No Sweat on Public Radio

The New Hampshire Public Radio has just run a story about No Sweat Apparel. Check it out.

Cyd and I have been buying shoes ans shirts from them for a while. Quality, well made stuff. And responsible too.

Hum...Politics

I'm very much looking forward to Obama's acceptance speech tonight. And seeing the reaction from various fronts.

It is good to be living into these moments.

And as a contrast, living into the Russo-Georgian 'war' also seema to be a moment in 21st century global politics. America might get its first Black President, and Russia shows the world that it is liable to invade a sovereign country on the basis of humanitarian compulsion (even though some think it is to protect its oil interests in the region) Oops, that sounds like some else.

"This is my blood" and the fruit of the earth

"I think that any sermon on the salvation of the soul, on love of the poor, any so-called eucharistic ritual, any evangelical discourse that doesn't concern itself with saving the earth and its natural resources, is perverted. How can certain men and women repeat the words "This is my body, this is my blood" over the fruit of the earth with out worrying about how long that earth will remain fruitful? What are these men and women talking about?"- Luce Irigaray (1983)

Wow. This is great. Personal salvation, corporate worship, and social action must coordinate with preservation of creation or it all equals non-sense. I'm all about the Eucharist, but this really put it in a different frame. I think I really should become a farmer to understand the gospel (and why did Jesus pick fishermen anyway when he's always talking agriculture?)

Christian Politics?

Some great posts on christian politics, or on not always as christian as we might think.

"Not Voting" as an Act of Christian Discernment- by Dave Fitch
Changing the Wind?- over at Jesus Manifesto
Advise Everyone...Endorse No One- by Shane Claiborne

Summertimes

Posting these days gets more difficult, esp. with learning German and working on some articles. Although I have set up a facebook account, finally, and mostly living through that cyber-portal.

Christian Liturgy #1: reading notes

(these are my reading notes for my Christian Liturgy Class)

In his essay, Kevin Irwin notes two types of liturgical theology: first, reflection on the meaning/significance of the liturgy, particularly the sacraments; second, using liturgy as a principle source for systematic theology. This dialogue is noted in the reciprocal relationship between lex orandi and lex credendi, where the prayers of the church are the material for theology, and theology can be a corrective to deficient prayer. To these two, current liturgical theology has added lex agendi, which is the performative experience of liturgy. These three must always work in critical relation.

Kilmartin, Christian Liturgy: I Theology and Practice, sets the stage with the scholastic definition: a sacrament is a sign instituted by Christ to confer the grace with it signifies. But this definition only makes sense in the context of salvation history, addressing humanity’s problem. Therefore a theology of the sacraments must address God’s activity in the world, human sinfulness, and most of all, be linked to the incarnation and life of Christ and his Church (6). This leads to the questions of divine initiative and faithful response of the Church. Against the neo-scholastic separation of created and uncreated grace, recent theology affirms the original grace of God as always orienting humanity toward God, through the sacraments and elsewhere. Also, against the neo-scholastic orientation of a passive reception of the liturgy, there has been a turn to active participation in the sacraments. Also, from the scholastic understanding that the sacraments happen within the church by qualified minister, a turn to sacraments as acts of the Church itself. Conclusding, in the liturgy, God addresses his people through Christ, who is still proclaiming his gospel to all people. In the liturgy, the assembly hears, receives, and responds in faith to the call of God.

The article, "How to Receive a Sacrament and Mean It," Karl Rahner deepens this perspective by initiating a Copernican revolution in sacramental understanding as being not a movement from the world to God and then a return to the world, but rather as the movement of the world to God. He begins by moving beyond old understading of grace, as Kilmartin explained it, and also by outline the liturgy of the world as salvation history, which always situates the narrower conception of liturgy. From here Rahner unfold that the efficacy of the sacraments is not added to the sign-character, but rather is found within themselves. Or rather, the causality is internal to the sacrament itself. This return to ancient tradition of the ‘real symbol’ allow Rahner to then speak of the Church as the ‘sacrament of salvation’ of the world (via Vatican 2), linked with his articulation of anonymous Christians. In this way, as the Church celebrates the sacraments, it is as a sign to the world, even without their participation, of the redemption of Christ.

