View From The Basement

Put a jumper on

I while back I was teaching at Equip on how to live ethically. One of the practical suggestions I made was that instead of turning up your heating thermostat, or putting your heating on for longer, you should put on a jumper or extra layer of clothing.

You see in face of Stark warnings on climate change or James Lovelock's warnings of impending doom, we often feel like there's no point in even trying. I think that a poor understanding of eschatology bolsters this passive, "oh well it's all going to fry anyway" attitude. Indeed whenever I've heard a theological reason for being involved in environmental issues it's always been protological and has not considered sufficiently escatological concerns. Indeed for a theological environmentalism that propels us into action we need a robust understanding of both the protological "mandate" (I dislike the mandate term but it will do for brevity) and the escatological.

My understanding of the New Creation is firmly rooted in the resurrection of Jesus. Just as there was both discontinuity and continuity between the risen and pre-risen Lord, so there will be a discontinuity and continuity between the world now and the new creation. This means that I don't subscribe to a New Creation ex nihilo but a New Creation as transformatio mundi.

Now God is not limited in this transformatio mundi by the brokenness of the present world, but as beings made in his image, as his co-workers, as Sons of God described in Romans 8 we have a part to play in this transformation now.

So turn your heating down and put on a jumper!

Team Game 1

I'm always on the look out for team games that actually work. At the Friday night youth club we tried one which actually worked! The kids seemed to really get into it especially when we started to get them to race each other.

So here's what you do. Get everyone to form a circle and then hold hands. Get a plastic hula hoop and place it over some ones arm. The group then has to pass the hoop around the circle with out letting go of each others hands. Once they have this basic idea then you can introduce variations. Split the group up into different groups, add a second smaller hoop that has to go the opposite direction.

Euro 2008

The draw for Euro 2008 took place today with Scotland being drawn in group B. As soon as the Faroe Islands were drawn out in this group the commentator said "well we know what group Scotland will be in", and well he was right!

Our other opponents are, France, Italy, Ukraine, Lithuania and Georgia. On a positive note, given that we tend to do better against "top" opposition perhaps we'll do alright in this group, or is that just me doing some wishful thinking.

Burns night

So we celebrated Burns night last night by eating Haggis, Neeps and Taties. I'm not actually much of a fan of Robert Burns, but I'll take any excuse to eat some haggis.

Quote on the door

The quote on my office door this week is,

"man only knows who he is in the light of God"

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Christology

Knickers in a twist

I don’t know if I’m getting my knickers in a twist over nothing on this one, so I thought I’d post it and see what others think.

At worship this morning the background to one of the power point slides for the song words was the Labarum.

For me this is such a tainted symbol that I’m not very comfortable with it being used in Christian worship. It among other things symbolizes, (by its very use by Constantine) the fusion of Church and State and the birth of Christendom.

Now, no offence to any Anglicans or Catholics out there, but as a Baptist worshiping in a Baptist congregation I believe in the separation of church and state. So what are we doing using this symbol which celebrates the fusing together of these two into one, in a Baptist church?

Secondly, as a symbol of Constantine’s march on Milvian and subsequently Christendom, it is a symbol of conquest. I’m uncomfortable with an often over simplistic adoption of OT conquest and military motifs into our Christian Spirituality, our ecclesiology and missiology. The problem with Christendom is that it tends to be not very Christ-like.

I’ll leave further comment on conquest and military motifs for another post. However, for just now I’ll say that the example Jesus left us was that of servant hood not domination.

So am I getting my knickers in a twist over nothing? (NB for readers outside the UK, “knickers in a twist” is a common saying here for getting worked up about something).

Is blogging dying?

Is blogging dying? Around Christmas time / New Year I read several blogs where the author's were either communicating that they were giving up or thinking about giving up. Indeed many of the blogs I first started reading are now dead, or are not updated as regularly as they once were.

The Stats, however would suggest otherwise, that the blogsphere continues to grow at an astonishing rate. About 70,000 blogs are created each day with 33,000 posts published an hour. That said many blogs once started are never maintained, and for many others it is just a passing fad.

