The Sayers guy has written a post on Andy Warhol – who is of some interest to me as a design student. To be honest, I’ve never really taken much intentional notice of him because pop-art is, well, pop-art, but this accidental ‘history lesson’ has proved rather intriguing. I’d be curious to know where Mark Sayers has pulled his info from, because at a guess the facts are contriversial. I’m fairly convinced that one of my lecturers might implode ever so slightly at the idea. Regardless, it is a very interesting take on an artist regarding influence in relation to one prophetic of the times. And that itself is probably a fact even the most jaded of beings cannot ignore. Warhol definitely made his mark.
Category: <span>Christianity</span>
Coffeehouse Theology: Reflecting on God in Everyday Life
Ed Cyzewski. NavPress, $14.99 paper (240p) ISBN 9781600062773 Freelance theologian Cyzewski enters into the Emergent conversation from the conservative end of the evangelical spectrum. He urges readers to explore theology while reassuring them that they don’t have to become postmodern philosophers: theology can be considered, as it were, in the coffeehouse. Arguing that “[o]ur local settings and cultural values—in other words, our context—influence how we read God’s Word,†Cyzewski approaches “contextual theology†by weaving together discussions of mission, culture, God, Scripture, tradition and the global church. Personal anecdotes of his own growth in faith are disarming in their honesty. While this accessible work is a useful introduction to aspects of Emergent theology, Cyzewski’s summary of modernism and postmodernism is sometimes too sketchy to be useful; however, each chapter includes valuable suggestions for further reading. Gently nudging his fellow Christians to listen to diverse points of view, Cyzewski doesn’t explain why he is committed to engaging in dialogue with some aspects of culture and not others (say, progressive theologians and secularists). This addition to books about emerging and missional forms of Christianity ends on a hopeful note for unity across denominations. (Sept.)
This book came out today! I will be reviewing in October some time as part of the online ‘tour’… when it arrives in my mailbox that is.
Selling on Amazon, bummer about the exchange rate at the moment.
Post of the day to Mark Sayers:
An ancient cure to a very modern anxiety
Just an all round good quality insightful post.
So she now has the internet and technically could be blogging, but does she?
No.
Instead she points you toward PagePlane.com with it’s fun header and lovely wealth of design resources.
It seems that the writing in the fingers needs sufficient time to warm back up and the fingers aren’t exactly sure where to start while also otherwise being preoccupied with lovelies such as rotoscoping and GilmoreGirls (*yes I did just say GilmoreGirls) and sometimes-lovelies such as branding. Yes. And other homework.
Basically things are progressing at a very standard rate-an even plane. Small things only. Like coffee today with an *Indonesian girl she only knows a little bit from uni. Like Pratchett novels. Like minute progressions to different perspectives. Little conversations about church. Bedtime conversations with CS Lewis…her own head. And the teeter on the edge of what feels like some bigger conversations/explorations with God which currently have no tangibility whatsoever – maybe they’ll get relevant when I work out what they actually are?
All up it’s rather boring but rather nice. I am not sure that is a good thing.
*Relevant country totally just included for you Sammy
It does well to quote the CS Lewis guy once in a while as I tend to find him quite wise and he simply refuses to be annoying in any way whatsoever- which is much to be said about a theologian. I found this quote this morning and rather than glossing over yet another lot of clever words, I read it, mainly because it had the word renovation in it. That word seems to have jumped around in my face inadvertently lately, like a lemming.
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right, and stopping the leaks in the roof, and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably, and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.â€
– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity (London: William Collins, 1970), 172.
It feels like a bit of renovation is going on at the moment.
I picked up a copy of Organic God the other day and it’s one of those books where you kind of get half an idea that God has dumped it in front of you quite purposely.
I am jaded about the church and expression of Christianity that I see, the messiness of the lives around me and frustrated by my own apathy.