Narnia as atonement theology beyond the stone table

Since it's Christmas, permit a little God-talk. E~mergent Kiwi blogs on different ways of understanding the sacrifice of Aslan (a symbol of Jesus) in this new film (though I doubt a new-fangled Holywood production will ever better the 80s television dramaticisations I grew-up with). People have many different ways of understanding in what way the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth was (and maybe still is) significant. I find many people see their particular understanding as the only correct one, without remembering the potential for themselves and the church at large to develop false and damaging interpretations of a historical event. What happened and why is obvious. Steve does not try to wrap things up with a simple, one-size-fits-all solution, but (briefly) describes the multiple meanings found in the bible and the film. Take a look, it's refreshing.

Technorati Tags: bible god spirituality

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas everybody!

Sorry I've been so rubbish at communicating, I didn't even find a phone to make a couple of 5-second calls back to England. Very quick update: Christmas has been fun, with lots of people and food and drink. I'm in Luang Pabang, it's beautiful here, and my Lao linguistic skills are coming on in leaps and bounds. I almost moved into an eco-village in the north of Laos and got a sponsorship for a year long visa here, but mercifully changed my mind. Doing even one day's work stressed me out.

I'm still finding that although I travel alone, people are so friendly that if I want it, I have to actively seek-out solitude.

Last two nights I've been clubbing; the Lao know how to have fun in a totallly non-pretentious way.

Today I became a millionaire by withdrawing cash. 1million kip is about 100 US dollars.

Yesterday I had a Lao massage with some sound Australian guys. Much better than Ayuverdic in my opinion, the massage is like the people: chilled-out and relaxed, none of this head-pumelling and joint cracking I experienced in India.

Christmas has been so very very different to how it would be in England; I have missed people but have had some truly unique experiences.

Love to all, I will try and send some emails soon.

Here are some active comment conversations:
Koyaanisqatsi and Buddhism
Life Simple

Brain splurge

Wow. Exit: Singapore. Crazy place. Very neat and clean and orderly, but the extreme level of control, remeniscent of Orwell, were too much for me, as was the cost. Enter: Bangkok. But not for long, since I'm tired of big cities and tuk-tuk drivers and noise. So after a thai soup that made me cry and cough and splutter, but was utterly delicious, I got on the train for seldom-visited Kon Kaen. There were almost no white people, and the Thais didn't even understand 'I don't speak English'. For one day, the perfect therapy. The food was astoudingly good, and the Thais smile in such a way, and talk with such a gentle voice (even if I don't understand) that makes me believe the world is a lovely place to be.

And then two angels (I mean that) came and made me know that the world can be beautiful. After being questioned (really just a friendly chat) by the tourist police, who were friendly and taught me Thai as I taught them English, I wandered to the lake. After a few minutes two stunning Thai girls asked me for photos, and within 15 minutes had offered to drive me to the Laos border, which I couldn't refuse. Now these girls taught me the meaning of hospitality. I've been with them for three days (though they've left now), and they've only let me pay for two meals, despite insisting and the value of the pound. They've put me up in luxurious hotels (compared to my usual), known all the right things to say to get around (speaking the language helps), and have ordered mouth-watering Thai and Vietnemese delights, paying for all the entry fees and tuk-tuk fairs as we do the tourist thang. They don't know much English, and I know even less Thai, but what transcends linguistic boundaries has been their open-hearted friendliness that has really blown me away. Falling asleep well-fed, after hot showers and much laughter throughout the day, in clean beds and to the sound of gentle Thai voices, I've learned not that there is such a thing as a free meal, but that some people are loving enough to buy many for you, and not want anything in return.


And now I'm in Laos. The consulate screwed up my visa and made it 60 days instead of 30 at no extra cost, and I'm definitely considering delaying New-Zealand to stay here. The people give slow, friendly, relaxed smiles, but don't demand you buy something. They just smile. Their voices are gentle and calm, as is the pace of life. The beauty equals India, but in different ways. England feels a million miles away and years ago. I'm glimpsing why it was I decided to up and leave, as I've found in fuller force something I glimpsed in Dharamsala. Ahhhhhhh, yes. Peace.

Technorati Tags: travel

Sorry and Singapore

Oooooooh.

I slap my own wrist.

Reading Gandhi - in his time and ours, that feeling when I read something that is true and good surged through me. (Since I've become aware that I am sometimes not like most people, I will explain. This feeling is like joy, but with a gleam in my eye that best relates to the word subversive. Things that are good and true generally require that something changes in the world, and since I am not happy with the way things are, the idea of hange excites me.) This feeling was particularly strong when the book described Gandhi's dialogic approach to truth. He did not believe in dogma, or in truth statements isolated from context. He looked for truth in what he 'knew', but also for the truth that Others posses. With this attitude, he drew Others to himself instead of pushing them away. He'd genuinely listen to even his extreme political opponents, allowing that they might be able to teach him something. (However, Gandhi was a patriarch, and would not listen to his 'small-minded' wife or children.) It also meant he had to change his stance on various issues throughout his life (generally for the better), but so did his adversaries. In doing truth and argument this way, Gandhi built bridges.

