Greenbelt 2010

Further to Friday's post, according to Christian Aid, Greenbelt 2010 will be from Friday 27th August until Monday 30 August. Although I can't find any details on the Greenbelt website, Wikipedia is listing next year's theme as "The Art of Looking Sideways."

Greenbelt 09 Talks

Unable to get to Greenbelt this year (theme: Standing in the Long Now), I've been eagerly scanning the talks available on CD or MP3 download from the website. I'm looking forward to hearing Kester Brewin's talks in advance of his next book (hopefully available next year some time), as well as Mark Vernon (my partner Sim happened across his book, After Atheism, yesterday). And, as ever, Pete Rollins' contributions. In particular, I'm going to fork out for:

• Church Without Borders, Dave Tomlinson


• How to be a Religious Agnostic, Mark Vernon


• We Are Strange; God is Stranger, Kester Brewin


• The Birth of Christianity and the Death of Meaning, Pete Rollins


• A Plea for Christian Piracy, Kester Brewin


• Justice is Not Christian, Nigel Varndell


• How Not to Believe, Maggi Dawn, Pete Rollins, Roman Krznaric, and Mark Vernon.

Lots of academics also give talks at Greenbelt - this year included Ursula King (Bristol, and SOAS) who I met when I organised an international conference on Gender and Spiritual Praxis in Asian Contexts at Lancaster in 2006, and Andrew Tate (Lancaster). Other academics that I know and whose work I use or have used that have also spoken at Greenbelt include Kristin Aune (Derby), Grace Davie (Exeter), Tina Beattie (Roehampton) and Jolyon Mitchell (Edinburgh). Greenbelt is a fantastic place for disseminating research and I hope to be able to do something next year... if my proposal(s) get accepted.

Where does your faith LIE?

At Greenbelt Festival this year, Ikon's theo-drama, entitled 'The God Delusion,' (conveniently) posed one of the central research questions of my PhD thesis:
'Before we ask "Is Christianity true?" we must ask "What does it mean to claim that it is true?"'



This performance resonated with so many of my own questions (both personal and academic, though the two can never be anything other than intertwined) that it's hard to know where to start. But Jon's "Where does your faith LIE?" got me thinking about an interrelated question which I don't think I've explored nearly enough yet. Here's the text:



Where does your faith lie?
Does your faith lie in the belief that the universe was created in six 24-hour days?
Does your faith lie in there being an ark on Mount Ararat?
Does your faith lie in the account that God once made a donkey talk?
Does your faith lie in the belief that miracles don’t happen?
Does your faith lie in God once wiping out a city of thousands because it had homosexuals living in it?
Does your faith lie in the belief that everything the Bible says about ancient Israel is directly applicable to the modern state of Israel?
Does your faith lie in the belief that you will beat the odds and your smoking will not lead to a long and very painful death due to emphysema?
Does your faith lie in the research of the Royal College of Physicians or in the research funded by the tobacco industry?
Does your faith lie in the notion that the next politician you vote for will not support the next war?
Does your faith lie in Jesus having brothers and sisters?
Does your faith lie in the hope that heaven is full of people like you?
Does your faith lie in the free market?
Does your faith lie in the postcards that Christian Aid has you sent to the Prime Minister?
Does your faith lie in making poverty history?
Does your faith lie in the next president of the United States?
Does your faith lie in the United Nations?
Does your faith lie in scientific rationalism?
Does your faith lie in Northern Ireland remaining part of the UK?
Does your faith lie in the belief that there must be a good reason for why your government is detaining people indefinitely without trial?
Does your faith lie in your own ability to discern the mind of God?
Does your faith lie in the physical resurrection of Jesus?
Does your faith lie in the belief that civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan are unavoidable?
Does your faith lie in the hope that a nineteen year-old Iraqi man whose sister and mother were killed by an errant allied cruise missile will not hold you responsible because you once carried a sign that read ‘Not in My Name’?
Does your faith lie in the belief that God does not punish sin?
Does your faith lie in the belief that there was nothing more that you could have done?
Does your faith lie in your tradition being closer to the truth than another?
Does your faith lie in the virgin birth?
Does your faith lie in a balanced diet and exercising?
Does your faith lie in your own body image?
Does your faith lie in the belief that anyone who shoots back is a terrorist?
Does your faith lie in maintenance of the status quo?
Does your faith lie in he (or she) eventually coming to their senses and taking you back?
Does your faith lie in a hell beyond this life for those who didn’t accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and saviour?
Does your faith lie in an endless supply of cheap energy?
Does your faith lie in the Stormont Assembly?
Does your faith lie in the words ‘peacemaker’ and ‘peace supporter’ being synonymous?
Does your faith lie in the belief that ‘follower of Jesus’ and ‘member of a church’ being synonymous?
Does your faith lie in your job?
Does your faith lie in financial savings?
Does your faith lie in the belief that sectarianism has nothing to do with you?
Does your faith lie in liberalism?
Does your faith lie in your own good intentions?
Does your faith lie in the belief that the investment and development coming into Belfast City Centre is significantly improving the lives of those living in the estates in Shankill, Ballymurphy, New Lodge, Ballysillan, Glencairn, Dundonald, Ballymacarrat, the Village, Finaghy, and the Markets?
Does your faith lie in Loving God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind and loving your neighbor as yourself?
Does your faith lie in God loving the world so much that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have eternal life?
Where does you faith… Where does your faith… lie?
(Written and performed by Jon Hatch)


