the Metanexus/Tyndale-Carey sponsored conference New Perspectives in Science and Theology. Heidi (The Technologized Other: Considering the Posthuman and Prophetic Technorealism) and I (Image-bearing cyborgs?) were the opening speakers on Friday, and I got some good questions and comments after my talk (and over the weekend) that will help to shape a few areas that need tighter definition and reflection. And gave me some ideas for at least one other paper to write.

And that’s what I like about presenting at things like the two events this week. It gives you a chance to start a conversation about your work, and to make connections to other work that you haven’t made before. Doesn’t always make answering the questions being asked any easier though

A related link as I toss around some ideas about comic books, graphic novels and religious authority. See Bird, Plane or SuperMensch? Jews and Superheroes Share a Rich History on Wired’s site which interviews Danny Fingeroth, author of “Superman on the Couch: What Superheroes Really Tell Us About Ourselves and Our Society” and “Disguised As Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, And the Creation of the Superhero”.

A recent article in La Civilta Cattolica by Jesuit Antonio Spadaro argues for Catholics to consider virtual worlds, such as Second Life, as potential mission fields.

See:
Catholics urged to save virtual souls too - Stuff.co.nz
FT.com : Gospel 2.0: Jesuits move into Second Life:

You can read the article abstract here (in Italian) and here (via Google translation).

Links to a couple of images I saw recently on Mondolithic Studios’ web site.

Different Futures. The choices we make now affect those who follow.

Dark Energy. Resonates for me with William Blake’s lines from ‘Auguries of Innocence’, as well as with the dreams of the nanotechnologists.

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

Related stuff - Mondolithic search results on Greenflame.

A list of 74 Comic Book Adaptation Movies since 1978 rated by box office takings.

How many of you knew that movies like “Road to Perdition” started off as comic books?

In my wanderings around the net a while back I came across this issue of Theological Education which looks at the role/impact of digital technology upon theological education. Looks like a helpful selection of articles.

See Theological Education 41/1 (2005)

Related links:

• Greenflame · Technology and Theological Education
• Greenflame · New media literacies and collaborative work in academia and ministry

The University of Otago’s Centre for Theology and Public Issues moves closer to reality with the advertisement for the Howard Paterson Chair in Theology and Public Issues and Director of the Centre for Theology and Public Issues.

The position is aimed at “a scholar with a distinguished record of international research publications and teaching experience in the area of Theology and Public Issues, Public Theology, Christian Ethics or Applied Theology”, which rules out the likes of newbies like me. But one day, perhaps.

In any event, it should start to put public theology on the agenda in NZ (and start more conversations and opportunities in that area).

Hard-bound and digital copies of PhD thesis lodged with university. Roll on graduation in September.

Thesis submission process went something like this:

1. Thesis submitted early January 2007 (still 2006 academic year).
2. Oral defense late May 2007.
3. Official notification of defense results early June.
4. Modifications to made received mid-June.
5. Sign off on modifications mid-July.
6. Hard-bound and digital copies submitted 20 July.
7. Assuming bureaucracy’s wheels turn, graduation 27 September.

The process has seemed as grueling at times as actually writing the thesis. But now, there’s nothing left in my hands. Quite an odd feeling after 4-5 years of living with the thesis always in the background.

Related link: PHD Comics: Now what?

I’ve thought about putting Skype on the iBook and wondered about Mac-compatible hardware to support it - yelling at the laptop didn’t seem ideal. But really had no idea where to start. I’ve found in the past that quite a few USB devices (speakers, keyboards etc,) do work in Mac OS X but the boxes never say that because it’s unsupported. However TidBITS (which I’ve been reading since it used to be distributed as HyperCard stacks) has a recent, helpful breakdown here of some options.

See TidBITS: Choosing Mac-Compatible Skype Hardware.

Blog statistics. Some people admit to looking at them, others won’t (even though we know they do :-)) For some they can become the all-consuming passion - especially if you’re trying to monetarize your blog.

Lorelle on Wordpress has a very useful page that collects together the various different plugins and schemes for WordPress that collect statistic. See Counting WordPress: Statistics WordPress Plugins « Lorelle on WordPress.

I’ve been wondering for a while how many words I’ve written each year, and now I can find out.

