Urban Prophetics

Deleuze 7: Speculation

2012-02-11T17:59:00.001-08:00

Baudrillard is another postmodern stylist. But his later works appear lazy, hastily thrown together collections of aphorisms. Clever, but slapdash.

Actually, they are carefully crafted. They are, however, the logical outcome of his perceptions of contemporary society, the loss of meaning.

This is all there is: the play of signs, no over-arching system of meaning. Hence the collections of pithy, short statements, allusions, observations, assertions.

One commentator described him, prophetically lamenting the loss of signification, significance in our sign-saturated society.

No wonder Meillassoux and Laruelle try to rescue realism. They recognise where postmodern relativism leads.

But without foundations, realism is only ‘speculative’. They can only speculate about absolutes, because actually there aren’t any.

Consequently Ray Brassier concludes that underlying their thought there is nothing. He overcomes the threat of nihilism by embracing it.

Modernism’s method of critique cut off the branch on which they were sitting. Postmodernism played with the branches.

After postmodernism, philosophers have lit a fire with the wood, to stave off the night.

Now they’re telling each other stories around the fire, while the wolves circle around in the darkness.

When the embers burn out, they will turn round and see the red eyes of the beast.

Deleuze 6: Chaos

2012-02-11T17:58:00.001-08:00

Deleuze’s understanding of philosophy as concept-formation is a powerful provocation towards creativity and invention.

But Deleuze’s subject is forced to create because reality is only chaos. The cosmos is a chaosmos. There is no-sense, non-sense.

We [must] impose order, meaning, on chaos, by selecting those aspects that concern us, we might say existentially. Perception is subtraction from the multiplicity of signs.

We have to make a cut in the flow. Like the keel of a boat cutting through the waves of the sea, this is how subjectivity and how knowledge are constructed, made, not discovered.

This is his tragedy, despite the creativity and brightness of Deleuze’s philosophy, the suggestiveness of his allusions.

His thinking requires fabulations, fictions. These are needed to provoke, to create. Not objective, absolute truth, but prompts to action, the creation of new events.

But when Deleuze encounters views he does not like, it is only a matter of style, personal preference.

To counter those who adopt a conservative path, who support the tyrant, who choose to make the cut elsewhere, he has no rational recourse.

All he can do is hurl insults, and refer to their stupidity. Hardly reasonable discourse. Simply the use of boo words.

Deleuze 5: Critique

2012-02-11T13:21:00.000-08:00

This is an immanent critique of Deleuze [and not just of French, but all contemporary, philosophy]. I am not importing foreign concepts; not criticising Deleuze because he is not a Christian, not believing in absolutes, like truth or morality.

On the contrary, the grounds of critique are thoroughly immanent; that is they lie within the terms of his own logic. He himself wants to believe in values, such as justice.

Deleuze’s own system, however, does not provide any grounds for doing so. The critique confronts his philosophy with its own logical contradictions.

Deleuze’s suicide is not a reason for rejecting his philosophy. That would be the worst kind of ad hominem argument. His death was his response to a life of longterm ill-health and physical pain.

His suicide is nevertheless a tragic poetic commentary of a philosophy that provided no way out of the huis clos.

Without a word from outside, there is no standpoint for critique, and no source for the truly new. As Christians we still debate how the word, written and living, applies today. But at least we hear the word addressed to us. And this gives us permission to believe in the possibility of new possibles.

Deleuze 4: Trapped

2012-02-11T12:32:00.001-08:00

For Deleuze, however, philosophy must take place on the ‘plane of immanence’, on the horizontal dimension. There is no transcendent, no religious, spiritual, dualistic, dimension.

Fresh concepts must therefore emerge from the actual empirical conditions. It is a transcendental empiricism, striving to go beyond, into these lines of flight, responding to and creating new possibilities.

But in this case, to pursue the image, there can be no line of flight in the sense of ‘flying’, no actual take off, because there is no vertical, transcendent dimension. We remain stuck on the level of what is. Nothing genuinely new can emerge, only developments of existing trends.

We are left with Meillassoux. He criticises Deleuze because he thinks that Deleuze’s relativism has led to a situation where we believe only in belief. That is, we tolerate fanatical fideism, religious extremism, because we have no permissable way to outlaw it.

Meillassoux therefore advocates a new speculative realism about values, founded on facticity. For him, we must speak of absolutes, like justice and equality, but without absolutising them; maintaining the necessity of absolutes without thinking anything is absolutely necessary.

