Greenflame

Jottings on science, religion, technology, pop culture, photography and faith from the Aotearoa New Zealand

  • Architects parse out what makes holy spaces holy

    Saw this the other day in the paper edition of the Science & Theology News that I get.

    The connection between design and devotion is under study by a group of clerics, neuroscientists and architects who are trying to understand how the mind reacts to the sensations of entering a house of worship. The result, they hope, will be better designs that enhance the meeting of the sacred and earthly.

    I’d like to read their final report sometime.

    Full article at: Science & Theology News – Architects parse out what makes holy spaces holy

  • Wirth a Rite-of-Passage…

    Interesting post over at Paradoxology: Without a Rite-of-Passage….

  • The perils of education

    Some days it seems just like this – Calvin and Hobbes — 21-09-1993.

  • Would you like your genes tested with that…?

    A year or so ago I blogged about Greenflame: Genetics with some links to a couple of genetics resources I’d found (including a Gattaca study guide). Now it looks like we’re a lot closer to the Gattaca scenario than we were then. Check out Wired News: Quick Read on Your Genetics.

    Thanks to Andii at Nouslife: Gattacca is nearly here for pointing it out.

  • Theologians as word-painters

    I’m skimming through Stanley Grenz’ The Social God and the Relational Self and came across the following in a section where he’s talking about metaphorical language (especially with respect to Sallie McFague’s writing).

    The acknowledgment that theological language is metaphorical alters our understanding of the task of the theologian. Rather than a scientist who discovers truths about God waiting to be discerned, the theologian is a poet who crafts meaningful pictures about our world and our relationship to the transcendent.

    In effect, the theologian becomes, or is, a storyteller painting word pictures. Though why stop only with the medium of words?

  • Nouse – nose-operated mouse

    Seen at: Inventor sniffs out nose-operated mouse | Tech News on ZDNet. (More details there)

    Dmitry Gorodnichy, an inventor from the Institute of Information Technology in Ottawa, has developed a computer navigation system that relies on the movements of a user’s nose to direct a cursor, New Scientist reported on Wednesday.

    For good measure, a simple blink of the right or left eye corresponds to the right or left click of a mouse button, the magazine said.

  • Emergent systems & the church

    I was reading the article “Complexity Theory as Model and Metaphor for the Church” by David A. Wollert yesterday and the following paragraph stood out.

    Unlike passive components, such as water molecules, human beings presumably can direct their own interactions. Thus the connectivity of “the church” itself is a dynamic process and not a static map. How we interact with one another becomes one of the defining features in an emergent systems view of the church. If we isolate ourselves, then the church will tend toward a static or fixed attractor; if we interact with everything around us, then the church will tend to become chaotic and overextended to the point of failure. Maintaining an optimum autopoietic state requires an adaptive form of connectivity, sufficiently self-contained to maintain stability and individuality, yet suffuciently responsive to the world to benefit from the synergy of working together. In the jargon of complexity theory, the church must exist at “the edge of chaos.”

    I like the idea of existing at “the edge of chaos” – resonates for me with thoughts Steve had at KB04 about standing on the foreshore before the chaotic sea.

    (I’m also preparing some lecture notes on the Trinity so thoughts about integration, codependency, identity, structured dynamism & personhood also spring to mind).

    For those who are interested the full reference to the paper is:

    Wollert, David A. “Complexity Theory as Model and Metaphor for the Church,” Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 56:1 55-59, M 2004.

  • Cool NZ Photos

    I was looking for NZ images of the sea and land for the KB04 presentations and I came across this site: New Zealand Photos and Images by Vonnagy.

    Some really nice photos of NZ – including some local Waitakere ones – AND you can download them and use them for free. (If you use them on your web site then he asks that you add a link back to his site).

    The images are fairly small (600×400) but don’t have any watermarks etc. Also if you want a higher resolution image – say for a print – you can obtain one from him too.

  • KB04

    Kingdom Builders 04 finished yesterday and Steve and I wrapped up the “Theology and Real Life” stream looking at Jesus and technology. Over the past three days we’d run sessions on Jesus & the environment, Jesus and the foreshore, and Jesus and technology using Karl Barth’s quote “Tell me your Christology, and I’ll tell you who you are” to weave them together.

    It was good to work with Steve and see him in action. His presentation on the foreshore issue here in NZ, where he worked strands of exclusion & embrace, theologies of land and place, and meeting Christ on the foreshore, was outstanding in my opinion. Hopefully it will see publication at some point in the near future.

    I learnt a lot in the process about collaboration, presenting outside of the “ivory tower” and also about myself and how I cope (or don’t cope) with stress. (Big “thumbs up” to Kim and Steve there.)

  • New Zealand Electronic Poetry Centre

    Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!
    Go to the nzepc – new zealand electronic poetry centre.
    Enjoy.
    Have a look at nzepc – 12 Taonga – Whetu Moana under the Features section.
    (Here be text and sound recordings).