futurechurchconference

Thursday, October 13, 2005

THURSDAY

7:30 PM. New Zealand metaphors in theology. Brenda Rockell, Glynn Cardy, Antony Nobbs.

posted by futurechurchconference at 9:09 AM

2 Comments:

  • Futurechurch Conference: Thursday. ]
    Some reflections from Bruce


    I loved the food but something in it didn’t love me. Was that a metaphor for my second day at conference. Nerves had gone. We were becoming a great, match fit team, except the field of words we were playing on, while made level by the graciousness of the participants, was presenting many hazards.

    Some workshops dealt with practicalities like running “Spirited Conversations” in cafes. Others wrestled with the word God and could have lost as much sleep as Jacob.
    The innovative experiences of worship and meditation such as the “Cosmic Walk” will sustain many of us for some time.

    But somehow the evening session on metaphor didn’t quite meet the challenge to visualise the future church. The presenters did well, but have we set ourselves too big a task? Is it possible to take “church” and “God” into the 21st century? Is “church”, as much as we like it, giving us indigestion? Were our national metaphors of “rugby, racing and beer” and “pavlova paradise” nearly right all along? Are we simply a people who play hard, party hard, love taking risks and love sweet things? Is Eden Park or Jade Stadium where the real spirit of the nation can be seen? Is that church?

    Although some may suggest the conference had lost it’s way in the “Metaphor” session, I don’t think so. I just think the session spoke loudly about two characters and a relationship. The first character was ‘our selves’. The second character was ‘words’. The relationship between the two continues its historical and unique journey among this planet’s creatures, i.e. the Old Testament stories, the first chapter of John, the imagery of dreams, visions and Revelation.

    We know more about words, linguistics, than any previous era, more about the mind and human behaviour, psychology and sociology etc, than any previous era. The relationship between words and humans is far more sophisticated than at the birth of Christianity. Is it possible that we can now handle abstractions like values without the need of metaphors and myths that these days may only serve to cloud the way ahead?

    Personally, I enjoy literary devices and features of language like metaphor and personification. To me the mistake has been the way the 20th century was “Hell bent” on objectifying myth and metaphor, on making real the non-real, on proving there’s a supernatural when all is perfectly natural for those whose natural is big enough.

    Perhaps the session on metaphor told us more about ourselves, our history and humanity than it told us about modern metaphor. Perhaps we now more knowingly than ever before, know we really are “playing a game”, “playing” with metaphors for human ideals, uniqueness, the ultimate and universals and thoroughly enjoying the game. Perhaps we should come out and say church is playing a non-real game that is inspirational, that we enjoy and not just at births, deaths, funerals and ANZAC. The churches metaphors today help us visualise best humanity.

    By Anonymous Bruce Tasker, at 4:28 PM  

  • Here is a link to Brenda's evening presentation on NZ Metaphors in Theology

    "I think we are already developing and integrating NZ metaphors into our liturgy and theology, and we need to keep doing this. By NZ, I don’t primarily mean national/patriotic, so much as ‘indigenous’ – of us, of our place."

    http://www.actionweb.co.nz/futuresphp/article.php?article_id=332

    By Blogger Rosemary, at 3:25 PM  

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