Want a Jesus action figure? Or a Samson or a Goliath? One2believe, a company that designs ‘Bible-based toys for young children’ is set to sell them through Wal-Mart as the latter pushes into the faith-based market. (More at delawareonline ¦ The News Journal, Wilmington, Del. ¦ Wal-Mart to sell religious toys).

Seen as producing faith based alternatives to Bratz dolls and Spider-Man action figures you can get a glimpse of what they’re making below. Personally, I’d think a Bratz doll or similar might make a better Delilah than the one in the boxed set.

Buying Jesus from Wal-Mart. I’m just sitting here thinking about the implications.

Hat tip to Fred Clark at slacktivist

John highlights a Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity seminar looking at biotech. See microclesia Blog Archive » Re-Engineering.

While, Wired has Wired Science - Wired Blogs - In Freeman Dyson’s Biotech Utopia, Say Goodbye to Darwinian Evolution which links to the (badly formatted) interview Freeman Dyson’s Brain.

Radio New Zealand National : Programmes A-Z : Nine to Noon : Wed, 18 July had an interesting section from their employment lawyer Andrew Scott-Howman on employers and potential employers using information available on employees (and potential employees) on social networking sites. Audio link here.

This looks interesting. Peter’s always an engaging speaker.

From an email received the other day

Epsom Centennial Lectures

A series of three free public lectures at Epsom Baptist Church, 4 Inverary Ave, Epsom.

The Church’s Place in NZ Society

19 July 7.30pm ‘Yesterday’
What New Zealand society looked like around 100 years ago and what place the church held in it.

26 July 7.30pm ‘Today’
The present place of the church in the wider New Zealand society

2 August 7.30pm ‘Tomorrow’
What the church’s place in New Zealand society is likely to be in the future.

Our guest speaker Peter Lineham is a fascinating speaker and renowned scholar whose interests cover a range of subject areas that can loosely be categorised under history and/or religion. He is widely published and his opinion is sought after throughout New Zealand and internationally on the topics of which he is an authority. These largely focus on the religious history of New Zealand but also on 18th and 19th century English religious history. Peter is Associate Professor of History and Head of the School of Social and Cultural Studies at Massey University Auckland Campus. His published work includes ‘There we found Brethren’, ‘No Ordinary Union’, ‘Bible and Society’ and ‘Transplanted Christianity.’

Enquires phone 630 6010 Email epsombaptist@clear.net.nz

Related links:

• Epsom Baptist Church
• Greenflame · Change of position on religion in schools guidelines - has link to Peter Lineham and Allan Davidson’s work in NZ religious history.
• Associate Professor Peter Lineham, School of Social & Cultural Studies, Massey University, Auckland
• Peter’s Web Page

Books on the go at the moment.

Writing at the Edge of the Universe

Published by Canterbury University Press (2003), it’s a collection of essays, interviews, reflections and talks from the ‘Creative Writing in New Zealand’ Conference. Covers everything from politics, young adults fiction, comics, hypertext, and definitions of ‘cultural’ within the NZ writing scene. Something to dip into every now and then.

Spin Control by Chris Moriarty

A mix of technology, religion and politics set in a posthuman future. Has a short bibliography of material relating to emergence, transhumanism, and social evolutionism. Oh, and lots of stuff about ants. If only my thesis read as well.

The Worthing Saga by Orson Scott Card

Finally got around to reading this collection of Card’s older science fiction material. Some interesting material relating to theodicy, suffering, pain, human perseverance, and free will, together with other observations about the technological quest for immortality.

For Everyone Concerned by Damien Wilkins (2007)

The most recent collection of short works by Wilkins, much of which is set in Wellington. I grabbed the library’s copy and found it a mixed bag (as with most collections like this). I loved the short story “Reunion” set in Wellington Library though.

Article in the NZ Herald notes that it’s illegal to borrow material from some public libraries if you have a communicable disease. More details at Law bans sick book borrowers - 15 Jul 2007 - NZ Herald: New Zealand National news.

Right up there with the recent segment on Radio NZ National’s This Way Up, where they sent a keyboard in to the lab to see what was living under the keys.

Tim Bulkeley’s on the lookout for people interested in religion and media.

