To help myself think through that sticky aspect of the sociology of religion known as typologising the life out of your research subjects, I thought I'd post about the various communities from which participants come.
So far, interview participants have come from a range of communities. Here are the links to the web presences of some of them, along with their own self-descriptions:
fEAST, Hackney
"We seek to be a Christian community that provides the opportunity to learn, be inspired and nourished in an atmosphere of intimacy and vulnerability. We also seek to be a space for creative worship, where everyone can talk freely and a place where people receive support for their daily lives. We want to be encouraged to be active in our community and beyond, being committed to the principles of justice and peace. We don't want to forget the need to be made uncomfortable by the gospel of Jesus."
Vineyard, Sutton
"Our mission is to help people live life to the full. We seek to be a truly welcoming and dynamic Christian community where people can connect with God, with others, and with opportunities to make a difference in our world.You can think of Vineyard Church as a group of people "doing life together"."
The Garden, Brighton
"We think of ourselves as a project, an ermerging community based in Brighton, Sussex, who are seeking to work out how to live passionately in response to 'the other' in a way that embraces the artistic, the intellectual and the practical and which challenges us to take seriously matters of justice, compassion and the planet. At the moment most (not all) of us have some sort of Christian history but we aspire to create space, beyond propositional statements of belief, for those with any faith or none who feel this may work for them."
Industrial Mission Association, UK
"The Industrial Mission Association is an organisation for lay and ordained people who want to be involved in, or to deepen their understanding of, the relationship between the Christian faith and the economic order. Membership is open to all men and women who, on the basis of the Christian faith, are committed to instituting economic change and helping the Church to respond to the needs of urban industrial society."
Visions, York
"It's hard to describe Visions in one sentence! A church for people who don't like church. A place that feels like home where we can talk about and experience the love of Jesus Christ. A place where you can be yourself, with all your doubts, fears and messiness and people will accept you anyway. But we're also a bunch of Christians interested in deepening our faith journey through discovering and using our talents in the visual arts, dance music, and technology."
Dream Network, North West England
"DREAM is a network of groups who are on a spiritual journey towards Jesus. We welcome anyone who wants to travel with us."
Foundation, Bristol
"Foundation is a Bristol emerging church / alternative worship group. We are a registered Anglican “Fresh Expression”. Our goal is to bring the experience of Christian community into a healthy relationship with contemporary culture."
Search, Basinstoke
"Search is a place for those who want to encounter worship in a different way - a way that engages the senses and the mind. It is also a place where we will hopefully encounter God and build a sense of community with other searchers."
MayBe, Oxford
"a community following in the way of Jesus for a better world now. Grace, space, wonder, grit, resistance, laughter, presence. Community, exploration, creativity, simplicity, engagement, play, Christ."
Vaux, Vauxhall
"Vaux was a community of artists and city-lovers who sought to explore the Christian faith through the media that came naturally to their hands. Using collages of film, dance, sound, installation, liturgy and image, Vaux formatted monthly 'services' at 310 Kennington Lane, Vauxhall. After a break of about a year we're meeting again. Just to gather, re-juvinate and re-ignite, with no pressure or pre-conceptions. We'll see what happens..."
Ikon, Belfast
"iconic, apocalyptic, heretical, emerging, failing. Inhabiting a space on the outer edges of religious life, we are a Belfast-based collective who offer anarchic experiments in transformance art. Challenging the distinction between theist and atheist, faith and no faith our main gathering employs a cocktail of live music, visual imagery, soundscapes, theatre, ritual and reflection in an attempt to open up the possibility of a theodramatic event."
BarNone, Cardiff
"For the last few years Bar None has been a safe space for people to explore what they believe and what the bible says, a place for people to test the validity of the Christian faith. Pubs are often the most relaxed environments – literally public space – around that we are starting to build a regular crowd of people interested in discussing faith and life. For us it’s just about doing the important stuff of church but in a pub. Some of us are Christians who struggle with doubts and the diversity of opinion within the church what’s ‘truth’. Some of us aren’t sure what we believe and are trying to work it out as we go along."
24/7 Prayer Movement, UK
"24-7 Prayer exists to transform the world through movements and communities of Christ-centred, Mission-minded Prayer."
Spirited Exchanges, UK
"Is your spiritual or faith journey leading you into uncharted territory? Spirited Exchanges is a network offering support and encouragement to people who are experiencing faith and its struggles at the edges of or beyond Church."
Sanctuary, Birmingham
"Sanctuary a safe place for British Asians or anyone interested in exploring eastern and western spiritualities in Christ. It is a place of space, peace, meditation, food, and friendship. Everyone is accepted as they are, just as God loves and accepts them, and Sanctuary is a place where they can experience that love and grace in community."
Journey MCC, Birmingham
"spirituality without religion. Journey is made up of many different people; our only common goal is to create a space where we are able to explore, discuss, experience, worship and listen. We recognise that we are all pilgrims on a search for meaning and need to find ways to share our thoughts and our experiences-if not always our agreement. We’re not interested in orthodoxy….. we’re interested in authenticity."
