blogging

Christianity Today’s “This Is Our City” series recently featured an essay which touched on a topic dear to my heart, the writing of Wendell Berry.

“…in recent years, some Christian writers have warned that we shouldn’t mistake right thinking and right behavior for the holistic well being of a person, or a city, for that matter.

James Davison Hunter and Andy Crouch (executive director of the City project) each made this point in To Change the World and Culture Making, respectively. Philosopher Jamie Smith devoted a whole book, Desiring the Kingdom, to this point, stressing that human beings are not chiefly thinkers or believers but worshipers.

It’s here, I argue, that Berry’s vision of community life and creation is most vital for urban evangelicals. For all the things we do well, I’m not convinced that we know how to live as communities of worshipers day to day. Enter Port William.”

You can read the rest here.

of Elections and Eschatology

10/10/2012

blogging, Deeper Church, Eschatology, Politics

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I’m writing for Deeper Church today about politics, and how Christian eschatology should reshape our approach to the powers of this age.

Every day – on the TV, on Facebook and Twitter, at home and at work, online and at the dinner table – we hear a constant refrain: this is the most important election of our lives!

Never-mind that we’ve been told that during the lead up to every election I can remember, this time it’s true. If the other side wins, unspeakable events will come to pass, and all we hold dear will be forfeit.

Now, politics matter, and there are certainly differences between the candidates that are worth serious thought before we vote.

However, Christian eschatology, if it means anything to us, has to mean we approach such things in a way different than the world.

You can read the rest here.

Deeper Story – A History of Outrage

03/08/2012

blogging, Deeper Story

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I’m writing for Deeper Story today about the ways in which the Christian blogosphere is too often driven by controversy and outrage.

“We have become the outrage-industrial complex, building a digital empire by speaking in the vitriolic language of us vs. them.

I think that if there wasn’t a conflict we would have to start one.”

You can read the rest here.

on Introducing Books

19/06/2012

blogging, Books and Reading

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Everyday at work I come across new books. Books on theology, biblical studies, Church history, ministry, discipleship – it’s excellent really.

And recently it dawned on me, that is what I can write about, what I can offer.

Books – like Wright’s Jesus and the Victory of God, Smith’s Desiring the Kingdom, or Berry’s Jayber Crow – have played quite an important and formative role in my life.

Books have served as teachers, taken me on adventures, challenged me to wrestle with ideas I’d never considered, made me laugh or cry, and encouraged me to treasure the heritage passed down by the Church.

The problem is, for playing such an important role in my journey, I’ve mostly come across these books in a haphazard way; a recommendation from a professor, an assigned text in a class, a conversation with a friend, or simply browsing the shelves at a local bookstore.

So many excellent books come out every month, every week even, that it’s easy to miss one book among the stacks.

But since keeping track of those books is already a part of my job, I realized that one way I can share my passion for books and serve as a resource for my readers is to use this blog to note those books I come across that seem especially interesting or important.

I can’t cover every book, but even a couple a week might help point you toward that one book you might have missed – that book that in five or ten years you realize transformed your faith or came into your life just when you needed to hear its words.

So that will be the new focus of my blog. I’ll write about other things as well, but a couple times a week I’ll play the role of host to a new book, and introduce it to you in a way that will – I hope – prove to be helpful and informative.

Grace and peace,

Mason

On The New Title – of Paper, Pints, and Tweed

18/06/2012

blogging, Writing

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So, new title.

I think New Ways Forward has been my title ever since I started blogging back in 2008.

That first title was about offering new answers to old question – about refusing to accept the all-to-common insistence that we must choose between two established and opposing systems of thought (Dispensational or Reformed, Calvinist or Arminian, Left or Right).

I chose it because that’s where I was in my journey at the time, finding my place and rethinking my faith after realizing how much the way I had understood Christianity had been shaped by certain systems, and by their conflict with other systems.

These days, that’s more of a part of my personal history, rather than a day-to-day struggle like it was back then. And so, the title New Ways Forward has become less than fitting.

And over time I’ve also begun to feel like that title is directing me in a way I’m no longer interesting in going – ironically encouraging a tendency towards tearing down something old instead of building something new. It’s funny really, how much a title can serve to set a direction for a blog.

The new title “of Paper, Pints, and Tweed” probably deserves some explanation, so I’ll have a go at that.

Paper is in reference to books and writing, which together take up a large amount of my daily life, and are things I’m deeply passionate about.

Pints is in part a nod to my love of a good craft beer and my attempts at home-brewing, but is also a way to acknowledge the many ways my faith has been deeply shaped by community and conversation, at times over a good pint of beer.

and Tweed, well, I suppose Tweed is a triple threat in a way. A reference to Tweed and I manage to allude to academia (specifically my fascination with theology and biblical studies), give a quick nod to Doctor Who, and indulge my love of all things British.

So there you have it. New title, new image, and a new focus for my posts (which I will explain more as I go forward).

Thank you to all of you who have stuck with me since the beginning or joined in along the way. Happy reading!

Scandalgate 2012 – The Story of a Blogosphere Controversy

15/06/2012

blogging

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I was talking with a friend this week about the strange world of blogging, particularly on matters of faith. One thing we spent a fair amount of time discussing was the nature of online controversies, and how often they follow the same predictable pattern. That conversation inspired this somewhat tongue-in-cheek story of a blogosphere controversy.

Step 1: A controversial blog post, book, tweet, TV interview, viral video, etc. enters the scene. Lets call it Scandalgate 2012.

Step 2: People on both sides of whatever “issue” Scandalgate 2012 is connected to – however tangentially – rush to be the first to comment on it and break the news to the rest of the blogosphere, knowing that immediacy is the virtue most often rewarded with the currency of the blogosphere – links and traffic.

Step 3: If the controversy gains traction, there will now be a deluge of comments and follow up posts, as bloggers across the internet feel obliged to have an opinion on Scandalgate 2012 and share that opinion with the interwebs.

Step 3b: At this point we also see the competition among bloggers. Small blogs use Scandalgate 2012 as a opportunity to get heard, while midsized blogs leverage the uproar to try and write their “breakthrough post” which they are convinced will launch their blog into the big leagues of conference lectures and book deals. This pressure to “make it” encourages sensationalistic and highly polarized writing, and the controversy becomes increasingly personal and negative.

Step 4: The cycle of angry recrimination against the other “side” begins to spiral out of control, as posts increasingly focus on what other bloggers have said (or not said) about Scandalgate 2012. At this stage someone is compared to a famous heretic/Nazi/wolf in sheep’s clothing/Satan.

Step 5: For particularly big controversies, books are now published which detail why Scandalgate 2012 shows either the massive moral/theological failings of the other side, or marks a new and promising future for the faith. [Bonus points if those defending Scandalgate 2012 now compare their hero to Martin Luther or imply there is a new Reformation on the way].

Step 6: Eventually people lose interest. Over the next few months or even years people will occasionally try to capitalize on the residual energy of Scandalgate 2012 with a blog post or follow-up book, but for the most part everyone will have moved on to Scandalgate 2013.