As I’ve mentioned before, Brian McLaren’s Open Letter to Worship Leaders contains an interesting idea about thelology mixing it up with the masses.
In the modern world, theology was done by scholars, and was expressed in books and lectures. In the postmodern world, many of us believe that the theologians will have to leave the library more often and mix with the rest of us. And the best of them will join hands and hearts with the poets, musicians, filmmakers, actors, architects, interior and landscape designers, dancers, sculptors, painters, novelists, photographers, web designers, and every other artistic brother and sister possible & not only to communicate a postmodern, Christian theology & but also to discern it, discover it.
What brings this to mind, of course, is the recent news that Emergent is
considering sponsoring an “Emerging Theologians” series. Details are still being discussed, but the object would to sponsor new theological thought that is outside of the academy and created by currently unpublished authors. We would love to see younger theologians submitting to this effort but are equally excited about the possibility of submissions from all ages.
Cool. Maybe it’ll be like the old Olympic rules applied to theology: professionals need not apply. Could be the best thing that ever happened to theology. Also from the recurring theme department are my thought on Emergent Society as Mover of Theology from the Cathedral to the Bazaar. Bring it on!
Testing… 1,2,3…
Okay, now that I trust the software to function again, I’ll post something. Last week, I posted two entire posts under the Lifestyle worship thing, and they were both gobbled up by some bug or other. I don’t know who had it, but it was probably me. Anyhoo, I would like to know where I sign up to be sponsored. The stuff on my blog should be sufficient to show something. I don’t know what, but something. What else would I need to submit? Who do I submit to. When? etc. I was interested in posting under the open letter from the prodigal slacker too, but held off until I caught up with everything. So, fast forwarding seems apropriate now.
I am currently reading “Sex, Ecology, Spirituality” by Ken Wilber, and am a regular poster at his “Integral Naked” website. I am not waiting around for the wild-ones to come to me, I am going to them and trying to understand what is going on. I think I’m getting it. Ironically, the ideas Ken is proposing go beyond Postmodernism and into what may be the next actual thing. Postmodernism isn’t actually a thing, y’know? It’s a post-something. We’ve learned to let go of things pretty well. Now are we ready to learn how to grasp again? Can we be trusted to grasp for the right reasons? To grasp the right things? To grasp when apropriate and let go when apropriate at the same time? So when the actual thing which isn’t modernity actually shows up, will we be able to recognise it and grasp it, or will we be stuck in letting go?
Isn’t that the question about your DNA post as well?
I think I’ve got a pretty decent grip on some very important things and I need the time and space to think it all through and work it. BTW, the experiment that Donald (Blue Like Jazz) Miller did with his college buds where they had the confessional booth on campus? Remember? People would come in and expect to engage them on the old paradigm about confession, but instead they were surprised to find that the Christians were ready to apologize to them? That was my idea. I came up with that years ago. But my best friend was the only person who saw the beauty of it. Who will help me study and experiment and find where the Spirit of God is moving and get something together? I have been blessed with a small amount of time to find out how to get plugged in to some sort of “anti-scholarship” thing- provision to learn without having to become a slave to the old guard of academia and other corrupted Principalities and Powers.
Where? Who? Help!