Once a Week Whether I Need to or Not
So many bloggers, so few threads that go very far.
Well, I guess the key thing is that my England impressions keep firming up. The cross-denominational nature of the emerging beast is not, I think, any sort of protest, or any sort of reviving of bad old 50s ecumenism. I think it's robust, mission-field, living, breathing, hey, I just spotted somebody who's sort of kind of on the same side I'm on, so I'm going to stick with 'em kind of thing.
Oftentimes in Africa I'd see another white and pretty quickly find out that they were a jerk and not someone I'd ever want to be associated with--and yet, if I'm honest, there was almost always just an immediate, unsought-after flicker of instant trust and same-side-edness the second you came in contact. Walker Percy talks about how people who couldn't have stood each other in the past would immediately link arms against the vulgar excrescence that our culture has become--he talks about Robert E. Lee and another Confederate general, Nathan Bedford Forrest. Lee was an aristocrat from the plantations of tidewater Virginia. Forrest was a slave-trader from the river markets of Memphis, and in the culture of the time, Lee would have rated stratospherically higher than Forrest, whose profession made him a pariah (if a wealthy one) in polite society. Yet, says Percy, he knows what would happen if they, transplanted in time, were to run into each other at a used-car-salesmen convention on Bourbon Street: "Lee a gentleman, Forrest, not; but in that den of vipers, they would recognize each other instantly."
That's kind of how I see the emerging church stuff at its best. Nobody has any uniform on, and what organization or network they're related to isn't any failsafe guide; but you just know it, you just feel it in the gut: yeah, she's the real stuff, yeah, he's got hold of the monster alright.
The web is challenging in that regard, because without the physical presence of the person it can be hard to catch the vibe correctly. But even there you can usually tell the advertisers and the market-driven guys from the people doing something authentic.
I don't know. I'm so bistellar right now. I orbit the star of philosophy, which is the star of the future, and of a stable income that could give Dawn some relief. And I orbit its binary in my life, the star of postmodern mission stuff (PMS--our motto: "we're a little edgy"), which is the star of my recent past and of my major qualifications and competencies only for which any sane person would pay me. So I dunno. Today I did a zillion email all related to pomerging church--and I wrote a technical philosophical article, which I'm actually not upchucking upon rereading, about how a Christian (me) would rework and rephrase Jurgen Habermas's critique of John Rawls's political philosophy. Gripping stuff; I expect a call from Tom Clancy any time now.
In the meantime, Heather was in the hospital with Asa last night (now okay, I think), and Kelly's in the hospital tonight. Well. My issues pale in that light.
Well, I guess the key thing is that my England impressions keep firming up. The cross-denominational nature of the emerging beast is not, I think, any sort of protest, or any sort of reviving of bad old 50s ecumenism. I think it's robust, mission-field, living, breathing, hey, I just spotted somebody who's sort of kind of on the same side I'm on, so I'm going to stick with 'em kind of thing.
Oftentimes in Africa I'd see another white and pretty quickly find out that they were a jerk and not someone I'd ever want to be associated with--and yet, if I'm honest, there was almost always just an immediate, unsought-after flicker of instant trust and same-side-edness the second you came in contact. Walker Percy talks about how people who couldn't have stood each other in the past would immediately link arms against the vulgar excrescence that our culture has become--he talks about Robert E. Lee and another Confederate general, Nathan Bedford Forrest. Lee was an aristocrat from the plantations of tidewater Virginia. Forrest was a slave-trader from the river markets of Memphis, and in the culture of the time, Lee would have rated stratospherically higher than Forrest, whose profession made him a pariah (if a wealthy one) in polite society. Yet, says Percy, he knows what would happen if they, transplanted in time, were to run into each other at a used-car-salesmen convention on Bourbon Street: "Lee a gentleman, Forrest, not; but in that den of vipers, they would recognize each other instantly."
That's kind of how I see the emerging church stuff at its best. Nobody has any uniform on, and what organization or network they're related to isn't any failsafe guide; but you just know it, you just feel it in the gut: yeah, she's the real stuff, yeah, he's got hold of the monster alright.
The web is challenging in that regard, because without the physical presence of the person it can be hard to catch the vibe correctly. But even there you can usually tell the advertisers and the market-driven guys from the people doing something authentic.
I don't know. I'm so bistellar right now. I orbit the star of philosophy, which is the star of the future, and of a stable income that could give Dawn some relief. And I orbit its binary in my life, the star of postmodern mission stuff (PMS--our motto: "we're a little edgy"), which is the star of my recent past and of my major qualifications and competencies only for which any sane person would pay me. So I dunno. Today I did a zillion email all related to pomerging church--and I wrote a technical philosophical article, which I'm actually not upchucking upon rereading, about how a Christian (me) would rework and rephrase Jurgen Habermas's critique of John Rawls's political philosophy. Gripping stuff; I expect a call from Tom Clancy any time now.
In the meantime, Heather was in the hospital with Asa last night (now okay, I think), and Kelly's in the hospital tonight. Well. My issues pale in that light.
posted by Mark at 8:25 PM
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