Voice in the Wilderness

Below is my pseudo-liveblog from Dr. John Mark Reynold's talk on Thursday evening at GodBlogCon, "Playful Amusement Concerning God Blogging". It's mainly a stream of consciouness brain dump from a MS Word file, with very little editing. When I'm more awake, I'll attempt a more concise and cogent analysis. In the meantime, my initial thoughts include:

• I like the idea of being able to "talk back" to the media pharisees. A good, recent example is Matt Bramanti from Lone Star Times masterful fisking of the Houston Chronicle editorial board for its pompous, ham handed attempt at sports commentary.
  
• Democritizing media and theology is a welcome change because we do not have to take the recycled humanist pap anymore. But what will be given in return? One could, after all, argue that Beavis and Butthead are blogs' cultural progenitors.
  
• Perhaps we should say that the "folks" talking back to the established authorities have the same responsibility that the grand poobah in the pulpit or on TV should have: intellectual rigor, pure and loving motive, submissive spirit, a heart after God's
• Can the same type of democritization take place in the academic aristocracy?
• I need to meditate more on the idea of how the rise of preservation has led to a cultural diminishing. It seems to have taken away the impetus for improvisation in many spheres. Perhaps this is a manifestation of the urge to control on the part of the Preservers?
  
• "Even "live" performances have been tinted with "preserved" things: teaching, music" Wow, is that the truth! I've been to some southern megachuches where the worship and teaching are as canned as the laugh tracks to old "Hogan's Heroes" episodes.
  

Still on central time. Getting sleepy.....verrrrry sleeeeeepppyyyy....zzzzzzzzz

Begin pseudo live blog
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"Playful Amusement Concerning God Blogging"
Intro:
No wireless :(

Dr. John Mark Reynolds: "Towards a Platonic, Unified Human Psychology" - whoo hooo!

His is Mr. Anderson's time...."we have the on/off switch"

JMR: A passionate leader for the cause of Christ

Dr. Reynolds:
A philosopher, with some mild self-deprecation.

Asking big questions about blogging

Light hearted HH digs, but defends Hugh's contention that blogging is a reformation of sorts

Blogging = new media (including whole future, individualistic media like podcasting, videocasting, virtual movies)

"Long running tension between live versus preserved performance"
silly to argue between stage and screen
Blogging should right the imbalance.....intriguing

Books are preserved; this talk is live

Socrates...Attacks books in "Phaedrus"....a book

In theater, interaction the audience impacts the performance. Not so in film.

"Great! The culture that makes the Da Vinci Code a best seller now can produce more 'stuff'!" In print, forever...b/c Google is forever.

Problems w/preserved performance:

• Performance is "frozen". "There's no such thing as a perfect performance of Bach. Authorial intent is not all there is inside a performance" Performers may interpret piece differently
• No way to monitor access to information that may be harmful. Don't tell insane person where the guns are. Can't monitor access to a book. Thus, a degree of irresponsibility in our blogging; thus could be wrong in that case for a particular reader
• I don't know if you noticed, but there's lots of nutty people on the 'net
• Text or performance cannot defend itself. Art has a subsidiary existence. Putting something beautiful in a public place is a risk. Allows for public profanation of that beauty.

Advantages to w/preserved performance:

• Permanent: enables argument and community to build over time (like Emily Rose...or Star Trek)
• Allows original argument to be extended
• Allow community of experts to create amazing works (like films or newspapers) that are potentially greater than the sum of their parts. Old media won't be replaced by blogging. They may change, tho'. Still need cumulative group to form an idea into a polished media product

Athenian to Golden Age had good balance between. Oxford and Cambridge will always have Christian witness b/c it is inscribed in the most beautiful buildings, which were built to the glory of God. Printing press and radio changed. But was a loss (gospel, bluegrass came about b/c little preserved performance available....led to great innovation)

Implications in the rise of reserved performance.

