Guilt, Shame and Conviction Guilt and shame are widely acknowledged to be negative, unhelpful emotions. Guilt is more inward-focussed – how bad I feel about that thing I did or didn’t do. Shame has a more outward direction, but is still internalised – how bad I feel about how they might feel about what I […]
I’m progressing well with the dissertation, over 15 thousand words written. Here’s a paragraph (with footnotes) that I enjoyed writing, and I hope throws a little light on what I think Rob Bell is trying to do. Bell’s reference to Origen is especially interesting. Origen appears at times to have taught universalism, while at other […]
Read the previous ‘Metanarratives’ posts: 1, 2. In my first post on metanarratives, I said that one of the defining features of postmodernity was the suspicion of metanarratives. What I never wrote about was why the postmodern is outright hostile to the giant stories. In a historical sense, it could be that postmodern philosophy was born from the […]
While Android is based on a Linux kernel, lots of the best tools for syncing phones don’t run on the Linux desktop – for my Galaxy S II, Kies Air from Samsung is the default, won’t work. Winamp won’t work, DoubleTwist won’t work… I want to be able to sync up my phone with my […]
Read the previous ‘Metanarratives’ posts: 1, 2, 3 Previously I said that though postmoderns reject metanarratives (in favour of smaller, local narratives) on account of their violent totalizing, my view of scripture is that it does not have to be read as presenting that kind of metanarrative. Here’s why. We can discern two metanarratives woven […]
As the spectre of violence has loomed over England and perhaps calmed a little (it’s still too soon to know for sure), some more considered reflection on the events and our responses is called for. The first reflection that is important is the ‘otherness’ language that is being used. The principle of Oak Hill College […]
I don’t recognise this London, this England. It’s not the country and city that I love. But Britons feel under pressure. The economy, job cuts, benefit cuts, fear, bad news. The pressure gets to everyone, whether they have personally lost their job or had their income cut. The media amplifies the pressure and makes all […]
In my last post, I mentioned the story of Redemptive Violence as one of the dominant metanarratives that the media feed to us. I am sure you will recognise it when I describe it – it is the basis for every action movie ever! Whether the story takes place in history, in space, or in some […]
“Time is money” the old saying goes and we’ve thoroughly bought into it. But I don’t want to be ruled by capitalism in that way. Sometimes my time can be bought and sold. But sometimes it just isn’t up for sale. Time can be treated as a commodity rather than simply as an object to […]
Today a shiny new toy arrived in the post for me – a Samsung Galaxy S II. High on my priority list was transferring my music across to the phone. My N900 was very easy to sync – some how I’d got into using Songbird a long time ago, but I don’t use it much […]