I think what is happening is that as we become more experienced in using this format for conversing / publishing so we become more aware of it's positives and negatives. Doug Pagitt is keeping his blog but no longer believes that it's a healthy place to share ideas. He argues that it's too easy for people to take what you say the wrong way, misquote you or just abuse the whole thing. I hear what he says and think for guys like Doug who have a national leadership profile being misquoted can be rather dangerous. For those of us who don't have Doug's profile then perhaps this is not such a problem.

We do however need to remember that the blogsphere is a public space, and the same caution should be taken in what we share as for any other public space. I don't, won't (is that can't) share all I'm thinking about here because there are people i know in real life who would perhaps be offended or misunderstand me. One friend tried to get around this by starting a blog in which he did not give away his name. He wanted a "space" where he could think aloud and receive comments. However it did not take long for other people to work out who he is in real life, so bang went his anonymity!

For me personally overall blogging has been healthy. I've met people whom I probably would not have met otherwise and this has enriched my life. It's also deepend relationships with people who I know in real life as they are able to eaves drop on what I'm thinking or doing.

Adicted to Diet Coke

I've cut Diet Coke out of what I drink and man do I have one sore head! Now I know it's partly due to my sinuses being stuffed up, but I know my body well enough to know that it's actually craving Diet Coke.

I've friends who've also cut Diet Coke from their diet and suffered "withdrawal" type symptoms as well. So what's in it that makes you crave it and if you don't have it you end up with a sore head? The answer I think is aspartame, which from the little reading I've done is not very good for you at all (to put it mildly).

Hopefully the sore heads will go in a couple of days and I'll be free from Diet Coke !

Reconciliation

Fergal Keane is Alison’s’ favorite news reporter. She likes his love of

Africa

and the passion that comes from his reporting. At Christmas I one of my presents (not from Alison) was Keanes’ autobiography.

I’ve not finished it yet, but it’s an interesting read and an enjoyable change of genre fro me. He ends his chapter on

South Africa

with the following quote which I though was worth posting;

“A commission can go some way towards establishing the truth. The writing of a ‘real’ history can create a climate of openness in which reconciliation becomes possible. But true reconciliation is a journey that happens between individuals. It cannot be ordered by the state….It may not end for generations but the point is not the destination. It is the willingness to keep moving”.

Fergal Keane “All of these people” – commenting on The Truth and Reconciliation Commission in

South Africa

.

Root of all evil (2)

I watched Root of all Evil (2) on Channel 4 last night. This was the second of two programmes in which Prof. Richard Dawkins of Oxford University evangelically attacked religion in general, Christianity in particular, in his quest to promote a rationalistic atheism and rid society of the “evil of religion”.

Steve wrote a very measured and thoughtful response to last weeks programme. I wonder, however, if Steve was to have that meal with Dawkins whither Dawkins would think that his moderate approach is merely fence sitting. Yet I think there is much wisdom in Steve’s council, after all it’s God’s kindness that leads us to repentance not the fear of judgment.

It’s a pity that Dawkins and some of those he interviewed did not grasp this central point. Again like part 1 Dawkins concentrates on the extremes be they Jewish, Christian or Muslim, and one is left wondering where he managed to find such extreme views. As a scientist surely one should base one’s findings on the norms not the extremes. Indeed when you find an extreme result, one that deviates from the norm questions have to be asked regarding why this “sample” has behaved differently from the norm. Michael Bray, friend and defender of Paul Hill who shot a doctor who ran an abortion clinic, does not represent the norm of Christianity and to try and build some hypothesis on such cases is both bad journalism and bad science.

Indeed it was interesting that Dawkins an academic of some renown did not interact with any academics of faith. It would have been interesting to see him speak with Oliver O'Donovan, Miroslav Volf, Stanley Hauerwas, NT Wright or Jurgen Moltmann. At least one of this number would have been able to correct his rather warped understanding of the part Paul played in developing a theology of atonement and Christian morality.