All Consuming : andiibowsher

Why I recommend "What Do They Hear?: Bridging the Gap Between Pulpit & Pew"

nobody@allconsuming.net (andiibowsher) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 08:49:51 GMT

What Do They Hear?: Bridging the Gap Between Pulpit & Pew

by Mark Allan Powell

Drawn from the author’s low-key research, fascinating study of how people do and don’t identify with various characters in biblical stories and how cultural background seems to affect our reading and understanding. Then some work on how clergy and laity identify with characters and understand meanings of stories. Food for thought and a real help to think about how preaching and Christian education are carried through.

Get it, read it, chew it over (rated 5 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (andiibowsher) — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 08:31:25 GMT

Children of God (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

by Mary Doria Russell

Definitely a must have scifi book. It’s the kind I would give to friends who remain to be convinced of the ‘worthiness’ of science fiction. It explores important issues in a helpful way. It is sympathetic to religious views and to non-religious.

My only negative crit is that it seemed to run out of steam a little towards the end, but that’s a fairly minor point.

The happy midi-narrative and Christian mission

nobody@allconsuming.net (andiibowsher) — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 17:00:12 GMT

Making Sense of Generation y: The World View of 16-25 Year Olds (Explorations)

by Sara Savage

The research this book is based on worked with British ‘included’ teenagers and twenty-somethings; the generation Y of the book title. It analyses the results and then connects this analysis with wider cultural trends and their implications for Christian youth work and mission. The important thing is that the assumption that religion is out and spirituality is in is wrong. There is not much sign of a deinstitutionalised spiritual quest among the people interviewed.

There are some important things to note from this study. These are included youngsters who have sufficient income and apparent family stability not to disturb overmuch the happy midi-narrative that the study identifies as their metanarrative-substitute. Therefore, for a fuller picture we should note that there are people in this age group for whom the ideology does not work. Indeed, because of the group construction and maintenance of this midi-narrative it may be that there are private doubts and struggles which are not permissable to articulate and which are repressed.

One of the commendations of the book is that we engage in prior mission. That is creating space for the asking of big questions and exploration as well a the telling of Christian stories and the demonstrating of how Christianity can look when it takes seriously the values of the Reign of God.

Engagement with the happy midi-ers will mean taking a positive approach to the celebration of the present world, multi-layering our worship and communication, living with ambiguity in order to be in on important conversations, casting off hierarchical assumptions. At a number of points I felt that a life coaching approach was essentially being recommended, without that label. It would be useful to be aware and constructively engage in the identity construction projects of generation Y. We also have to take seriously the way that consumerism is now the principle way of approaching life. I suspect that in many ways this is the meta-narrative, in fact into which the happy midi-narrative fits. We also have to take seriously that these are what I have termed digiborgines.

There was some support for the hypothesis that I have sometimes put forward that culturally the background religious ideas, the folk religion, so to speak, is now more new Agey than Christian.

Altogether a thought-provoking read that is important for Christian leaders and youth workers to have in mind as they work with mission and pastoral relationships with generation Y. There will be much to helyp put sundry observations into perspective and to suggest avenues for further exploration in mission.

Why I recommend "Parochial Vision: The Future of the English Parish"

nobody@allconsuming.net (andiibowsher) — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 16:06:54 GMT

Parochial Vision: The Future of the English Parish

by Nick Spencer

Set in a very informative historical context of the developments of English church organisation, this book advocates very convincingly a minster church model of church organisation, pastoral care and mission.

More than worth consuming (rated 5 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (andiibowsher) — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 07:14:26 GMT

Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire

by Brian J. Walsh

This is one of the best books I’ve read in a while. I hope to write a fuller review later, but couldn’t just leave this as ‘worth consuming’!