Calling Auckland Bloggers! or Media and Religion scholars?
Heidi Campbell (Texas A & M) author of When Religion Meets New Media (Routledge) and the blog “When Religion Meets New Media” if there are bloggers in the Auckland vicinity who would be interested in a face to face get together to meet Heidi and each other on the evening of the 24th please contact me (Tim) by email or phone 526 0344 with your contact details. We will be having a sort of semi-colloquium on Media and Religious Authority that day (hopefully with virtual participants as well as physical ones - if you are an academic and interested in this topic please also contact me!) and a quiet chat with a wider group could be a good way to finish the day.

Contact him on the phone no. above or follow the link SansBlogue: Calling Auckland Bloggers! or Media and Religion scholars?

Received a copy of The Manga Bible - Raw in the post this week via Conrad.

The artwork falls within animé genre, though with Western influences - think Ghost in the Shell imagery, rather than the large-eyed young girl and boy Pokémon style - and is particularly effective, I think, in conveying both the humanity and divinity of Christ. Elements of it reminded me of the various different Star Wars comics from Dark Horse (e.g. Star Wars Clone Wars anime stuff ). You can download some sample spreads from The Manga Bible web site download area to get an idea of the style.

The (relatively) brief volume covers a considered sampling of the New Testament - some Gospel accounts, bits from the Book of Acts, Revelation and parts of the Epistles. I found the latter particularly engaging. Taking the biographical, narrative and apocalyptic accounts of the NT and turning them into sequential art would seem to me to be easier than translating the various letters. But the bits from the Roman, Corinithian and Galatian correspondence are good, bringing the historical context of their writing and human figures into play with the issues being dealt with.

In an interview at the end of the book that artist, Siku, comments, “I don’t just see God as a shining light thing. I also see him as a dark, brooding force. I’ve tried to inject that into how I see Jesus.” Very much there is a sense (apophatic even) that God here is far more powerful and unknowable that the brief glimpse we get in the Jesus of the gospels - that for finite human beings, the infinite God is also totally other from us, as well as human flesh and blood in Jesus.

You can listen to the interview here and download the PDF of it here.

As I’ve mentioned before, it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but my 9 and 11-year old sons expressed an interest in it, which may indicate a demographic that it would connect with. (There’s a set of youth group studies that uses TMB here.) I’ll pass my copy around to different people to see what reactions it gets. On the whole though, I’m impressed with it (in spite of not really being a real manga enthusiast). I’m looking forward to the Old Testament edition coming out soon.

Related links:

Greenflame · The Bible - Graphic interpretations

Superman beware, kryptonite is real - Natural History Museum.

The first volume of the Wikiklesia Project - Voices of the Virtual World: Participative Technology and the Ecclesial Revolution - is scheduled for release on July 23, 2007. It’s a collection of reflections and essays by around 40 contributors looking at relationships between emerging (digital) technologies, spirituality, and the church.

You can find a press release here at: Wikiklesia Project: Press Release - Wikiklesia: Book One.

Voices of the Virtual World explores the growing influence of technology on the global Christian church. In this premier volume, we hear from more than forty voices, including technologists and theologians, entrepreneurs and pastors… from a progressive Episcopalian techno-monk to a leading Mennonite professor… from a tech-savvy mobile missionary to a corporate anthropologist whom Worth Magazine calls “one of Wall Street’s 25 Smartest Players.” Voices is a far reaching exploration of spiritual journey contextualized within a culture of increasingly immersive technology.

You can see the list of chapter titles and contributors (including me) at Wikiklesia Project: Chapter Titles.

The volume will be released initially as a eBook, followed by a printed edition at a later date.

All proceeds from the Wikiklesia Project will be contributed to the Not For Sale campaign.

More on the Wikiklesia Project at: Wikiklesia Project: About

Thanks to John La Grou and Len Hjalmarson for getting the experiment off the ground.

Brief summary article ScienceDaily: Who Should ‘Own’ Genetic Information? points to the British Medical Journal news release Should families own genetic information? Yes — Lucassen 335 (7609): 22 — BMJ.

That article in turn points to two journal articles that argue for different sides of that discussion - one in favour of families and the other in favour of the individual. You can find them at:

• Genetic information: a joint account? — Parker and Lucassen 329 (7458): 165 — BMJ - favours joint ownership.
• Should families own genetic information? No — Clarke 335 (7609): 23 — BMJ - favours private and personal to the individual concerned.

