A guest blog I have written for God52, on the subject of humility can be found here.
God52 is an exercise encouraging people to grow closer to God over 2013 through a series of challenges. Challenges, guest blogs, and more can be found here.
Monday 21 January 2013
Sunday 16 December 2012
Ultimate Concern
On the 15th of December, Sandy Hook Elementary School became the scene of one of the worst school shootings that America has ever seen; 26 people were killed, 20 of whom were children1 aged 6 of 7. Across the globe people were echoing Barack Obama’s statement that said “our
hearts are broken today”2. Naturally, like any human, my deepest
sympathies also go out to all who were, and are affected by this unbelievable
act of violence.
A vigil was held at the local church, Saint Rose of Lima, where 23 year old Agron Selmani was stood quietly outside praying. Selmani was quoted in the Guardian as saying "I'm not a regular at this church at all. I'm not even Catholic, I'm a Muslim, but it doesn't matter right now"3. In the midst of the tragedy, the community managed to come together, regardless of religion.
In a previous blog, I explored how some of Miroslav Volf's work could be seen as an attempt to unite Christians and Muslims by proposing that they could have the same God; I concluded "surely it would be more effective to refocus on the religions' ultimate concerns andpractical ways to reconcile them”4. The community managed to find something that made their religion for that period, seem irrelevant,
and unite regardless of nationality, age, or religion. This was an undeniably
horrific event; but it also can teach us more than simply what matters to us as
Christians, or Muslims, or Atheists, but rather what matters to as humans.
This is proof that in
our multi-faith society we can still find ultimate concerns that unite us, ultimate
concerns that have the power to transcend religion. I can only pray that in the
future, we can find other ways to unite without such tragedy.
-----------------------------------------
1 BBC
2 The Independent
3 Gabbatt
4 Macivor
-----------------------------------------
Bibliography
BBC, ‘Connecticut school shooting: Children among 27 killed’, BBC, 15 December 2012, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20730717
>
[accessed 16 December 2012]
Gabbat, A., ‘Newtown gunman kills 20 children in elementary
school shooting’, Guardian, 15 December
2012, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/14/newtown-shooting-gunman-kills-20-children>
[Accessed 16 December 2012]
Macivor, J., ‘God, Allah, and Volf’, Theology & the Theologian, 17 October 2012, <http://theologybyjess.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/god-allah-and-volf.html>
[accessed 16 December 2012].
Monday 3 December 2012
Should We Consider Popular Culture As A Source Of Truth?
There is much debate amongst theologians about the exact
definition or purpose of theology, however many consider it to be concerned
with seeking truth. I am going to explore whether truth can be found in popular
culture, and if so, whether it should not be sought as a source for truth
independently.
Lynch defines theology as “the process of seeking normative answers to questions of truth /
meaning, goodness / practice, evil, suffering, redemption and beauty in
specific contexts.” 1. This shows theology to be an on-going
process, implying that nothing is truly original and perhaps no conclusive answers
will be ever be found. Contrary to scholars such as Astley 2, Lynch’s
definition allows for believers and non-believers to seek answers, and thus equally
partake in the process of theology.
Lynch lists four approaches to dialogue between popular
culture and theology. Firstly, the applicationist approach, where existing
theological beliefs and values are applied to questions raised by popular
culture. Secondly, the correlational method, where questions from popular
culture are correlated to answers from theological tradition; this method allows
popular culture to set the focus. Thirdly, the revised correlational method,
where theology and popular culture can each ask and answer questions of each
other. Lastly, the praxis model which remains as open as the revised
correlational method, but critiques both theology and popular culture based on
their ability to promote liberation and well-being 3.
Lynch chooses to explore the revised correlational method as
it “recognizes that truth and goodness are not the sole possession of one
particular religious tradition or world-view” 4. This of course seems like an appealing way to
seek normative answers in a pluralistic world. There are several issues with
trying to do theology that is relevant not only for different faiths but also
different cultures. Although truth may not be the sole possession of any
particular religious tradition or world-view (considering it to be so certainly
makes inter-religious dialogue difficult), what each religious tradition or
world-view considers to be truth will vary.
