{"id":150,"date":"2014-04-11T16:27:58","date_gmt":"2014-04-11T16:27:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=150"},"modified":"2014-08-11T21:57:37","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T21:57:37","slug":"roadtrip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/roadtrip\/","title":{"rendered":"Roadtrip"},"content":{"rendered":"

Picking up this book, The Making and Unmaking of Technological Society: How Christianity Can Save Modernity From Itself <\/em>by Murray Jardine, reminded me of a cross-country road trip using Google maps to plan travel from point A to point B.\u00a0 Only with this trip finder rather than a direct A to B route, there are unseen ups and downs (hills and valleys) and side trips that resemble a detour more than a side trip since you aren\u2019t quite certain when you might re-enter the original route.\u00a0 There are even side trips off the side trips.\u00a0 Of course when you are on a cross-country trip it helps a great deal if you start off feeling well and rested.\u00a0 Since I have been fighting \u201csomething\u201d this week, my equilibrium as been a bit off kilter, as is my sense of direction.\u00a0 At times I got lost.\u00a0 (There\u2019s the disclaimer!).<\/p>\n

Factoring in the fast pace life in industrial societies, an affluent culture with a growing and developing contingency of poverty, an absence of ecological sustainability, humankind\u2019s ability to destroy life, and a questioning human direction Jardine asserts a societal cultural landscape in crisis.[1]<\/a>\u00a0 But rather than point fingers at these various directions, he asserts \u201cthat the source of this crisis is our inability to make moral sense of our scientific and technological capabilities \u2013 the very capacities that most people regard as making human progress possible.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 The main highway through the book is to recover our ability to make moral sense of these capabilities.\u00a0 His aim is to \u201crecapture the original Christian ethic of unconditional love.\u201d[3]<\/a>\u00a0 This unconditional love is joined with a recovered understanding of human creativity, and as humans that have received unconditional love we endeavor to be those that recognize the limits of human creativity.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

My trip even included an off-road excursion midway along the route.\u00a0 It all began when Jardine was reflecting on the pagan concept that one\u2019s family of origin; a person\u2019s bloodline determined a person\u2019s fate.[5]<\/a>\u00a0 On one hand this is not big deal because we recognize today that it is not necessarily so (although on the other hand in some ways it remains true[6]<\/a>). However this caught my attention concerning familial fate, \u201cIt was so thoroughly entrenched in the ancient world that only the biblical tradition in any way seriously questioned it, and it took Christianity many centuries to make the idea of human equality socially effective.\u201d[7]<\/a>\u00a0 I almost crashed into a rock at this point.\u00a0 When it comes to \u201croles\u201d within Christianity we are still along way from affirming equality.\u00a0 While we wrestle with Aristotle and Greek influence upon Christian theology and praxis it seems that we have also allowed Aristotle\u2019s perspective on happiness and virtues to relate to our perception of roles and virtues.\u00a0 As Jardine explains it Aristotle sees happiness as something that is achieved as one learns and practices virtues appropriate to one\u2019s place in the natural order.[8]<\/a>\u00a0 These two aspects seem to still be present, almost like a hidden thread within our organizing principles in society and as a reflection of that society in the Church.\u00a0 Perhaps I am \u201creading\u201d too much into the \u201cmap.\u201d\u00a0 But climbing up on a rock provided a vantage point that provided more sense.<\/p>\n

Venturing down the road a bit (still off road, but no longer stuck) I came upon additional signage that would eventually reconnect with the main highway. For Jardine the biblical cosmology (I think of stars when I hear that word, do you?) understands the world\u2019s reality through the spoken word.\u00a0 God spoke the world into existence reflecting God\u2019s creative source, \u201cThus reality is, like the spoken word, a dynamic and creative but still ordered process, with infinite but limited possibilities, spoken into existence by a speaker who is always faithful to his word.\u201d[9]<\/a>\u00a0 He follows this up by reflecting upon the implication, \u201cSince everyone speaks, humans are fundamentally equal.\u201d[10]<\/a>\u00a0 In both the First Testament and the New Testament God is acknowledged as one that does not show partiality.[11]<\/a> Within the biblical anthropology the orientation point is not one\u2019s position it that we all, each one have as speakers the potential to make a contribution.[12]<\/a>\u00a0 This shifts the focus and provides another avenue to address the important conversations needed in our understanding of equality and roles in the Church.<\/p>\n

Back on the main road, the concept of creator and created is one where we must hold the tension recognizing our propensity to overstep limitations or forget our responsibilities as ones created by God in God\u2019s image.\u00a0 But one we must embrace if we are to fulfill who we are as image bearers.\u00a0 Humility is the posture I need to submit to and walk in if I am to hold this tension.\u00a0 To see it developed and constructed in local communities (and to be invested where we are \u2013 place, vocation, and worship) it will be crucial to build capacity.\u00a0 I have had several conversations in recent weeks where change was brought without the capacity to handle the change.\u00a0 People were expected to adapt when their compass had been misplaced.<\/p>\n

As Christians in community with others we have the possibility to encourage neighborhood creation.[13]<\/a>\u00a0 This is rubber meets the road kind of stuff.\u00a0 Time, presence, and listening are essentials. Jardine gets this by highlighting significant and altering proposals including a shorter workweek.[14]<\/a> But that particular proposal is not going to happen anytime soon.\u00a0 So what do we do now? Perhaps we might reconsider how we \u201cwork\u201d in the Church.\u00a0 Can we restructure keeping in mind the constraints on those who participate?\u00a0 How do we provide place for each person to contribute as co-creators and utilize creativity?<\/p>\n

Just as some road trips evolve knowing that at some point you will reach your destination, this book points to the possibilities and challenges on the horizon.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [1] Murray Jardine, The Making and Unmaking of Technological Society: How Christianity Can Save Modernity From Itself <\/em>(Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2004), 14.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [2] Ibid.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [3] Ibid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[4] Ibid., 24-25.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [5] Ibid., 147.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[6] Although we are no longer an aristocratic society, there are barriers where one\u2019s fate is in some ways tied to their social environment, as in generational poverty.\u00a0 There are \u201crules\u201d both in behavior and expectation that are hidden within society and our roles that remain challenges. \u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [7] Jardine, 147.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [8] Ibid., 153.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[9] Ibid., 182.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

[10] Ibid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

[11] Deuteronomy 10:17; Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

[12] Jardine, 182-183.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n

[13] Ibid., 262.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[14] Refer to the section 12.2 Restructuring Work, 263-269.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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