So, over the last month I’ve been attempting to organise my blogging a lot more, focusing on investing time in the topics I want to research and learn more of and trying to be more methodical and more consistent with my writing.
I’d like to invite you to read over some of the popular posts you missed, and feel free to comment or discuss anything you find interesting. Here are some of the posts over the last month which have proved most popular with you guys:
Or both?
Part of my dissertation reading has been Zygmunt Bauman’s book, Consuming Life, which describes and explores some of the implications of living in a consumerist society.
Bauman very quickly makes the connection from a society oriented around consuming products to a society which also finds itself consuming each other:
Some of you may know that I’m in the process of writing my undergraduate dissertation. I’ve been working my way through research, reading material and planning since September. Now I have my research approach fully sorted, it means I can begin to share a bit more of what it’s about. I’d also like to begin to blog through some of the reading material I’ve been looking at and some of the key issues and concepts I’ve been working through.
My dissertation is about how consumerism affects the way young adults understand and live out their Christian faith.
It’s that time of the year to look back over another year of blogging, and begin to form plans and ideas for the next year.
The most viewed blog post in 2009 was actually written in December 2008. Missional engagement and reflective learning was an explanation of some quick observations I made about the link between engaging in mission and the reflective learning cycle.
Here’s a quick quote from the original post (after the jump):
At college this week, I chatted to a few people about Q Ideas, which is a website/programme which aims to educate and promote creative thinking amongst the church and church leaders. The website features videos, essays and podcasts with all kinds of different create dialogues on Church and culture.
How does the image of mission as liberation help us in understanding how God is at work in the world around us, and how we can get stuck in alongside him?
I’m currently working my way through Mark Sayers‘ book The Trouble about Paris (well worth reading), which has been causing me to think a lot about this concept of hyperreality and the effect it has on our lives and our spirituality.
Hyper-reality is this idea that our culture is constantly causing us to buy into a “larger than” life – the dream life which we see epitomised by our images of celebrity and success, and ultimately happiness. This hyperreality claims to provide us with happiness and fulfilment, but leaves us living in a kind-of denial of the actual reality we live in.
The main, most obvious way we can see the effects of this “larger than” life is in consumerism and the effect it has had on our culture and our spirituality. The hyperreal myth that “just one more” will bring happiness leads us to become both material and spiritual consumers. Hence the Church finds itself having to attract and cater for a generation of Christian consumers – who are after maximum result (perceived value) for minimum investment (cost), and are always looking for the best deal.
Preaching in a couple of weeks time in the Lab’s mother-in-law (who we get on really well with…) church, St Paul’s, on the subject “Stuff” – to do with money, possessions, consumerism etc. The gospel reading is Mark’s Rich Young Ruler. Pretty loaded issue for me to step in and speak on.
Recently I've been thinking a lot about the effect that our consumeristic culture has had on the level of commitment people are willing to give. I've often spoken out against the Facebook "Maybe" option as responsible for a lot of the problems with our society – particularly youth/student culture. But actually, I think that it's actually a symptom of the problem rather than a cause.
Welcome to the blog of James Henley. I'm a young church leader / youth worker and student based in Newport, South Wales.
Read more about me.
