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.