This is the impasse of contemporary philosophy – wanting to have your cake and eat it.

Deleuze 3: Emergence

2012-02-11T12:31:00.003-08:00

But Deleuze opposes thinking to ‘stupidity’, which he calls low, base, shameful; supporting tyranny. From where does he derive this binary value judgment?

Deleuze follows Sartre’s distinction between the conceptual and pre-conceptual. So criticisms of existentialism also apply to Deleuze’s work.

Philosphy for Deleuze is dependent on non-philosophical material to do its work. Hence his reliance on literature and science to supply images for his reflections.

Even the poetic madness of the inspired seer-prophet is permissible, not as true, but suggestive, of fresh perspectives and openings.

Deleuze is searching for ways out of Sartre’s huis clos. To overcome the blockage of structures, he creates the image of the nomadic war machine, travelling freely over the steppes, pursuing multiple ‘lines of flight’.

‘Flight’ here does not mean ‘to fly’, but ‘to flee’. It refers to the room for manoeuvre that a barbarian horde possesses against the fixed lines of a static army’s positions. It therefore speaks of creativity, movement, emergence.

For Deleuze, philosophy is about concept creation, understood as a combination of other component ideas. This rethinking of philosophy as constructive is helpful. It encourages us to not just pick new ideas, but to create them, to explain emergent new situations.

Deleuze 2: Values

2012-02-11T12:31:00.001-08:00

Deleuze exemplifies the futile attempt to escape from the trap of postmodernist relativism produced by modernism.

If perception is of what concerns us, then, he admits, everything is a point of view. So there is no way to value one perspective over another. The result is relativism.

The search is on then for ways to avoid this conclusion, since every philosopher also wants to find support for liberal values, and for justice in the world. Where do we get them?

The breakdown of machine is meant to lead to something new emerging, which will be more liberating, creative and unfixed.

Without an outside, if anything is possible, what reason is there to not preferr staying the same, as one possible outcome? If there is an infinity of possibles, then surely that conservative possible, of non-change, is the more radical?

Likewise, building on Heidegger, Deleuze says we do not actually want to think, or philosophize, but that we are forced to do so, by some machinic breakdown. This may be an important insight.

We prefer our idols, our illusions. Changing circumstances threaten our traditional ways of coping. Yet we resist change. Even when it’s God who invites us to come higher.

Deleuze 1: Agreements

2012-02-11T12:30:00.001-08:00

The body is the site of individuation, a materialistic conception of the self, immanent. And congruent too with our createdness as bodied creatures, and with God’s valorisation of matter through the incarnation.

Christianity is not dualistic. It opposes Gnosticism’s neo-platonic binary of spirit-good, matter-bad. We encounter the world through our bodily terminals. Individuality is not opposed to material existence, but constituted by it.

For Deleuze this is machinic. Not mechanical, but as opposed to structuralism. Instead of fixed, ideal, structures, within which we live, and by which we are constrained, so no new beginnings are possible.

Instead, the machine means that which breaks down. But from this something new emerges. Transformation occurs. Our identity is constantly changing. Subjectivity is active, responding, acting, perceiving, interpreting.

Machinic breakdown connects with Christian notions of the dark night, brokenness, limitation, finiteness, dependence, before the infinite.

For Deleuze, perception is subtraction. Perception is not of matter, but of matter minus whatever does not concern or interest me. Imagine if we did perceive the fullness. It would blow our minds.

We cannot experience the totality which is God now. Only when one day we experience the blessed vision, and fully know as we are fully known.

Two-faced Mission

2012-02-05T07:29:00.000-08:00

I went to a great fund-raising concert for Switch It! – a local football outreach project to kids.

The concert had Husky and Hidden Man, both from Corydon, and was the EP launch for Jelz, who runs Switch It!. Some of the kids were there to get awards. Switch It! tries to redirect them from crime into positive activities. It’s an important project, and urgently needs finances since local authority funding is drying up.

The football project and the concert have twin-track aims: to serve the community, and to preach Christ. Really the aims are identical, because God's kingdom is about transforming the whole of life, social and spiritual.

Some could criticise Christians for being ‘two-faced’, exploiting vulnerable people, meeting their needs just to convert them. But it is only when Christians present two faces that we are being truly authentic in our mission.

If we are only one-faced, we miss half the mission of Christ in our context. Christian mission is always a twin-pack.