I originally contacted communities which I had identified as "emerging churches" through internet searches and empirical research by other researchers, but a call for participants was (very kindly) placed on Jason Clark's blog (along with a sexy picture!) and this generated a more diverse response from those involved in engaging with contemporary culture. The rich group of people who are now involved in this project is wonderful, but it's tough to start thinking about typologies for the communities from which they come. You can see, for example from Foundation's description of themselves as an 'emerging church / altnerative worship group' and 'Anglican fresh expression', that I've got some work to do - and that these distinctions don't seem to be problematic in practice! I've got several types to choose from / several boxes to force things into, including:
emerging church
fresh expression of church
alternative worship
neo-monasticism
inherited/traditional church
post-church
not-church
I need to work on how I'm defining these labels, in order to work out which communities to put where, and whether I can create a spectrum which reflects the diversity going on rather than reinforcing any existing binaries. Helen Cameron, for example, differentiates between emerging church and fresh expressions by classifying the former as mission to the de-churched and the later as mission to the un-churched. But Ian Mobsby classifies emerging church as a sub-group of fresh expressions, alongside inherited church fresh expressions. So, I'm working on my own thoughts about these different types of Christian community.
In the meantime... some thoughts on the recent direction that self-definition among the emerging church took. While definition and classification remain dirty words among emerging Christian communities, there have always been attempts to do just that. There was a flurry of definitions around 2005, produced by both those involved and those not - and I need only to point you to a few posts by TSK for you to find some others. However, over the summer this year a method of definition emerged through the textual and visual definition of buzz words in response to criticism from the Pyromaniacs team - see here, here, here, here, and here! The more I think about it, this deserves it's own post. I'll be back.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Friday, October 12, 2007
Religion, Spirituality and Gay Sexuality
Spurred on by a supervision session yesterday, I'm still trying to turn my Masters thesis into a journal article, possibly for Theology & Sexuality, or maybe something more sociology of religion focused. So far, however, cutting the 27,000 word dissertation down to something manageable between 6,000-8,000 is proving hard. At the moment, it's 11,700 and - as usual when you're trying to cut down on words - it's got everything I want in it! It's entitled, "Queering the Subjectivization Thesis: Self and Selflessness among Lesbian Christans" and here's the abstract:
This article explores Heelas and Woodhead’s subjectivization thesis in the context of non-heterosexual religiosity. Heelas and Woodhead (2005) contend that a current sociological trend in the UK religious landscape, which places individual subjectivities and spiritualities above anonymization and conformity within traditional religious institutions, is a sign of changing notions of selfhood. This is a shift from a ‘life-as’ subordinated self to a ‘subjective-life’ ‘self-in-relation.’ This article questions the notion that these forms of selfhood are necessarily mutually exclusive, and uses the self-understandings of a small, localised group of British lesbian Christians to argue that it is possible to achieve integration, rather than continually oscillating between the two poles without mediation. These women simultaneously retain their sense of self and remain within a religion which encourages selflessness. This existence is supported by their choice of worshipping community, the Metropolitan Community Church, and their constructions of the Christian religion.
The research for my MA in Women and Religion, specialising in LGBT Theology, was conducted in 2005, so I'm going to go to the British Sociological Association's Study of Religion Group's study day in November to get involved with the more recent research in the field. Hosted by UWE's Unit for the Study of Religion and Spirituality, the Religion, Spirituality and Gay Sexuality study day has a good line-up, though Andrew Yip (Nottingham Trent), whose research featured heavily in my dissertation, sadly isn't on the provisional programme. I've met Kristen Aune (Derby University) and Marta Trzebiatowska (Exeter University > Aberdeen University) several times and love both their work. Also of interest to me will be Alex Toft (Nottingham Trent)'s paper, "Bisexual Christians: The Lived Experiences of a Marginalised Community." Aside from Andrew Yip, most of the work among LGBT Christians several years ago was US-based, so I'm looking forward to hearing about what's going on now.
The themes I explored in my MA dissertation, particularly the grey areas between Heelas and Woodhead's supposedly mutually exclusive poles of 'life-as' and 'subjective-life,' have relevance for many emerging Christian communities, who also exist in the ground between religion and spirituality, traditionalism and individualism. I'll bring out these themes more in the course of starting to draw my PhD thesis together. At the moment, though, I just have several interesting spider diagrams (!) and a stack of tapes to transcribe.
This article explores Heelas and Woodhead’s subjectivization thesis in the context of non-heterosexual religiosity. Heelas and Woodhead (2005) contend that a current sociological trend in the UK religious landscape, which places individual subjectivities and spiritualities above anonymization and conformity within traditional religious institutions, is a sign of changing notions of selfhood. This is a shift from a ‘life-as’ subordinated self to a ‘subjective-life’ ‘self-in-relation.’ This article questions the notion that these forms of selfhood are necessarily mutually exclusive, and uses the self-understandings of a small, localised group of British lesbian Christians to argue that it is possible to achieve integration, rather than continually oscillating between the two poles without mediation. These women simultaneously retain their sense of self and remain within a religion which encourages selflessness. This existence is supported by their choice of worshipping community, the Metropolitan Community Church, and their constructions of the Christian religion.
The research for my MA in Women and Religion, specialising in LGBT Theology, was conducted in 2005, so I'm going to go to the British Sociological Association's Study of Religion Group's study day in November to get involved with the more recent research in the field. Hosted by UWE's Unit for the Study of Religion and Spirituality, the Religion, Spirituality and Gay Sexuality study day has a good line-up, though Andrew Yip (Nottingham Trent), whose research featured heavily in my dissertation, sadly isn't on the provisional programme. I've met Kristen Aune (Derby University) and Marta Trzebiatowska (Exeter University > Aberdeen University) several times and love both their work. Also of interest to me will be Alex Toft (Nottingham Trent)'s paper, "Bisexual Christians: The Lived Experiences of a Marginalised Community." Aside from Andrew Yip, most of the work among LGBT Christians several years ago was US-based, so I'm looking forward to hearing about what's going on now.