Analysis:
Rahner returns to patristic source of sacraments as unity of sign and reality, but then applies the latter shifts of the corpus mysticum to this recovery (i.e. anonymous redeemed). It is only a half-turn to patristic source because it doesn’t identify church with Christ as his body as an ‘ontological symbolism’ but only a ‘real symbol’ linking Christ and world through the church as a sign.

Questions:
- Is ‘real symbol’ related to performative action, the perlocutionary aspect of language?
-How does Rahner’s view relate to the secularization thesis of Christianity, or an understanding of the ‘kenotic’ emptying of the Church into Culture?
-If the ancient tradition affirmed the combination of sign and reality, sign and cause, in the sacraments, they also affirmed there was no salvation outside of the Church. How is it that by recovering the formed, Rahner still denies the latter?

the jesus manifesto

hello everyone,

so classes have started in my program at Marquette, which is partly why I'm not posting hardly at all. I love it! And church stuff is keeping me busy also.

But I'm very excited to announce that beginning next week I'll be contributing to the now collaborative blog at Jesus Manifesto.

Beyond Jesus: on the Atonement

So I'm reading through a copy of a Scot McKnight's new "A Community Called Atonement." It really is a great book and I'll write a review of it soon. But something struck me that I wanted to comment on.

At the end of a chapter where Scot explores Jesus' own interpretation of his death, linking it to Passover, which is the Story of protection from God's wrath (via the blood of the lamb on the door posts) and God's liberation from Egypt. But Scot notes that the early church didn't feel compelled to stick only to this interpretation. That's Jesus' interpretation is not privileged. Paul links atonement as much to Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) as to the Passover; John's Gospel drops Kingdom language and talks of 'eternal life'. And Hebrews links Jesus to the Priesthood and the Temple. And the early church copied Jesus kingdom language and interpretation.

Scot just notes this, but I ask why? Why are they so free to interpret differently?

The answer given by much of critical scholarship is that Jesus never intended his death to be thought of as accomplishing anything between God and man, i.e. Jesus didn't have an atonement theory and the Church just make up whatever was useful for them at the time. But that is too easy.

Instead I would propose that the disciples had freedom to reinterpret, or go beyond Jesus, because the Hebrew Scripture (the OT) already had interpreted God's might acts in various way, all complimenting one another. After there is not one covenant, but three between Abraham, Moses, and David. God does and doesn't want a king, and the king turns into the coming Messiah. God gives the land after the exodus, and then takes it way in the exile. The tension the OT between God's revealed Law and the order of Wisdom (some think there is a shift from one to the other). The interpretation of the rise of David in 1 Kings and 1 Chronicles. There are some many strands of salvation in the OT that the early church gathered them all into Jesus, even if he only emphases the Passover.

And isn't that appropriate? Passover was the beginning for Israel; so too for the church. Jesus interpreted himself as at the beginning of something new, and therefore Passover is his theme, and he lets the disciples reinterpret the rest of the story accordingly. And we continue to this day.

CSA or 2007 Farm Bill: What to Do?

So today our family picked up our fruit and veggie boxes from Angle Organics, our local CSA. And today, via Church World Service, I learned that the House is about to vote on the new Farm Bill (learn more about the farm bill and whose involved) and I through them I contacted by representative and let him know what I thought.

So I did two things: 1) supported local economics via the ALMIGHTY DOLLAR, and 2) tried to influence national/global economics via DEMOCRACY (or something close to it).

Which is better to do?

Or course the answer is both/and, right? Left, I mean wrong. The way I view the world right now is economically. Of course I view the world that way, they want me to. But what I mean is that I really dont' think that Big Government can do as much to change things (or at least i don't have enough time to MAKE Big G care about what I think, and TIME is MONEY afterall).

But how I spend my money is very much something that I can control and will have an impact. I could lobby Big G to help out the small farmer (and therefore my assistance and my values are mediated thru someone else), or I use my money and ensure that I help them and that I am living by my values.

They same is true for clothing. Let your dollars speak, and if necessary and convenient, speak through the Government.

What do you think? What did I miss?