To understand the Trinity, Irenaeus used the image of God’s two hands. When God acts into the world, he does so using his two hands: the Son and the Spirit. Missio Dei is two-handed mission.

Spurgeons' Sermons

2012-01-30T12:39:00.000-08:00

I had thought it was a blossom

opening too early, fooled

by the unseasonal warmth,

and, deceived, destined to die

once the frost returned in the new year.

But she knew.

It was a winter blossom,

divinely designed

to be a sign of life.

Wisdom prajna lies

on the face of the deep; fish

rise, break the tension.

From the top of the hill,

we see the city, stretched

out, like a bed spread,

crumpled, after we have made love.

Creative Circles

2012-01-19T13:14:00.001-08:00

We went to see a comedy show by a guy from Sue’s school together with three others. A few months later, we went to a gig by another teaching assistant from Sue’s school. At the gig, we saw two actors from the show. A couple of days later we went to an art exhibition by the art teacher from her school. There we met the singer from the band and two of the actors.

In London, there is a sub-culture of creative people who attend each other’s events, providing support and encouragement, an audience and customers. This happens on all the time; small circles of young people in their twenties trying to make it in the capital.

London is composed of a series of circles, each revolving around a select coterie of members. A metropolitan magnet for creativity.

Sometimes these little worlds meet. So, we, in our fifties, tangentially connected momentarily with these parallel universes. Our circles intersected.

At church, Felicia had connections with musicians, singers, performers, poets, who she gathered in a series of events, called Sunday Special. This series drew in young adults active in the arts. But they were black.

How can we build connections?

Riots Again

2012-01-18T14:53:00.000-08:00

After a few months to recover, commentators are dismissing the summer riots as merely criminal activity, with no political significance. Nothing has come of it. No political follow-on.

The initial protests against the police killing in Tottenham were political. But the mass looting was clearly not politically motivated. However, simply because an event has no political motivation does not mean it has no political meaning.

It’s no accident that these riots happened at the same time as the Arab spring, the mass demonstrations against cuts in Southern Europe, plus the international ‘Occupy’ movement. Although these are overtly political, the riots were equally the product of the recession, and the economic restructuring imposed by international monopoly finance capitalism

All these movements are signs of resistance against a system. But also they are reactions of people who have become used to the goodies which capitalist consumerism has supplied to buy our complicity.

Who complained before 2008? Everyone was happy with the endless stream of gadgets and cheap fashions, with over-leveraged borrowing to buy houses we couldn’t afford. A system based on so much debt could not stand. This is not just an economic point, but a moral critique of capitalism.

Dark Night

2012-01-18T14:33:00.000-08:00

Christian life often begins with joy and bright happiness – though in my case I immediately went into a depression, story of my life.

Perhaps I went into the dark night of the soul early? Probably not. St. John of the Cross explicitly distinguishes the Dark Night from a ‘melancholy humour’.

The Dark Night actually comprises two nights: of the soul and the spirit. In order to strip away our false security in created things, God removes the self-satisfaction we find in these heart-warming idols.

This aridity drives us further into the arms of Jesus. Not a pleasant experience, but like a mother teaching her child to walk, God lets go of us to help us grow up.

The Dark Night of the Spirit happens when the spiritual life itself becomes dry and we feel no consolation even in spiritual experience. The aim again is to separate us from the images and ideas which we normally take refuge in, and mediate intimacy with God to us.

It’s dark only because the light of his awesome, overwhelming presence is so bright we are rendered blind. But the aim is to bring us closer to God himself; the giver not merely the gifts.

Olympics

2012-01-02T07:32:00.001-08:00

The lumbering wagon of evangelicalism slowly rolls into action in this Olympic year. Proposals and projects abound, for ways the church can become involved: volunteers for stewarding, hospitality for competitors’ families, big screens for groups to watch the games together, themed services and Bible studies, holiday clubs for children based on sporting ideas.

But are we too eager to please? Too eager to be accepted, to be liked, to be part of this extravaganza, this cultural-sporting event, of communal bonding, unity, celebration?

To appear otherwise appears cynical, revelling in the all-too-likely traditional British cock-up – whether involving the opening ceremonies, transport to the games, or the lack of legacy, as stadia gather cobwebs and dust, as in Athens and Barcelona.

Encouraged to embrace the Olympics: not only to join in, but an opportunity to share the Gospel, perhaps kick-off revival in our nation.

