One problem many Christians face is being too serious. When battling the powers and principalities of this world, the burden thereof has made Christians into a dour race. This lack of mirth is serious, for it seems to fly in the face of many authoritative positions that prescribe an opposite trajectory. Take for instance the great medieval Doctor of the Church, Thomas Aquinas, who in his Summa noted that a person unable to say anything funny was morally unsound. Much,... Read more
There are now a plethora of shows on TV and movies that propagate the idea that sex has to be thrilling. Flowing from that, there is also the concomitant assertion that a relationship must be built on a foundation of fun and excitement. Should the fun and excitement die, the relationship must die with it, and the level of excitement that is experienced in carnal congress is often used as the barometer for the health of a relationship more generally.... Read more
The theme of distributism has been neglected of late, and attached above is a short video that documents the beginnings of a food cooperative established in the Goulburn Valley area, after the closure of a factory by Heinz threatened to destroy a local agricultural community. The video highlights not only the great degree of centralisation of food production in Australia, but also the resultant dependence on local communities on multinational food production firms that demonstrate little or no investment in... Read more
“Postmodern” is a dirty word for Christians. In many parts of Christendom, it is associated with relativism, individualism and the jettisoning of tradition for the sake of the new or kitsch (sometimes justifiably so from personal experiences). But as James KA Smith cogently suggested in his Who’s Afraid of Postmodernism: Taking Derrida, Lyotard & Foucault to Church, postmodernism can actually be a counterpoint for the deeply modern committments of many Christians, be they Neo-cons or even those who think they... Read more
Matthew Tan has, together with Paul Tyson of the Australian Catholic University, recently published an article in the second volume of the new established journal Solidarity: The Journal of Catholic Social Thought and Secular Ethics, which is run by the Centre for Faith Ethics and Society in the University of Notre Dame in Australia. The article looks at the necessity for a properly theological, rather than technical vision in order to stave off any impending ecological disaster. Rather than the... Read more
One constant, but perhaps under-discussed, theme within pop culture is the theme of running away. The theme has been a constant favourite of artists and writers for centuries. Back in the 16th century, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet portrayed a couple eloping to escape the obstacle to their love posed by warring families. In our day popular culture, particularly the music industry, has immortalised the theme of running away, with Tracey Chapman’s Fast Car, Linkin Park’s Runaway, Ultrasun’s We Can Runaway,... Read more
The Australian Catholic Media Congress, held last week in Sydney, brought together bloggers, academics, journalists and activists who, as Christians, engaged with New Media. Delegates relayed much of the promise to the Church brought by New Media, highlighted the necessity for Christians to engage this new communicative form, as well as flagged the very serious challenges posed by the medium itself to the Church. One of the highlights of the congress that demonstrated the promise of New Media is that... Read more
Internet fora have been burning hot processing posts expressing shock and anger at a seemingly absurd ending to the third instalment of the popular Mass Effect gaming franchise. The trio of Mass Effect games works on and extends a principle similar to the Choose-your-own-adventure genre of the 1980s, where a player’s choices shape and determine the game’s story line and process of world-building. Players of Mass Effect 3 have spilt many litres of bile over the game’s ending, accusing the... Read more
The all-pervasive push to have everything online, whether it be books, files or selves, bepseaks a deeper cultural attitude towards terrestrial, embodied living. In its glorification of the body, the culture of postmodernity identifies something lacking in biolife. There is an as yet unarticulated sense within the culture that the material and the tactile world is not, as many Moderns regard it, “the real world”. Postmodernity, therefore, seeks to find real life in things that go beyond the material, terrestrial... Read more
A number of important conferences and seminars are coming up that might interest Australian readers, and even entice non-Australian readers to come to our dusty continent. The first is the Australian Catholic Media Congress, which is organised by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference and begins on Monday (30 April – 2 May) in the Menzies Hotel in Sydney. The focus of this congress is the use of social media for evangelisation and Matthew Tan, blogger at large at the Divine... Read more
The Divine Wedgie
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