Readings

I have been reading and reflecting on a couple of things.

1. Just received a copy of The Teaching of the 12 by Tony Jones. This should be a great conversation partner with the missional community I am a part of, Mission House.

2. People of the Spirit by Graham Twelftree. An illuminating text on St Luke’s understanding of the church’s mission.

3. Gospel of Luke. Right now Mission House is in Ch. 4. We are learning that the gospel call us to continue what Jesus began ‘to teach and do.’

4. Hebrew Prophets. We are finishing up Elijah-Elisha now. I’m reading the prophets with a small community in Cooleemee, NC, New Harvest Ministry. Just as Elisha inherits the mantle of Elijah when he ascends we have inherited the mantle of Jesus after his Ascencion.

I will be contributing to the Church and Postmodern Culture Series Site

Join the conversation.  I’ll be engaging James K. A. Smith’s recent book, “Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism? Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Focault to Church.”  Specifically, I’ll be contributing a mini-essay titled “The Panopticon of Ecclesial Whiteness: Taking Foucault to a Church Divided.”

Here’s a snippet:

Ignoring white-ness as norm and its disciplinary power within the church frustrates Christians seeking racial-ethnic reconciliation or harmony. Granted, much work has been done in the area, and much of it is to be commended, but it is clear that white-ness remains in the church even as race-ism and the assertion of white privilege operates more subtly.  However, Foucault illumines for us that ignoring race as a disciplinary power blinds us to the realities that continue to hinder the church from moving beyond our racial impasse.  We can look at our discursive practices in our respective churches and see how we, consciously and unconsciously, give credence to the universal code of beauty that is presumed to be white.

I hope to see some of my blogfriends there engaging the text.  Pax. 

 

 

 

Currently Reading

The Abolition of White Democracy – Joel Olson

Ancient-Future Time: Forming Spirituality through the Christian Year – Robert Webber

Christianity in Jewish Terms – various Jewish and Christian scholars (e.g. Peter Ochs and Stanley Hauerwas

Enter the River: Healing Steps from White Privilege Toward Racial Reconciliation – Jody Miller Shearer

killing rage: ending racism - bell hooks

God, Truth, and Witness: Engaging Stanley Hauerwas – with essays by Robert Bellah, David Burrell, George Lindbeck, Robert Louis Wilken, and others

Graven Ideologies: Nietzsche, Derrida, & Marion on Modern Idolatry – Bruce Ellis Benson

Introducing Radical Orthodoxy – James K. A. Smith 

The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life – Tony Jones

What White Looks Like: African-American Philosophers on The Whiteness Question – edited by George Yancy