{"id":12883,"date":"2017-05-18T22:53:17","date_gmt":"2017-05-19T05:53:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=12883"},"modified":"2017-05-18T22:53:17","modified_gmt":"2017-05-19T05:53:17","slug":"studium-and-punctum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/studium-and-punctum\/","title":{"rendered":"Studium and Punctum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introd\"\"<\/a>uction<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have heard, and have even said, that \u201cperception is reality\u201d.\u00a0 What we \u201cperceive\u201d is real to us, no matter its validity. \u00a0Our perception can\/is tainted by the \u201clens\u201d of life that we look through.\u00a0 This \u201cperception is reality\u201d, seems to be the premise for Martyn Percy\u2019s book, Shaping the Church:\u00a0 The Promise of Implicit Theology.<\/em><\/p>\n

We began our DMin work with a book by Sarah Pink, Doing<\/em> Visual Ethnography<\/em>.\u00a0 She explained the process of what and how we \u201csee\u201d in her book:<\/p>\n

\u2026when we write, think and make images in this field, we do not ever arrive at an end.\u00a0 We instead end in a moment, a temporary configuration which is of course over by the time our work is published or otherwise disseminated.\u00a0 Doing Visual Ethnography<\/em> is not a method \u2013 not something that is \u2018done\u2019 but something that is happening in the doing, and the doing is ongoing as technology, practice, and life move forward in new ways.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n

Implicit theology, which Percy believes is Shaping the Church, <\/em>is more plausible than just a broad stroke of words such as decline, post \u2013 whatever, disconnected, humanist, secular, etc.\u00a0 But saying that is also a two-edged sword of truth to be reckoned with and a \u201cpass\u201d that makes everything ok.\u00a0 Percy says, \u201c\u2026 \u2018implicit\u2019 means the meaningful folding together and close connecting of a variety of strands.\u00a0 Correspondingly, \u2018explicit\u2019 is the un-folding, un-raveling or explaining of the miscible.\u00a0 It is bringing order from apparent chaos and clarity from complexity.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>In Part I-Spiritual Life, Percy takes on baptism, confirmation, conversion, church attendance, culture, and the Eucharist.\u00a0 The theology span on these items is quite diverse, complex, and divided.\u00a0 Taking the idea of \u201cimplicit theology\u201d creates margins that can help \u201cexplain\u201d the present reality in each of these items.<\/p>\n

I may not agree with his methodology on baptism, but the implicit nature of the Anglican church that Percy relates to, has created\/allowed the \u201cmeaningful folding together and close connecting of a variety of strands.\u201d- Percy.\u00a0 Yet church attendance is taking on an \u201cimplicit theology\u201d of what is acceptable behavior and creating a new norm in my world.\u00a0 \u201cIt is true that many mainstream Christian denominations no longer enjoy the coherence of a homogenous culture; movements within them are trying to transform them.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

Travel sports teams, need for work\/life balance, \u201cme\u201d-time, and overbooked schedules now dictate church attendance, or the lack thereof.\u00a0 Percy quotes Grace Davie, \u201cbelieving without belonging\u201d.[4]<\/a>\u00a0 Have we allowed implicit theology to dictate the \u201cvariety of strands\u201d to remove the importance of the sacred from gathering?\u00a0 Is the American church allowing a doctrine of \u201cme\u201d to outweigh the doctrine of Him and His Body- the church?<\/p>\n

Part II- Church \u2013 The Nature of the Body, Percy takes on the hot topic of consumerism, church growth, and the concept of \u201corganic church growth\u201d.\u00a0 Percy quotes Loren Mead\u2019s work, More that Numbers, <\/em>in describing four types of church growth: \u201cNumerical, Maturational, Organic, and Incarnational.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cClearly, it is tempting to be seduced by recipes and formulae that deliver clarity.\u201d[6]<\/a>\u00a0 We, as pastors and church leaders, want to know how to navigate and bring growth to His church.\u00a0 Percy offers \u201cfour hallmarks of priesthood and priestly church:\u00a0 Sacramental-Transformative, Reciprocal-Representative, Sacrificial-Receptive, and Pastoral-Prophet.\u201d[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

Part III \u2013 Ministry \u2013 Practising Theology.\u00a0 How do we \u201cherd cats\u201d and yet keep proper formation within the body, is the premise of Part III.\u00a0 Percy concludes with:<\/p>\n

\u2026the miscible nature of the church \u2013 which is to say the many sources that form its life, including aesthetics, institutional habits, organizational assumptions and practices, context and so forth \u2013 suggest that its hope rest in its hybridity rather than its assumed purity.\u00a0 This is perhaps a surprising remark to come by in ecclesiology, where habitually, much energy is invested in historical or ontological accounts of the church that often suggest otherwise. [8]<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Analysis\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

My title comes from Percy\u2019s analogy of literary critic, Roland Barthes, looking at pictures.\u00a0 Barthes made, \u201c\u2026a distinction between what he called the Studium<\/em> and Punctum. <\/em>\u00a0The Studium<\/em> is the photograph\u2019s overt agenda, which might include a view, the person, an event of drama.\u201d[9]<\/a>\u00a0 The Punctum<\/em> is, \u201c\u2026often something that the photographer was not looking to include, but then becomes a part of the focus of the viewer; it can become a transfixing point.\u201d[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I anxiously looked forward to reading this book.\u00a0 Meeting Percy twice, Hong Kong and Oxford, I was taken back by his vast knowledge and passion for Christ.\u00a0 This book delivered the Percy that I thought I had met.\u00a0 He has challenged me to know what I truly believe and why.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Sarah Pink, Doing Visual Ethnography, <\/em>(Los Angeles: Sage, 2013), 213.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Martyn Percy, Shaping the Church:\u00a0 The Promise of Implicit Theology, (<\/em>Farnham Surrey, England:\u00a0 Ashgate, 2010), 2.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid., 52.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid., 52.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Ibid., 89.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Ibid., 108.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Ibid., 108-109.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Ibid., 159.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Ibid., 20.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Ibid., 20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction I have heard, and have even said, that \u201cperception is reality\u201d.\u00a0 What we \u201cperceive\u201d is real to us, no matter its validity. \u00a0Our perception can\/is tainted by the \u201clens\u201d of life that we look through.\u00a0 This \u201cperception is reality\u201d, seems to be the premise for Martyn Percy\u2019s book, Shaping the Church:\u00a0 The Promise of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[964,970,971],"class_list":["post-12883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-percy","tag-punctum","tag-studium","cohort-lgp6"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12883"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12887,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12883\/revisions\/12887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}