The themes I explored in my MA dissertation, particularly the grey areas between Heelas and Woodhead's supposedly mutually exclusive poles of 'life-as' and 'subjective-life,' have relevance for many emerging Christian communities, who also exist in the ground between religion and spirituality, traditionalism and individualism. I'll bring out these themes more in the course of starting to draw my PhD thesis together. At the moment, though, I just have several interesting spider diagrams (!) and a stack of tapes to transcribe.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Blogs and New Text Values
I've just finished (what I hope will be!) the final draft of a chapter that will be published in a book entitled, Reading Spiritualities and, having just regained Internet access after moving house, I thought I'd try to whet some appetites! I blogged briefly about this before here.
The book is being edited by my PhD supervisor, Dr Deborah F. Sawyer, and another PhD student of hers, Dawn Llewellyn, and came out of a conference they organised in 2006, Women Reading Spiritualities. Although I gave a paper based on my Masters research among LGBT Christians, I've written something more directly related to my PhD thesis for inclusion in this volume.
My chapter is called, "The Desire for Interactivity and the Emerging Texts of the Blogosphere" and looks at blogging among emerging Christian communities in order to reflect on the nature of blogs as texts. The chapter argues that the desire for interactivity, identified by feminist literary theorist Lynn Pearce in all reading practices, can be most clearly seen in the reading practices surrounding blogging, as this often results in textual interactions which are articulated in the comments section or in a reader's own blog. There are several values associated with text by postmodern literary theorists which can also be seen in the blogosphere. However, I reflect on the nature of authorship and authority in the blogosphere, and make some arguments regarding a disparity between these "new text values" and text in the blogosphere. I hope someone will find it an interesting read!
The book is being edited by my PhD supervisor, Dr Deborah F. Sawyer, and another PhD student of hers, Dawn Llewellyn, and came out of a conference they organised in 2006, Women Reading Spiritualities. Although I gave a paper based on my Masters research among LGBT Christians, I've written something more directly related to my PhD thesis for inclusion in this volume.
My chapter is called, "The Desire for Interactivity and the Emerging Texts of the Blogosphere" and looks at blogging among emerging Christian communities in order to reflect on the nature of blogs as texts. The chapter argues that the desire for interactivity, identified by feminist literary theorist Lynn Pearce in all reading practices, can be most clearly seen in the reading practices surrounding blogging, as this often results in textual interactions which are articulated in the comments section or in a reader's own blog. There are several values associated with text by postmodern literary theorists which can also be seen in the blogosphere. However, I reflect on the nature of authorship and authority in the blogosphere, and make some arguments regarding a disparity between these "new text values" and text in the blogosphere. I hope someone will find it an interesting read!
Friday, September 14, 2007
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).
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
The Experiment Launches
Way, way back in April, I blogged about the possibility of open sourcing the research process. I have been privileged to so far interview and/or survey about 40 people around the UK, and will have the chance to reflect on those conversations and attempt a thesis. I would love this blog to be a space where those taking part in the research (and any other interested online others) can also discuss and explore these issues. This experiment may not work (technologically and/or methodologically) but I’m game to try it.
I’m aware of other PhD students working on “emerging church” research who keep their own blogs (Im a particular fan of Paul Teusner’s research on Australian “ec” blogs) but I’d like this to be more than a place where I post “updates” on what I’m doing for you guys to read and that’s it.
Hopefully this participatory methodology for the blogosphere will encourage everyone (myself included) to “outgrow” the research-based roles with which we entered our relationship together. Some of you may want the relationship to end when I send you a transcript of the interview, and that is fine too. Others may be interested in taking things further.
Whereas in the interviews some topics could not be developed as perhaps we might have wished (given that I have specific research questions to explore), those topics might be able to flourish here. This blog does not have a specific purpose, beyond being a place where we can converse further. I might have a particular point to make in a particular post, but I won’t push an agenda of answering research questions to the exclusion of the other places you might wish to take our conversation.
Of course, I’m not kidding myself that this is going to become the next hot spot of interactivity in the blogosphere, either. But maybe a little conversation will take place here, and that’d be great.
I’m aware of other PhD students working on “emerging church” research who keep their own blogs (Im a particular fan of Paul Teusner’s research on Australian “ec” blogs) but I’d like this to be more than a place where I post “updates” on what I’m doing for you guys to read and that’s it.
Hopefully this participatory methodology for the blogosphere will encourage everyone (myself included) to “outgrow” the research-based roles with which we entered our relationship together. Some of you may want the relationship to end when I send you a transcript of the interview, and that is fine too. Others may be interested in taking things further.
Whereas in the interviews some topics could not be developed as perhaps we might have wished (given that I have specific research questions to explore), those topics might be able to flourish here. This blog does not have a specific purpose, beyond being a place where we can converse further. I might have a particular point to make in a particular post, but I won’t push an agenda of answering research questions to the exclusion of the other places you might wish to take our conversation.
Of course, I’m not kidding myself that this is going to become the next hot spot of interactivity in the blogosphere, either. But maybe a little conversation will take place here, and that’d be great.
Voices of the Virtual World PAPERBACK
The paperback version of Voices of the Virtual World (available as a download from here) was released yesterday. The volume costs £10.99 and can be ordered from Lulu.com here. As before, proceeds go to the Not For Sale Campaign.
Part of a new press release reads:
"Wikiklesia values sustainability with minimal structure. We long to see a church saturated with decentralized cooperation. The improbable notion of books that effectively publish themselves is one of many ways that can help move us closer to this."