• Rise in power of the university or seminary over the parish priest. Leads to centralization of power and influence. Story of simple prayer: community of Christ (humble prayer for humble woman helped him thru tough logic problem). Secularist/humanist mindset enabled partially by this
• Rise in power of an aristocracy of information and performance
• Locals can't compete w/Hollywood; lose indigenious flavor and innovation
• Local paper could not easily compete with the national news service
• This was a loss to be mourned

• Splendid growth in areas best served by "preserved discourse" (Science, "high arts"), but at a cost to those areas best served by "live" discourse ("human" things, folk culture). WV mountain man eliminated by .....socialism, Robert Byrd. Something has been lost!

Christians have a stake in both live and preserved performance!

• We're a community of believers. The living body of Christ cannot be captured, only experienced
• We are a people of the Book (and of Creed, centuries of literature, art, and music)."Better to read King James than read "Left Behind"
• Because of this balance, Christian orthodoxy cannot survive w/o life of the Spirit. It dies. What made possible the easy spread of "orthodox" teachings (at first a seeming advantage) also made difficult any life w/in them
• While part heirarchical faith (Trinity, Apostles), we also accept the importance of each individual human created in the Image of God.
• "Live" events suffered; "preserved" things prospered. Even "live" performances have been tinted with "preserved" things: teaching, music
• Commitment to both made it hard in "preserved culture".

So, blogging.....

Was for tech elites, becoming simpler open to all - it may restore the middle ground.

• Decline of religious left, increase of religious right: Ppl in the pews exert influence on church culture, doctrine, and teaching. Preserved media class may be threatened. But gives voice to "folk", who are more conservative
• Preserved discourse, but more dialogue than thesis. Need to understand the influencers of the blogger. Never been a technology like it. Books too slow. TV not interactive.
• Blogging is permanent, sort of.
• New tech will allow for living film (theater as film!)...art and music. Will allow collaborative fixing after the fact. Wiki-fied media!
• Since some "human things" are more interesting "live", these areas will fall to the blogosphere. Downloading "Desperate Housewives" to I Pod....not even watching TV together. Networked videogames are kicking Hollywood's butt. 99% of anything is "stuff"
• Science, tech, theology not affected by blogging too much. However, much harder to suppress information.

Blogging helps revive the old "parish system".

Summary:

• Wide spread of "Oxbridge" education
• More power to masses, less to elites (but will always be an elite)
• Rise of new elite that leans to lead in community and with their "whole soul". Dante is the model. (The creation is our field and all our interest should be integrated).
• Old media has only 5 Christian Republicans who they let on TV....and they're all lunatics." This media manipulation is no longer possible in the blogosphere.
• Blogosphere forces us to put out our beliefs for comment, discourse. "If anything, God's a monarchist"
• Blog cannot be Pro-life and happen to be a Christian. Must be other way around....be Christian first
• * Decline in orthodoxies and rise in a "orthodoxy" (a living doctrine)

Christians have unique ability to benefit from living and orthodox faith....
Can't be round heads or cavaliers....must embrace arts, science, Bible, the Mass, accept Jesus, assent to creeds, blogging forces us to do both

Old Right: Just tied to old propositions
Secular Left: Child of "preserved" Enlightenment. No ability to sustain wholesome mass movements. Chinese gerontocracy won't stand! They can't stand hard, persistent questions!

What should be done?

Community to the 3rd power

• Incarnation not just about blogging
• Blogging not a substitute for f2f
• "Be not afraid" "look at France, we could live there"
• Err on side of liberty and embrace dialogue (allow "closed" communities to nuture ideas and students, but also move outside of those groups to broader communities)....must also engage the oppo...Read Kos!
• Don't be afraid of proposition and preserved discourse
• Need both elite and mass culture....both theologians and pastors

Motive must be love! Best Christian blogs must move readers to their own quest for God powered by a love that drives us beyond words to a Word so true, beautiful, and good that it can only be lived and not spoken. Can't hate opposition!

Epilogue: What was this speech about? What's it make me think about?