“[Christian] scholars have taken the dynamite of the church, have wrapped it up in nice phraseology, placed it in an hermetic container and sat on the lid. It is about time to blow the lid off.” — Peter Maurin
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Instead, it will be analyzed, and sold back to the ones who start it. And the rest of the world can watch via podcast.
A voice crying in the postmodern wilderness amidst the cacophony of bells, buzzers, whistles, flashing lights, flash videos, animated images, billboards, pop-up ads, talk shows, talking heads, information vendors, disinformation, misinformed ne’er-do-wells, in the midst of all the so-called diversity, all corralled by the oneness of the global market;
whose sacred relics have been subordinated to our present-day capitalistic iconography;
whose hallowed symbols have been relegated to fascist propaganda;
in which the Imago Dei has been subjected to narcissistic iconoclasm:
Everything you know is wrong. Religion is not control. Art is not propaganda. A person is not a machine, nor a part of one. Consumption is not the Alpha and Omega of human existence.
Catch sight of the prophetic imagination. Vive la résistance!
An Absolution Revolution 
Inhabiting the Church: New Monasticism and God’s Revolution
A conversation on church and culture; an exploration of what it means to be faithful communities of God’s people in the twenty-first century.
June 1-2, 2007 – Englewood Christian Church – Indianapolis
Full Details and Registration: http://www.englewoodcc.com/inhabiting/
Speakers:
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
(Rutba House Community, Durham, NC)
Tim Otto (Church of the Sojourners, San Francisco)
Jonathan and Tim are authors of the recent book:
Inhabiting the Church: Biblical Wisdom for a New Monasticism
Music by: The Psalters
Others? TBA
Maybe you wish that the church was more than a one hour experience on Sunday. Maybe you long for a gospel that is transformative. Maybe you’ve read Shane Claiborne’s The Irresistible Revolution. Whatever your story, we invite you to come explore the biblical and historical roots of the new monasticism with us, to share stories of God’s work in the midst of your church community, to allow the Spirit to energize and shape our dreams of the new creation that is budding in our midst.
The focus of this conference will be an exploration of the new monasticism movement and particularly the role of Scripture and church history in forming and guiding these communities. Two of the primary purposes of this gathering are to discuss the themes of the book Inhabiting the Church, and to bring together people from diverse church traditions who share a strong belief in the role of community within the Church.
Just as the writer of Hebrews re-told the stories of the faithful ones of Israel (chapter 11) to encourage the Hebrew Christians as they faced persecution, we seek to examine the stories of the faithful ones who have gone before us — and particularly the Benedictines — to inspire us to live faithfully as the Church in the face of the idolatry of the present age.
Hello,
I was navigating through your blog and noticed that you have a resources section with helpful links. I wanted to know if you would be willing to place a link to ChristianVolunteering.org and/or UrbanMinistry.org in the resources section of your website. Also I wanted to know if you would allow us to syndicate your blog feed. UrbanMinisty.org receives over 100,000 page views per month. Your new blog entries would be fed into homepage. Keep up the great work.
Cesar Espinoza
Volunteer Network Coordinator
TechMission, 31 Torrey St., Boston, MA 02124
cesar@techmission.org
p: 617-282-9798 ext. 109
f: 617-825-0313
I seem to be stumbling on similar ideas myself, although I’m not as educated in theology as you are. But I particularly had to comment when I read “Religion is not control.”
I take that to mean that overly controlling churches are not disseminating “true” religion, whatever that means. I am still recovering from an experience in an overly controlling and legalistic church.
Do I understand you correctly?
That’s certainly one way to read it, yes. What I had in mind had more to do with the way religion has often historically functioned as a control mechanism within the wider political society, but certainly some kind of legalistic control within a church would apply appropriately. It’s more of a poetic statement than a direct discourse, so don’t be afraid to take some leeway with the meaning. 😉
Hi Jason i love your site! I wished you would email me, i have an important question for you, we have run into some security issues here in Kenya and wanted to pull that last comment that gives out our location- its a long story, the complexities of Africa- thanks for understanding, and please email me if you get a chance:- God bless you, John Senin
[…] Technorati. First, it too links to the ParEcon page. Second, here’s an excerpt from its about page: A voice crying in the postmodern wilderness amidst the cacophony of bells, buzzers, whistles, […]
Not much space for the celebration of The Beautiful to be found on your website, especially on your header page.
Such celebration (of The Beautiful) being the very essence of True Religion.
Love your site!
[…] Topic Phenomenon Jason Barr posted this in Theory on September 1st, 2006 Or, see the bit on my About page, “The revolution will not be televised, instead it will be analyzed and sold back to the […]
That’s certainly one way to read it, yes. What I had in mind had more to do with the way religion has often historically functioned as a control mechanism within the wider political society, but certainly some kind of legalistic control within a church would apply appropriately. It’s more of a poetic statement than a direct discourse, so don’t be afraid to take some leeway with the meaning.
+1