The Complex Christ

Game Over//US Release//Adjust Your Links

I'm pleased to be able to announce that The Complex Christ is now going to be released properly in the US. Thank God. No more trips to the post office to mail them over! And no more customs delays! I'll post a purchase link when I have one.

It's going to be re-named Signs of Emergence, and come out under an imprint of the good people at Baker books.

For lots of reasons I'm going to be quitting this blog. I need a rest, the design is tired too, plus I need some time to work on some other writing projects and some time while some things emerge post-Vaux. I also wanted a new Typepad root to hang a load of other blogs off.

So for those of you who like to continue journeying with me, I'll eventually be blogging here at http://kester.typepad.com/signs
The site is almost finished, but, as I said, I'm going to have a break for a bit and start posting proper around Christmas. I'll let people know somehow.
Until then, I'll be keeping an eye on this blog and replying to comments etc.

Thanks to everyone who's kept it interesting. It's Game Over for now. Hope we'll catch up soon ;-)

Peace,

Technorati Tags: Baker, Signs of Emergence, The Complex Christ

Insert Coin [3] | Final Fantasy

[Level 1]  [Level 2]

Emerging Church: Game or Ritual?

As The Believer points out, one aspect of games such as Dungeons and Dragons is that of fantasy. When you enter a game, you are entering 'role play' - becoming someone else. Becoming a fantasy self.

This is something I have critiqued in more detail here. But to summarize, if the Emerging Church risks being seen as a game for some - with rules and power accumulating - then the parallel risk is that it becomes a fantasy, and will inevitably suffer collapse at the end of a fantasy cycle. It will become an ecclesiastic Gizmondo (beautiful article, well worth reading).

So what might be a way forward? How do we avoid the game, with its disjunctive effects, de-marking winners and losers? How do we avoid the unhealthy tendency to masculine competitiveness?

We might meditate on the gospel as a D&D scenario. A wise wizard gathers characters around him. They journey from place to place, meeting monsters, overcoming problems, asking questions. They have a quest, they are immersing themselves in a new kingdom. For some, the quest is a game - there are going to be winners and losers. And certainly, Jesus plays within a defined set of rules. He plays a part.

But, firstly, he also subverts the games different groups want him to play: he plays dirty. By bending the rules he subverts the the boundaries of the game, and thus begins to play in a whole new dimension. Others cry 'foul' and get him sent off... But it's at that point that Jesus refuses to engage in this mission as a game at all. By dying, by 'losing', he presents the ultimate criticism of the competitive, religious fantasies that both his followers and opponents projected onto him.

Secondly, he presents a criticism of the power-accumulation that defines 'good play' in so many games. He empties himself. He works in the economy of gift, passing things on rather than pooling wealth.

Thirdly, he rises again to present an entirely new concept of play. The universe is now fluid and self-organizing. Where there were once rules, there are now governing dynamics. Where there were once blocked walls, places our characters could not go, limiting screens, there is now freedom to roam. Spirit. No temple.

Interestingly, it seems that games are heading that way too. Check out Spore (review here) - a game from the creator of the Sims series that begins in the primordial soup, and can zoom in and out between organism and galactic levels. Players evolve species - and their characteristics are totally within their own control. The game doesn't have a stock list, its governing dynamics simply work out how a fish with 3 legs and a huge head might move. Species then create cities, interact on-line with other cities other players have created, and take on whole different galaxies. Due to be released in Spring next year, it promises to be an extraordinary experience.

If we can face down the fantasy-self of the emerging expressions we are a part of - as Christ did in the desert - we can evolve something truly new. But unless we do so, we are destined to create something competitive and regulated, with its own winners and losers, its own D&D neeks and sports jocks. Let's hope we do so. Let's pray we don't go Gizmondo: promising so much, disappointing so many, costing someone a fortune.

Technorati Tags: Arcade Game, Dirt, Dungeons and Dragons, Gaming, Gizmondo, Religion, Spore

Insert Coin [2] | Weapons::Rules::Power

[First Level]

Game or Ritual? This was the key question addressed in Level One.

Lévi-Strauss made the distinction between Games ("they end in the establishment of a difference between players or teams where originally there was no indication of inequality") and Rituals ("it brings about a union, or in any case, an organic relation between two initially separate groups") and I proposed that it might be fruitful to meditate on whether our expression of Church was one or the other. Certainly, from the initial responses, it seems people have identified an unhelpful spirit of competition in Emerging Churches, which may be a hangover from their very masculine roots.

Dungeons and Dragons, about which an article in The Believer inspired this series, inhabits a grey (actually, misty, foggy or windswept might be better adjectives) area between game and ritual. It was perhaps a (knee)jerk reaction to jock sports - which are heavy on winners - but still definitely has aspects of a true game.