Intelligent faith-ful sci-fi (rated 5 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (andiibowsher) — Mon, 17 Jul 2006 16:37:16 GMT

The Sparrow

by Mary Doria Russell

I liked the characters, I liked the storyline, I loved the issues it dealt with and I felt there was a good human and even theological angle running through it. I wanted to know what would happen with the next mission. As a linguist I also liked the linguistic elements and wanted to know more, reallye

If I have a criticism, it is the phonetics of the aliens; too little attention given to the way that a different sort of mouth would be able to produce sound, I suspect. But that’s a minor fault in a good piece of writing.

Good commendation of office praying

nobody@allconsuming.net (andiibowsher) — Thu, 11 May 2006 13:00:58 GMT

Praying with the Church: Following Jesus Daily, Hourly, Today

by Scot McKnight

I got this by swapping a copy of my Praying the Pattern for it. Scot McKnight, the author blogs at Jesuscreed. I thought it would be interesting as a swap because both deal with regular patterned praying and encouraging it.

Scot’s book is the kind of thing that I would give or commend to a no-longer new Christian who is seeking to develop their devotional life and perhaps been finding that the normal, usually evangelical protestant, ways need suping up or changing. It’s written in an accessible way and deals with some of the typical objections or hang-ups that prots have about using office-prayers. Clearly he is influenced by Phyllis Tickle (who wrote the preface) and her books of hours (e.g.). He uses some nice analogies to help make his points, notably the idea of personal prayer being within the larger structure of the church’s prayer. He introduces the main streams of office-style devotion with helpful sharing of his own first impressions and how he and his wife found their way in to using them.

If I have a downside to comment on, it’s to do with my own Lord’s prayer perspective. So, if Scot reads the copy I swapped with him, he may think about the distinction between cathedral and monastic offices a bit more, as this was not really dealt with and he tends to focus on the monastic strands. I’d be interested, too, to know what he makes of the idea that perhaps, if early Christians had been so caught up with polemical attitudes towards Judaism, they might have developed office-praying structured around the Lord’s prayer rather than simply reciting it verbatim.

There is some crossover between our books in terms of arguments commending office-praying and dealing with practicalities.

So, worth getting if you are thinking about starting office praying or wanting to encourage someone else to.

identity and emergence (rated 4 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (andiibowsher) — Sun, 07 May 2006 17:30:47 GMT

The Emergent Self (Cornell Studies in the Philosophy of Religion)

by William Hasker

I have to confess that I had a particular set of interests in reading this, and so I did skim some parts that were less relevant to those interests. The book goes over theories of the self, personhood and identity. Much of the book is taken up with examining and discarding many of the inherited philosophical approaches: dualisms Cartesian, Thomistic, and materialistic accounts. The view that ‘emerges’ is that what the author terms ‘emorgent dualism’ probably works best. There is a helpful discussion, too, of the forms of emergence. He ends with a discussion of the prospects for post-mortem existence from an emergent dualist point of view -which is actually compatible with an orthodox Christian account. Very helpful.

I found the analogy of an electro magnet helpful: the current goes on and a magnetic field is generated; an emergent property which is for the purposes of this discussion an analogue of the person /soul /identity.

I found it helpful in showing the way that an emergent approach can be related to a modified Aristotelian/Thomist approach, which had been my intuition. It was also good to see the emergent account come out as the most explanatory account and as philosophically coherant.

Why I want to consume "The Myth of Religious Superiority (Faith Meets Faith Series)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (andiibowsher) — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 12:00:53 GMT

The Myth of Religious Superiority (Faith Meets Faith Series)

by Paul F. Knitter

I’m reviewed this for ‘Anvil’, but I’m interested in any case by the issues of religion and living in a plural world. I am an a priori skeptic of the kind of approach that this book advocates, so it should be a thought-provocative read.

Here’s my 600 word review.

