Post-Christendom

The topic of our next audio conference is our post-Christendom world. Here are some articles on websites that I found interesting.

This is a review of a new book on why Christians need to embrace a post-Christendom model:
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/article_2004_03_10_murray.shtml

The author of the book reviewed on the previous website, Stuart Murray, spoke about his book, and this blog has a summary of his very helpful comments:
http://www.youthblog.org/2008/07/post_christendom.html

Trinity International University, an evangelical university in the United States, is hosting a conference on Post-Christendom Spiritualities later this year. The description of the conference is brief, but I found it interesting to read the topics they will discuss:
http://www.tiu.edu/graduate/academics/conferencedescription

Here’s a post on a blog where the author describes what Christendom was. It’s a helpful description:
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20080320/the-church-in-post-christendom.htm

Here’s another article that describes Christendom and goes on to describe the post-Christendom world as well:
http://gatheringinlight.com/2007/12/10/church-in-mission-post-christendom-effectiveness-and-reshaping-ethics-pt4/

The next article is mostly focused on the American scene, but it raises the question of how Christians engage in politics in a post-Christendom world, and it gives several examples of the ways different Christians think Christian engagement in politics should look:
http://countercultureblog.com/?p=35

Here’s a website that is devoted to issues about post-Christendom:
http://www.postchristendom.com/

Here is an interesting and thought-provoking essay (linked from the previous website) defending Christendom:
http://www.postchristendom.com/node/10

One of the discussion forums on the previous website has a few amazing stories illustrating our post-Christendom world. You’ll love these stories (and you may well mourn as you read them. I did):
http://www.postchristendom.com/node/5

People leaving church

I got an email from a student in the paper who gave me permission to quote from it:
"This has become an even more interesting topic for me following both the audio conference call and having the Assembly executive Secretary of the PCANZ speak at Presbytery last week. He said that over the last 10 years an average of 75 people per month are leaving the Presbyterian Church in New Zealand. The interest for me from the 1st audio was when Craig mentioned about funerals and they are becoming more secular . I thoughts of our own parish in particular and how many 'rites of passage' type services, weddings, funerals and baptisms the minister does out of the church, kind of secular etc and this may be some thing I investigate further in this topic."

Follow up from our discussion on postmodernism

On Monday someone mentioned Brian McLaren's website. Actually there are two websites that are at least somewhat connected to him:
http://www.emergentvillage.com/
http://www.brianmclaren.net/
The first is the website of the emergent church movement (or "conversation" as they call it), and Brian McLaren is very involved in that movement. The second one is his personal blog. I didn't find anything too interesting on either one, but I didn't spend a lot of time looking. Perhaps you'll find something interesting.

Someone metioned Robert Weber's book, Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World. Here's a review of it from Publisher's Weekly:
For much of his career, theologian and worship consultant Webber (Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail; Worship Is a Verb) has been inviting evangelicals to rediscover their connection with historic Christianity. Here, Webber takes up his case with a new urgency, warning that American evangelicalism's historical rootlessness and acculturation to modernity leave it dangerously unprepared to deal with postmodern culture and to reach postmodern souls. But there is hope: even in its thornier aspects (e.g., pluralism, state indifference/hostility, learned skepticism and popular credulity), the postmodern climate resembles the environment in which the ancient Church not only endured but thrived. This book makes an important contribution, not so much as a cultural analysis (Webber's treatment of modernity and postmodernity makes no claims for depth or originality, and his proclamation of modernity's demise seems premature) but as a call for theological renewal within evangelical churches. Webber provides a wealth of suggestions to help churches appropriate the heritage of "classical Christianity" for use in contemporary settings, including the renewal of sacraments and the church year, reconnecting evangelism with discipleship (as in classical catechesis) and a "rule of faith" ecumenism that emphasizes catholic creeds and de-emphasizes denominational confessions. Webber correctly anticipates the inevitable questions about authority, Scripture and tradition that his proposals will raise for evangelicals. Although he may underestimate the uneasiness that many evangelicals still feel about "Catholic-sounding" concepts and practices, Webber's call for an "ancient-future" faith is timely, practical and persuasive.

Message from the Remote Services Librarian

Judy Fisher, Remote Services Librarian writes:
As part of the Remote Library service I will be visiting Christchurch in the last weekend of July (Friday, 25th & Saturday 26th) and Wellington (Friday,1st, 2nd & possibly 3rd August) to offer help with research skills, searching for relevant information using library resources and the internet, Endnote queries, referencing, and general queries.

