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Nic is/was/shall always be a co-conspirator. He's a very fine designer, and is graphing a complex and beautiful path on the axes of spirituality and design. He's finally relented and started a blog. I've added him to my Blogs list, and encourage you to click there often.
Technorati Tags: Art, Blogging, Design, Spirituality
This year's Reith Lectures, to be broadcast shortly on the BBC, are to be given by Daniel Barenboim under the title 'In the Beginning was Sound'. I'm hoping they live up to the excellent title, which reminded my of Claude Levi-Strauss' Overture introduction to his seminal work on myths The Raw and The Cooked, which he dedicates 'To Music'.
For Levi-Strauss, music is:
"the only language with the contradictory attributes of being at once intelligible and untranslatable, the musical creator is a being comparable to the gods, and music itself the supreme mystery of the science of man."
Nature, he goes on to argue:
"spontaneously offers man models of all colours and sometimes even their substance in a pure state. In order to paint he only has to make use of them. But...nature produces noises not musical sounds; the latter are solely a consequence of culture..."
I have argued in the book that the city is the place where we best see the divine and human co-operating. We take the raw materials of creation and process them into glass, concrete and steel. So the city stands as a testament to both the beauty of that co-operation, and the dangers of doing so assymetrically.
What I love about Levi-Strauss' comments is that it puts music on a similar plane. Nature is full of colour and sound. But music only comes when we co-operate with nature and arrange those sounds. Music is therefore another symbol of the possibilities of the divine/human co-operation.
In other words, at best,it is essentially metaphysical. Good is an epiphany. Music touches us, universally, in ways that no other art form can even begin to. It appears to have direct access to the most ancient areas of our brains. The areas that existed before language (making it, as it were 'pre fall').
And this is the beauty of music: it takes us to that ecstatic place - ex stasis - off the ground, where language has nothing to add.
Last night I went to hear Sigur Ros. It was for the most part a good gig, but the final piece they played was one of the amazing pieces of music I have ever heard, and fully supported Levi-Strauss' opinions above. It was the last song on their second album. A translucent screen came down over the band, so all we could see of them were distorted shadows back projected. (Nic told me the best way to enjoy the Sigur gig would be to keep my eyes closed. He was right: the visuals were not great. I've always thought MTV a paradox; surely music that needs video support is inherently impoverished?)
It was as if we were meant to see through a glass darkly. We weren’t to look. For this most euphoric of moments, the visual was minimized. This from a band whose lyrics are basically glossolalia… Beyond language. And the power of the sound, the volume and the sheer richness was overwhelming.
It was music that was literally ‘obliterating’. Destroying text or language or explanation. One felt as if one wanted to be annihilated by it. That if one could jump into it, one could actually rejoin the divine myth. And this, I believe is the promise that true music sings to us: the promise that one day we will be finally caught back up in the divine composition.
Now that's what I call worship.
(Thanks to Jana for the photo)
Technorati Tags: Art, Beauty, Creativity, Levi-Strauss, MTV, Myth, Sigur Ros
Article in Wired, here.
"If Friday's boat from St. Mary was cancelled, there might be six people in the village that needed to know. Armstrong found consistently they would all have that information within hours, even without a formal distribution system, and few uninterested people would be burdened with the knowledge."
Technorati Tags: Technology
Two quick links:
Firstly, I am looking forward to sharing some thoughts on leadership in emerging organizations at the blah... learning day.
I'll be joined by Maggi Dawn, who will reflect on trying to re-imagine leadership in the ancient structures of the Anglican church and Ana Draper of L8R, who has recently completed her MSc in psychoanalysis, guiding us in some thoughts about leadership from a psychoanalytical/theological perspective.
It's on 29th April at Moot Towers, St. Matthew's London SW1P 2BU
To find out more and to book a place visit blah leadership learning day.
Secondly I'm really excited to hear that the follow-up to Alan Jamieson's groundbreaking book 'A Churchless Faith' is set for release very soon.
“This follow-up to A Churchless Faith is both fascinating and disquieting – fascinating because it shows that people rarely stand still in their journey of faith, whether or not they attend church. And disquieting because it underscores once again just how irrelevant or unhelpful the institutional church has become for so many reflective and intelligent believers today. This book provides further valuable insights into the growing phenomenon of church leavers, whose protest the church ignores at its own peril” - So says Dr Chris Marshall (St. John’s Senior Lecturer in Christian Theology, Victoria University, Wellington)
Stay posted by visiting Prodigal Kiwis often - the excellent blog by Alan Jamieson and Paul Fromont. Good people. Fine thinkers.
Nice Web 2.0 idea. Think Google Earth and Flickr's lovechild.
Technorati Tags: Platial, Technology
A couple of recent posts I've read to link together:
In an excellent post here Will Samson explores the failings of the religious right in US politics.
"Beyond the public moral failures, however I believe that 2006 will be the beginning of significant political failures for the religious right. I believe we will begin to see an undoing of the last 30 years of political organization by this segment of the church."
And Jordan Cooper put me on to this post by Andrew Sullivan, which outlines the root belief of this 'political organization by this segment of the church':
"The key element that binds Christianism with Bush Republicanism is fealty to patriarchal leadership. That's the institutional structure of the churches that are now the Republican base; and it's only natural that the fundamentalist psyche, which is rooted in obedience and reverence for the inerrant pastor, should be transferred to the presidency. That's why I think Bush's ratings won't go much below 25 percent; because 25 percent is about the proportion of the electorate that is fundamentalist and supports Bush for religious rather than political reasons."
Finally, I noted a link on Sanctus 1's blog to this interview with Rowan Williams (Archbishop of Canterbury) in The Guardian in which he not only describes himself as 'comic vicar to the nation', but also replies to a question on whether an Archbishop should provide moral leadership by saying:
Technorati Tags: Anglicanism, Bush, Church, Democracy, Politics, Power, Theology
Continue reading "President vs Archbishop | The End of Patriarchal Leadership?" »
"Evangelists bid, eager to save a sinner. Atheists bid, hoping to keep Mr. Mehta in their fold. When the auction stopped on Feb. 3 after 41 bids, the buyer was Jim Henderson, a former evangelical minister from Seattle, whose $504 bid prevailed. Mr. Henderson wasn't looking for a convert. He wanted Mr. Mehta to embark with him on an eccentric experiment in spiritual bridge-building....
Technorati Tags: ebay, evangelism
Thanks to Jonny for the heads up on (sic).
Just a note - if you're in the US the prices, including delivery are approx $23 for hardback and $15 for paperback.
From the UK the postage can be a lot. (Hardback $30 inc. delivery and $22 for paperback, about £18 or £14)
However, I can bulk order and get free postage. So if you'd like one in the UK, email me on kesterATthecomplexchristDOTcom and I'll be able to do them for £15 hardback and £10 paperback (inc delivery in UK).
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