Now, any time when there are great crowds is an occasion to evangelise. But is this not also a call to critique? To prophetically pronounce the emptiness, the vacuity, of this cultural illusion, this mirage? Bread and circuses, for the Empire, to keep the crowds anaesthetised, opiated, so they will not see through the emperor’s nakedness?

Missional Micro

2011-12-03T09:08:00.000-08:00

So, we were looking for a church. Hard to choose. In a way, we fell into the consumer church trap: Church shopping. But we were pleased to see the amount of outreach done by these churches we visited. Not only direct evangelism, but making contributions to the community around them. And not only running their own projects, but involvement in, and support for, empowerment of, the wider community.

Direct evangelism

· Bible exhibition
· Street evangelism – singing, tracting
· Alpha
· Alternative halloween party
· Children’s holiday clubs
· Film nights
· Church planting
· Door-to-door visiting
· Debates on culture

Church and inter-church social initiatives

· Street pastors
· Children’s breakfast clubs
· Mobile bus youth project - computer games, recording studio, sports
· Rap, hip hop music
· Schools assemblies - self-esteem, empowerment
· Employment projects
· Old peoples holiday at home
· Boys and girls brigades
· After school clubs
· Classical concerts
· Art exhibitions
· Church schools
· Debt counselling

Also supporting and leading community groups

· Community library
· Local radio
· Music festival on an estate
· Community forums
· Council Youth club

Churches we’ve visited that do these things

· Calvary Chapel South London
· Catford Community Church
· Forest Hill Community Church
· Holy Trinity
· Ichthus Christian Fellowship
· King’s Church
· Mayow Road Hall
· Perry Rise Baptist Church
· St. john’s Penge

Theological Education

2011-11-26T10:15:00.001-08:00

Why [an] Art cannot be taught.

Theology can therefore also not be taught.

It’s a disease;

caught rather than taught – as the cliché goes.

Its teachers spend themselves in vain.

Seminaries fail to inseminate;

but the semen seed, the demon weed,

seeps through the cracks to where

it may lodge.

The study of God, an illness,

the thought of God, a sickness,

which serves not even [always]

to strengthen our faith. It may [also]

undermine, subvert,

overturn, our belief.

The fever, white hot,

Burning up our bodies electric,

to shake, rattle, and roll

our soul with delirium.

But still we return, like dogs, to

our sickness, our addiction;

anxiously scouring the library,

and now the online

resources catalogue, for books,

journals, manuscripts and papers;

looking for the next hit, the next shot,

the next needle, in the ratiocentric

vein–brain; searching for [the] truth,

each score [scoring] lower

than the one before; always

with diminishing returns.

Desperate for the high, the rush,

of discovery, the fresh, insight;

our infection, our preoccupation,

catch as catch can,

caught on the hook,

the ram in the thicket.

The virus is passed on, mouth to mouth,

as we spread the Word,

tongue on tongue,

that leads us

to the grave,

to the One beyond

all voices,

all theo-logia,

where there is silence,

and the burning of straw.

Presence

2011-11-17T12:03:00.001-08:00

Silent prayer. Sue loves it. She values it because there is no expectation from anyone to ‘perform’. All she has to do is say: here I am God. Then she sits in his presence. And she always experiences joy from meeting with her God.

Me. I fear it. I encounter the darkness; not the dark night of the soul, but merely my own depressiveness and the awareness of my sin. So I usually avoid it.

But we started attending a small prayer group at a local church. And sitting in silent prayer on Sunday mornings, before we go to church.

Usually it’s a challenge, and an effort for me.

Just to sit still. I start to fidget. My mind wanders.

But when we encounter God in prayer, we come up against something other, different, against us.

Weight. Heaviness. Gravity.

Solidity. Substance. Size.

There is a sense of a presence. When we present ourselves, we discover a presence. And we find that this Presence has always, already been present. Eternally, everywhere presenting itself, presencing itself in our present.

Undefined. Imprecise. Impossible to pin down.

How could you pin God - down?

Prayer enters into his space, giving control up to him.

God shape

2011-11-12T04:57:00.001-08:00

Our worship leader asked me a question: while working as a cleaner, a Muslim colleague asked if her God had a ‘shape’. She may not have understood the question, since she was Brazilian and he Pakistani, speaking a third language - English.

But it sparked off a string of thoughts.

Does God have a shape?

