Questions and a Project

Questions regarding the theological task as a whole have been piquing my interest as of recent. I was wrestling with these questions on my drive to Downey from Pasadena this evening. Let me open up the barrage of questions that assaulted my mind. What is the theological task? What form does it take? Is theology art? If this is the case, what is art? Does theology have any room for the transcendent? Is theology concerned with an object or a subject? Is theology science? Is theology history? How does theology interact with other areas of public discourse? What does a public theology look like? There were more, they came like a whirlwind, leaving only mental rubble in their wake. I was left a little bit disturbed after this thought event, yet also a glitter of optimism remained. I am going to attempt to use this blog as an avenue for beginning to sort out my thoughts on theology. I am pretty convinced that I need to begin the process of articulating some of my theological ruminations. I thought seminary would give me a space for this, but looking back on this first quarter alas it did not. Maybe in the future it will, but for now I hope this blog will create a space for me to begin developing my theology.

Here is a thought for the road: Is theology as conceived by most simply exercises in Eurocentric, esoteric, uninteresting, pretentious blather that has nothing to say to the world? Can theologians (or philosophers for that matter) really claim to be the architects of the conceptual worlds?

The Light is On

So, an interesting occurrence has transpired at the Camp/Trainor residence. Our porch light refuses to turn off. Truly an enigma! The light is always on... even when no one is home...

Show Recap

Yesterday, I went to see the Flobots and Matisyahu. Flobots were amazing! They sounded great live and put on a solid show. Not much flash, just a solid performance. Matisyahu was an interesting experience. He played for almost two hours, which was actually a little much. It turned out to be, more or less, one big continuous jam session. After the show ended, I was happy with all that had transpired and decided two things (1) that I have had my fix of Matisyahu and can move on and (2) I can't wait for the next Flobots album.

Two Things

(1) Matisyahu and Flobots in a matter of a few hours! I will have a post about the show tomorrow

(2) Theological Thought of the Day (Maybe I am going to try to start doing this more)

Theology is not an intellectual project in the sense that intellectual projects are undertaken by individuals. If an intellectual endeavor ever becomes the end of theology, we certainly have idolatry of the conceptual nature. Instead theology must be reconcieved as a communal event in which God inhabits our language in love which brings others together. Thus, theological enterprise must be dialogical in nature due to its necessary communal aspect. This approach is productive because it always holds any theological conclusion in the air, because there are no such thing as a theological conclusions. If theological ends or conclusions are ever reached then we have only ended with an idol. Let us seek to engage in the event of theological discourse in love amongst friends.

Big Week!

Events for Monday through Friday:

Monday- Paper Due/Bowling? (if time permits)
Tuesday- Work on Paper for Wednesday / Purchase Dustin Kensrue's latest album
Wednesday- Paper Due
Thursday- Sub / Work on Paper due next Wednesday / Go to the Flobots/Matisyahu Concert*
Friday- Sub / Work on Paper / Hang out with my future wife*

As you can see this is going to be a busy week for me. Hands down the highlight is going to be experiencing the Flobots/Matisyahu Concert!! I am extremely excited for this event. I have not been to a concert of this proportion in a number of years. Over the past few years the only shows I have been to have been either Shane and Shane or Derek Webb. Expect a blog recapping the event on Thursday night or Friday morning.

*Subbing will have to be cut one of these days

Articulating the Soul

This book has been articulating the thoughts of my mind and feelings of my soul. I would highly recommend that you buy it and read it as soon as possible. I would love to dialogue with some of my friends about the theology of this book. It is a short and fairly easy read. Let me know who is in to read it.

New Dustin Kensrue

Dustin Kensrue has a new Christmas album coming out on November 18th. Currently he is releasing one new track a day at his website leading up to the release of the album. (Click on the ornaments hanging on the wreath to hear different songs.) I loved Dustin's last album and what I have heard so far from the Christmas album has been delightful. So go check it out, let me know what you think, and then buy the album from iTunes next Tuesday.

