{"id":15979,"date":"2018-01-18T18:48:43","date_gmt":"2018-01-19T02:48:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=15979"},"modified":"2018-01-18T18:49:14","modified_gmt":"2018-01-19T02:49:14","slug":"communities-of-imagination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/communities-of-imagination\/","title":{"rendered":"Communities of Imagination"},"content":{"rendered":"

Benedict Anderson, aka Aaron Binenkorp\u2019s Imagined Communities<\/em> is an influential human sciences text that traces the post-colonial development of nationalism that this post will analyze from the lens of the religious decline of power in the West. \u00a0Anderson says the 18th<\/sup> Century marked the dawn of nationalism and the \u201cdusk of religious modes of thought.\u201d[1]<\/a>\u00a0 He leverages the revolutionary influence of the enlightenment as the breakaway catalyst to escape colonial strongholds, but fails to capture the successful emergence of Christendom.\u00a0 While he makes a lot of religious associations in his seminal work, very few of them are Christian.\u00a0 When he did reference Christianity it was generally washed down and lumped together with other non-Christian world views.\u00a0 I did find a redeeming section where Anderson tied his idea of nationalism to the paradigm of Christian modernism.\u00a0 He compared the Biblical genealogy from Abraham to Christ as a sharp \u201creminder of this narrative\u2019s modernity.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

According to Wikipedia, there are three primary models of nationalism; primordialism, ethnosymbolism, and modernism.[3]<\/a>\u00a0 Primordialism sees nationalism as a natural phenomenon, ethnosymbolism sees it as evolutionary phenomenon, and modernism sees it as a recent community development originating from the effects of a modern society.[4]<\/a>\u00a0 Anderson uses modernism as the basis for his nationalistic theories.<\/p>\n

Anderson\u2019s primary thesis, the imagined community, is the phenomenon of how people groups \u201cregard themselves as belonging to the same community, even if they have never met, and have nothing in common otherwise.\u201d[5]<\/a>\u00a0 Xidias is a Macat author whose review of Anderson\u2019s work gave me hope through his critical thinking and analysis of Imagined Communities<\/em>.\u00a0 I did not know this, but Macat focuses on \u201cmaking the ideas of the world\u2019s great thinkers accessible and comprehensible to everybody, everywhere, in ways that promote the development of enhanced critical thinking skills.\u201d[6]<\/a>\u00a0 Praise the Lord, because I was struggling to find ways to connect with Anderson.<\/p>\n

So, with the help of the Macat tool, I have adapted my examination lens to look at Anderson\u2019s text through \u201cthe decline of religion and the advent of the printing press.\u201d[7]<\/a>\u00a0 I personally do not see how religion declined, from the Christian point of view.\u00a0 Instead, the enlightenment and the fathers of the reformation challenged religious traditions and helped bring back the 1st<\/sup> Century organic church.\u00a0 I do agree, the invention of the printing press is a theological game changer that put the Word of God into the hands, hearts, and minds of people groups on a global scale.<\/p>\n

Two more dated articles on Anderson\u2019s work follow.\u00a0 First, Reid\u2019s analysis describes how Anderson\u2019s notion of nationalism is more like a perceived religious destiny than the outcome of a series of individual choices. [8]<\/a>\u00a0 Paraphrasing Reid and combing my cross-cultural experiences I think people innately seek their creator.\u00a0 Because of that Anderson\u2019s modernistic nationalism offers humankind a kind of abstract spiritual explanation for the problem of evil in the world that causes suffering and death.[9]<\/a>\u00a0 A negative critique from Reid, who was writing at the time computers were just coming into the homes of average people and before the world wide web, says that Anderson\u2019s \u201cprint capitalism\u201d fails to address the impact and surge of information from \u201celectronic media and satellite hook-ups.\u201d[10]<\/a>\u00a0 If Reid only knew how fast the impact of information technology and the rapid advance of globalization would impact nationalism, he might have challenged Anderson to update thesis on print capitalism with the phenomenon of virtual capitalism. \u00a0Second, a journal review calls Anderson\u2019s work a \u201cmodern classic on nationalism from a leftist perspective.\u201d[11]<\/a>\u00a0 Furthermore, Anderson\u2019s \u201canti-Eurocentric stance\u201d helped make Imagined Communities<\/em> an academic success.[12]<\/a><\/p>\n

In the spirit of transparency, this post was difficult for me to connect with.\u00a0 Nevertheless, I credit my time with 1st<\/sup> semester authors Bayard, how to orient and maintain a peripheral perspective, and Roundtree\u2019s SQ3R (survey, question, read, recall, and review) as examples of why I was able to \u201cread around\u201d Anderson and finally find a way to engage and connect with his communities of nationalism.[13]<\/a> I hope to use the concept of imagined communities to help in my upcoming focus group survey and research on spiritual warfare.\u00a0 The use of community imagination fits my need to engage the North American church, lay ministry, armor of God ministry stewards, and pastoral leaders in a safe conversation and analysis on the problem of spiritual warfare.\u00a0 I discern that the use of imagination during the analysis and discussion of spiritual warfare within the small community of my focus group and ministry stakeholders will prove helpful.\u00a0 Macat author Xidias recommends and I believe Anderson would support the analysis of the unique cultural expression called spiritual warfare in the Christian community.[14]<\/a><\/p>\n

Stand firm,<\/p>\n

M. Webb<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Benedict Anderson. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism<\/em>. Rev. ed. ed. (London: Verso, 2006) 10.<\/h6>\n
[2]<\/a> Ibid., 208. Matt. 1: 1-17.<\/h6>\n
[3]<\/a> \u201cNationalism,\u201d Wikipedia, https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Nationalism (accessed January 18, 2018).<\/h6>\n
[4]<\/a> Ibid.<\/h6>\n
[5]<\/a> Jsaon Xidias. An Analysis of Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities. (Macat Library. London: Routledge, 2017) 5.<\/h6>\n
[6]<\/a> Ibid., 6.<\/h6>\n
[7]<\/a> Ibid., 9.<\/h6>\n
[8]<\/a> Anthony Reid. “Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. (Book Review).” Pacific Affairs 58, no. 3 (1985): 497.<\/h6>\n
[9]<\/a> Ibid.<\/h6>\n
[10]<\/a> Ibid., 499.<\/h6>\n
[11]<\/a> \u201cBenedict Anderson. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London: Verso, 2006. 240 Pp. \u00a312.00. ISBN 1\u201384467\u2013086\u20134.\u201d Forum for Modern Language Studies<\/em> 45, no. 2 (2009): 216.<\/h6>\n
[12]<\/a> Ibid.<\/h6>\n
[13]<\/a> Pierre Bayard. How to talk about books you haven’t read<\/em>. Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2007.<\/h6>\n
Derek Rowntree. Learn How to Study: Developing the study skills and approaches to learning that will help you succeed in university: A virtual tutorial with Professor Derek Rowntree<\/em>. Kindle ed. Wappingers Falls, NY: Beekman Books, 1989.<\/h6>\n
[14]<\/a> Xidias, Analysis of Anderson’s Imagined Communities<\/em>, 73.<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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