2/3 World Economics and the Church

Africa: Churches Reject New Trade Pacts With Europe --This is a very interesting article discussing African Trade, the UE, and WTO trade standard. Sure that might not sound very interesting, but it is significant that many churches in Africa are involved in what is going on concerning fair trade, domestic and foreign and global markets.

Oh that the Church in the US would get involved .

The Gift in Stranger than Fiction

Please go check out Eric Austin Lee's The Gift in Stranger than Fiction, pt. 1 over at church and pomo. It's talking about that grat movie Stranger than Fiction, and then reading it through both Derrida's and Milbank's understanding of 'gift'. Today is Derrida's turn and Wednesday is Milbank's. This is good stuff.

Help! Global Church News Aggregator?

I really want to figure out how to get all my news through the church instead of either Fox or NPR. Can anyone help me?

I was challenged recently that we should be listening to the global church to find out what is going on in the world instead of mega-news agencies who think only through the lenses of economics and state-craft.

Does anyone know how to gather together multiple news sources into one home page or something like that? I'm not smart enough to figure it out.

Where is the presence of Christ?

I once preached on this, in relation to the story of the road to Emmaus. And I still want to say something close to it. That Christ is found everywhere his ministry is continued, everywhere his actions are imitated, everywhere his gestures are followed.

I certainly want to uphold a high sacramental position within the Church as the Body of Christ for the life of the world. Too often it seems people are all too ready to jump the ecclesial body and find Christ in the world, separate out the Church and the Kingdom, instead of distinguishing between them. This lead to a lot of misguided political activity.

And yet I do in a sense want to locate the body of Christ beyond the sacramental body (in the Eucharist) which makes the ecclesial body (as the Church). I want this because the story of the Road to Emmaus, with the disciples eyes being opened to see Christ is not merely a Eucharistic reflection, but a continuation of Jesus’ own hospitable table fellowship. And even the narratives of the Last Supper are not merely institution narratives which begin the Eucharistic practice, nor are is it an elaboration on Passover or the Day of Atonement, but they are continuations of Jesus’ revolutionary table fellowship, a radical hospitality toward the loss, excluded, and marginalized. And this table fellowship becomes both the test of discipleship in Matthew 25 (the Sheep and the Goats) as well as the test of the presence of Christ. In Matthew 25 it is not only a question of who are the true disciples (those that mimic and extend Jesus’ table fellowship and hospitality through the giving of food, drink, clothing, and time), but in this process of being like Jesus we discern the presence of Jesus.

But again, I don’t want to disconnect this discernment of Christ in the world from the Eucharistic discernment of Christ in the Sacrament. Indeed to do so is to loss the resources of both discerning Christ and power to be like Christ. Therefore to know Christ’s body (in the world) one must first be Christ Body (in the Church).

'Christian' is not an adjective!

Sure, we might have ‘christian’ music, ‘christian’ books, ‘christian’ movies, ‘christian’ politics, etc, etc. But ‘christian’ is not a means of modifying of something we already have. When we think this way we

“make ‘Christian’ an adjective, an epithet, a style—when what God offers his people is particular action—verbs—through which they can become and distinctive nouns—people, disciples, witnesses.” (13)

God gives us particular Verbs that transform us into particular Nouns. Now I don’t want to get too grammatical, but this is very important. Too often we think we can take this type of lifestyle, and that kind of activity, mix it up with our own personal preferences, and then add a little bit of ‘christian’ to it and feel good that our lives are conforming to the Gospel. We assemble ‘nouns’ and ‘verbs’ of our own liking, and then add the ‘christian’ adjective.

But this is just not how it works. The Gospel is not an adjective that modifies our groups of nouns and verbs, our possessions and actions. Rather, the Gospel comes as a set of Verbs (of actions, an entire life with Christ, care for the outcast, love for one another) which form us into a set of Nouns (children of God, the body of Christ, a temple of the Holy Spirit). The Gospel is the connection of these Nouns and Verbs, of offering grace and peace, a new reality, a new community, not just the modification of an old reality.

‘Christian’ is not an adjective. If it is then we have lost ourselves.