Part of a new press release reads:
"Wikiklesia values sustainability with minimal structure. We long to see a church saturated with decentralized cooperation. The improbable notion of books that effectively publish themselves is one of many ways that can help move us closer to this."
Saturday, September 08, 2007
The Theology of Trash
Paul Walker is an Anglican minister from Bradford. In his own words, he's struggling to 'emerge from an inherited model Anglican priest to being a missionary in my 21st Century, late-modernity-going-into-postmodernity context.' He's currently studying for an MA in Emerging Church at Cliff College and his dissertation explores the missional implications of Web 2.0 technologies. I'm particularly keen to hear his thoughts on what models of Christian community might emerge from Internet cultures.
On his blog, Out of the Cocoon, Paul has been reviewing Voices of the Virtual World chapter by chapter, one a day, and yesterday he got to me. He writes,
"...although it is obvious that many blogs fall into disuse, there are some amazing 'theological spaces' on the Web. Ideas can be set forth, comments can be made, and ideas can be refined and honed - all in a friendly and generally encouraging climate of co-operation and mutual support. In effect, it has ripped theology from out of 'the ivory tower', where it was the preserve of the learned and the erudite, into the hands of anyone who wants to 'have a go'. Some may sniff at this deluge of material - some of which might well be thought ill-considered, even 'trashy' - but the reality is that this is now a feature of the wired world that we live in and the culture we inhabit - and the academics and 'ivory tower' theologians are simply going to have to take cognisance of it."
Reflection upon any aspect of our existence, whether it's football, tv and film, or fashion, is theology. Sure, these things aren't understood as within the conventional boundaries of theology as they might have been understood by systematic theologians, but these things are the stuff of life. And if life somehow participates in the being of God, all talk about life is God-talk, theology.
My thoughts are that life itself is pretty 'trashy' (at least, mine is) and theology needs to emerge from the midst of life. I'd be happy if this resulted in a theology of trash. After all, one person's trash is another person's treasure. Maybe even God's treasure!
The rest of Paul's post can be found here.
On his blog, Out of the Cocoon, Paul has been reviewing Voices of the Virtual World chapter by chapter, one a day, and yesterday he got to me. He writes,
"...although it is obvious that many blogs fall into disuse, there are some amazing 'theological spaces' on the Web. Ideas can be set forth, comments can be made, and ideas can be refined and honed - all in a friendly and generally encouraging climate of co-operation and mutual support. In effect, it has ripped theology from out of 'the ivory tower', where it was the preserve of the learned and the erudite, into the hands of anyone who wants to 'have a go'. Some may sniff at this deluge of material - some of which might well be thought ill-considered, even 'trashy' - but the reality is that this is now a feature of the wired world that we live in and the culture we inhabit - and the academics and 'ivory tower' theologians are simply going to have to take cognisance of it."
Reflection upon any aspect of our existence, whether it's football, tv and film, or fashion, is theology. Sure, these things aren't understood as within the conventional boundaries of theology as they might have been understood by systematic theologians, but these things are the stuff of life. And if life somehow participates in the being of God, all talk about life is God-talk, theology.
My thoughts are that life itself is pretty 'trashy' (at least, mine is) and theology needs to emerge from the midst of life. I'd be happy if this resulted in a theology of trash. After all, one person's trash is another person's treasure. Maybe even God's treasure!
The rest of Paul's post can be found here.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Voices of the Virtual World released today!
Described as 'a far reaching exploration of spiritual journey within a culture of increasingly immersive technology,' the PDF version of Voices of the Virtual World: Participative Technology and the Ecclesial Revolution is available for download today. This collaborative project exploring how technology is transforming the church goes on sale today from Lulu.com and can be downloaded from here for $14.95. A tentative publication date for the paperback edition is being set for late August 2007, with all proceeds being donated to the Not For Sale campaign.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Participative Technology and the Ecclesial Revolution - PRESS RELEASE
A few months ago I blogged about the Wikiklesia Project, an online collaborative publication of short works from a range of contributors exploring the ways in which technology is transforming the church. The volume has developed over the last month, with a new title - Voices of the Virtual World: Participative Technology and the Ecclesial Revolution. The e-book will be released on July 23, and downloadable from Lulu.com for $15. Audio files will be available to download for a donation. ALL proceeds are going to the Not For Sale Campaign.
A current list of chapter titles can be found at the Wikiklesia Project's Wikidot site here. All the chapters sound fantastic, but from a research perspective I'm particularly looking forward to reading:
Kester Brewin, Text/Audio/Video: Probing the Dark Glass
Greg Glatz, The Perfect Mix? The Missio Dei in a Free Market Economy
Len Hjalmarson, Text, Sacrament, Leadership and Conversation: Blogging and Communal Formation
Brother Maynard, Hyperlinks Subvert Hierarchy: The Internet, Non-Hierarchical Organizations, and the Structure of the Church
Andrew Perriman, Open Source Theology
Joe Suh, Social Networking and the Long Tail Church
And Len's Afterword, The Myths of Technos and God's Kingdom.
Greg Glatz, The Perfect Mix? The Missio Dei in a Free Market Economy
Len Hjalmarson, Text, Sacrament, Leadership and Conversation: Blogging and Communal Formation
Brother Maynard, Hyperlinks Subvert Hierarchy: The Internet, Non-Hierarchical Organizations, and the Structure of the Church
Andrew Perriman, Open Source Theology
Joe Suh, Social Networking and the Long Tail Church
And Len's Afterword, The Myths of Technos and God's Kingdom.