The issue with truth is that it ultimately comes down to
subjective opinions. “For those who believe, no proof is necessary: for those
who do not believe, no proof is possible.” 5. For this reason those
who want to find truth in popular culture will inevitably find it, but this
does not mean it is normative for all. Lynch’s definition of theology
acknowledges that it is a process that occurs in “specific contexts” 6.
The fact that theology occurs in different contexts means that different
conclusions may be drawn; if this occurs then I personally think that the theological
validity should be decided by each faith community rather than society.
Interestingly, Lynch suggests that the revised correlational
method should be informed by the praxis model in order to encourage relevant theology
that avoids being overly abstract 7. Personally, I can’t help but
think that the praxis method is inherently biased as it places more importance
on answers that promote liberation than answers that are true. Although not
mutually exclusive, there are times when these aims may clash.
In modern society popular culture can influence and reflect
what individuals believe to be truth. This is especially apparent in young
people where popular music is “a primary, if not the primary resource” 8.
There are times when popular culture can reflect theological truths, explain
theological ideas more accessible way, raise questions that theology has not
yet fully answered, or even be a mouthpiece that challenges theology. I think
it can be beneficial for theology to be scrutinised and challenged by popular
culture. Despite this, I don’t think that theology should be led primarily by
pragmatism or the zeitgeist of the time (for further comment on pragmatism and
the church I recommend this blog by Mark Walley 9).
Clearly theological truths can be portrayed through popular
culture, often in a fresh and accessible way. However due to the ever changing nature
of society and culture I think it is irresponsible to consider popular culture
a primary source for theological pursuits of truth.
-----------------------------------------
1 Lynch, 94
2 Astley, 2
3 Lynch, 101-104
4 ibid, 105
5 Author Unknown, cited in Pafumi, 35
6 Lynch, 94
7 ibid, 106
8 Bennett, 34
9 Walley
-----------------------------------------
Bibliography
Bennett, A., Popular
Music and Youth Culture: music identity and place, Palgrave, 2000.
Lynch, G., Understanding
theology and popular culture, Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2005.
Pafumi, G. R., Is Our
Vision of God Obsolete?, Xlibris Corporation, 2010.
Walley, M., The Deceitfulness of Pragmatic Arguments, The
Grove Is On Fire, 19 November 2012, <
http://thegroveisonfire.com/2012/11/can-we-ditch-the-pragmatic.html>
[accessed 3 December 2012]
Wednesday 31 October 2012
Religion & The Media
Throughout the ages the media has
acted as both a reflector and educator of society. Centuries later, we can look
at the media of that time and make clear inferences about changing theology. Media not only reflects theology, but influences it.
Today, television provides a unique insight not previously offered; with hundreds of channels it is easy to gain insight to what others think and how they live. Television provides a unique way of “making the unfamiliar familiar”3, but questions have to be raised over whether this challenges prejudice, or if it simply enhances stereotypes? It is widely stated that sitcoms hold up a mirror to society - Susan Borowitz goes as far as to say that "the sitcom has taken the place of church, of religious training"4. If this is the case, then it is important to understand not only what are sitcoms saying about religion and society, but also how that influences audiences.
So what are sitcoms saying about religion now? According to 'Family Guys? What Sitcoms Say About America Now', for many Americans their personal faith still has the utmost importance, however there is little concern given to those who have other faiths, as long as they have a faith5.
Through looking at historic
representations of Christianity we can ascertain the views of the time1.
The BBC documentary ‘How the Devil Got
His Horns: A Diabolical Tale’ shows that when depicting the Devil, each artist would take inspiration
from previous artists' paintings. Throughout this documentary, Sooke
shows that the changing image of the devil reflected society's changing
attitude to the role and characteristics of the Devil from a beautiful angel that was a caretaker of sinners, to a horrific beast-like figure2. This shows that the media of the time can
reflect the theology of that time, and influence that which is to come.