These thoughts brought to you by The Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics, “The Gift of the Church, and the Gifts God Gives to It.”

Where Have I been? Where is Geoff going?

O' man. Where have I been? It has been over a month since I last posted. Where has the time gone. Easter pretty much took a bunch of my time, and then I was in Philly last week for the Emergent Theological Conversation with Caputo and Kearney (which was great!). I was also organizing the pre-conference readings for churchandpomo.org, which I think turned out pretty good. I posted on the conference here.

But where am I going?
1) Well here is the very exciting new. First off I was accepted to the Summer Seminary series on Liturgical Identities: Global, Nation, Ecclesial at Calvin College with Steven Long and Michael Budde.

2) But even more excitingly, I was accepted to the doctoral program in Theology at Marquette University in Milwaukee. This is huge blessing from God and opportunity for me. I have been in a process of discernment for a couple of years about whether or not I should pursue a Ph.d, and the doors always seemed ambiguously open and closed, not clearly shut or open. But then during Lent, appropriately, it really felt that the door was closing. Steve Long, who I really want to study with, took a job away from Garret (one of two schools I applied to), and then I got rejected from Garrett (ouch! I thought for sure I would get it). But then I got accepted to Marquette without funding (hello, who wants to pay $50,000 to go back to school). So that was like as bad as getting rejected too. But then, on Palm Sunday I got a call from the director of graduate studies telling me that some funding had become available. This guy then proceeded to offer me a full ride + TA (teaching assistant) living stipend. And on top of that, Steve Long took a job at Marquette and will most likely be my advisor.

So what does that means? Well I'm going to continue on pastoring at Life on the Vine, but I will be able to quite my part-time job at Starbucks. Hopefully my blogging won't suffer too much, but you all will probably get a bunch of my reading notes.

anyway, that's all for now.

Oh Man! I wanted to be Gen X

...but now I find out that I'm really part of Generation Y. Yes, douglas coupland has nothing on me. I was reading this great article about consumerism and the return of the 'me generation' and it said that Gen Y is from 1977-97. I was born in '78, just made the cut off.

anyway, the article is very good, and it resonated with me a bit. But b/c I have older siblings, does that mean I'm more X than Y. but like being the oldest of the Yers instead of the youngest of the Xers. So I dub myself leader of Generation Y (provisionally). But Gen Y is really a selfish bit a techno-individualist, the return of the "me" generation, brainwashed by product placement cartoons and video games.

So I'll divest my title and just become a good generation x again. they care about the world and stuff.

But maybe... I just don't know.

what generation are you? do you fit?

covered heads-bare legs: its all good for business

Cute Veil! Where'd You Get It?
by Endy M. Bayuni

How Fashion takes advantage on dispute between conservatives and liberals.

"So while the conservatives and liberals are slugging it out to try to impose their values on the rest of society, most Indonesian girls, like their peers around the world, just want to have fun. The question of whether or not to cover their heads for them is really a matter of choice, and it is theirs alone to decide. The fashion industry will only gladly comply and serve their needs either way."

peace in the middle east? no sweat, and organic

I won't go into all the stuff about the global economy and sweatshops and what not. If you care about where your clothes are many, or care about innovative economic possibilities, then check out these shirts made in Palestinian and Israeli collaboration. You can get the lowdown here, and watch the youtube below.

Recent New: The 'Value' of Nation Elections

(The 'value' is about $100 million per campaign...but that's getting ahead of myself)

Here are some recent news stories that relate to my recent questioning of elections.

The first two relate to the funding of the candidates (While we may vote for the presented candidates, who decides which candidates are presented? Those with Money of course!)

Death Knell May Be Near for Public Election Funds (01-23-07)
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRIC
The public financing system has failed to keep pace with the torrents of money flowing toward the presidential elections.

Democrats Chasing Big Money (02-15-07)
by Chris Cillizza
Every serious candidate is spending hours each day courting the whales who can write big check.

This next piece explores the possibility of region politics superseding national politics (as in secession from), with my home state of California at the center.

California Split (02-10-07)
by GAR ALPEROVITZ
"Somthing interesting is happening in California. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to have grasped the essential truth that no nation — not even the United States — can be managed successfully from the center once it reaches a certain scale..."