If I can find a decent polling plug-in or widget for the blog I might turn this into a poll.

In spite of all the hype around robots and the ‘eschatological’ dreams connected to things like the transhumanist singularity, this robotic application actually looks useful. See Using a Robot to Teach Human Social Skills.

Related link: MIT - Robotic Life - The Huggable: A Robotic Companion for Therapeudic Applications

When I tell people that I work at the intersection of theology and technology I often get these sorts of comments:

• How should we get PowerPoint into our worship?
• So, at the end of all of this study you’re going to build web sites for Jesus?
• Our church/organization needs a web site, what do you recommend?
• What do you think about EFT-POS machines for offerings and donations?
• How can I set up a prayer e-mailing lists?
• How might we computerize church membership management?
• What media and internet technologies are best for marketing, teaching, evangelizing…?
• Other stuff about online shops, blogs, and wireless internet in church

There are a lot more comments and questions, but each of these come up fairly regularly. What I find is often missing in the discussion that follows about technological application within the church environment is a sense of context. There is the underlying assumption that the use of these sorts of (digital) technologies in inherently good, or at least something that needs to be done in order to keep up with the world around us. Reflection upon the nature and role of the church and its call to worship intersects with these technologies doesn’t seem to be on the agenda at all.

The Powerpoint comment is a good example. If presentation software and other audio-visual material used in worship, then I think that important questions that need to be asked include: how does its presence in the worship environment change that environment? What are the ongoing positive and negative effects of reshaping how the people of God structure and represent their worship of God using digital technology? And how is a community’s underlying ecclesiology shaped by the changes?

Certainly, the introduction of printed material into the local church, such as hymn books and pew bibles, reshapes people behave in worship. Likewise, changes in the musical environment reshape what things are considered essential to the heart of a worshipping community. How so then digital media? (I’m still searching for the definitive article that reviews how the overhead projector reshaped Christian worship.)

What is missing, I think, in much of the adoption of digital media in church worship context (which conveys messages through both content and style), is the critical application of that technology. Sometimes digital technologies like presentation software are an extremely powerful and helpful tool within the worship context. At other times they aren’t. For example, sometimes a notice, event or sermon example can be illustrated well using a video clip, and at other times the flesh and blood testimony of a person involved might be best. Discerning the appropriate time to use these different media and modes isn’t always present, though.

Following a link off swords to plowshares I came to the following article in The Christian Century (July 25, 2006) about just these sorts of questions.

See The Christian Century - PowerPointless: Video screens in worship by Debra Dean Murphy. She comments,

And so questions beg to be asked. In regard to the increasing use of PowerPoint in churches of all shapes and sizes it is worth pondering: What understanding of the purpose of worship does it assume? What are the personal and communal tendencies it encourages? What sort of culture does it create? What kind of people does it produce? If Christians believe that the church and the worship it offers to God ought in some ways to counter the norms and practices of the surrounding culture, then what does it mean that after spending so much of our time each week in front of computer monitors, cell phones, and sports bar TVs, we come to church on Sunday and happily position ourselves in front of the biggest screen of all?

Like Murphy in her paper, I’d like to see the technologists and those wise in worship leading to be working together in this. The critical and theological understanding of those who seek to bring the people of God into a place and attitude of worship combined with technological aptitude seeking glorify God.

I’m not against the use of digital technologies in worship and the church, just the assumption they’re inherently good, and their uncritical application.

Related links:

• Greenflame · Presentation software and rules
• Greenflame · PowerPoint Is Good/Evil

Got flicked the link to this the other day. The programme and keynote speakers aren’t there yet, but it looks like an interesting conference with potential for interaction between religious ideas of wellbeing and biotechnology.

See New Zealand Bioethics Conference: Wellbeing and Technology

The School of Theology at the University of Auckland is advertising for a Biblical Studies lecturer with specialisation in Hebrew Bible. So, if you’re an Old/First Testament kind of person, you dream in Hebrew, and you want an Antipodean lifestyle, now’s your chance.

See Current Vacancies - The University of Auckland - Lecturer in Biblical Studies (A479-07I).