My chapter is entitled Theo(b)logy: The Technological Transformation of Theology, and reflects on the impact of technology on understandings of what theology is, and who does theology. I trace the development from conventional notions of theology as the systematic study of Christian revelation by trained professionals, to Radical Orthodoxy's notion of 'the theological' as the confessional standpoints held by everyone and 'theology' as the critical reflection on these belief systems, regardless of their explicitly religious nature. I argue that technological innovation, particularly blogging and open source software, is facilitating the opening of the theological endeavour to any 'net user, effecting this radical shift towards "theo(b)logy," the Web2.0-assisted, Christianly theological, reflection on any number of subjects. Theology can be and is being done by anyone, and theology has as its subject matter not only the conventional source code of the Christian religion, but subjects as varied as football, beer, environment, Middle East, labyrinth, family, and shopping. I've also recorded an MP3 audio file for download, but I'm worried about it, as I think I've got a boring voice! Our brief said that we could employ a celebrity impersonator, but I don't know any.
The official Press Release is as follows:
Voices of the Virtual World:
Participative Technology and the Ecclesial Revolution
PRESS RELEASE (Download PDF HERE)
Publication Date: 23 July 2007
Distributed by: Lulu.com
Wikiklesia Press, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-9796856-0-6
Voices of the Virtual World explores the growing influence of technology on the global Christian church. In this premier volume, we hear from more than forty voices, including technologists and theologians, entrepreneurs and pastors… from a progressive Episcopalian techno-monk to a leading Mennonite professor… from a tech-savvy mobile missionary to a corporate anthropologist whom Worth Magazine calls "one of Wall Street's 25 Smartest Players." Voices is a far reaching exploration of spiritual journey contextualized within a culture of increasingly immersive technology.
ABOUT WIKIKLESIA: Conceived and established in May 2007, the Wikiklesia Project is an experiment in on-line collaborative publishing. The format is virtual, self-organizing, participatory - from purpose to publication in just a few weeks. All proceeds from the Wikiklesia Project will be contributed to the Not For Sale campaign.
Wikiklesia values sustainability with minimal structure. We long to see a church saturated with decentralized cooperation. The improbable notion of books that effectively publish themselves is one of many ways that can help move us closer to this global-ecclesial connectedness. Can a publishing organization thrive without centralized leadership? Is perpetual, self-organizing book publishing possible? Can literary quality be maintained in a distributed publishing paradigm? Wikiklesia was created to answer these kinds of questions.
Wikiklesia may be the world’s first self-perpetuating nomadic business model - raising money for charities - giving voice to emerging writers and artists - generating a continuous stream of new books covering all manner of relevant topics. Nobody remains in control. There is no board of directors. The franchise changes hands as quickly as new projects are created.
Media Enquiries: Len Hjalmarson, lenhjal@telus.net. John La Grou, jl@jps.net
Voices of the Virtual World:
Participative Technology and the Ecclesial Revolution
PRESS RELEASE (Download PDF HERE)
Publication Date: 23 July 2007
Distributed by: Lulu.com
Wikiklesia Press, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-9796856-0-6
Voices of the Virtual World explores the growing influence of technology on the global Christian church. In this premier volume, we hear from more than forty voices, including technologists and theologians, entrepreneurs and pastors… from a progressive Episcopalian techno-monk to a leading Mennonite professor… from a tech-savvy mobile missionary to a corporate anthropologist whom Worth Magazine calls "one of Wall Street's 25 Smartest Players." Voices is a far reaching exploration of spiritual journey contextualized within a culture of increasingly immersive technology.
ABOUT WIKIKLESIA: Conceived and established in May 2007, the Wikiklesia Project is an experiment in on-line collaborative publishing. The format is virtual, self-organizing, participatory - from purpose to publication in just a few weeks. All proceeds from the Wikiklesia Project will be contributed to the Not For Sale campaign.
Wikiklesia values sustainability with minimal structure. We long to see a church saturated with decentralized cooperation. The improbable notion of books that effectively publish themselves is one of many ways that can help move us closer to this global-ecclesial connectedness. Can a publishing organization thrive without centralized leadership? Is perpetual, self-organizing book publishing possible? Can literary quality be maintained in a distributed publishing paradigm? Wikiklesia was created to answer these kinds of questions.
Wikiklesia may be the world’s first self-perpetuating nomadic business model - raising money for charities - giving voice to emerging writers and artists - generating a continuous stream of new books covering all manner of relevant topics. Nobody remains in control. There is no board of directors. The franchise changes hands as quickly as new projects are created.
Media Enquiries: Len Hjalmarson, lenhjal@telus.net. John La Grou, jl@jps.net
Thursday, June 28, 2007
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!
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!
Sunday, June 24, 2007
The Blogging Emerging Church
I'm giving a paper tomorrow to the Religious Studies postgraduate community, presenting some thoughts on blogs as authoritative texts for emerging Christian communities. It's a prelude to a chapter I'm composing for a forthcoming collection called Reading Spiritualities edited by fellow Lancastrians Deborah F. Sawyer and Dawn Llewellyn.
I'm exploring notions of authorship in the blogosphere, in conjunction with some thoughts on authority. I'm using data from a Technorati search for "emerging church" blogs (dated June 18 2007) to problematise this way of defining and measuring blog 'authority.' At the moment, in the chapter, I also aim to investigate author (blogger) demographics and comment on whether or not a hierarchy of literature is present among emerging Christian bloggers. In the future, I might attempt to teach myself Social Network Analysis to map linking patterns through the emerging corner(s) of the blogosphere and to identify 'authorities' and 'hubs.' But that's beyond my thesis at the moment, I think!
