Digressions » JakeBouma.com

The Advent Community and the Emergence of God’s Dream for Creation by Troy Bronsink. “I have observed four theologies that are undergoing reimagination by emergent congregations: ecclesiology, eschatology, missiology, and incarnation. From the vantage point of these emergent theologies, I want to illuminate four metaphors from these texts that reimage preaching in Advent: an ecclesiology of the unfinished way, an eschatology of trade in seeds that will find future purchase in God’s coming dreams, a missiology in which language and symbols are reconceived by the Holy Spirit, and an incarnational theology of ordinary watching and witnessing.” (HT: Soupiset) 12/21/2009
Is Advent Biblical? “But I’m not concerned merely with whether Advent is not disallowed in Scripture. I want to know if observing Advent is consistent with biblical themes and priorities. Is Advent biblical in this grander sense? Could the observance of Advent help one to grow in faith in a way that aligns with biblical faith?” 12/09/2009
Fortress Forum, a social community for religious academics, has posted an interview with Walter Brueggemann. “Given the current frailty of the capitalist system and the fact that the ‘big money’ continues to grow while ordinary people increasingly become poor and homeless, I suspect that this character [God], embedded in this tradition, is a wake-up call for contemporary social-political thought. It is not difficult to imagine that dominant ideologies and narrative explanations of reality have reached a dead end. For that reason I judge that it is a worth-while effort, regardless of one’s ‘faith commitments,’ to continue to pay attention to and exposit this character and the tradition that clusters around the character. I understand that to be the work of biblical theology. Such a perspective refuses to be boxed in by the critical categories of Enlightenment rationality, for it is a reach behind that rationality to see about the haunting that cannot be so readily dismissed.” Brueggemann’s newest book is titled An Unsettling God: The Heart of the Hebrew Bible. 11/19/2009
Shane Claiborne wrote a letter to non-believers in Esquire(!) titled What If Jesus Meant All That Stuff? “The entire story of Jesus is about a God who did not just want to stay ‘out there’ but who moves into the neighborhood, a neighborhood where folks said, ‘Nothing good could come.’ It is this Jesus who was accused of being a glutton and drunkard and rabble-rouser for hanging out with all of society’s rejects, and who died on the imperial cross of Rome reserved for bandits and failed messiahs. This is why the triumph over the cross was a triumph over everything ugly we do to ourselves and to others. It is the final promise that love wins.” 11/18/2009
The Age of the Informavore: A Talk With Frank Schirrmacher is currently featured in Edge, along with responses from thinkers like Nicholas Carr and Steven Pinker. “We are apparently now in a situation where modern technology is changing the way people behave, people talk, people react, people think, and people remember. And you encounter this not only in a theoretical way, but when you meet people, when suddenly people start forgetting things, when suddenly people depend on their gadgets, and other stuff, to remember certain things. This is the beginning, its just an experience. But if you think about it and you think about your own behavior, you suddenly realize that something fundamental is going on.” So much good stuff in there. Related: Is Google Making Us Stupid? 11/06/2009
Here’s a new Pew report on Social Isolation and New Technology for your perusal. “Sociologists Miller McPherson, Lynn Smith-Lovin and Matthew Brashears suggest that new technologies, such as the internet and mobile phone, may play a role in advancing this trend [of becoming more socially isolated]. Specifically, they argue that the type of social ties supported by these technologies are relatively weak and geographically dispersed, not the strong, often locally-based ties that tend to be a part of peoples’ core discussion network.” 11/04/2009
Catalista has released an iPhone app that connects volunteers with opportunities. “Even beyond the mobile access to volunteer opportunity listings, what seems especially compelling about Catalista is the possibility that it could facilitate spontaneous, ad-hoc volunteering, whereby people with a few hours of unscheduled time on their hands can find and participate in local opportunities that they might not have been able to plan for otherwise.” 10/25/2009
Philosopher and theologian Philip Clayton is writing a new monthly column for Religion Dispatches. His first offering is Religion and Science: Toward a Postmodern Truce. “In the American public square today, it’s hard to find discussions of the interplay between science and religion that achieve what our society most needs: genuine self-criticism on both sides, born of the recognition that both sides will have to do some bending if any sort of truce is to be achieved.” His new book, Transforming Christian Theology: For Church and Society, is available for pre-order. 09/12/2009
James K.A. Smith’s advice on establishing a practice of reading: “Keep books in every room of the house. Pile them up on the end table or nightstand or back of the toilet. Have the books there, staring at you, inviting you, wooing you, calling to you, shaming you. Keep bumping into them. Pick them up and look at them. And even if you have a first job, resist signing up for cable and spend the end of each day reading. Then find a friend who loves to read (and, if possible, a spouse) and talk about books.” 09/01/2009
MailChimp, an email marketing company, recently announced that their free account, which formerly cost $10/month, now lets you send out 3,000 emails a month to up to 500 subscribers. If you’re not using this communication tool for your ministry, you no longer have a valid excuse. Here’s an example email I sent via MailChimp last year. 09/01/2009
Countering conventional wisdom, a brain-imaging study finds that, in risk-taking teens, the brain’s white matter looks like that of an adult. “After reviewing all of the neurodevelopment stuff, I couldn’t really find any link between brain development and adolescent risk-taking. Nobody denies that the brain develops or that teens take risks, but how the two got intertwined is beyond me.” Related: The Primal Teen. 08/27/2009
The Bait and Switch of Contemporary Christianity provocatively dissects the fine line between spiritual disciplines and becoming a “more decent human being.” “The point is that one can fill a life full of spiritual activities without ever, actually, trying to become a more decent human being. In fact, much of this activity can distract one from becoming a more decent human being. Worse, some of these activities make you worse, interpersonally speaking. Many churches are jerk factories.” 08/10/2009
Twitter Theology: 5 Ways Twitter Has Changed My Life and helped me be a better Disciple of Jesus by Leonard Sweet (@lensweet). “Jesus was a master at sound bytes that bite with terseness and immediacy. In fact, he was always twittering the gospel in pithy, memorable phrases, and even expressed his gospel in The Great Tweet: ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ I suspect his followers would be well advised to RT (ReTweet) everything he said.” 08/05/2009
God and Majors from Inside Higher Ed. summarizes some new research about the correlation between college majors and religious observance. “Being a humanities or a social science major has a statistically significant negative effect on religiosity — measured by either religious attendance and how important students consider the importance of religion in their lives. The impact appears to be strongest in the social sciences.” 07/30/2009
I’m in New Orleans this week with my high school students at the ELCA Youth Gathering. We’re posting daily highlight videos on the blog and group-updating our Twitter account. Check it out! 07/24/2009

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