The subtitle is “A Multifaith Exploration” and the phrase works on two levels as a description of the book: it explores theological responses to the fact of a multifaith global context and it includes contributions from people of several different faith backgrounds. It will be no surprise that the broad aim of the book is to articulate a pluralist approach to interfaith relations. The title focuses on the idea of religious superiority, that any one religion is superior to another, and tries to explore the proposal that such a view is a myth; a necessary story for the adherents of the a religion but not one to be taken to exclude and downgrade or disrespect others. In fact the aim is to encourage the various religions to develop ways of thinking about other faiths, using their own faith resources, that gives them parity of esteem with ones own. The reason given for this is approach is that without such parity, there is an inherent rivalry which is conflictual and therefore ill-suited to the harmonious development of world history.

Of necessity, the multiplicity of voices means that there is no one smooth argument. In fact I came away thinking that quite a number of contributions were actually arguing for a generous variety of inclusivism rather than pluralism. It seemed to me that most contributers were unable to resolve the inherent conflict between thorough-going pluralism and holding ones own tradition in some way valuable, and so a form of inclusivism was the only recourse and I felt that Reinhold Bernhardt’s essay probably showed that most clearly. I remained unconvinced by the arguments for pluralism and felt on balance that the attempted arguments for it from an orthodox Christian position failed. It seems that, although there are themes in Christian theology that can be pressed into a more inclusivist mould, the thorough-going pluralism advocated by the editor seems to be too big a stretch.

Given that the strongest argument for pluralism seems to be that it is the easiest position from which to accord genuine respect for religious difference, I would judge that those of us who continue to be unconvinced by pluralism have to respond to the challenge to do non-pluralist theology in such a way as to give honour where honour is due and to lay foundations for genuinely respectful learning from the religiously other and to disinherit the arguments for disrespect and even violent responses.

One of the strange omissions for me, except for one mention, was Barth. I found the constant acceptance of ‘religion’ as straightforwardly salvific in some way problematic and longed to see a fuller engagement with more evangelical approaches seeing all religious endeavour including Christian as fraught with fallen tendencies and traps for the unwary; so if we have a hard time affirming Christian religion, how can we unconcernedly affirm others’?

There is much in this book that bears further thought and wrestling with and as a set of statements advocating a pluralist position in response to the critiques of its first blush it is important. In the end it seems to me that Bernhardt should have the last word; “the religions will never totally move beyond a ‘Ptolomaic’ framework; they will have to engage each other in a never-ending dialogue … inclusive insofar as it starts on the side of ones own religion; ... mutual since it will open one’s own tradition to the challenging otherness of other religions.”

metaphor and culture (rated 4 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (andiibowsher) — Sat, 15 Apr 2006 17:43:06 GMT

Les Particules Elementaires

by Michel Houellebecq

This is an interesting novel. Not an easy read as it immerses the reader, at times in unpleasant realities that are presented as growing out of a materialistic world view. And it is ultimately gloomy. It answers the question “Is this all there is: breeding [or not] and dying” with a yes and the only hope is that science can help us to evolve out of our worst traits.

I liked the interplay of scientific progress and cultural effects, particularly the way that New Age ideas and popular culture have been processing the view of the universe that a materialistic take on science can bring about. The metaphor of elementary particles for human society is worth thinking about.

multiply intelligent praying (rated 2 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (andiibowsher) — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 13:34:07 GMT

Prayer and Multiple Intelligences: Who I Am is How I Pray

by Bernadette T. Stankard

I was hoping for something a bit more useful than this book turned out to be. I think that it is important to think about the different kinds of intelligence we have and to pray them. The thing that this book does well is giving suggestions for prayer. It’s a bit of a compendium of useful ideas divided by intelligence type. What I missed was a sense that I could understand how some of the ideas for prayer actually related to the intelligence: I kept thinking that particular ideas had been miscategorised but I didn’t know why or how they were assigned as they were. I think I was hoping for more guidance on identifying our preferred intelligences and then on thinking more fully about the way that they might affect our praying.

It’s an easy read and probably a good intro to prayer-styles, just not enough depth for me.