I've found Cameron Marlow's work a great starting point for thinking about these issues, as well as several pieces by Lilia Efimova et al on defining blog communities. Studying the discursive constructions of what a 'blog' is, Mathieu O'Neil identified LiveJournal-bashing in the blogosophere, and Susan Herring et al found offline sexism and ageism was being unintentionally transfered online. These issues of authorship and authority in the blogosphere are tangential to my PhD, so I'm pretty much out of my depth yet trying to learn how to swim. I'll post more on these topics as I move from this working paper towards the chapter.
I'm exploring notions of authorship in the blogosphere, in conjunction with some thoughts on authority. I'm using data from a Technorati search for "emerging church" blogs (dated June 18 2007) to problematise this way of defining and measuring blog 'authority.' At the moment, in the chapter, I also aim to investigate author (blogger) demographics and comment on whether or not a hierarchy of literature is present among emerging Christian bloggers. In the future, I might attempt to teach myself Social Network Analysis to map linking patterns through the emerging corner(s) of the blogosphere and to identify 'authorities' and 'hubs.' But that's beyond my thesis at the moment, I think!
I've found Cameron Marlow's work a great starting point for thinking about these issues, as well as several pieces by Lilia Efimova et al on defining blog communities. Studying the discursive constructions of what a 'blog' is, Mathieu O'Neil identified LiveJournal-bashing in the blogosophere, and Susan Herring et al found offline sexism and ageism was being unintentionally transfered online. These issues of authorship and authority in the blogosphere are tangential to my PhD, so I'm pretty much out of my depth yet trying to learn how to swim. I'll post more on these topics as I move from this working paper towards the chapter.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
"Tag, You're It!" - an ethical dilemma?
I was tagged by fellow e-religion researcher Louise Connelly to reveal 8 things about myself. Then I get to tag 8 others. Then someone somewhere someday will follow this meme and say something interesting about it.
But this throws up interesting issues for a research blog like Open Source Research.
For example, Heidi Campbell was tagged by John La Grou on her research blog, When Religion Meets New Media, but chose to respond on her personal blog, Long Way From Auld Reekie, so as to keep her research and personal blogs separate. I don't have this option, as I don't have a personal blog and don't intend to start one - I'm wasting enough research time on Facebook!!!
I then thought I'd ignore it - but I worried that might be misinterpreted. I worry a lot!
So then I thought I'd play. I even went so far as drafting a post concerning 8 things about me. It was witty. It was quirky. It was everything a post like it should be - i.e. ultimately uninteresting to everyone save (perhaps) the unknown someone who might someday say something interesting (perhaps) about memes and the blogosphere.
But I'm not going to post it. It threw up several ethical issues which were unlikely to come up were I not exploring blogging as a research methodology! There might be parallels in more conventional research methods, but I haven't gone so far as to try and find them yet.
The problem arose when I started to think about who I could tag next. As this is a research blog, it's not read by my friends, and I don't have friends who blog, anyway. As I'm interested in blogging as both a research site and a research tool, I have a different relationship with the blogs which I do read. I went as far as hyperlinking to their blogs: bloggers in the emerging conversation between Christianity and contemporary culture, and researchers of blogging and media studies, etc. And then I realised that what I was doing constituted not only being a linkwhore, hoping that they would track my link and either a) participate in my research, or b) inform me of opportunities for conferences, journals, edited collections, etc; but was also quite manipulative and unethical.
I'm going to reflect more on this and other experiences of keeping a research blog in a chapter for the forthcoming Exploring Religion and the Sacred in a Media Age.
But this throws up interesting issues for a research blog like Open Source Research.
For example, Heidi Campbell was tagged by John La Grou on her research blog, When Religion Meets New Media, but chose to respond on her personal blog, Long Way From Auld Reekie, so as to keep her research and personal blogs separate. I don't have this option, as I don't have a personal blog and don't intend to start one - I'm wasting enough research time on Facebook!!!
I then thought I'd ignore it - but I worried that might be misinterpreted. I worry a lot!
So then I thought I'd play. I even went so far as drafting a post concerning 8 things about me. It was witty. It was quirky. It was everything a post like it should be - i.e. ultimately uninteresting to everyone save (perhaps) the unknown someone who might someday say something interesting (perhaps) about memes and the blogosphere.
But I'm not going to post it. It threw up several ethical issues which were unlikely to come up were I not exploring blogging as a research methodology! There might be parallels in more conventional research methods, but I haven't gone so far as to try and find them yet.
The problem arose when I started to think about who I could tag next. As this is a research blog, it's not read by my friends, and I don't have friends who blog, anyway. As I'm interested in blogging as both a research site and a research tool, I have a different relationship with the blogs which I do read. I went as far as hyperlinking to their blogs: bloggers in the emerging conversation between Christianity and contemporary culture, and researchers of blogging and media studies, etc. And then I realised that what I was doing constituted not only being a linkwhore, hoping that they would track my link and either a) participate in my research, or b) inform me of opportunities for conferences, journals, edited collections, etc; but was also quite manipulative and unethical.
I'm going to reflect more on this and other experiences of keeping a research blog in a chapter for the forthcoming Exploring Religion and the Sacred in a Media Age.
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Call for Research Participants
I'm moving into the fieldwork stage of my project, exploring the beliefs of individuals involved with emerging Christian communities. I'm particularly interested in how contemporary Christians make sense of the world in which we live.