He is famously without form. So, symbolically, perhaps he has a shape, and that it is formed by his attributes and character – justice, holiness, love, etc.

But that’s not enough.

God’s shape, in Christian theology, is us. We are God’s shape.

Humans are made in his image in creation: not an idea which Islam possesses. Something in us represents God’s shape, image, form. Humanity is the shape of God. Obviously not physically, unless you are a Mormon.

More than that, God himself took on a human shape, in the incarnation, in Christ. Again the human represents God’s shape. He showed himself to us in human form. Christ is the image of the invisible God.

Moreover, we now are the body of Christ on the earth. The church, Christ-followers, those incorporated into Christ, in Christ, united with Christ.

God has a shape and we are it.

The Give Away Church

2011-11-03T11:55:00.001-07:00

It was Geoff, Director of our Family Centre, who first mentioned the idea. We were worrying because of the number of people moving on from our church. Not leaving Christianity or church as such. But just part of the London ‘churn’, that I hear so many church leaders complaining about as if it was unique to them. So, we decided to change our viewpoint, and see ourselves as a ‘give-away church’.

Before long we extended the notion to all our ministries. Giving away the love of God – without expecting any return, in terms of ‘bums on seats’, conversions. ‘Love God – Love People’ was the principle of our church. Give it away. Cast bread on the waters. Spread the love around.

How many programmes, policies, strategies of our churches are inward-looking? Focused on what we can get out of it, as an institution? Not building God’s kingdom, but our empires?

Instead, turn the church around to faced outwards. Seek to bless. Get blessed, Yes. But blessed to be a blessing.

It’s based I suppose on God’s own generosity. Sending sun and rain on righteous and unrighteous. Common grace. Giving out. Living grace. Our churches should reflect that.

Pilgrim's Pregress

2011-10-25T14:13:00.001-07:00

I typed it one day, instead of ‘progress’. Then I thought. Is it not a useful concept? What could it mean?

In science, ‘precession’ refers to slow, gradual changes in the rotation of planets, against the backdrop of the stars.

Baudrillard, as ever, played on words, writing about the precession of images. Not procession. Their coming before, instead of, reality. Simulacra. A map that precedes the territory it refers refer to, but which in Baudrillard’s postmodern construction does not even exist.

Process, recess, precess, all entail coming. Progress means to go forwards; regress to go backwards. Pregress therefore means perhaps to come before.

A movement from before, from a long time ago. Ancient. Old. A going from before, before now. Deep movement through time, from time, before.

Deep going. Movement from depth, from the past. Original, aboriginal.

Movement from before, out of tradition, what has come before, but moving forwards, albeit from before.

A going from before, from the one who is before, the ancient of days, the old one. Movement from before, what came before, before time itself.

Not infinite regress, but infinite pregress. Unending. One that underwrites, and undermines, all that comes after. Relativises progress; overcomes regression.

Authentic Alternative?

2011-10-08T05:28:00.001-07:00

As we exited the V&A, we passed-by another exhibition – The Power of Making. This focussed craft and skill in making; hand-made, tradition-shaped, authenticity. Perhaps this is a genuine alternative to the surface, superficial preoccupations of postmodernism? The return of the real, in place of the image and what’s cool?

The problem is, as Adorno wrote long ago, ‘authenticity’ is itself manufactured, constructed, ideological. And its products similarly commodified, sold to the rich, as new status symbols for those who can afford it.

What we cannot escape are not the epiphenomenal thought-forms of postmodernism, but the deep-structural foundations of capitalism, in its late or its advanced modus operandi. As Marx perceived, everything is sucked into its maw, and chewed up, masticated into the mulch that is contemporary consumer culture. We are all X Factor now.

Some advocate an improvisatory approach, like Tom Wright’s five-act play, in which we are performing the final scene of the final act, according to instructions and clues laid out in the earlier scenes by the author.

This does describe our position, this deficit of clarity concerning meaning and direction. But we also must re-assert the counter-cultural metanarrative in which we are embedded.

No show after pomo

2011-10-08T05:24:00.000-07:00

I went with Sue to the Postmodernism exhibition at the V&A last week. enjoyed it, a trip down memory lane – LPs I’d bought [Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense; Laurie Anderson – Big Science], magazines [New Socialist, the red edition on Style Wars] I hoarded for years, until storage space necessitated a clear-out.