Beyond the popular presentations (rated 5 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (andiibowsher) — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 14:46:09 GMT

Pray Your Way

by Bruce Duncan

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Mainly because not only does it do a really good job of relating the way that MBTI relates to our praying but it also gives a really accessible way into the theory that underlies it. This meant for me that I now grok the way that dominant, auxilliary, tertiary and inferior functions ‘work’ in the MBTI dynamics. For that alone, a great deal of help to my using insights from MBTI in my pneumacultural work. In addition the examples of how the shadow functions may irrupt into our lives in times of stress were very helpful. There were also some nice generally helpful things said about prayer as the quotes may show.

A quirk of this book is that the author uses different colours for the different styles of prayer: green for sensing; yellow for intuitive; blue for thinking and red for feeling. While I quite like to have pictorial representations, I wasn’t sure whether this actually did much except add a further set of terms to be learnt. I suspect it is a hangover from retreat work which doesn’t really suit this kind of a book format. It feels like a metaphoric framework waiting to be developed but it isn’t. I found myself wondering whether we might talk about colour mixes, but the ones we would want to use we can’t: NT, yellow and blue is green but that’s S already … pity. But it is only a quirk in a really helpful book.

I’ve collected some quotes from the book at http://booklogging.blogspot.com/2006/04/pray-your-way.html

beyond goodies and baddies (rated 4 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (andiibowsher) — Tue, 07 Feb 2006 13:25:18 GMT

Eragon / Eldest (Inheritance, Books 1 & 2)

by Christopher Paolini

Surprisingly given that the author is a teenaged lad, one of the most interesting and intriguing things about these two books [and it’s set up to follow into the third, if I read the plot aright], is the recognition that evil is not an equal and opposite force to good; that evil is perpetrated by people seeking the good as they see it, or at least choosing an evil for the sake of a greater good. Thus the human hero Eragon bestows a blessing which out of his ignorance blights the life of the child it is bestowed on. Good intentions were not enough and the evil was unintended, in fact good was intended. The dreaded and monstrous kull turn out to be a bit like vikings, only really wanting to be able to live and raise families, bearing no ill towards humans except in as far as humans interfere with their well-being. This emphasis on the ‘humanity’ of the enemy is welcome in a genre more known for simplistic divisions into goodies and baddies. As such it is teaching an important lesson for these times troubled by demonising those designated enemies.

Eragons route into such wisdom is through empathy, beginning to see the world through the eyes of the enemy. Empathy brings understanding and understanding reframes the moral perspective.

So, quite a good way forward and a good story largely well told. If I have a negative assessment it is that the writing can be a bit uneaven. Every so often the style slips, usually because the writer seems to have found his word of the week and is determined to use it regardless of how well it fits. But that really is a minor issue.

There’s an interesting mysticism, and it would seem that the underlying take is that there is no God behind it all. However, it may be that there is more to come since that is simply based on the sympathetic portrayal of Elvish belief. The dwarves’ polytheism is the only other alternative so far and that is not unsympathetically handled but, given our cultural bias against polytheism, it is not given enough ‘oomph’ to make me feel that it is being presented as anything but a statement of ‘fact’ about dwarves. God[s] don’t appear to be on the menu, really.

That said, the stuff about magic seems to be yet another version of a kind of ‘Word’ theology remniscent of Stoicism and of Christian mysticism based on the notion of a ‘force’ that holds things together. It’ll be interesting to see if that’s what becomes of it and how it will play out with notions of good and evil when the final confrontations come.

Why I want to consume "learning for ministry"

nobody@allconsuming.net (andiibowsher) — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 12:48:45 GMT

