How did journalists, executives, and public servants characterize quite hostile circumstances before they could trot out the phrase “perfect storm”? Margaret and I have developed acute nostalgia for the days before that book’s title had possessed the imaginations of lazy rhetoricians.
AKMA :: Nov.20.2008 :: Uncategorized :: 3 Comments »
Yesterday morning, I preached at Duke Divinity School’s daily chapel service (they allow fifteen minutes here!). It’s an odd experience, since I still don’t feel well-attuned to the chapel congregation (and the congregation itself changes a fair amount, depending on the kind of service that people are anticipating). I prepared for a more Baptist-inclined congregation than actually turned out; if I’d known who actually would be there, I’d have tuned it more toward sedentary-Methodo-piscopalians. I’m observing that because I’m an incurable rhetorical tinkerer, though, not because the service was markedly off-kilter.
In the course of the sermon, I coin* the neologism “bourgeoiscracy” to characterize the smothering ideology of self-congratulatory (upper-)middle-class normativity, the creepy pseudo-mystical side of which Chris chronicles. I had a few things in view, in deploying that term. First, it has a memorable sound: it vividly conveys the sense that it’s hard to pronounce (the chaplain, Sally, commented to me about that after the service); in that way, it’s a notch better than “bourgeoisity,” which was in my handwritten draft of the sermon. Second, I wanted to identify the way of life, not particular bourgeois people. It wasn’t a “Repent, sinner!” gesture, but a “this afflicts most of us to some extent; let’s name it and try to get over it” gesture. Third, it captures what I had in mind more satisfactorily than “mediocracy,” which I’ve used before to describe a similar condition, but which circulates even more widely. The word then constitutes a sort of auditory/cognitive piton onto which I can hang the points I wanted to develop. (I did the same sort of thing when I used “Sacramerica” in my Ekklesia Project talk).
The congregation seemed to receive the sermon well; most importantly, the rest of the service brought to bear a coherently Methodist iteration of Anglican liturgy and hymnody, and we all had a chance to pray and sing together. I’ll add the sermon itself in the “more” part of the post.
* As I write this, I see that others have deployed the term before me, so I won’t make any far-reaching claim to have originated it. For the purposes of this entry, working on this sermon, I coined it — but others did get there first. (Even more people have used “bourgeoisity,” so I’m even gladder I chose “bourgeoiscracy” instead.)
AKMA :: Nov.19.2008 :: Uncategorized :: 3 Comments »
A while ago, I pointed out that David Weinberger had called the next presidential election for Obama during the 2004 Democratic Convention (he only says “2012” because of his loyalty to John Kerry). If the reports circulating in the press are correct, though, he not only picked the outside candidate to win the presidency, but also hit a Daily Double by spotting the next Secretary of State. Since I have difficulty predicting what I’ll wear in the morning — even after I get dressed — this display of prognostication impresses me no end.
AKMA :: Nov.18.2008 :: Uncategorized :: No Comments »
I’ve been trying every preference I can find, but I can’t make eBay recognize that I live on Eastern Time, not Pacific Time. This should be dead easy; I shouldn’t have to deduct add four hours from every closing time of every holy-card auction I see. I just haven’t found the interface element that will enable it.
AKMA :: Nov.17.2008 :: Uncategorized :: 1 Comment »
The other day, Joi pointed me to the fantastic news that Susan Crawford and Kevin Werbach would head the Obama transition team for the FCC.
(David saw that and exulted, too). I can’t adequately express what a good sign this is for tech-involved people. Even non-U.S.-citizens will benefit from the positive influence Crawford and Werbach stand to exercise; they’re level-headed, insightful practitioners in this area. This is a great first step in the tech arena.
In the same conversation, Joi asked what I had thought about the Charter For Compassion project that he had commended. We’ve talked about this sort of topic before, at great length, so he anticipated what I was about to say. There’s everything to be said in favor of people forswearing coercive violence; amen to that! But this particular project entails some awkward arm-twisting relative to Christian theology (and, I estimate on the basis of relative ignorance, relative to the reflective discourses indigenous to various other communities). I’m not sure I see a way forward for this initiative that doesn’t involve a superficial pan-religiosity that falsifies the deepest convictions of each participating group. “Compassion” for a Christian is not simply the same thing as is Karu?? for a Buddhist — and within Christianity (and other communities) plenty of faithful, ardent people would define key terms in ways inimical to others.