But I left with a feeling of sadness, trappedness. How can we get out of the solipsistic endgame that is postmodernism? How get the cat back into the bag, the genie into the bottle, and Pandora’s relativistic, ironic, playing-with-signs, box safely closed again?

Anything goes. No absolutes. Everything constructed. And therefore, no way to challenge globalised late capitalism [thanks to Frederic Jameson for saying that]; instead legitimising this money-soaked, commodification – of everything; bling in rap and in art [Hirst’s skull].

Catholic and other conservatives try to put the clock back, emphasising tradition as the source of values; but Pomo always excavated the past for interesting pastiches. Looking backward is not way to go forward.

Someone mentioned that people like hymns, and so maybe we should resuscitate them in church – but unaware that they are popular only as heritage, background wallpaper, reminiscence of childhood among people of a certain age.

Music I am listening to

2011-09-29T12:54:00.000-07:00

I used to list the books I was reading. There are so many now, with preparing for stuff at Spurgeons for classes/lectures, etc.

I will try to list stuff. May be that I find interesting or that is not directly part of the syllabus.

but i thought i'd list the music I am listening to at the moment.

i was trying to consciously listen to christian music. A sort of spiritual soundscape. Inspirational for me. What kept me going, to counteract all the depressive feelings I find lurking [still] within me. But also an interest in the creation/construction of an alternative christian worldview, [necessarily sub-] culture, encouragement of Christian art and creativity, a antidote to the meaninglessness of pomo emptiness all around us.

But I also like other stuff too! I have found Grooveshark really good for locating music www.grooveshark.com. And Hype Machine post regular new musics by email http://hypem.com/ - my daughter turned me onto them. But Jazz Radio is also good for late night listening http://www.jazzradio.com/.

So I am launching a new gadget on my blog - Music i am listening to.....

I may not notify changes on Twitter or Facebook, but if you log on to find my regular posts, you may also discover fresh aural postings too!

Enjoy!

Submerging Church

2011-09-27T11:35:00.001-07:00

Fad of the month, emerging church, reminds me of graffiti in Broadway market during the 80s, when the area was derelict. It said: “Broadway market isn’t sinking, it’s a bloody submarine!”

This defiant slice of urban negativity is a perfect reply to the optimism of emergence. Submariner ecclesial existence – the submerging church. In three senses:

1. 1. A recognition of reality, our numerical decline. No strategy or philosophy which ignores this in favour of playing with the furniture of church will offer any genuine hope in dark times.

2. 2. A kind of underground church, to shift metaphors. Deliberate hiddenness. In the catacombs. Beneath the cultural radar.

3. 3. Going down deep, to the roots, of traditions, beliefs, practices. Rather than playing with the transient signs of the episteme.

We must accept that we will not have influence ‘above ground’. Those who criticise such a position as an escapist withdrawal from social engagement seem unaware that no one is listening any more.

Fashionable nostrums of the theological moment will not cut it. The energy of majority world churches does not derive from western cerebral models of theology and church. Renewal will entail digging down, finding spiritual resources to sustain and to grow.

XLP

2011-09-16T11:41:00.001-07:00

On Thursdays, after schools finish, a purple double-decker bus parks on the Hazel Grove estate opposite our house. It’s owned by XLP, a Christian youth project in south London http://www.xlp.org.uk/. The bus travels to different estates every day. On board are PCs, music equipment and games.

For the first hour, they welcome primary school children. Then they allow secondary school kids on for the second hour. Meanwhile, older guys kick a football about outside, and parents pass by and chat with youth workers. It’s a real community hub.

They persuaded Lewisham Council to give them a flat as a community centre, with a girls club and activities for older residents. They’ve also obtained a patch of ground for a community garden.

The Council wants XLP to help tenants run a community association, for capacity-building and social cohesion. Lewisham has awarded them a huge grant for three years. With this XLP have hired more staff. Together with tenants they are organising a MusicFest tomorrow, with bands, rappers, and kids activities.

Visionary youth worker, Patrick Regan set up XLP. Ian, who runs the bus, now has a flat on the estate in order to to bless the community and represent Christ.

Spiritual Art?

2011-09-01T12:14:00.000-07:00

Terence Malik’s film, Tree of Life, provoked admiration and boredom in about equal measure. A measured meditation on life, love, grace and God; it was also a trifle too long. As Sue & I left awed by the vision, others emitted sighs of relief that it was over. Interesting that it was hailed though as a major & distinctive Christian movie http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/jul/07/the-tree-of-life-review.