learning for ministry

by Steven Croft and Roger Walton

This book on Amazon.uk
I declare a personal interest in this book: my spouse has been a ministerial student at the training institution that the authors have in common and wrote most of this book from. The book is an introduction to ministerial training for Anglicans and Methodists. The term ‘ministerial’ is understood broadly to encompass lay ministries as well as ordained and part-time modes as well as full-time. It is a comprehensive book and probably goes into enough detail to be useful while still remaining an undaunting size. The basic perspective is of what is “formation” for and individual and how the different dimensions of it are present in the processes of training that the C of E and the Methodist Church of Great Britain offer. So, the book doesn’t only deal with academic matters but also with spirituality, character, community and learning more generally. It sets out what trainees might expect, and offers perspectives and advice for making the best use of what is on offer. It does so against a background of awareness of the common and not-so-common pitfalls and of a holistic understanding of training which is signalled by the use of the word formation (explained in the text). This means that helpful things are said about ‘lifestyle that supports’ formation (p.167). I felt that there was quite a lot of material which was about managing expectations, for example there was quite a lot on the why and how of assessment in a positively critical fashion which put it into a broader frame.

The text is punctuated with personal stories which launch reflections and which are well chosen in terms of their clarity for purpose. There are also points where the reader is invited to stop and to do their own personal reflection, not only is this good pedagogy in principle, but the questions and assignments suggested are helpful in themselves if undertaken as personal reflection. In fact, I got to thinking that I would be happy to give this book to someone who was getting closer to engaging in a formal training process, but that I would give it along with a nice notebook and a pen and or pencil to use alongside and with the encouragement to meet up a time or two to discuss what the book was raising by way of issues and learning (note to marketers; sell this book with a discount offer on a notebook and pen). I would have thought that publishing this as a workbook, with blank pages and spaces would be worth considering.

I would want to be a little more careful in giving the book to those involved in part-time modes of training, as quite a lot of it seemed most applicable to the full-time context, though I would be interested to hear how part-timers might react to it.

There are many wise and practical things written, and a reader who took the time to engage with the suggested exercises would almost certainly find that it enhanced their preparation for formal training as well as their engagement with the initial stages of it. In keeping with a fundamental perspective of the book, they would also find things that would set them up for ministry beyond the initial training phase if they were consistently incorporated into their way of life.

Why I want to consume "Adbusters Big ideas for 2006"

nobody@allconsuming.net (andiibowsher) — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 16:28:25 GMT

Adbusters Big ideas for 2006

by Adbusters media foundation

Loads of stimulating essays on reimagining our global futures freer of mental pollution …
https://secure.adbusters.org/orders/

Why I want to consume "Play Ethic"

nobody@allconsuming.net (andiibowsher) — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 20:23:59 GMT

Play Ethic

by Pat Kane

Amazon UK link
I think that we need to operate on grace and a work ethic seems more ‘law’-based while ‘play’ has a sense of grace about it. I want to see if that intuition may be right and hope reading this may help.

A story about "To live & work: A theological interpretation"

nobody@allconsuming.net (andiibowsher) — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 18:20:06 GMT

To live & work: A theological interpretation

by Christian Schumacher

Get your own copy here (Amazon UK)
An attempt to think theologically, in a Trinitarian framework, about work integrating contemporary insights about the organisation of work.

A story about "Pray Your Way"

nobody@allconsuming.net (andiibowsher) — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 14:25:30 GMT

Pray Your Way

by Bruce Duncan

Amazon UK copy. Just right for those who are no longer beginners in the MBTI in relation to prayer.

A story about "Psychological Perspectives on Prayer"

nobody@allconsuming.net (andiibowsher) — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 14:21:54 GMT

Psychological Perspectives on Prayer

nobody@allconsuming.net (andiibowsher) — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 14:17:30 GMT

Atonement for a 'Sinless' Society: Engaging with an Emerging Culture (Faith in An Emerging Culture)

by Alan Mann

From Amazon UK

A story about "Communicating for Life: Christian Stewardship in Community and Media (RenewedMinds)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (andiibowsher) — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 14:12:22 GMT

Communicating for Life: Christian Stewardship in Community and Media (RenewedMinds)

by Quentin J. Schultze

On Amazon UK
Good in terms of the understanding of communication and culture, a good read. It’s a kind of introductory at undergrad level. Good ways in to thinking about the matter with a thoroughly integrated Christian outlook.