The call for papers for the annual conference of the AAR includes a nice little group on theology and continental philosophy (that sounds vaguely familiar) seeking papers that interact with Charles Taylor and/or Deleuze and Guattari. I had wanted to submit a paper to the Deleuze conference dealing with using Deleuze in theology, now it looks like I have two places to shoot. The 1,000 word proposal is due in about 5 weeks. Oh, and the conference is in Montreal the second week of November.
Monthly Archive for January, 2009
We were discussing worship as a lifestyle this past week at the regular meeting of the church. There were a few things I didn’t like, namely the pastor’s talk of postmodernism (which is a normal conception in the Church in general even if it’s wrong) and linking comfort to worship. I have wrestled with going into detail on the normal “Christian” conception of postmodernism as a confusion with relativism and radical secularism, but that is not the focus of this post.
However, it is difficult to really try to draw any relation between one’s comfort and one’s worship of God. For instance, it would be nice to think that taking a less comfortable job (such as very low pay or living in a very undesirable location) means one is following God’s will better than if one chose the other. However, we have to look beyond the individual. Sure, if one has a posh salary, that person could spend it all on oneself. But, it also means the person could also have more resources to utilise in worship/ministry/missions/etc. Here’s an example: George makes just enough for his family of five to live (say $20K or £16k, depending on where he’s living) and he is living in the “poor” area of town. He is able to glorify God in his regular actions to his neighbours, coworkers, and friends. However, why is this any different if George is making an upper middle class salary ($65k or £40k)? So what if George moves into a middle-class neighbourhood? It’s more of a testimony to what God is doing in George’s life if, even though he makes a greater salary, he spends more in reaching out and supporting others (such as supporting some missions organisations, spending a month every year doing missions work himself in another country, etc). He’s still glorifying God, just now with more resources. In short, it’s easy to pray/worship/etc when in need (or just out of reach of it); it’s harder when not. It’s the exact opposite of “mountain-top experiences” where it’s easy to pray/worship when on a “spiritual high”, but it’s in the valleys where it counts.
Here’s a good, quick analysis of the current situation in Israel/Gaza. I think this best sums it up:
Israel, having inherited the victim status of European Jews — a victim status that reached the highest possible level in the Holocaust — is justified in victimizing the Palestinians. On the other side, if the Palestinians decide to fight back, they are deprived of the opportunity to be considered victims who are defending themselves; they must always be considered aggressors.
