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

Toward a Political Theology

Here is an excerpt from John Franke's Barth for Armchair Theologians. So far I have found this to be a delightful and stimulating read.

"In other words, attempting to open up society and bring it to Christ is not humanly possible. Human beings would have no more success in bringing society to Christ than they would at bringing Christ to society. IN light of this state of affairs, the only possible answer is to let God be God. It is God's help that we need, and we will "deceive" society about this reality "if we set to work building churches and chapels and do not learn to wait upon God in a wholly new way." We must learn to wait because "God alone can save this world." - Barth for Armchair Theologians, 53.