mountain masala

resourcing spiritual identities

Today I had lunch with Professor Stewart Hoover from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and we talked about my proposed research project. We ate at the fantastic Boulder Dushanbe Tea House, a gift to the people of Boulder from the people of Tajikistan.

I've also been reading "Culture and Everyday Life" by Andy Bennett, and looking over the dissertation of my host, Dr. Curtis Coats, on new age spiritual tourism. What is coming out of that melting pot for me?

It has long been said that postmoderns live in a kind of 'spiritual supermarket' where they pick and choose their beliefs. Philip Hughes from the Christian Research Association has frequently mentioned Anthony Giddens' view that our identities today are self-constructed, not given.

Andy Bennett's review of cultural and social theory presents a brief and detailed review of developments in this field. Contrary to the view that postmodernism is an 'anything goes' situation where people randomly or blithely choose their beliefs, Giddens and others speak of 'reflexive modernity'. Some who believe that modernity is still upon would claim that the influences of capitalism and consumerism, and the values underpinning them, are sufficiently strong that we cannot claim that society is in a new state. Moreover, the cultural changes taking place are not uniform by any means.

However, the combined characteristics often called 'postmodernism' (distrust of science/rationality and 'progress', pluralism, etc, etc) do not necessarily result in people being dumb citizens fattening themselves on popular culture at the whim of multinational corporations.

above the treeline

after another day at the library yesterday, today my hosts took me up to the rocky mountains for the day in their jeep. the day was clear, although windy at times. we went west of denver and through guanella pass to 11,200 feet and a stunning view of mt bierstadt. although the snow is late this year, there was plenty of ice and some snow underfoot. the road was pretty quiet and the views spectacular.

on the way back we stopped at the red rocks amphitheatre, home of many concerts. amazing rock formations that looked like they'd just dropped out of the sky.

more photos over at flickr.

arriving on a jet plane

i arrived yesterday in denver, colorado. a long day of flights through sydney and los angeles. as usual i couldn't sleep, so i watched "hancock" (not a great movie by any means, but actually better than i expected!) and an excellent documentary "garbage warrior."

it's the story of new mexico architect mike reynolds, who has been building earthship houses using lots of recycled materials for 30 years - about the community he has built around imagination, generosity and acceptance, his ingenuity, his problems with state and national authorities, his 3 attempts to change the law about experimental building, and their assistance to devastated communities in Indonesia and Mexico. very quirky, very wonderful. i think it's going to end up in my first bible study at ncyc... (don't you love the "evan almighty" cover?)

after a warm stop in california, it was a pleasant surprise to see snow on the mountains here and cool weather. apaarently the good snowfalls are late this year, but the weather has just turned cold and the locals are hopeful.

four years ago I stopped over in colorado on my way back from the search institute conference and spent a FANTASTIC day in the rocky mountains travelling to bear lake and back. this weekend i'm hoping to see some more of them.

i'm staying with curtis, whom i met at the conference in brazil, and his wife heather, who are wonderful hosts. (I won't mention the taxi ride incident.) they live in a new housing area full of these fascinating houses. so un-Australian!  curtis finished his PhD at the university here last year and is currently co-ordinating a lily endowment-funded project looking at how the media shapes evangelical and mainline christian men's views of masculinity. (here's a question - what movie would most evangelical christian men say has most influenced their views about masculinity? the study isn't published so I can't steal their thunder, but ponder that question folks...) and curtis roasts his own coffee - now there's an idea i could take up!

we went up to the university of colorado, boulder, on the bus today. the campus is amazing. the buildings are all made of these many-hued flagstones, and the architecture is an unusual mixture of curves and angles. there are still autumn leaves everywhere, and with the mountains in the background it's all quite spectacular.

i spent a few hours in the library looking for texts on new media and sacred space, among other things, and discovered a master's thesis in art history from here that looks at bill viola and another new media artist in exactly the kinds of terms that interest me. excellent!

however i'm still amazed that no-one seems to be studying how churches use new media in ritual spaces...

the university here has a centre for media, religion and culture and has co-ordinated an international study group in this field for a number of years. peter horsfield has been a part of that group, and paul teusner has participated in recent years.

i feel like a real american because i've been to wal-mart twice today - once to buy a local mobile phone and back again for a christmas present that i'm going to have fun playing with on my travels...

a relaxed evening of home-cooked mexican food, a local boutique beer and tv tonight. the BEST thing was seeing the saturday night live send-ups of sarah palin and the hilarious will ferrell as george bush giving an unwanted endorsement speech of the republican candidates! sarah look-alike is on youtube but not will ferell yet... ( did I mention that I'll be in minneapolis AGAIN for the election as I was four years ago?)

back to the library tomorrow...

did i mention guitar shops?

i was going to say that I'm looking forward to going back to Willie's Guitar's in Saint Paul. I REALLY wish i had bought that Martin 12-string last time.