All of which gets at the point of the Charter at the same time it reveals its problematic destiny. The social function of the charter seems to be that “the voice of negativity and violence so often associated with religion is the minority and that the voice of compassion is the majority” — but who determines what counts as “negativity” and what counts as “compassion”? If I believe that everyone who has not been baptized will endure (at the very least) the undesirable consequence of eternal separation from the fullness of divine joy, then it would plausibly be compassionate of me to urge them to abandon their [fill in the religious blank here] ways and unite themselves to Christ. If their precepts entail behavior that seems antithetical to human flourishing on my [Christian] convictions, it’s incumbent on me to resist their precepts — even if that seems “negative” to “the Council of Sages.” (By the way, how come Islam gets academic representatives from Harvard and Oxford, but Christianity and Judaism get administrators and popularizers? And where are the Hindu, Buddhist, Orthodox, Wiccan, Baha’i, Mormon, and various other-interested-party “sages”? And what qualifies one as a “sage” — the imprimatur of Karen Armstrong?)
So, short answer: It’s a great idea for people to abide among one another in peace and harmony, exercising respect even for their neighbors’ spiritually wrong-headed decisions, and eschewing coercion where possible (and acknowledging the spiritual integrity of those who decline to sign on with an agenda that seems to relativize the depth and the absolute horizon of their theological commitments, where the pragmatics of legal discourses seem to require coercion). But the Charter for Compassion hasn’t started out by demonstrating attention to exactly the nuances and intricacies the neglect of which so frequently aggravates religious conflict. So, no thank you; best wishes for that working out.
AKMA :: Nov.16.2008 :: Uncategorized :: No Comments »
A few days ago, I blogged about the Welcome Wagon album that Vito and Monque Aiuto (who hold the Guinness Book of World Records prize for “highest proportion of vowels to consonants in the last name of a recoding artist”); I hadn’t had time to listen to it, but I was excited even to be asked to promote the project. To be candid, I was a little bit uneasy, too; I wrote about the album before I listened to it, in case it turned out that I didn’t like it.
After having given it a listen, though, I’m positively delighted by it. It bears the clear imprint of Sufjan Stevens’s production, but for this album the production sounds less like “oh, that’s Sufjan Stevens” and more like “this is the way these performances ought to sound.” Welcome Wagon lays claim to a variety of songs from traditional folk/church music to recent compositions to some of their own works, and presents them with a consistent, organic sense of their musical vocation. I hear Ben Harper, the classic sound of blues-gospel couples (the Elders McIntorsh, Blind Willie and Willie B. Johnson), the Band, as produced by Stevens. I like Welcome to the Welcome Wagon a lot; Sufjan Stevens fans should like it; fans of primitive gospel music should like it (at least, if they’re not Stevens-averse, since the arrangements really are straight out of the the Stevens repertoire), and some people should like it for none of the above reasons. It’s due for release on December 9, but you can download one of the selections right now. Both of my ears recommend the album enthusiastically.
AKMA :: Nov.14.2008 :: Uncategorized :: 1 Comment »
I’m moderately Google-able,* so I try to observe a measure of discretion about what I write online regarding my professional circumstances. That discretion limits what I might say about Margaret’s and my job searches, but since this blog functions as a general “state of the family” news source as well as a semi-professional writing outlet for the peculiar blend of technology, biblical interpretation, theology, and postmodern thought that characterizes my work, I will report that we’re feeling varying degrees and intensities of anxiety over the fact that between the two of us, we have one (fairly secure, but not signed-sealed-delivered) opportunity for a one-year contract for next year. For my own part, there have been very, very few openings announced for which I might apply; few institutions can afford to hire someone with my experience, and among those that can, several schools stipulate that one sign on to their distinct theological perspective.
It sure would be swell if one of us got a longer-term opportunity.
That being said, I was pretty gloomy last weekend (we had some adverse professional news that jarred our equilibrium), but am determined to keep my spirits up this weekend.
*And I assume that any percipient employer does at least a cursory Google search on prospective hires.
AKMA :: Nov.14.2008 :: Uncategorized :: No Comments »
I’ve noted before that our household includes enthusiastic applause for Stephen Fry; today I add that Language Log has dedicated a post to two Stephen Fry video clips (I’ve seen them before; I thought I had linked to them, but I can’t find the post if I did) and a post from his redesigned blog in which he repudiates his former public fussiness about grammatical details.