I would like to hear from you if you are interested in taking part in any stage of this research, but there are two fixed criteria:
I would like to hear from you if you are interested in taking part in any stage of this research, but there are two fixed criteria:
- You must be resident in the United Kingdom
- You must be involved with an emerging church (however you define the term) and/or engaged in an emerging conversation between Christianity and contemporary culture
- Participation in a questionnaire via email. There are 8 questions regarding your beliefs about Christianity and contemporary culture
- Participation in a face-to-face interview, at a later date and place of your convenience
I will ensure confidentiality at all stages of the research by attributing your words to a pseudonym of your own choosing. Alternatively, if you wish to be identified, this can also be arranged.
Katharine Moody k.moody1@lancaster.ac.uk
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Researching Theo(b)logy
Modifying a phrase from Tony Jones, I gave a paper entitled "Researching Theo(b)logy" at a Conference in Oxford last month about my research with emerging Christian communities, reflecting on methodological issues for research in the blogosphere.
I'm exploring the on- and offline theorisings of individuals and communities involved in a critical conversation between Christianity and culture. Radical Orthodoxy maintains that all Christian theorisings should be 'theological' (Milbank 2006) and 'confessional' (Smith 2004); i.e. they should be grounded in the Christian narrative of creation, fall, redemption and consummation. Therefore, following the insights of RO, but alluding to the medium in which many of contemporary Christians' theorisings are being explored, I refer to this subject matter as “theo(b)logy.”
I reflect on the methodological difficulties of conducting research in the blogosphere, including: locating blogs, measuring blog validity, and measuring blog influence. However, I also argue for a participatory research methodology for the blogosphere which uses the opportunities provided by the Internet to increase the levels of participation open to research participants themselves.
This is the paper in which I suggest that a research-specific blog (a la Bryan Murley) is beneficial for research projects on the blogosphere. The responses to this suggestion gave me the confidence to start this research blog of my own.
It was a great conference, with fascinating papers from Lynn Schofield-Clark on Fashion Bibles like Revolve, Tom Beaudoin on fandom, and Nick Couldry on media rituals. I want to be a lecturer in Christianity and culture.
I'm exploring the on- and offline theorisings of individuals and communities involved in a critical conversation between Christianity and culture. Radical Orthodoxy maintains that all Christian theorisings should be 'theological' (Milbank 2006) and 'confessional' (Smith 2004); i.e. they should be grounded in the Christian narrative of creation, fall, redemption and consummation. Therefore, following the insights of RO, but alluding to the medium in which many of contemporary Christians' theorisings are being explored, I refer to this subject matter as “theo(b)logy.”
I reflect on the methodological difficulties of conducting research in the blogosphere, including: locating blogs, measuring blog validity, and measuring blog influence. However, I also argue for a participatory research methodology for the blogosphere which uses the opportunities provided by the Internet to increase the levels of participation open to research participants themselves.
This is the paper in which I suggest that a research-specific blog (a la Bryan Murley) is beneficial for research projects on the blogosphere. The responses to this suggestion gave me the confidence to start this research blog of my own.
It was a great conference, with fascinating papers from Lynn Schofield-Clark on Fashion Bibles like Revolve, Tom Beaudoin on fandom, and Nick Couldry on media rituals. I want to be a lecturer in Christianity and culture.
Wikiklesia Project
John La Grou and Len Hjalmarson are facilitating a project called Wikiklesia: Voices of the Virtual World, which will be an e-publication with chapters written by anyone wanting to explore how technologies are shaping the contemporary church.
Chapter proposals can be emailed to John at microclesia@gmail.com and Len at next1@nextreformation.com
Confirmed contributers include Andrew Jones, Andrew Perriman, Cynthia Ware, Heidi Campbell, Kester Brewin, Mike Riddell, Peter Rollins, Scot McKnight, Stephen Shields, and Thomas Hohstadt. Oh, and me. I have no idea what I'm even doing on a list with these people!
Chapter proposals can be emailed to John at microclesia@gmail.com and Len at next1@nextreformation.com
Confirmed contributers include Andrew Jones, Andrew Perriman, Cynthia Ware, Heidi Campbell, Kester Brewin, Mike Riddell, Peter Rollins, Scot McKnight, Stephen Shields, and Thomas Hohstadt. Oh, and me. I have no idea what I'm even doing on a list with these people!
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Open Sourcing the Research Process
This blog is something of an experiment in the open sourcing of the academic research process, but I hope you enjoy participating in it.
Open Source Programming (OSP) is a mode of production and development that allows open access to the software product's source code. Code is made publicly available for modification and redistribution, so that progress is made by any number of individuals working on a technical problem in community. Linux and Mediawiki are good examples of such open source software products. Source code is published alongside the software, so that many more people have access to the knowledge, and therefore the power, to change and improve the product. This approach to software design evolved in contrast to closed access software, for example Microsoft, where problems are dealt with by a select number of individuals who have exclusive access to the source code. Many of you will have experienced the elitism and inefficiency which results from this closed access approach to software production and development.
A wellknown product of open source software MediaWiki is Wikipedia, the online interactive encyclopedia. Entries can be updated by users so that knowledge is built in a community from diverse educations and experiences. (An interesting development, however, is Conservapedia, a "rival" interactive encyclopedia which was set up by conservative Christians and politicians who felt that their contributions to Wikipedia were always deleted - This might suggest that Wikipedia itself is only open for development by those whose agendas match those of Wikipedia moderators and/or users - I'd like to look into this further at some point)
An emerging community in Belfast, Ikon, has used MediaWiki as a model for its community homepage, IkonWiki. Visitors to the site are free to edit the content, layout, and skin of the pages, as well as contribute resources and engage in discussion. While sites like IkonWiki use OSP as a software model, OSP can also be understood as an approach to a variety of subjects. For example, Douglas Rushkoff has written on Open Source Democracy, OpenCola is a recipe for a cola drink posted on the Internet in contrast to the closely guarded secrets of CocaCola and Pepsi, and blogging itself can be seen as an open sourcing of journalism, as well as an instrument of the open sourcing of culture more widely. But OSP is increasingly being understood as an approach to religion, Open Source Judaism being an early example. Open Source Programming could be a useful framework in which to understand what emerging Christian communities are attempting to do in their engagement with the Christian tradition in a new context that emphasises full participation, decentralisation, and organic evolution. Open Source Theology is an obvious example here.
