Bože! independent catholic ideas, identity & theology
Author Archive
Religious Illiteracy
According to the Pew Forum on Religion in Public Life, 76% of Americans describe themselves as Christian. However, only 45 % are able to attribute the Gospels to Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. A majority of Americans self identify as Christian, however, nearly half of that group don’t know what it is that they are [...]
Its Time To Change The Story
Many in the Indie movement are converts – indeed there are few of us who have had a “genetic” link to it if you will from previous generations in our family. I have on previous occasions talked about how difficult it can be for people to make the transition from a large “powerful” and well [...]
Cross Controversy – Being Seen To Believe?
Do you wear a cross? Do you believe doing so is an integral part of your faith as a practicing Christian? Is this a personal understanding or do you believe that our tradition obliges you to do so? These are only a few of the questions raised by a controversy here in the UK about [...]
Clerical Cat Walk
I like Will Meyer’s observation: “There is one principle that ISM clergy have never heeded well: simplicity of vesture. In the words of Mademoiselle Chanel: “Before you go out, always take something off”. In the ISM, perhaps the more appropriate statement is “The Infant of Prague is to be venerated, not imitated.” Lets all be [...]
I Got Numbers!
How many Indie folk are there? This is a question that has been in the back of my mind for over a year now. I keep seeing hints – but nothing concrete. I’ve assumed that nobody is counting us. And even with what I found yesterday on the ARDA site – I’m not sure that [...]
Suggest A Post
Blogging can often seem like a one way “broadcast”. The blogger writes up what interests him or her, posts it, and waits to see what happens. There are many posts, essays, books and articles out there advising bloggers on how to cultivate more engagement with their audience. I have even written a few posts encouraging [...]
“New” Indie Blogger: Vagrant Vicar
Check out Will Meyer’s new – well new to me – blog on the indie experience over at Vagrant Vicar. And if you know of other active indie bloggers you think we should be reading by all means drop a note in the comments. Tweet
The Church In Decline? Adapt Or Die
Decrying the decline of “christianity” in Britain has come from various angles over the past year or so. Church attendance is diminishing, its membership ageing. “Unbelief” appears to be growing. Though I would argue that it was always there and only now is it getting better, perhaps more accurate, press. Fifty percent of people living [...]
Indie Green: Eco-Theology In OC/IC Context
Have a look at these videos over at the Guardian. I thought it was a very well put together “intro” to Green-theology. Where would you start if you were to put together an Indie Green Manifesto? Tweet
Theophany & The Cloak of Noise
We live in a world of noise. We are surrounded by noise created, projected by others. We make and project our own noise. Years ago, when the Walkman was the iPod of the moment, I had an anthropology professor who talked about wanting to do a study on the effect of the Walkman. He wondered [...]
Error: Ritual Change Creates Uncertainty
Throughout Christian history, error is viewed with suspicion because it represents “novelty” and “innovation” challenging the unalterable “Tradition” and challenging revealed truth. Thus, error – and the “obstinate” maintenance of error – is treated as somehow being “impure” or “unfaithful” to Christian teaching and life. Obviously this makes the challenge of understanding and getting value [...]
Theology, Error & OC/IC Identity – I’ve Got Questions! How About You?
I recently read an article in the Guardian by Alok Jha which made a very good point regarding “error”. Mistakes, he says, happen “all day, every day”. I don’t think anyone can argue with this, it is “fact”. I’ve made a handful of mistakes already this morning and it is not even lunch time! The [...]
OC/IC Religious Culture, What Is Our Context?
What is “culture”? The dictionary definition describes it as “customs, institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people or group”. I have always tended to understand “culture” more along national or ethnic lines more than anything else. I don’t think I have ever consciously considered the idea of religious culture – even though, as any [...]
Disciplined Practice – Outside The Box
Those of you who also read along at Hour Of Scampering already know that for the past month I’ve been comitted to the 2011 NaNoWriMo. The challenge is to write a 50 thousand word piece of fiction. I vassilated about whether or not I would participate when I first discovered it. Which meant that when [...]
Cleansing & Our Sense of Morality?
What a curious article over at Big Think! The gist of it is that there is a psychological component to physical cleanliness. The examples are rather curious. Including one where as part of a study participants were asked to recall a personal immoral experience; as part of the session some were offered a cleansing wipe [...]
Shadows of Souls
If you’re not already a fan of Retronaut – I cannot recommend it to you enough – it is one of the most interesting, quirky sites on the net. In a recent edition are these pictures of an abandoned church in Buffalo, looking through them I started “feeling” a sense of loss, mourning even, for [...]
Codex Coolness – Dead Sea Scrolls Online
You may recall a few years ago I pointed you towards a project digitising the Codex Sinaiticus – now you can view a digitised version of the Dead Sea Scrolls as well. Tweet
A Celebration of Heresy
Today is the last day of the liturgical New Year. Throughout the year we celebrate and commemorate various holy-men and holy-women who through their example – whether it is through their teaching, or their praxis – encourage us in our own understanding of, and practice of the Christian sacramental tradition. Heresy brings another level of [...]
Corpse Disposal
The BBC has an interesting – if not slightly ghoulish – article about a new technology for disposing of corpses. Two methods are described. First is called alkyline hydrolysis – which basically turns the soft tissue into sludge, which is then sluiced away into the sewage system; the remaining bone and metal are sorted, and [...]
Kindle As Research Tool
I recently bought a Kindle. Yes by and large it was peer pressure – from one particular peer – but peer pressure all the same. There was also a practical reason for my purchase. I like to read what I call “fluffy” books before going to bed – after a day of reading nothing but [...]
Ocean As Desert
On my recent North Sea excursion to Norway and the Orkneys I often enjoyed standing on the outer decks looking out to sea. It struck me that the ocean is, or could be viewed as “the desert” in the same way that third and fourth century ascetics went out into the desert to master the [...]
The Incarnation & Active Christianity
“Don’t you think that Jesus is the solution to the problems in the Middle East – that it is only through him that peace will come to the region?” This is a question posed to me by a door-to-door evangelist a few years ago. It is a question that irritated me at the time, and [...]
End Of The World? Ummmm. . . .
I’ve been watching and reading with a mixture of fascination, pity, and even horror the various stories coming out of the US about the group predicting the arrival of the apocalypse on 21 May. Millenarian movements are fascinating, not new, and not limited to fringe Protestant groups – there was a serious millenarian movement in [...]
Abp. Matthew on Scripture
“The Holy Scriptures, instead of being the source or rule of faith, are . . . a record of the teaching of the Church in the first ages, a record confirmatory and corroborative of the faith, but one which was never intended to supplant the divine authority of the living voice of the Church.” – [...]