In doing truth and argument this way, I burn them down. Sorry, Emergent No. Have a permanent link to improve your blog rating: emergentno.blogspot.com.

On a totally unrelated note, I have arrived in dream land: Singapore. What a city. It's hard to explain how this feels without dragging you through the dirty, congested, cheap, sprawling, noisy, crowded but beautiful free-for-all that is India, and then taking you by the hand to the city of order, clealiness, neatness, expense, technology, peace and a genuinely chilled-out vibe that is Singapore. Seriously, as I got the metro from the airport it did not feel real. The masses of people, all of whom were dressed impeccably, moved like robots in almost total silence between platforms. The silence was only broken by quiet laughter, the gentle patter of feet, and the ludicrously friendly announcements beamed out to remind people not to smoke, eat, drink or do anything that might remotely disturb their fellow Singaporeans. The spotless walls are occasioned by sweet smiling people, reminding us that "Graciousness is...to give up your seat for someone that needs it more than you." There are heavy penalties for disturbing the all-pervasive peace (e.g. £2,500 for miss-use of the emergency alarm or smoking on the metro), and so peace prevails. The traffic lights tell you how many seconds you have less to finish crossing. I keep looking-out for Truman Burbank.

Hot shower. The first proper one in a month.

There is no pollution because everyone goes on the insanely efficient public transport system. The roads are marked with pristine care (markings ?!), and those that do use them within the lines (?!!), have shiny new cars (?!!!) and do not use their horns whenever their eyelids meet to blink (?!!!!). The buildings are amazing and go up instead of across. i can walk down the street without being stared at, or hussled into "my family's shop for eight generations." And it is hot. It was 26 degrees when I arrived, at 4am. And I found this beach:

Which is so unlike anywhere I have ever been that I am convinced I will wake-up in a Kolkata hospital from a coma that has lasted as many days as I stay in this magical city.

Technorati Tags: photos travel

Emerging rant

I started today in a good good mood, since I've found some medicine for my accursed Delhi belly, and I'm already feeling better. More alive. But somebody came knocking from my past and ticked me off. So this post is not so sweetness-and-light as usual.

I really didn't want my blog to be yet another contribution to the innumerable emerging church blogs, but hey, I read them, and I have to comment. Feast on this.

Highlights:

1)

"Since there's no absolute truth, everything's up for grabs. The individual is the sole determiner of truth."

Somebody did not do the reason and argument section of her philosophy course. The dichotomous reasoning is so painfully puerile I need sunglasses to re-read it. Yes, she did say that. Something that gets me about critics of Emergent is a seeming complete inability to see in shades of grey. "You dispute the processes by which we arrive at truth, and question whether we can ever attain a pure truth (free from the culture and biases of the people who sought it), and therefore there is no truth whatsoever, anywhere. One big free-for-all orgy of hedonism." Right. I forgot that the world was black and white.

2)

Jud 1:4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Jud 1:12 These are blemishes on your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, looking after themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted;
Jud 1:13 wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.
Jud 1:16 These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.

Jud 1:17 But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus
Christ. 18 They said to you, "In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions."

Jud 1:19 It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.

Jud 1:20 But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit;
Jud 1:21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

Jud 1:25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

The masterstroke of the argument: quoting a bible passage to defeat the opposition. Genius! So, the emerging church can safely be ignored.

Technorati Tags: emerging church

Rape

An interesting case is doing the rounds in the feminist-leaning blogosphere. The case of a girl who did not 'act traumatized' enough to pursuade a court of the guilt of three alleged rapists. Sadly, nothing out of the ordinary. More shocking, however: they successfully prosecuted the victim for filing a false police report.

Shakespeare's Sister:

"Now here are some things that are true. Rape is underreported. Reporting a rape is difficult, and can be embarrassing, shameful, hurtful, frustrating, and too often unfulfilling. Quite bluntly, there is very little incentive to report a rape. It’s a terrible experience, and the likelihood of seeing justice served is a long shot. Even if it is, it usually comes at great personal cost, with one’s sexual history put on public display amidst the dismay of reliving the attack—and an extended trial can necessitate living in a state of suspended animation, where moving on from that moment is all but impossible. The only real incentive one has is knowing the sacrifice might prevent the same thing from happening to someone else. Not a small thing, but a big personal investment."

And now patriarchy handsomely makes it even harder. Right on!

Technorati Tags: dissent feminism

Victoria Memorial

Ahhhhh, some lovely British Architecture, celebrating the well-loved Empress of India.