And lastly, what are the prospects of a participatory politics (enabled by blogging)? It is hard
to tell, but Edwards is paving the way.

Edwards Learns Campaign Blogs Can Cut 2 Ways (02-08-07)
By JOHN M. BRODER
tag line: Candidates could face problems as they try to integrate online political discourse into traditional campaigning.

A Blogger for Edwards Resigns After Complaints (02-13-07)

So while the price tag of running a successful campaign is very steep ($100 mil.),
is it really worth it?

Dictatorship of the Bourgeois: Universal Sufferage and Secret Balloting

(WARNING: while seeming to be a theoretical post, this is important, ending with an earnest question.)

If not through a violent coup de taut, how do dictators come to power?
Voting. Hitler!

How do seemingly mediocre or blatantly partisan politicians come to power?
Voting. Louis Bonaparte! (Although he probably didn’t come to mind).

While initially seen as the surest means of a fair and equal democracy, has voting turned against (or been turned against) the masses? Has the process of voting becomes a veil of something more sinister (or perhaps a mere banality)?

Japanese philosopher Kojin Karatani, agreeing with Marx, says Yes.

Voting…
Universal suffrage is, of course, the “system wherein people of all classes participate in the elections” (Transcritique, 151). Now certainly this seems like a great idea because universal suffrage opens the door for every single person to have a stake in her/his future through participation in national politics (i.e. through choosing a representative to hold forth their views). Along with this, the mechanism of secret ballots secures the voter from intimidation and retribution allowing the voter to voter her mind without fearing the consequence. In fact, it is universal suffrage and the secret ballot that distinguished what Marx calls ‘bourgeois parliament’ from the previous representative systems in feudal and monarchist governments.

But as Karatani says, “But this is not all—at the same time, and inversely, in this system, all individuals are, for the first time, separated in principle from all class relations and relations of production…Hiding who votes who for from, secret voting liberates people from their relations; at the same time, however, it erases the traces of their relations” (151, italics added for emphasis). The secret ballot also short circuits responsibility of the elected (representatives) from the electors (represented) such that the elected can think and behave as if everyone (i.e. no one) elected them (and is this not true of Bush recently).

Also this mechanism (voting in general) effectively erases class relations and relations of domination by “temporarily ‘reducing’ people into ‘free and equal individuals’…In elections, the freedom of individuals is guaranteed, but this exists only at the moment that the hierarchical relations in the real relations of production are suspended” (152). So in a sense, the freedom and equality promised by democracy is only actualized when the hierarchy and inequality of their daily relationships are suspended/bracketed. In other words democracy only comes into existence during elections and ends after elections (again b/c the representatives are severed from the electors and keep company with the bureaucrats). We are free and equal only one day a year, the day we pretend that there are no other relationships of importance! Oh, the wonderful fiction!

Karatani's conclusion is that universal suffrage and elections are “an elaborate ritual to give a public consensus to what has already been determined by the state apparati (military and bureaucracy)” (152).

…On the State
Now I don’t bring this all up to merely say that voting is irrelevant and unnecessary (although at times I think that), but to point out that elections are oriented toward the State, i.e. State-Power. But this is not the only arena of power.

Civil Society is an equal site of power and resistance. A possible objection to Karatani is that people all over the world have been denied the right to vote and have fought in order to vote (especially African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement). But I would point out that radical movements precisely began in the civil arena, hence the name “Civil Rights”, and typically end with reception of the vote. But this is generally more an uneasy truce than a true victory. The Civil Rights Movement never did effectively take over the Democratic Party, and African Americans have yet to by represented in relations to their population. Being given the ‘right to vote’ in many cases is the right to be distracted from doing what you were doing (changing concrete, civil society) and offered the chance to begin something else (the improbable task of changing State politics).

So, in short, might not the Church be wiser abstaining from the mechanism (voting) by which the “dictatorship of the bourgeois” functions (a mechanism to which both the religious right and left cling), and instead creatively partner with the “dictatorship of the proletariat” (i.e. the exploited/resisting side of globalization) via means of civil actions and innovative protests, through on the ground associations?