I still treat “none” as singular, I distinguish “less” from “fewer,” I still advocate grammatical and syntactical precision, and I don’t even split infinitives, but Fry is surely correct to take high-profile grammar enforcers down a peg or two. Intelligible discourse — and especially, as Fry suggests, pleasurable discourse — can operate adequately with gleeful disregard for the decrees of Grammar Puritans. At the same time, however, many people who hasten to claim that cavalier prerogative would do better to learn to use words more precisely first. Fry cites the example of Oscar Wilde’s note to his editors, that “I’ll leave you to tidy up the woulds and shoulds, wills and shalls, thats and whiches &c.” — but Wilde did not say, “Don’t change a thing, woulds and shoulds don’t matter,” and Wilde knew better than almost anyone who has written in English how to deploy words for maximal pleasure.
AKMA :: Nov.12.2008 :: Uncategorized :: 8 Comments »
Yesterday afternoon before class, I spent a little more than an hour at a lecture given by Stanley Hauerwas in honor of Jean Vanier (who himself contributed a series of reflections after the lecture). These two were together at Duke to conduct a workshop on “Living Gently In A Violent World” and to celebrate the publication of a book by that title on which they worked together. The lecture was vintage Hauerwas, and emphasized the work of Raimond Gaita; here’s an excerpt from Gaita’s A Common Humanity published in the Guardian); Vanier’s reflections (from which I will not try to quote) touched me deeply, as a pastor and as a person.
Hauerwas offered a sympathetic exposition of Gaita’s work, only at the end noting that Gaita signals a sort of hiatus, an aporia, precisely where the faithfulness of such figures as Jean Vainer (and Mother Teresa — Gaita’s chosen exemplar) stands to provide the enacted rationale for the pure love with which people demonstrate the sort of life Gaita finds admirable but inexplicable.
I’ll have to catch up on Gaita, now, but Stanley emphasized Gaita’s focal interest in the “pure love” that he saw as the only plausible alternative to an urbane condescension toward those who bear irremediable afflications; this, it seemed to me, provided any number of important clues for themes and arguments at the heart of my “beautiful theology” projects.
AKMA :: Nov.11.2008 :: Uncategorized :: 1 Comment »
I understand that many people are eager to hear whom Obama will appoint as Secretary of the Treasury — but the appointment I’m waiting to hear about is Attorney General. So very many legal contortions have been imposed and made conventional during the past eight years that a new AG will have quite the Augean stables to clear out. Even just an enthusiastic spasm of declassification would provide a great deal of interesting reading material….
AKMA :: Nov.10.2008 :: Uncategorized :: 1 Comment »
I got an email this morning from my former student Vito Aiuto; he was in seeral of my classes at Princeton, I think — Greek, and at least one exegetical class (maybe the Biblical Theology class, maybe even Matthew or New Testament Theology?). Vito’s been busily pastoring in NYC since those long-ago days, but he’s also been hanging around and singing with his friend Sufjan Stevens (Vito is credited on Michigan, which includes “Vito’s Ordination Song,” and I think he sang on some of the Songs For Christmas cuts, but I can’t find any credits).
Now, Vito and his wife Monique are getting set to release an album of their own on Asthmatic Kitty, as The Welcome Wagon; their album will be called Welcome To The Welcome Wagon. I’m getting ready to listen to an advance copy, and I can’t wait — you can download a free sample on the album website. Chec it out, spread the word!
AKMA :: Nov.09.2008 :: Uncategorized :: 3 Comments »
I haven’t seen anyone point to David Weinberger’s post from the 2004 Democratic convention (least of all David himself), but I’ve remembered it all campaign and thought it was worth a link after Tuesday. David — still firmly supporting the idea of eight years of a Kerry presidency — wrote:
The good news for Hillary is that she might get State Department when Obama is President in 2012.
Now, it seems as though Kerry might be Secretary of State, and it may be the case that Sen. Clinton’s trongest position for the future lies in cultivating a role in legislative leadership, but it’s worth noting that our friend perceived that when it came down to a Clinton vs. Obama primary campaign, Obama would win and would become president — and he perceived it well before Obama was even anywhere near being a declared candidate.
AKMA :: Nov.08.2008 :: Uncategorized :: 1 Comment »