One of those key aspects is the emphasis on accumulation. Though there may not be 'winners' and 'losers' as such, 'good' play is exhibited by the accumulation of power and wealth: special weapons, keys to open secret doors, coins which give leverage in various ways. The more explicit connection came later in arcade games such as Super Mario: more stuff meant longer life and greater power. (My personal favourite: Xybots. An absolute classic. After each level you basically descended to a shop, where you could cash your coins in for bigger weapons, better shields etc.) The parallels for us are obvious enough.

One thing that both rituals and games have in common is the need for rules - boundaries around which the action takes place. Elsewhere in the issue The Believer looks at Oulipian literature. Oulipo stands for "Ouvoir de littérature potentielle", a loose gather of French writers who write within close constraints precisely because they believe that the constraints can be very creative. Similarly, Thomas Vinterberg and Lars Van Trier explored the Dogme 95 system of film making as a creative, not restrictive act.

The really good rituals or games are those where the rules are fixed enough for there to be tensions created, and not so fixed that the action either becomes totally predictable, or so free that things degenerate into chaos.

In our meditation on rituals and games as they might impact the Emerging Church, we might thus far conclude that a) power is more obviously accumulated in games, but power-games exist very clearly under the surface in rituals too (which will bring us back to connect with Gift), and b) games and rituals both need rules - the issue is the extent to which those rules create disjunction, rather than union. Rules ought to be creative. Too intimately linked with power accumulation, they become divisive, promote unhealthy competition, which leads to denominations of 'winners' and 'losers'.

As the Emerging Church continues to... emerge/solidify/denominate, I wonder: is it becoming more game-like? The rules, though never written, are becoming clearer, and some might argue that power-resource-accumulation is already happening around certain people/movements. Perception or reality, the disjunctive effects of that could be dangerous.

Level 3 soon...

Technorati Tags: Dungeons and Dragons, Gaming, Power, Arcade Game, Religion, Theology

Insert Coin | Is Church a Game?

The ever-brilliant Believer Magazine took 'Games' as its theme for the September issue. It's left me with some thoughts I want to share, probably over the course of a few posts.

One of the main articles, by Paul La Farge, was an exploration of Dungeons and Dragons, which, in typical Believer style, meant a gorgeous meditation on the history and culture of the game, building to the author playing an actual game with D&D's founder (sort of), Gary Gygax.

La Farge writes:

"The appeal of D&D is superficially not very different from the appeal of reading. You start outside something (Middle Earth, Dickens' London) and you go in, bit by bit. Along the way, you may have occasion to think, to doubt, or even to learn. Then you come back: your work has piled up, it's past your bedtime; people may wonder what you have been doing. D&D is a game for people who like rules: in order to play the game you had to make sense of roughly twenty pages of instructions."

 

However, in the course of the article La Farge explores the extent to which D&D actually is a game. He quotes Lévi-Strauss:

"Games appear to have a disjunctive effect: they end in the establishment of a difference between players or teams where originally there was no indication of inequality. And at the end of the game they are distinguished into winners and losers."

La Farge notes that there are no real winners or losers in D&D, and there is no real difference established. So, rather than being a game, it is instead, perhaps, closer to ritual. Again quoting Lévi-Strauss:

"Ritual, on the other hand, is the exact inverse: it cojoins, for it brings about a union, or in any case, and organic relation between two initially separate groups."

Having read the article I began to wonder if the Emerging Church was rather too similar to D&D than we might like to admit. Men spending too much time in dark, dungeon-like rooms exploring deep worlds? I don't even want to go there!

More seriously, I do wonder if this distinction between game and ritual gives us something to reflect on. It is interesting to note that the clichéd D&D player was 'nerd' as opposed to 'jock'. Jocks were definitely into games, because they knew they could win. Nerds went for something more conjunctive, perhaps because they knew they couldn't.

One might argue that the Evangelical model of faith, with hell for the losers, is very much like a game, with very high stakes. And the Christian 'jocks' love to play. But is that what God wanted? Has the Emerging Church become the 'nerd' version, the non-competitve, no losers model? We might want to claim that the expressions of church we are involved in are fully based on ritual... but are we ignoring the sense of competitiveness about our success when we do so?

So, I think it is worth reflecting: is the Church playing at game or ritual?
For now I've run out of credit.

for more soon...

Technorati Tags: Church, Gaming, Gygax, Dungeons and Dragons, Religion

Life-jacket | Strait-jacket

Ben has some good thoughts here about the search for a 'just society' being debased by 'human rights'.

He makes the point that "the ideology of a tolerant society has become a straight jacket that prevents human freedom". I was reminded by the metaphor a colleague once used about our National Curriculum, and to recycle it, perhaps human rights have become 'life jacket for the vulnerable, but a strait-jacket for the just.'

They are essential in many ways to protect those most at risk. But for those who are actually just, they are so 'tight' that they become counter-productive.

Technorati Tags: Baumen, Baumen, Human Rights, puppy

Three-view Tele | Now That's Community

No doubt about it, Sharp are clever people. They've developed an LCD screen that shows 3 different images, depending on your viewpoint.

As Far East Gizmos put it, "these displays have allowed Sharp to once again create new demand and contribute to the creation of new lifestyles."