Today, television provides a unique insight not previously offered; with hundreds of channels it is easy to gain insight to what others think and how they live. Television provides a unique way of “making the unfamiliar familiar”3, but questions have to be raised over whether this challenges prejudice, or if it simply enhances stereotypes? It is widely stated that sitcoms hold up a mirror to society - Susan Borowitz goes as far as to say that "the sitcom has taken the place of church, of religious training"4. If this is the case, then it is important to understand not only what are sitcoms saying about religion and society, but also how that influences audiences.
So what are sitcoms saying about religion now? According to 'Family Guys? What Sitcoms Say About America Now', for many Americans their personal faith still has the utmost importance, however there is little concern given to those who have other faiths, as long as they have a faith5.
Recently, there was massive uproar over
the film ‘Innocence of Muslims’, an anti-Islamic film that ridiculed the
Prophet Muhammad. Described by Peter Bradshaw from the Guardian as a "bigoted piece of poison"6, the film initiated many protests, both violent and peaceful, across the globe7. This is obviously a reckless use of the media.
I think it likely that Christians would be offended by a similar
portrayal of Jesus or the Virgin Mary. Conversely, the American TV show 'Family Guy' unashamedly pokes fun at any
religion (and for that matter any race, gender, or sexual orientation)8. Naturally, some find Family Guy insulting, but it remains incredibly popular, especially in God-fearing America. Somehow, Family Guy manages to strike a humorous
and apparently appropriate balance.
The media has a strong responsibility
when it comes to religion. What content is approved for broadcast seems to depend largely on
the zeitgeist of the time. However much we can learn from the past, we must
acknowledge that society is ever changing; “We live out our faith in entirely
new environments and do our theology in a world not known before”9. As a result, theology needs to be prepared
for the changes that will inevitably come.
-----------------------------------------
1 Bergman,
113
2 How the Devil Got His Horns: A Diabolical Tale
3 Bartlett
in Wagoner
4 Byliner
5 Family Guys? What Sitcoms Say About America Now
5 Family Guys? What Sitcoms Say About America Now
6 Bradshaw
7 Detroit Free Press
8 Family Guy
9 Detweiler & Taylor, 56
-----------------------------------------
Bibliography
Bradshaw, P., ‘Innocence of Muslims: a
dark demonstration of the power of film’, The
Guardian, 17 September 2012, <http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2012/sep/17/innocence-of-muslims-demonstration-film>
[accessed 31 October 2012]
Detroit Free Press, ‘Middle East
erupts in outrage over Muhammad video’, Detroit
Free Press, 14 September 2012 <http://www.freep.com/article/20120914/NEWS07/120914077/Middle-East-protests-anti-Muslim-film-embassy-violence>
[accessed 31 October 2012]
Detweiler, C., and Taylor, B., A Matrix of Meanings: Finding God in Pop
Culture, Baker Academic 2003.
Family Guys? What Sitcoms Say About America Now, television program, BBC Two, 2012 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01nqbvc/Family_Guys_What_Sitcoms_Say_About_America_Now/> [accessed 31 October 2012]
Family Guys? What Sitcoms Say About America Now, television program, BBC Two, 2012 <http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01nqbvc/Family_Guys_What_Sitcoms_Say_About_America_Now/> [accessed 31 October 2012]
Friend, T., ‘Sitcoms, Seriously’, Esquire, March 1993, <http://byliner.com/tad-friend/stories/sitcoms-seriously>
[accessed 31 October 2012]
[HD] Family Guy – Religion, video, FOX, Los Angeles, 2011 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ROTzn4L3M8>
[accessed 31 October 2012]
How the Devil Got His Horns: A Diabolical
Tale, television program, BBC Four, 2012
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01nmt3q/How_the_Devil_Got_His_Horns_A_Diabolical_Tale/7>
[accessed 31 October 2012]
Wagoner, B., ‘Meaning construction in remembering:
A synthesis of Bartlett and Vygotsky’ In: Stenner, J., Cromby, J., Motzkau, J., Yen., J., & Haosheng, Y., (Eds.), Theoretical Psychology: Global Transformations and Challenges, Captus Press, Toronto, 2011, pp. 105-114.
