What my church might learn from this chapter: week 5

Barker: Chapter 8

As a European it is interesting to see how Ethnicity and “Races” (word that I profoundly hate) is so differently managed here than back home. I think that the church has to adopt a “natural” approach of integrating people from all cultures and welcoming differences with the love of God. However, I think that the more we put the issue on the center of the discussion the more awkward things and effort will appear.

There is nothing such as Ethnic Churches….Jesus is the one who went to talk to the Samaritan women, the outcast community of that time.

Barker: Chapter 9

When it comes to sexuality and gender, I think that the role of the church is to celebrate the differences between men and women that respect each other in who they are and the gives glory to God as a creator of those differences as well as the similarities that exist. Cultural studies are for that a good tool to understand better where sexism and abuses come from and where our culture(s) are going toward in that matter.

Barker: Chapter 10

This chapter is particularly interesting when we think about the Church as texts and audiences. What kind of "program" does the church offers or is looking for. I think that we are shifting from a church as a "one-way" message to an audience as active producers and actors of what they are watching. The evolution of TV programs and models is a good "thermometer" of the evolution of our culture and thus of the church since church is to be in the culture.

Smith: Chapter 3

The use of narrative appeals more and more to our culture today. This is where people can find themselves, can relate and identify. The Gospel is a narrative in which each one of us can become and actor. This is a view that the church should adopt. If we live our lives in the light of the bible story and find our place in it, we'll be able to invite the stranger in to be part of it to. Then maybe, as the "double-americano-with two pump of vanilla with room for cream" becomes a part of a starbucks coffe customer, the "healed by spit-and-dust-mud blind man who had faith" with become part of the stranger's everyday life.

Gibbs/Bolger: Chapter 1.
It is of the utmost importance for the church to study culture. Without a good understanding of what makes the culture a local church is in, why the church is declining, why the youth is looking for something different than what their parents knew before, what is an effective way to communicate and relate to people nowadays, and many other questions... the church won't be able to deliver a relevant message and to operate an effective impact on the culture it is in.

01/28

The evolution of Marxism into Post-Marxism has let aside a good number of theories of the classical form. I found interesting the parallel between Marxism and the theology of freedom and radical orthodoxy as well. The analysis of a text was good for putting in practice what we have learned so far.

01/26

The closer we come to the present days, the more I find the theories interesting and in application arround us. The intersting part of the class for me was getting to discover the 12 tones scale by Arnold Schoenberg and also the analysis of the movie by Eisenstein. Those two forms of expression really moved me by their intensity and boldness, even if they are really different from one another.

What my church might learn from this chapter: week 4

Barker: Chapter 5.

Globalization already affect our churches, the easy example of worship music traveling all over the world and impacting the majority of evangelical churches (and others). The cultural settings of our days require now to work with new alternative lifestyle and identities, and I think that it is when we will be able to meet those that the church will have an impact in our societies. Hybridity in a way that it include people from every lifestyle/culture/"class"/haircut/....should be one of the maine character of our church today. Jesus was the one who was hanging out with the outcasts wasn't he? Aren't we called to walk in his steps?

Barker: Chapter 6
The idea of "the aestheticization of everyday life" is something that keeps my attention. I've been thinking a lot lately about the fact that we decompose as life in different fields (an heritage of the french enlightenment). We don't mix our spiritual life with our professional or emotional life.... The different forms of aestheticization apply mainly to arts and everyday life, but I want to see my faith as an art, and I want to practice that art in my everyday life/contact/thinking,...

James K.A. Smith "Who's afraid of postmodernism?" Chapter 1.

So many people are scared of the dangers of post-modernism, and try to keep the church away from it. But we have to face it because it is not something that we can avoid, it is herem in our culture, and if we want to be a church as the church is meant to be, we have to deal with it and bring the church in this new era. The first thing to do, and which is the point of this book, is trying to understand what post-modernity is. I like the phylosofical approach that the author takes and the bridges that he wants to build between secular phylosphers and christianity today. Looking forward for the next chapter...

James K.A. Smith "Who's afraid of postmodernism?" Chapter 2.
Since I arrived at Fuller, that idea that the gospels (and the rest of the Bible) were only interpretation was a pretty new idea, even if I could "sense" that before. That idea, brought questions about inspiration, infalability,... I really like the idea that even if we rely on interpretation (cause this all we have right?), those interpretations can be true. However I'm still convinced that there are some objective truth (like God is love,...) that don't depend on our interpretation of things... The european church, and me being a part of it, has still a lot to "deconstruct" in that field of interpretation, objectivity,....

Barker: Chapter 7
It is important as a church to think about identity (self identity and social identity) as something always in the process and also as being something individual and communal. The failure to approach some cultures, or some persons, is often grounded in the inability to let people express their true-self and trying to reduce them to an icon of the "perfect christian" or "perfect church member." Acceptation of the other/the outcast for who he is and building a true relationship is, I think, the first step to be able to reach our and share God's love.

01/21

Interesting to see where the myth of the "chosen nation" comes from. As a European, it is striking to see how God is involved in politic at such a great scale in United State. Claims like "God is on our side" or even just "God bless you" from the mouth of a president is not common for someone from a country where the Church and State are so "well" separated. As Christians we ought to be careful of the way we use God in our political stands....and like a good friend of mine says: "The question is not the one of God being on our side, but the one of us being on God's side".

01/14

To be honest, I'm not a big fan of historical and theoretical lectures like today's lecture. But I understand that it will help me grasp more of where the cultural studies and even our culture comes from. The point that kept my attention was the one about Commodity Fetishism. It talks to me in the way that, as Tim says, even if the Fair Trade is more and more present, it is still a marketing tool. However, we should as a church be sensible and engage in social justice and despise its marketing aspect, fair trade is a way to be a part of bringing social justice.