At the same time, the Serpentine featured an exhibition, The Third Paradise, by Michelangelo Pistoletto http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2011/03/michelangelo_pistoletto.html. He set up the Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto to explore & encourage research into justice & the spiritual in art http://www.cittadellarte.it/.

Religion and spirituality are staging a comeback. But it is a vague spiritual sort of spirituality; not much gospel, cross or incarnation. Bill Lewis, Medway poet http://www.billlewis-art.co.uk/, holding an exhibition at the Deaf Cat http://thedeafcat.com/rochester/diary.html, is part of the Remodernism movement, also seeking a more spiritual, sincere, less cynical, sceptical, art http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remodernism . But again scared of getting too committed. Easygoing Gnosticism.

How to convert [sic] this nascent, past-the-post-modern, searching into a genuine spiritual neo-vival [not re-vival - too backward-looking] that will surge us forwards into the arms of the One-Who-Is-Three?

Mystery: welcome back.

Depth: jump right in.

Passion: catch fire.

News International

2011-08-24T08:53:00.001-07:00

I spoke to the Christian group at News International today. I got the guided tour of both The Times and The Sun. Very different atmospheres but the same corporate identity. There is much uncertainty, not only about the current scandals about phone hacking and payments. But also concerning the future of print media and newspapers generally. Will The Times, in particular, survive? Hence their transfer to digital: ipad, iphone, etc. Redundancies and possible closure await the staff.

So the group is very strategic, not only within the company, for their witness; but also for the future of our media and culture. What would McLuhan say today? The group is small but a positive witness. They have run Alpha, and plan to do so again. But also I saw the way they interacted with people in the workplace: friendly, handshaking, welcoming, knowing many people – real salt and light. A great example of workplace ministries.

Lennox Moore leads the group – we met when I preached at Hany Abdelmassih’s church in July. He gave me the invite. We talked about Daniel, as an example of someone who worked in a big corporation, served his surperiors, kept his integrity, and maintained his spiritual life.

Prayer in London

2011-07-17T13:10:00.000-07:00

Recently I went to a prayer meeting run by a Latino ministry, TMC, who also run an annual London conference in September – Expo Vida [http://www.tmcglobal.com/Expovida].

Very Pentecostal – which means ‘loud’! But fervent, zealous. And praying for London. For revival. All South Americans. And a woman prophetiess from Argentina preaching how these migrant people [mostly women] had the power from God to make changes in their lives and their environment.

Actually, throughout London there are small groups praying. Westbourne Park Baptist has monthly nights of prayer. Lighthouse Community Church in Ladbroke Grove has two! A Brazilian ministry has started a 24/7 House of Prayer for London in Kilburn.

If, when, revival, hits this city, then we shall see the importance of faithful committed prayer in the many churches; changing the spiritual atmosphere, opening up the gates of the city, softening people’s hearts, improving the soil for the Word to be sown.

Some criticise this as escapist, impractical nonsense. What we need is sophisticated analysis, social action, community organising. True. But spiritual resources also are required. God’s victory is not to the powerful or educated.

In the cracks of this city, in flats and community halls, God’s people are praying. Change will come.

Past Hope?

2011-06-08T04:13:00.001-07:00

Alastair Bonnett [‘Left in the Past’] and Maurice Glasman [‘Blue Labour’] think that renewal on the Left requires a politics of nostalgia, to oppose the idea of progress in modernity, which actually serves Capitalism.

It may be that there are historical resources for critique. But why is looking backwards the way to conceive new ways of going forwards? Is this not another example of our cultural and intellectual, bankruptcy in the West? A further symptom of postmodernism’s collapse: mining the past, its styles and programmes, through ideological excavation?

Why is it deemed ‘progressive’ to resist the system politically, and not artistically? Simon Reynolds [‘Retromania: Pop Culture’s Addiction to its Own Past’] identifies this cultural retro-virus as a break on creativity and originality. Where is the ‘new’?

In church, we witness the same exhaustion. Traditional Churches privilege ‘tradition’, evangelicals pray for ‘revival’, even as both alter the content of the faith. Both are rearguard actions while our society continues to disown its religious heritage. Both emphases will turn Christianity into a heritage industry for the few faithful remaining.

We need a dynamic pneumatic eschatology, enabling us to look forwards, to follow the Spirit-formed pathways of the sovereign God into his future.