Call me a grouch, but is part of that great new lifestyle everyone in the family being able to watch the same screen, but something different? Ahh... those great family evenings! McDonalds for one, KFC for another and curry for the kids. And let's all sit down together and watch something different! Now that's community ;-)

[But wouldn't we just LOVE one for alt.worship. Trinity meditation here we come...]

Technorati Tags: Technology

Emerging Church Critique | David Byrne & Jesus Camp

Great to see a fabulous line up for critiquing the Emerging movement.

Eight.
White.
Men.

"I hope that the movement or conversation in its present form will increasingly divide between those who deeply and intelligently desire to be faithful to Scripture while learning to communicate the gospel to a younger generation, and those who, whether mischievously or ignorantly, happily domesticate and distort the Scripture because of their analysis of contemporary culture."

Thanks Don Carson, always nice to know you actually want more division.

[Un]Connectedly, thanks to Paul for this link to David Byrne on Jesus Camp.
His blog looks well worth an RSS.

Technorati Tags: David Byrne, David Byrne, Jesus Camp, puppy, Sexism

Would The Real Islam Please... Sit Down?

"You say I'm violent once more, and I swear I'll smack your head in"

The furore over the Pope's ill-chosen comments created an interesting debate on the radio this morning. It seems that his apology has not been enough for many Muslims, who have reacted to his perceived accusation of Islam being a violent religion with... acts of violence. A nun has been murdered, churches in the Middle East firebombed, and one Imam has called for a 'day of anger'.

The response to this apparent contradiction was tackled by a representative from the Muslim Council of Britain who called on us to once and for all 'separate the idea of Islam from being Muslim.'

I fear this is an impossible task. He - quite rightly, and eloquently - denounced the violence done in Islam's name, and expounded a view of it as a religion of peace. But he seems to be a minority voice; his call to effectively deny Islamic status to those who promote violence would mean huge numbers of Islamists in the East and West being told they are not following Islam properly, something I think they would ferociously resist.

This confusion between the small voices of scholars who expound Islam as a peaceful religion, and the huge dynamite voices of those who explode that view is creating a massive problem - both within the world as a whole, and within Islam itself. (It is not dissimilar, of course, to the tension felt within Christianity - with the aggressive Zionist, fundamentalists on one side, and the way-of-peace movement on the other.)

My prayer is that the real Islam would... not stand up, not wave banners and shout for blood, but sit down and talk with us, and show us this religion of peace. Not to shut them up, but to teach us about the way of peace too. None of us follow our religion purely; we all need to try to lead by example better. And more than ever that leadership needs to be round the table.

Technorati Tags: Islam, Peace, Pope, Religion

Shortcuts | Dirt | Journeys

I watched a student at school take a shortcut today. And then watched as they were followed by countless others, taking a few quick steps on a worn brambly path, while a few others took the concrete slab route round and about.

I'm guessing that eventually the school will give in to the inevitable, and formalize this route with proper paving. But for now it remains a dirty path.

The evolution of such short cuts tells us something about cities, about dirt, about our innate journeying. While the planners can spend millions trying to formalize the routes they want us to take, if they don't suit us, we will find shortcuts. Cut throughs, through hedges, or over small walls. Rather than being planned, these paths emerge, and tend to show us the way people really want to go. But, being informal, and unpaved, they tend to be dirty. Brambles might scratch, or mud get on the shoes. But we'd rather that than have to follow the official line. Sometimes the destination is the thing, and the journey adapts.

Perhaps this emerging movement is one example of an ecclesiastic shortcut. The official line, the routes we were meant to take, were dreary, and took us around the houses. So a new path emerged. Muddy. Messy. Unkempt. Useful.

I guess someone will come along and pave it one day. And we'll keep our shoes clean then. Our feet won't have to touch the earth.

Technorati Tags: Emergence, Environment, London, Religion, Urban Planning

Greenbelt | Dirty Theology | Judas v Jesus: Two Tricksters

Just back from Greenbelt, which, like Ben and Jonny, I think was one of the best ever. Personal highlights were the series of talks by Christopher Booker on the spiritual / psychological background to stories [available here and here], and Michael Franti's gig closing the festival - not to mention hanging out with Greg and Jon from Ventura, as well as Gareth, Si and Shane who were at Soliton too.

I spoke on 'Dirty Theology', and you can get the MP3 for download here.

It was basically a trip through some of the dirt thoughts in the book, but I've been thinking recently about Judas and Jesus as two Tricksters. If we look at the classic trickster pattern, we can see Judas attempting to engage in a trickster act... So why did it fail? And what made Jesus' trickster act so different? I think the key lies in some of the ideas Booker presented to do with the tension between the ego and the 'other' within us. Judas' trickster act was perhaps centred on the ego, while Jesus' on the other.

I also reflect on what importance this distinction might have for the artist as trickster, and how we might live the 'trickster life' in the light of this need to serve 'the other'.

Technorati Tags: Greenbelt, Ego, The Other