My intention is to be based at Canterbury and Wellington Medical libraries respectively, and to meet students either in one-to-one consultations, or in groups - depending on user's needs.
I am used to dealing with topics from all disciplines, so would be happy to meet with anyone who has research or assignment-based questions on any subject.

Please reply to this email (judy.fisher@otago.ac.nz) if you are interested, and let me know your location, and if the Friday or the Saturday is most suitable to you, and what time of day would suit you best. I will then get back to you with specific details.
I look forward to meeting you!
Regards,
Judy
Judy Fisher Remote Services Librarian University of Otago Freephone: 0800 347826 P.O. Box 56, 65 Albany Street Dunedin http://www.library.otago.ac.nz

Error in the Coursebook

My thanks to an observant student who pointed out this error. For both the 200 and 300 level, in assignment 4, point number 2, it says "Evidence that you have read the readings in the course book on these two topics." It should say "on this topic."

The same student also asked if the 10 or 12 footnotes (depending on whether it's the 200 or 300 level) from four readings for that assignment need to be from the coursebook or if you can cite other readings. I want to see 10 or 12 footnotes from four readings from the coursebook. Citations from additional sources will raise your mark a little.

Preparing for audioconference on postmodernism

I've been thinking about how to structure our discussion on Monday night, and I want to give you a sense of how we'll engage in discussion so you can be thinking about the questions I'll be asking. We'll compare and contrast modernism and postmodernism by addressing four topics:

• the positive legacy of modernism
• modernism's darker side
• the positive aspects of postmodernism
• postmodernism's darker side

In each of the four categories we'll consider these positive and negative aspects in the wider culture and also in Christian congregations.

Martin Macaulay, the new mininster at East Taieri Presbyterian Church near Dunedin, recently completed a Doctor of Ministry degree, and he graciously let me read the research essay he wrote for that degree. A lot of the essay focuses on the effect of postmodernism on the church in New Zealand. So you can imagine that it was very helpful for me.

Margin believes that Christians tend to respond in one of four ways to postmodernism:

• some view it as something to be resisted at all costs because it is an enemy to Christianity
• others affirm the objective truth of the Christian gospel while agreeing that modernism has some problems
• others study the postmodern culture and try to adopt strategies that speak into that culture, e.g. contextualize the gospel for its setting today
• and still others believe that a postmodern approach to Christianity is entirely appropriate and perhaps even more consistent with New Testament Christianity than modernism

In the audioconference on Monday we'll talk about what each of these responses look like in practice. And I would love it if each of you would do some thinking about where you stand with respect to these four responses and come to the audioconference prepared to talk a bit about your position.

Critical Engagement

Be sure to read Craig's response to the post from June 18. I appreciate three things about that response. First, that he wrote it. Second, that he gave some links to sites that are relevant to New Zealand. And third, the comments about critical engagement. I agree with what Craig wrote about critical engagement, and I think that's the way I interpreted Tim's use of "counter cultural." At the beginning of the next audioconference, I plan to do a brief lecture about the way I view counter cultural ministry in practice -- what it looks like in the real world. So please bring your thoughts and questions. Throughout the paper we will be talking about how to respond to these societal patterns we are studying.

Novel about medieval life

In the audioconference last week, I mentioned a novel set in medieval Scandanavia. I said it was a painless way to learn about life in medieval times and the way the church impacted just about every aspect of life. The book is Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset.

Here's a review of it:
From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Erica Bauermeister
A landmark among historical novels, Kristin Lavransdatter is part of the body of work that won Sigrid Undset the Nobel Prize for 1928. This trilogy of more than one thousand pages follows its title character through her life in fourteenth-century Scandinavia. It is a novel full of big and dramatic happenings: romantic intrigues, political schemes, and spiritual debates. It is also a novel about one woman's life. Sigrid Undset makes us understand Kristin's love for her sons and husband, the feeling of milk in her breasts, and the hard work of living in the fourteenth century. As does any good historical novel, Kristin Lavransdatter immerses us in its time through rich details concerning dress and manners as well as social and historical events. The multitude of character names is confusing at first, but if you stick with it, Sigrid Undset will give you a first-hand experience of another world.