I know in the conversations I've had we've been concentrating on the nature of 'truth,' and Jon's performance started me thinking about the nature of 'untruth.' So I wondered what you thought?

If 'truth' is a correspondence between language and reality (i.e. 'God exists' is true because the statement accurately refers to an external reality that would still be true even if we didn't believe it), what is 'untruth'? Is it a lack of full correspondence between language and reality? In this sense, is all human language a lie?

If 'truth' is what we decide it is (i.e. 'God exists' is true because as part of a Christian community we have agreed to use this language, and this language determines or constructs the reality of our world), what is 'untruth'? Is 'untruth' the 'truth's of other communities, their languages, their worldviews, their realities?

If 'truth' cannot be determined with regards to its correspondence to or construction of reality, and can only be understood in terms of it's transformative effect, what is 'untruth'? Is 'untruth' a transformative effect which we termed 'bad'? Or is 'untruth' that which has no effect at all?


I'm reminded of a parable from Pete's How (Not) To Speak of God: A person, hiding Jews in their house from the Nazis, is asked whether there are Jews hiding in the house. The person says, "no." Are they lying or are they telling the truth?

And at last year's Greenbelt, Ikon handed out pieces of rice paper with the words 'I beLIEve' written on them, and we gave them to someone sitting near us with the thought that, if our beliefs don't nourish others then are they lies rather than truths?





(photo of Jon by Moyra Blayney, available from Ikon website).

Papers, Supervisions, and Fieldwork - Oh My! Oh, and Greenbelt!!!

The paper on Authorship and Authority in the blogosphere went well at the postgraduate seminar series. Some good discussion points afterwards regarding emerging social structures in the blogosphere. Patrick Carr (a fellow PhD student from Lancaster University) made some very interesting reflections concerning spiritual disciplines and the aesthetics of the moral self - something which I think may have a great many resonances with the neo-monasticism of many emerging Christian communities.

My supervision with Deborah the next day helped me rethink my intentions for the Reading Spiritualities chapter, situating the blogging activities of emerging Christian communities in the context of shifting notions of authority. I'll be working on it over the next few weeks, for the July 31st deadline (argh!), as well as trying to schedule my summer of interviewing.

I've had lots of emails from people wanting to participate in this research project, generated through a nearly exhaustive email advertising campaign that I worried might constitute spamming(!) and a hugely helpful post about my PhD by Jason Clark. At the moment, I think I might have around 30-40 questionnaire responses winging their way to me through cyberspace, which I hope to follow up with face-to-face interviews over the next few months. I'm really looking forward to getting to sit down with people and explore their beliefs. I hope to complete the fieldwork by Greenbelt at the end of August!

Speaking of Greenbelt, the line-up looks excellent. And the New Forms Cafe (my favouritist space) looks on great again this year. There are a whole host of communities with whom I've been in contact about this research, including: Sanctuary Birmingham, Ikon, The Garden, Dream, Grace, MayBe, Safe Space, Journey, Moot, Sanctuary Bath, Foundation, hOME, and Sanctus 2nds. And I haven't quite grown out of Delirious? yet!!! Hope it doesn't rain, though!