Hilarious Good Samaritan Video

H/T: Tony Jones

Education and Eschatology

As some of you may know, I am a substitute teacher. Along with substitute teaching one of my weekly activities is working with the Junior High group at my church, Action Company. Every now and again, I will substitute in a Junior High class. This past Friday, I subbed for a 6th grade English class. This was only my second time back to the classroom for the 2008-2009 school year. Well, this experience prompted me to start thinking about the needs of Junior High students. I wonder how might a teacher inspire these youths to robust human flourishing? Being a theologian by trade, I have concluded that the place teachers must begin with is eschatology. What do you mean by eschatology is what you are probably wondering? What I am trying to get at is that most of these students have either no vision for the future or one that is severely truncated, seeing as it is most certainly formed by the pop media culture we raise our youth on. This is an utter and complete travesty. What students need to counter the banal narratives they drink in from the T.V., radio, and Internet is a robust eschatology – a deep, real vision of possibilities held by the future. They need to see that there is a future that is possible, which challenges the status quo of their lives. What has been need not be! This is what an eschatological vision offers to these young people. How might we, as educators, begin to offer young people an alternative eschatology? (This is an important question that needs to be wrestled with by all Junior High teachers. I only offer a few suggestions at this point.) I think this can happen in a number of ways. First, we must name the narratives our students are receiving for the scripts that they are. In naming these narratives as scripts, we can then show them that multiple scripts are on offer. The script offered by MTV is not the only one available. Second, we need to be storytellers, purveyors of alternative narratives for young people to embrace and live within. This can take a number of forms. It can be through pedagogical methods, lesson structures, and the texts offered to the students. Third, educators must exhibit the influence of a robust eschatology within their own lives. If we have no alternative eschatology ourselves, then our teaching will certainly be hallow and unconvincing. Educators must speak and live prophetically against the status quo. They must not simply be cogs in the wheels of the dominant culture pushing America along. These are a few suggestions, which deem more conversation.

I want to make one more point about this whole issue of eschatology and youth education. Central to eschatology is imagination. Eschatology beckons us into the future and in doing this opens up new vistas on the future. While eschatology is the end, imagination is the means to the end, the key that opens the door to the future, so to speak. If imagination is intimately related to eschatology then it is young people, those who have not yet had their imaginations domesticated and solidified who have the greatest opportunity to embrace a robust eschatological vision for the future. Thus it seems Junior High is the most opportune and crucial time for offering radical eschatology to persons.

Political Rhetoric

Here is a quick observation about campaign rhetoric: religious language has been key for both sides of the presidential campaign. The Obama campaign has been trying to purvey Barack as the last great hope for the nation. If I do remember correctly, I think Christian theology has something to say about hope for the world? On the other side of the aisle, McCain has spent time urging voters to commit themselves to a greater cause outside of themselves. He hops that voters will accept into their hearts the transcendent cause of creating a world marked by democracy and freedom. If my memory serves me correctly Christian theology is deeply concerned with the transcendent, eschatological, and commitment. The problem I see with both campaigns rhetoric is that they seem to be substituting the language of the Church and Christ with that of the Polis and and Candidate.

Politics!

I hope to start blogging about politics soon. I have been doing a lot of thinking about this issue recently, something that generally happens each time an election roles around. I have caught some of the DNC when I have had a spare minute over the past few days. So be on the lookout for this, and hopefully we can get some helpful conversation going on this issue. In the meantime, I highly recommend that you check out Halden's blog where he has had some stellar blogs about politics as of recent.

Wedding!