What my church might learn from this chapter: week 3

Caputo chapter 4.

Is it that impossible to live how Jesus lived? Is it that impossible to have our faith at the tip of our fingers and our testimony in our hands to share? I think that the place of the church is in the streets of our cities, in the parks and hospital before than in the church building on Sunday morning and Wednesday night. We need to study the wor(d)(k) of God and worship together, but if it just stays inside the church walls we just miss the whole point of God's love.

Caputo: Chapter 5

I was really struck during the election by the importance of the issues of abortion and gay marriage. How can those two issues be so important in a debate that people don’t talk about things such as social justice, alternative energies and other things like that? Like Caputo I don’t mean to underestimate their importance, but I think that it is a problem when people, churches and political group take those as their major battle. I really like Caputo’s analysis of the system we live in as western people and the urge to deconstruct it to live the kind of life that Jesus would live today in 2009.

Barker: chapter 3.

If “Meaning is never fixed but always in motion and continually supplemented”, we should be careful as a church with the words we use and the context we use them in. The concept of deconstruction (seems to be all over my readings) is something that we should take into consideration. I think it can be interesting for a church to “deconstruct” its paradigms, language, beliefs,…in order to seek what really form those. This is even more important while approaching another culture.

Barker: chapter 4

Biology and the understanding of the body differ from a culture to another. This is something else that we should keep in mind as we approach different culture. For example, in urban western culture tattoos are totally accepted and even part of the norm, when in some foreign countries it is still really rare and not accepted. Our understanding of what our body and its functionment…will impact the way that we interact with people. It is then important to understand the codes and views of the culture we live/work in.

Caputo: Chapter 6

Those two example of churches or "non -churches" that Caputo gives are really good points. The church of today is, I think at a turning point and enter (or has already entered) when it has to re-think itself (or maybe I should use deconstruct). The danger thaugh is to deconstruct the Church (with capital C) as an institution and human system, to reconstruct an other Church which will become an other institution or human system. Deconstruction has to be a way of life, a daily basis experience and has also to be deconstructed itself at times...

01/12

The heritage of the enlightenment and the separation of the church and state -and therefore separation of faith and the rest of life- in the 18th century seen in England with the emergence of the "English Identity" is still so strong in Europe. As a European I can see how that period still influence my generation and our identity as a church today. And I think it's important for us to see where it all comes from and how we can bring a response to that.

What my church might learn from this chapter. Week 2.

Culture and Cultural Studies:
Chapter 1:
Talking to my pastor a lot about my generation and the way we can be the church in our contemporary culture, I realize through that Chapter that Cultural Studies is one of the key for me and my Church to understand where we come from. Understanding what shapes us, and our culture is the best way to have an opportunity to have an impact on that culture. Also, for a few years my Church has been really involved in counseling and spiritual formation. And I think that cultural studies should be part of that kind of formation because our life (in a holistic way) is impacted by our culture.

Chapter 2:
I think it is important for the church to work at decoding the 'maps of meaning' of the people it deals with. The church has for too long trying to evangelize without taking the time to try to understand its audience and I think that the main part of bringing the gospel is listening to others, trying to assimilate their 'language' and understand their culture(s). So the church should be aware of 'signs' delivered by such or such culture it wants to address.

What would Jesus deconstruct.
Chapter 1.
In his first chapter, Caputo invites us to think about that well known question "What would Jesus do?" and reconsider its modern interpretation surrounded by commercial by-products and used as a weapon against "those who are wrong". His portrait of Jesus is not what is usually depicted in the church in general and barely in my own church. I agree on Caputo on the point that it is time for the church to live its faith out and bring changes in our society by bringing the Truth of Jesus Christ. A Truth that deconstruct, that is ugly and smells bad, but that is real and often lives next door to us.

Chapter 2.
Our understanding of faith as a Journey has to be re-evaluated and Caputo shows how in every path there are wrong ones, dead-end paths, etc. Deconstruction and the fact that nothing is settled and has to be "tested" should be something that any church should keep in mind. In that way, by trying, or should I say "discerning" with the help of the Holy Spirit, the church can go on an "adventure" in the sense that Caputo means it. It can be a scary thing for a church or even for anyone of us, because there will always be uncertainties and dangers, but I believe that it is how faith has to be lived and lived out.

Chapter 3.
Caputo in the chapter define deconstruction in light of different concept: the gift, hospitality, forgiveness and love. His explanation of those are, I think, utterly biblical in a way that Jesus calls us to love the unlovable, to give without expecting in return like he did, to offer hospitality to the other and to forgive what is unforgivable. I think that the church, even if it teaches those in that way is often missing the point and putting "economies" around them. I think deconstruction is needed in the church (of the church) in order to come back to the true meaning of Love, Hospitality, Gift, and Forgiveness as Jesus means them.

01/07

Mc Gavran criticized the idea of Mission Station in the 30's and came out with the idea that maybe one shouldn't change its culture to become a christian. Even if that idea seems basic to me and most of us, I think that the Church today try to "deculturize" too often people. What about a punk guy coming with his big tainted mohawk; piercings all over his face and big boots on Sunday morning, how is he gonna be accepted in most churches?
An important question that stroked me too is the one about how to be christ-like in those new spaces such as Youtube or Facebook.

Intro Class 01/05

I was really excited by the first class because I felt that the content will apply a lot to what I want to do in the futur and that I will learn good tools that I can use in my life (personnal and ministry). The basis laid today was really relevant and almost a "picture" of my life", especially when the prof talked about the church in Europe and the difficulty for young people to create a dialog between their life in the church and their friends who are not familiar with it.