And then Gruhn's in Nashville... VERY vintage stuff - anyone for a $30,000 mandolin from 1903?

no more need be said. I've been looking at the new Martin Tenor Guitar after being blown away by Seth Lakeman's guitar sound. I've been wanting a mandola for a long time, but this might suit me much better. the tenor has a variety of tunings, and i was initially attracted by the mandolin tuning aspect. seth's tuning is GCGC, so it's pretty much a high drone, but wonderful. he plays a 1950's Martin Tenor guitar.

the LMXT Martin is a new product and tomorrow I'm actually trying out the only one that our local distributor has seen... it's like the small Martin travel guitars. i was fairly suspect, since they're manufactured particle wood (with a fancy name - HPL), but having played one of the six strings, I'd have to say they're pretty darn good. (OK, it's a bit like wine thats made to drink now rather than later...) BUT I played an Ozark tenor in Glasgow (made in China? Ozark?) and it was dreadful. the Martin travel guitar, like the new mini-Matons, was actually stunning by comparison.

i think i first came across tenor guitars on ry cooder's "jazz" album, and they keep turning up on t-bone burnette albums etc. Gruhn's sells old ones. a few people make them and good ones cost a lot. I cant see me spending $1500++ on one so the Martin is looking pretty good.

and of course I'll be in Pennsylvania, where Martins are made... (says he who used to live down the road from Bayswater where Matons were made... - and where i once took my broken Maton and met one of the bosses...) so who knows.

my other option is to go town to our local mandolin and guitar maker John Liddy who I've been planning to visit for a while. how good to have a world-renowned artist like this within walking distance (there are a couple acutally....) if I knew how to talk about carpentry I'd have been there long before now...

just go and look at their websites.... sigh....

"thriving youth e-group"

on wednesday i'm off to the USA for a month as part of my study leave (see below for details).

as a related matter, i've just launched a yahoo e-group for people here in south australia who want to explore the nature and application of Search Institute's Developmental Assets with youth and children, their families, schools and the wider community.

I hope that school teachers, youth workers, parents, volunteers in youth programs, young people, chaplains and others will join up. so it will be a broad-based discussion looking at the well-being of young people in a range of settings. peter eckermann who is the other "thriving youth" trainer here in SA will also be involved.

you can sign up here.

this relates to my travel itinerary which is as follows:

University of Colorado, School of Journalism and Mass Communication
(home of the Center for Media, Religion and Culture) - where I'll be staying with Curtis Coats, seeing Stewart Hoover and using the library.... and a day or two in the Rockies....)

Possibly a visit to Scum of the Earth church....

Luther Seminary, St Paul, Minnesota, where I'll be spending time with some of the faculty, Rollie Martinson, Mary Hess and Andrew Root, and using their Library.

A visit to Solomon's Porch, an 'emerging church' type faith community there - home of Doug Pagitt and Tony Jones.

The Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence in Minneapolis, where I'll be using their library. Plus a day consultation on the Center's research where I'll be on a panel giving some kind of response to what they're discovering.

Search Institute's "Healthy Communities, Healthy Youth" Conference in Minneapolis.

Duke University Divinity School, Durham, North Carolina, where I'm going to meet up with some of the faculty, use the library, and visit old friends from our time there. I'm interested in the Duke Youth Academy.

Lebanon, Pennsylvania for a weekend with our Mennonite friends Dan and Joyce Miller whom we met while we were at Duke.

Nashville, Tennessee where I'll be talking to the staff at The Upper Room about youth spirituality, and meeting with some of the national youth and young adult staff of the United Methodist Church.

and maybe a guitar shop or two and some live music!

so stay tuned for another travel journey starting in a couple of days!

contexutalisation is hard work

it's hard working out how to contextualise the gospel. after all, it has to fit the local situation. it's about new wine in old wineskins. or maybe old wine in new wineskins.  i forget which at this point.

steve taylor and i did some serious contextualisation analysis at the southern vales yesterday, accompanied by my very patient wife and partner yvonne.

this place is called samuel gorge and its right next to chapel hill at mclaren vale. we got there at closing time but the woman there kindly gave us some grenache (we were looking for a straight grenache, since mclaren vale makes it so well). a very nice wine. then she kindly opened some shiraz. it's all about hospitality and this seemed like a place of peace and welcome... until they closed up.

but i digress. this is our context. and the news was good. and so was the view. clearly the researchers were serious about their task, as the photo shows.

in the evening we had dinner with some local folk who went to greenbelt and some others. great people and conversation. michelle brought back a fabulous 'priest' calendar from Italy (which said in small print that they weren't all actually priests...) the March man was very Fabio. very funny. you just had to be there."I can't believe its not butter..." (I'm hurting just thinking about it.)

(photo courtesy of michelle)

on a more serious note, it was good to start to debrief on the overseas trip, and it helped me see that I need some ongoing ways to do so. I am bothered by the lack of 'fresh expressions' in adelaide, and what my part in that is. I've always been bothered by the 'junket' thing, so I need to be very intentional about building on this experience.

steve and his family have been here for 10 weeks and I have missed all of their contribution to our corner of Australia, but it has been good to have a little time and look forward to more collaboration.

converge

I'm one of the bible study leaders at our national christian youth convention (ncyc) in melbourne in january. i've decided to shift from the 'traditional' ncyc type bible study to offer a more contemplative experience for those who want it.

this is the blurb....

[inner space] is being still. listening. feeling refreshed. a good vibe. cool music. surround scenes.
[inner space] is hearing impossible stories, stepping into Jesus’ space. breathing. imagining. hoping.
[inner space] is raw, reflective, relaxed. exploring your soul journey. looking back and looking ahead.
listening for the One who names you deeply and calls you
[inner space] is relaxed and uncomfortable.
a meditative space to encounter the Gospel of Mark and see it coming alive in our world today

i'm looking for some collaborators to help me with the space. I was a bit inspired by the 'new forms' space at greenbelt, which, although it had its problems (lack of air-conditioning), is the kind of space I'm hoping to create.

anyone for venice?

The Australian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale

i am speechless

my friend geoff collins died yesterday from a heart attack. he was 49.

i don't know what to say. a remarkable, intelligent, lively, creative, compassionate man. we go back a long way. i always admired him greatly.

please pray for liz and the kids.

trip photos i like #4

in southern california its still 1967 and there's a purple haze in the air...