What the Entertainment Society Really Wants to Tell You

May 28, 2011 By Matthew Tan

We live in a cultural milieu in which “fun” has become the highest good. This is the condition known as the “entertainment society”, a condition that was hinted at by the Frankfurt School, particularly the “Culture Industry” of Max Horkheimer and Theodore Adorno. Rather than a situation of us consuming passive commodities, extracting the pleasure, and going on unchanged, James KA Smith reminds us that the saturation within our culture of alleged opportunities for such consumption actually envelops us, forming... Read more

Practice, Identity and Amazonians

May 20, 2011 By Matthew Tan

Friday’s online edition of the BBC had a report about a fascinating, if somewhat controversial, finding regarding an Amazonian tribe, the Amondawa. According to researchers, the Amondawa’s linguistic repertoire is such that they have no abstract concept of time, such as a day, month or year. Whilst the Amondawa can speak about events or sequence of events, they are unable to speak of time outside those events. For instance, they can relate to an event that happened, but are unable... Read more

The Clock, Secular Culture and the Noontime Demon

May 15, 2011 By Matthew Tan

An earlier post spoke of the importance of the constructed nature of how we in the Body of Christ look at time. We are, as Stephen Kepnes once mentioned, victims of “Scientific” clock time, where time is seen as a string of repeatable units of measure, completely devoid of meaning. The net effect of this conception of time is that is becomes possible to conceive of an endless string of clocked moments, which is crucial to assist a culture obsessed... Read more

St. Therese, Ecclesial Politics and the Redemption of Micropractice

May 8, 2011 By Matthew Tan

St. Therese of Liseux was a Carmelite nun who died in 1897 at the young age 24. She was posthumously given the title “Doctor of the Church” for her articulation of Carmelite Spirituality known as “the Little Way”, which has become a mainstay in much popular Catholic spirituality because Therese did not regard grand acts of heroism as necessary for holiness. Therese once remarked: “Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are... Read more

Benedictine and Commercial Liturgies: A View from Norcia

May 4, 2011 By Matthew Tan

Norcia, a tiny town in the Italian region of Umbria, is noted for two things. It is famous for its boar sausages, and it is the birthplace of St. Benedict. Benedict’s statue overlooks Norcia’s main piazza, which is the convergence point of a number of rather commercialised streets, lined with sausage shops, cafes and restaurants. At the heart of the town is the Benedictine monastery, which was revived in 1998, almost 200 years after it was shut down by Napoleon.... Read more

The Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom

April 24, 2011 By Matthew Tan

This is an excerpt of a homily that was read at Vespers on Easter Sunday. One of the most moving pieces of a great Church Father: Enjoy ye all the feast of faith: Receive ye all the riches of loving-kindness. let no one bewail his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed. Let no one weep for his iniquities, for pardon has shown forth from the grave. Let no one fear death, for the Savior’s death has set us... Read more

Good Friday, the Cross and the Prevailing Order

April 22, 2011 By Matthew Tan

A line in Tuesday evening’s reading for the Liturgy of the Hours reminds us of an often overlooked aspect of the effect of what is taking place on this day, Good Friday: He has chosen things low and contemptible, mere nothings, to overthrow the existing order (1 Cor 1:28) Much has been said of the redemption of Christ from sin as if the order that was overthrown was only confined to some bodiless, spiritual realm. But if God really became... Read more

Adatto, Technology and Confession

April 14, 2011 By Matthew Tan

A recent Mars Hill Audio Journal interview with Kiku Adatto touched on the link between photographic images and the inner soul. Put simply, images capture in varying degrees of intimacy, the inner life of the person. As such, some images are often shielded from public scrutiny, from the gaze of those that are not so intimate. Yet in an age where any and every image is made available for public scrutiny, and often without consent, she argues that one is... Read more

Ecclesial Politics and the Redemption of Time

October 28, 2009 By Matthew Tan

...to a time when truth exists, to a time when thought is free…from the age of uniformity, from the age of solitude, from the age of Big Brother, from the age of doublethink – greetings! Winston Smith, 1984 It is strange how once familiar things become charged with theological currents in a manner so obvious when they are looked upon once again after a period of theological training, that you wonder why you did not notice it before. A case... Read more

The Postmodern Lent: Ever Ancient, Ever New

February 17, 2008 By Matthew Tan

The concluding prayers of the Divine Office for the second Monday of Lent read that the Lord teaches us “to discipline the body for the good of the soul”. Very often this is framed in terms of mortification: depriving the body for spiritual nourishment. After reading William Cavanaugh’s “Torture and Eucharist”, it is possible to give this prayer a postmodern twist, giving this ancient wisdom a new vitality. The Old Testament demonstrates that the Jews have long realised the importance... Read more