But what might these communities consider to be the source code of Christianity? And are these communities engaging in a rediscovery, reinvention, and recreation of that source code in and for shifting contexts?
I have a number of interests that I hope to explore through my research with emerging Christian communities. But as a methodological issue, I've been thinking about creating a research-specific-blog (a la Bryan Murley) for a while now. I gave a paper yesterday at the British Sociological Association's Sociology of Religion Study Group and the UK Research Network for Theology, Religion, and Popular Culture (UKRNTRPC) Conference on Religion, Media and Culture in Oxford, and I now have the confidence to follow through with a research blog.
The self-reflexivity of feminist researchers has made me aware of the benefits of participation and transparency in research. I hope that this research blog will enable emerging Christians, among others, to interact with me about my research method as well as my research subjects, and allow those who participate in the research at later dates to come together to talk about their thoughts and experiences.
I also hope that this research blog will allow for what Liz Stanley calls 'accountable knowledge' '...in which the reader [or participant will] have access to details of the contextually-located reasoning processes which give rise to “the findings”, the outcomes” (in Cotterill and Letherby, 1993, "Weaving Stories: Personal Auto/biographies in Feminist Research," Sociology 27 (1) p.68). Just as I will have the privilege in this research to listen to other people and the freedom to use their insights to build a thesis, I hope that this blog will help participants and others to engage in the same kinds of activities.
In these ways, I hope my research project, and specifically this blog, will highlight the possibilities and benefits of such an open sourcing of the research process itself.
Open Source Programming (OSP) is a mode of production and development that allows open access to the software product's source code. Code is made publicly available for modification and redistribution, so that progress is made by any number of individuals working on a technical problem in community. Linux and Mediawiki are good examples of such open source software products. Source code is published alongside the software, so that many more people have access to the knowledge, and therefore the power, to change and improve the product. This approach to software design evolved in contrast to closed access software, for example Microsoft, where problems are dealt with by a select number of individuals who have exclusive access to the source code. Many of you will have experienced the elitism and inefficiency which results from this closed access approach to software production and development.
A wellknown product of open source software MediaWiki is Wikipedia, the online interactive encyclopedia. Entries can be updated by users so that knowledge is built in a community from diverse educations and experiences. (An interesting development, however, is Conservapedia, a "rival" interactive encyclopedia which was set up by conservative Christians and politicians who felt that their contributions to Wikipedia were always deleted - This might suggest that Wikipedia itself is only open for development by those whose agendas match those of Wikipedia moderators and/or users - I'd like to look into this further at some point)
An emerging community in Belfast, Ikon, has used MediaWiki as a model for its community homepage, IkonWiki. Visitors to the site are free to edit the content, layout, and skin of the pages, as well as contribute resources and engage in discussion. While sites like IkonWiki use OSP as a software model, OSP can also be understood as an approach to a variety of subjects. For example, Douglas Rushkoff has written on Open Source Democracy, OpenCola is a recipe for a cola drink posted on the Internet in contrast to the closely guarded secrets of CocaCola and Pepsi, and blogging itself can be seen as an open sourcing of journalism, as well as an instrument of the open sourcing of culture more widely. But OSP is increasingly being understood as an approach to religion, Open Source Judaism being an early example. Open Source Programming could be a useful framework in which to understand what emerging Christian communities are attempting to do in their engagement with the Christian tradition in a new context that emphasises full participation, decentralisation, and organic evolution. Open Source Theology is an obvious example here.
But what might these communities consider to be the source code of Christianity? And are these communities engaging in a rediscovery, reinvention, and recreation of that source code in and for shifting contexts?
I have a number of interests that I hope to explore through my research with emerging Christian communities. But as a methodological issue, I've been thinking about creating a research-specific-blog (a la Bryan Murley) for a while now. I gave a paper yesterday at the British Sociological Association's Sociology of Religion Study Group and the UK Research Network for Theology, Religion, and Popular Culture (UKRNTRPC) Conference on Religion, Media and Culture in Oxford, and I now have the confidence to follow through with a research blog.
The self-reflexivity of feminist researchers has made me aware of the benefits of participation and transparency in research. I hope that this research blog will enable emerging Christians, among others, to interact with me about my research method as well as my research subjects, and allow those who participate in the research at later dates to come together to talk about their thoughts and experiences.
I also hope that this research blog will allow for what Liz Stanley calls 'accountable knowledge' '...in which the reader [or participant will] have access to details of the contextually-located reasoning processes which give rise to “the findings”, the outcomes” (in Cotterill and Letherby, 1993, "Weaving Stories: Personal Auto/biographies in Feminist Research," Sociology 27 (1) p.68). Just as I will have the privilege in this research to listen to other people and the freedom to use their insights to build a thesis, I hope that this blog will help participants and others to engage in the same kinds of activities.
In these ways, I hope my research project, and specifically this blog, will highlight the possibilities and benefits of such an open sourcing of the research process itself.
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