I spent today at an event organised by blah. I think I probably found it via Jonny Baker's blog, though I can't really remember. I spoke to several people who asked me why I was there: I think the answer is that having read lots of books and blogs, I thought it was time to get out and actually meet some of these emerging church-types: what do they wear? how do they smell? do they really all carry Apple Macs?
Meeting people was probably the most valuable part of the event. There was an interesting cross-section of South-of-England Christendom. I was particularly pleased to be introduced to folks from some emerging-type gatherings in Oxford: "home", and mayBe. Interesting that they both seem to be part of the Anglican Fresh Expressions: but I guess that's the sort of people you expect to meet at a CMS-hosted event.
That's not to say that the event content wasn't worthwhile, too: the speakers were Toronto-based husband and wife Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat. They were giving an overview of the themes in their book Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire. A nice mix of straight talking (with a little interaction), large-group interaction, and small group discussion - the teacher in me is at least as interested in the format as the content! I don't get to sit and participate from this side of the "fence" too often.
They started by talking about how that in order to understand Colossians (or any scripture) we have to understand context: the Jewish context, the Roman context, and our context as readers (there was a fourth, the micro-context of Colossae: the whole Philemon/Onessimus situation). Keesmaat is a former pupil of Tom Wright, and so the Jewish context bit is a big deal, part of the "New Approach to Paul" - a bit of theology which is slightly lost on me.
The big idea, though is that Paul's writing is deeply subversive towards the prevailing Roman system - the Pax Romana coming from a highly organized but highly violent society, with a stable economy built on slave labour and keeping the Roman Citizens in the style to which the had become accustomed. And without naively looking for one-to-one correspondences, we can see many similar patterns in today's western society. Ergo, our calling is likewise to subvert the prevailing order.
They speak persuasively, and so I really want to read the book. Somehow, the message starts to sound similar to that other well-known Toronto activist's Naomi Klein - a politics I have some passing sympathy for, but eventually I'm inclined to reject. The compassion which motivates it is spot-on. The analysis of the ills of globalization is far less clear. But perhaps that should be the subject of a separate blog, because this one is already over-long.
The book is, in essence, a commentary on Colossians (evidently, it describes itself as an anti-commentary), and a fairly academic one, at that, I'm told. I'll look forward to reading it, if I can manage the theology.
2 comments:
Sounds an interesting day, Andrew.
Did you or the new forms of church folks who were there have any thoughts on the link (or conflict) between new forms of church tailored to our context and the idea of subverting the prevailing order? Or which bits of our present context we're called to subvert and which we need to listen to when we're considering making our faith and church relevant?
Philip.
Philip,
As far as I recall, the topic of church didn't come up much at all. There was a recognition that at various times, the church has *become* the empire which needs subverting.
I guess you can't cover a whole book's worth of material in a short day, so there may be more in the book. The Exiles book by Mike Frost is quite a good reflection on this kind of topic, I think.
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