Friday 26 October 2012
How Important Is Experience To The Church?
Anyone that has been
involved in church leadership will undoubtedly have heard the phrase “but
this is the way we have always done things”. However, in light of dwindling
church numbers, many
churches are seeking to make traditional services more appealing. Will the future of the church be found by increasing the role of personal experiences?
It is said that the three sources of theology are: scripture, reason,
and tradition. Sometimes experience is included, and this is known as the ‘Wesleyan
Quadrilateral’1. Macquarrie says that although not dominant,
experience should be viewed as preceding theology2; in other words,
it all starts with experience.
It is well reported that church attendance is decreasing3. Twinned
with a lack of young people4, it would appear that church isn't cutting it for many. Curiously, pilgrimages, potentially
highly spiritual experiences, are rising in popularity simultaneously5,6.
Although they fell into disfavour during the reformation, there is a historic
tradition of pilgrimage within Christianity. I find it interesting that less people are choosing to experience God in a traditional corporate church environment, whilst more are seeking counter-cultural personal experiences. Does declining church attendance
reflect a secularisation of society, or simply a cry for a different way of
experiencing God?
There is concern about placing too great an importance
on experience as “[theologies with an exaggerated emphasis on experience] can
easily become distorted by the particular types of experience out of which they
come”2. It is therefore important that the context of the theology is
taken into account. For this reason, a branch of theology known as contextual
theology has been developed. It has become especially popular among oppressed
groups, such as ethnic minorities and women.
Schleiermacher noted that “[Christian doctrines] always proceed
from a reflection on how the experience of one’s self-consciousness has been
changed through being in relation to the redeemer”7. Doctrine is
shaped by a transforming experience. We can see that the Bible is a collection
of individuals having encounters of the divine, and people today can have
revelations of God through reading it. However, the very act of reading the Bible
has in itself become a tradition. Essentially, experiences and tradition are
each important, but are undeniably inseparable.
It becomes clear that instead of simply challenging tradition, modern
culture seems to be seeking the experiential as a new way of meeting with God. Increasing the role of the experiential in church could increase attendance of previously under-represented groups such as men and young people. I think
the real danger is that Christians start viewing experience as the end to be desired, rather
than the means by which to have an encounter with God.
For this reason we must remember not to simply seek an experience, but
to seek the experience of God.
-----------------------------------------
1 Astley, 23
2 Macquarrie, 5
3 Oborne
4 Whychurch
5 Alliance of Religions and Conservation
6 Shah
7 Mariña, 152
-----------------------------------------
Bibliography
Alliance of Religions and Conservation, ‘Pilgrim Numbers’, Arcworld, <http://www.arcworld.org/projects.asp?projectID=500> [accessed 26 October 2012]
Astley, J., SCM Studyguide:
Christian Doctrine, SCM Press, 2010.
Macquarrie, J., Princeiples
of Christian Theology, SCM Press, 2003.
Mariña, J., (Ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Freiedrich
Schleiermacher. Cambridge University Press. 2005.
Oborne, P., ‘The return to religion’, The Telegraph, 2012. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8970031/The-return-to-religion.html> [accessed 26 October 2012]
Shah, S., ‘Number of foreign Hajis grows
by 2,824 percent in 92 years’, The News
International, <http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-2-139473-Number-of-foreign-Hajis-grows-by-2824-percent-in-92-years> [accessed
26 October 2012]
Whychurch, ‘Why so many elderly in
Church?’, Whychurch, <http://www.whychurch.org.uk/age.php > [accessed 26 October 2012]
Wednesday 17 October 2012
God, Allah, and Volf
“Since you can’t take religion out of people’s lives, the only thing left is to
see whether you can interpret religions in such a way as to highlight their
potential for peace”1. Although this assertion of Miroslav Volf is
valid, it becomes clear that his further claims are neither meaningful nor
practical; therefore there is a need to consider alternative potential bases for peace.
