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.