Here is an excerpt from the wedding homily I recently preached:

Second, marriage takes an exercise of the imagination. At this point you might be thinking to yourself: Ben when are you going to get to the practical advice. You know the stuff about the man’s innate right to the T.V. remote and the woman’s right to make the man watch chick flicks. I am sorry to disappoint you but no such cheesy and boring advice is coming from my lips today. But…while I shall avoid the trite and the trivial, I do not intend to leave the practical completely forgotten, like dust swept away under the rug. No, this second reflection is deeply and profoundly practical. It’s practicality being anchored in its necessity as a component to marriage if the goal of a life-long monogamous relationship marked by fidelity, trust, and submission is ever to be achieved. And that is what marriage is – a life-long monogamous relationship marked by fidelity, trust, and submission. American culture scoffs at this sort of language. Life-long and monogamous? … surely not. I am bound to get tired of the same thing. I need to have the latest toys. The old and the same simply will not suffice. Fidelity…a myth, come on our former president cannot even handle this responsibility. Trust…how can anybody be trusted when all we get is spin from the news and image from the cult of celebrity. Submission…submission is nothing more than invitation, an invitation to get walked on like a doormat. No relationships are about power, pleasure, and personal gain. That is just how the world works. It is in the face of this script – a script that we all consume everyday – that your marriage must raise its fist in defiance. The only way to resist is to imagine. Our imaginations are the mechanism by which we are able to transcend our mundane realty. Imagination has the power to take us places. Thus you must let your imagination take you, take you all the way to end, to the end of a beautiful marriage and life spent together. You must create a world with your imaginations, a world marked by fidelity, trust, and submission to one another. A world in which you live out your years whatever they may be in a life-long monogamous commitment to one another. While this is a world that is imagined, it is no fantasy world, but instead a vision. It is the vision of your life and future together by which you must walk each and everyday together. Your marriage must always be characterized by an exercise of your imagination.

Dumber!

I am pretty convinced that I am getting dumber. I have now been out of the academic world (aka college) for seven months. I feel that my brain has quickly been turning to mush without the rigors of an academic course load to keep my mind in shape. I can not wait till September arrives and I begin my course work at Fuller. I am pretty convinced I will be a little bit behind the curve at first, but hopefully I can get myself whipped into shape in time to do well in my first quarter. Hopefully, reading and blogging through Barth's Epistle to the Romans will help start getting my mind back in shape.

Blogs

Here is the link for Philip Baker's blog.

Here are some links to other theological blogs which I frequent:

Faith and Theology
Inhabitatio Dei
Tony Jones
Jesus Creed
Euangelion
The Fire and the Rose
Christians in Context

Let me know if what you think about these blogs if you check them out. Maybe hit me up with some blogs you like to frequent so I can check them out.

A New Venture!

Today begins my official foray into Karl Barth's Epistle to the Romans. This text is often referred to as a theological atom bomb dropped right into the midst of early 20th century protestant liberal theology. I have dabbled with this book before, but this will be a sustained effort to engage with this most significant theological work. Please be sure to check back regularly, because I plan to be blogging my way through the book. Also, be sure to check out my friend Philip Baker’s blog (link to follow soon), as he will be reading through Epistle to the Romans along with me this summer.

July 4th

Today, the United States will celebrate its declaration of independence from its mother country, England. This holiday always puts me in tension. (Well at least the last couple of years it has.) The question that comes to my mind (and this is one amongst many) is this: What independence did we really gain? The right to govern ourselves? Maybe. But how hollow a definition of independence this is from the standpoint of the Christian tradition. As Christians when we speak of independence or freedom we must necessarily speak of it in terms of relationship with God. In no way am I saying that we need to wed this holiday with Christian practice, but instead I think that Christian practice should stand as a constant critique to the utter emptiness of the power politics on which this nation was founded. This nation was built upon the imposition of our will over the other by means of violence. This is not the way of the cross. This is not freedom. The church must always say NO to this nation as its first word. Nonetheless, I will be out at a bbq tonight and enjoy the all the festivities and fireworks. So, in the tension between theology and praxis I will live. (Probably in sin.)