Volf
argues that the god of Christians and Muslims is in fact the same
God - he does so on the basis that there are significant similarities
between the deities described in the Bible and the Qur’an2. The problem
with this is that similarity does not dictate unity and differences do not
indicate exclusivity. The Parable of the ‘Blind Men and the Elephant’ tells the story of several blind men
touching an elephant and being unable to agree what it is.
The men argued whether the object was a wall, a tree, or a rope, until a passing wise man calmly
explained:
"All of you are right. The reason every one
of you is telling it differently because each one of you touched the different
part of the elephant.”3 This parable illustrates that even if accounts are different, or appear to be explaining something
different, in some circumstances they can be explaining the same thing.
Logical positivist Anthony Flew proposed that if no evidence can prove or
disprove a statement then it is not meaningful4. As the statement “Christians and Muslims worship the
same god” can be neither proven
nor disproven, by this maxim it is meaningless. The same however, can be said for all statements about God. Therefore, it
is ultimately meaningless to discuss whether the god of Christianity and Islam
is the same. Instead, we need to readdress the issue and consider alternative
ways we can identify “potential
for peace”.
Paul Tillich defines religion as ‘the state of being grasped by ultimate concern’5, which means that all religions must have a system of values. A potential for peace therefore may be found in identifying similar values.
Paul Tillich defines religion as ‘the state of being grasped by ultimate concern’5, which means that all religions must have a system of values. A potential for peace therefore may be found in identifying similar values.
However, Volf proposes that the
only way in which Muslims and Christians would be able to have significant
overlap in ultimate values, and therefore be able to live in peace, would be if
they had “a common God”6. He goes further to say that this would be necessary to pursue the common good.
The purpose of Volf’s work appears to be to aid social cohesion, however it focusses on an exclusivist view of peace implying that you can only pursue moral virtues or goodness if you believe in the same god. Perhaps it would be more effective if the emphasis reverted to similar beliefs and values, rather than the insinuation that this must indicate, or is dependent on a common belief of deity.
The purpose of Volf’s work appears to be to aid social cohesion, however it focusses on an exclusivist view of peace implying that you can only pursue moral virtues or goodness if you believe in the same god. Perhaps it would be more effective if the emphasis reverted to similar beliefs and values, rather than the insinuation that this must indicate, or is dependent on a common belief of deity.
Volf’s
assertions fall short on a theoretical level as they lack meaning; furthermore
they are impractical as they fail to truly unite Christians and Muslims. Ninian
Smart concluded in ‘The
World’s Religions’, that “It is unlikely, then, that a real unity of
worldviews can be found, except as a minority view”7. If the
aim is greater social cohesion, surely it would be more effective to refocus on
the religions' ultimate concerns and practical ways to reconcile them.
-----------------------------------------
1 Short, 224
2 Volf,
14-15
3 Jain World
4 Morreal &
Sonn, 81
5 Chryssides,
23
6 Volf,
7-9
7 Smart,
559
-----------------------------------------
Bibliography
Chryssides, G. D., and Geaves, R., The Study of Religion: An Introduction to Key Ideas and Methods, Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd., 2007.
Chryssides, G. D., and Geaves, R., The Study of Religion: An Introduction to Key Ideas and Methods, Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd., 2007.
Jain World, 'Elephant and the
Blind Men', 2011. <http://www.jainworld.com/literature/story25.htm>
[accessed 18 October 2012].
Morreall,
J., and Sonn, T., The Religion
Toolkit: A Complete Guide to Religious Studies, Wiley-Blackwell,
2011.
Short, R., God's Advocates, DLT, 2005.
Short, R., God's Advocates, DLT, 2005.
Smart,
N., The World's Religions, 2nd. ed., Cambridge University
Press, 1998.
Volf,
M., Allah: a Christian Response, HarperOne, 2011.
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