Ah, the choices we make. I was really torn between Old Testament and Christian Thought and History in my studies. I’d done all the OT BD papers available (including the Hebrew options for Psalms and Pentateuch). Opted for theology, and now all the jobs around seem to be in OT. B*gger.

Still, managed to do a theology thesis relating to the imago Dei that had a chunk of OT exegesis behind it, and the ‘Eighth Century Prophets’ paper I did significantly informed social justice aspects in the thesis, too.

A selection of links that intersect around the role of new media in educational environments. Henry Jenkins has an essay (in two parts) that looks at the tension between participatory media and traditional educational models, and in particular emphasises the critical application of the following skill set:

1. Collective Intelligence — the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others towards a common goal.
2. Judgment — the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information source.
3. Networking — the ability to search for, synthesize and disseminate information.
4. Negotiation — the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative sets of norms.

See:

• Confessions of an Aca/Fan: The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins: WHAT WIKIPEDIA CAN TEACH US ABOUT THE NEW MEDIA LITERACIES (PART ONE)
• Confessions of an Aca/Fan: The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins: WHAT WIKIPEDIA CAN TEACH US ABOUT THE NEW MEDIA LITERACIES (PART TWO)

Connected to this, is Mary Hess’ post about a review of her book on theological education promoting this type of critical engagement with new media by teachers and students. See:

• Tensegrities » Struggling to respond… and Tensegrities » A response to a review
• Tensegrities » Teaching/learning in theological education

Then AKMA has this post on reflecting on a meeting to discuss related matters - AKMA’s Random Thoughts - Retrospect and Prospect.

And then Tim chimes in with this post (connected to AKMA’s) - SansBlogue: Bible, Babel and Web 2.0. (Some long comments there - including some from Mark which he refers to here: E-BCNZer: Brighouse - “On Education”).

The integration of digital technologies, with existing pedagogues and technologies, will be here for a while yet. I know that I’ve found it frustrating as both a student and teacher that the roles I’m being trained for/are training people for are collaborative - they stand or fall based upon healthy, dynamic relationships (both in IT and religion) - and yet the systems promote individualism (for assessment particularly) and work to stamp out collaborative efforts (it’s called cheating). Intellectual property discussions (esp. academic ones) also connect here. There must be a better way.

Following on from her blog post a while back about Lost (Greenflame · Lynn Schofield Clark on LOST), Lynn Schofield Clark’s published a recent interview in anticipation of the new Harry Potter movie and religious/spiritual themes with the Potter books.

See Lynn Schofield Clark - Harry Potter and Religion.

I’ve read most of the Harry Potter books. Some I enjoyed, others I thought dragged, needed shortening and some tighter editing. One thing that has consistently struck me is the ‘ends justifies the means’ approach that the protagonists often take. Provided you’re working for the greater good, then it’s okay to lie, steal, cheat etc. to get there. Just makes me a little uncomfortable with holding up the main characters as moral role models that happens from time to time.

Anyway, as always, some related links:

Damaris have a variety of bits and pieces - some explicitly relating to Harry Potter and others intersecting with it in relation to other authors and topics. Typically it’s in their Culture Watch section.

Grove Books have several related resources. See S 79 Harry Potter and the Meaning of Life, S 77 Spirituality in Story: ‘Of Lions, Rats, Wizards, and Lawyers’, and Ev 59 Faith and Film: Close Encounters of an Evangelistic Kind.

Playing around with the news feeds for the site. Should be no hassles, but let me know if there are.

The NZ Herald carried this piece in their religion and beliefs section yesterday looking at how mainstream (mostly Anglican) churches are responding with an increased environmental awareness. See Churches see their mission to care for creation - 02 Jul 2007 - Religion and beliefs news - NZ Herald.

Related links:

• The Social Justice Commission of the Anglican Church
• Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand // Media: CASI election resources 2005 - Sustainability
• Bishops warn on global warming - 05 Apr 2006 - Religion and beliefs news - NZ Herald
• A Rocha (New Zealand/Aotearoa Initiative Group)
• Creation Care (NZ)
• Methodist: Touchstone: Parish examines water use
• Methodist: Touchstone: World Environment Day
• e~mergent kiwi: earth day: where are the christians?
• Greenflame · Environment