Morning

Open my eyes
The scales fall away
My body cries
Not yet another day

Preferring paralysis to motion
A strange contradiction
Wretched I am the ocean
I deserve perdition

Transforming Grace

Let me throw this thought out there for any of you from the College Community who might be checking my blog now that the new college website is up. (Props to Jon Phelps for all his hard work on retooling the website.) In this post, I want to offer a lens (only one amongst many) to you for interpreting the Transforming Grace project our church community is currently undertaking. I would like to suggest to you that Transforming Grace is more than simply a project of remodeling for the sake of comfort, beauty, and function. It is instead an embodied critique of modernity and Cartesian ideology. The foundational philosophical epistemology inherent to the modern project is concisely expressed in Descartes’ (in)famous dictum: “I think, therefore I am.” The world is construed upon the foundation of the thinking self. It is the mind, and the world of thought, that is preeminent. Thus, it follows that the physical component of reality becomes only tertiary as a substantial component of reality and the world, at best. If we operate from this modern ideology then we are left with the quite uncompelling reasons of comfort, beauty, and function for the Transforming Grace project. The uncompelling nature of these reasons are highlighted further in the face of the prevalent poverty of both Long Beach and the world. But I think if the reason for the Transforming Grace project is an embodied critique of the modern, Cartesian ideology so dominant in the West then we might have a more theologically compelling lens for interpreting the project. This post is already getting too long, so I will not outline all the reasons why modernity need be critiqued. Let me just say that modernity, which finds its most robust expressions in the oppressive metanarratives of the last hundred years including fascism, Marxism, and global capitalism, is arguably more hostile to God’s good creation than many of the devastating social injustices that inhabit the world, because of the simple fact that it quite possibly is the purveyor of such injustices. All this being said, let me with the utmost brevity explain how the Transforming Grace project critiques modernity. Holding in mind what I noted earlier about Cartesian ideology, we can understand Transforming Grace as an affront to any such ideology which does not take seriously the physical world. Transforming Grace is a project founded upon the premise that the physical world actually matters. The mind and the world of ideas is not the chief component of reality. The world is actually deeply physical. This is the primary proclamation of the Transforming Grace project: physical space matters to God! This announcement flies in the face of the Cartesian dictum so foundational to modernity. Through taking seriously the physical space entrusted to our community by God, we announce the good news that modernity and all its evils do not have the final word. “Another world is possible!” This is how we might hear the message of the Transforming Grace project.

(This is a short post for a huge subject, so please give me some grace for my omissions and indulgences. I would like your thoughts on the Transforming Grace project. Also, do you find this lens for interpreting the project compelling?)

Barth

How about this for a theological hermeneutic:

"Barth's task of biblical interpretation does not begin by demythologizing the text in order to make it relevant to a modern audience, but instead uses the biblical narrative to demythologize the various modern hegemonies that repress human freedom."

Community, State, and Church; p. 43-43.

A Prayer on Easter

Saturday, go out and vote for there is no hope

Fill up your tank, drive away

Take out the ammo and guard the door

Trust me there is nothing more!

Sunday, hold your ballots and hear the stir

Grab your bike, push the pedal

Believe me there is a chance

Yes, go out to dance!

A Theology of Five Iron Frenzy

Five Iron Frenzy has been a instrumental player in the drama of my Christian growth. I have been listening to a lot of FIF recently, and have been inspired to write a theology of Five Iron. To be honest, I have no idea how I will even approach this task, but nonetheless I am pretty excited to see how it develops. So keep an eye out for this new blog series. If are interested in listening along I am going to listen through and reflect on the albums in chronological order beginning with Upbeats and Beatdowns. (My goal is to examine at least one CD a week, so at least try to check back weekly.) Hopefully, after this chronological examination and reflection I will be able to synthesize the history and theology of FIF into a concise theological whole.

P.S.  Christian ska may be dead but its voice still echoes in the heads and hearts of a select group of sisters and brothers