Technorati Tags: photos travel

Imago Dei

Most theologies agree with the idea of people reflecting the image of God. Hence, human-like qualities such as creativity, love, and community point us towards the divine. And our lived experience is deemed suitable to bear symbolic reference to the divine. So, God is person, God is King, God is Father, God is shepherd, etc... If we treat any of these symbols literally, we are making them idols.

There are plenty of biblical images for God in female terms. Why is the average Christian's vocabulary restricted exclusively to male symbols and pronouns? Sure, the bible abounds with male images and language, but throughout, female ones are also present. Why are we so unhappy to call God 'she'? Is it that on one level we deny God a gender, but on another level the patriarchal 'father in the sky' is so entrenched that to use female images threatens too much? Is Father God an idol?

If we are to treat imago dei seriously, and I think there is a lot to suggest we should, I think we need to move beyond this.

Genesis 1:27:
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

To use exclusively male symbols/language implicitly deny this passage, for women's experience is not seen as fit to bear the divine. Men are inherently more God-like than women.

We're not playing ping-pong with semantics here. In the words of Elizabeth Johnson, "the symbol functions". If we have patriarchal images of God, patriarchy is strengthened; women and the Other is oppressed. Nothing less than understanding of and relationship with God, with each other, and our experience in the world is at stake.

Technorati Tags: bible dissent feminism god spirituality

Tags

Phew, I've finally sorted out a system of categorising blog posts. I have no shame in my geekiness. It takes a few minutes to set-up a tag, so I'll do it as I go along. (At the moment here are only three.) If you want to see all posts on a subject, e.g. 'books', just click on the subjct on the menu to the right, under the 'TAGS' sub-menu.

The 'technorati tags' thing that will now appear at the end of each blog post is a related system of linking blogs together. An example: if I tag something 'politics', the post will be sent to technorati, who will make this publically identifiable with the tag 'politics', and people interested in politics are more likely to stumble across the post.

Ohhhh the neatness, the sheer ORDER of it all.

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Making History

Just finished 'Making History' by Stephen Fry. Very funny in parts, a real page-turner, and makes some very interesting points about history and people. Well worth a read.

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Always Coca Cola

My state of emotion has deteriorated from a general anti-corporate dissatisfaction to mild/moderate vexation. I just created a rather pretty and humerous blog post, but the WYSIWYG editor of blogger.com was confused by its own html code, and on trying to rectify the machine-generated mistakes (a missing 'close font' tag, of all things), I somewhere along the line lost the whole kit and caboodle. So I will resort to an ugly unordered list to convey my otherwise lost point:

• Coca-cola is everywhere in India. Coca cola is made my coca cola. Sprite is made by Coca Cola. The bottled mango juice is made by Coca Cola. So is plain soda. An "alternative" Cola drink, 'thumbs up', is made by Coca Cola. For pete's sake, even some of the mineral water is made by them. Anything in a glass and often plastic bottle bends its knee before the not-so gentle giant.
• Please take the time to visit CorpWatch to read-up on Coca Cola. Alleged unethicacies (not sure that's a word. I just looked it up: no, it isn't) include the hiring of paramilitaries to murder eight union leaders in Columbia (see also killercoke.org), and using and polluting shared water supplies in India, leaving villagers - to put it politely - in the lurch.
• Tonight, whilst enjoying a humble repast of plain toast and tomato soup (belly still not feeling up to scratch), I was interrupted by the soothing tones of a jeep reversing (in India, where monotonous beeps would be too boring, tunes are used). Tonight, the tune was the majestic, timeless work of art that was only narrowly pipped to top spot in the 500 greatest songs of all time by Bob Dylan: Always Coca Cola.

In this globalised world, the arm of the multinational has indeed grown long.

Technorati Tags: dissent politics

Church

I went to St Paul's Church on Sunday. It was boring (no outrageous pictures of angry women cutting themselves), but they did seem to have quite a strong emphasis on helping the poor of Kolkata. So that's something.

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The Abortion Dialogues

A few days ago I was amazed to see posters for 'The Abortion Dialogues', showing in Kolkata. This is an installation by Anita Allyn and Colette Copeland, which provides space for people to tell their experiences of abortion. No pro-life or pro-choice polemic, just grassroots experiences to help understand, as opposed to moralise, the issues.

Lectures were provided on 'gender and techno-culture' and 'violence in feminist performance art', which provided a sometimes shocking but thought-provoking overview of how women have departed from traditional art forms to create testaments to struggle, express opinions, but always with a political, emancipatory purpose in mind. One particularly shocking and memorable example was an artist who underwent 20 plastic surgery operations, which were filmed and broadcast. She was apalled that an impossible standard is set and massive importance is put on female body image, such that people will pay huge amounts of money to make themselves better fit the ideal. So she gave herself the forehead of The Mona Lisa, the Eyes of Venus De Mylo, etc. etc.

I can't believe I found this sort of thing in India, such an overly conservative place. Brilliant.

Technorati Tags: art feminism social justice