3/10 class reflection

Who is influencing who? The production capabilities of Viacom are so massive that often times it is impossible to discern where these images are being formed and captured.  The interesting aspect of all of this is the teenage desire to consume, and to reflect.  What keeps this process continuing on one end, is the desire of the adolescent to partake in the process.  There is a desire to consume an identity, and then have that identity reflected.  This is not at all to say that the problem lies solely on the side of consumption.  The process is extremely complex.  Each phase is almost inextricably linked to the next.

Week 9 Classmate response to harmony

Harmony mentioned that the countercultural model was a “tool for evangelism.”  I would sincerely agree and take it one step further by adding that the countercultural model at its purest is evangelism.  It calls for one to go into the culture, and make disciples within that culture.  It doesn’t call for us to take people “out of the world.”  This is the prayer that Jesus prayed for his disciples.  The countercultural model is a serious method of both engaging culture and presenting the Good News of Jesus.  Many times we forget that some aspects of culture are by nature opposed to the Good News, and have to be prophetically challenged in love.

Cobb Ch 9

Most people whether they know or not, have some type of eschatology.  It doesn’t matter how underdeveloped or separated from any particular religious tradition it is.  Everyone has an idea of what will happen in the end.  We all think about what’s on the “other side.”  Some ideas of what will be are extremely bleak, others a bit more hopeful.  Herein lies one of the most beautiful aspects of the good news that we as Christians can communicate through culture.  That aspect is this, in Christ we have a clear hope of what will be.  That hope has already come.  The future has broken into our past through the ressurrection of Christ.  In many ways, what will be, has already been.

Bevans ch 9

The countercultural is an incredibly balanced approached to theology.  In many ways it is the theology that seems to be the approach many moderate churches would espouse to.  The church I attended in Brooklyn, New York (Christian Cultural Center), had for it’s mission statement, “To communicate Christ in Culture.”  This model of theology takes the cultural context into account and doesn’t disrespect it by simply dismissing it as evil.  Yet it understands that culture, (any culture, not just non-western culture but even western culture in particular), is expressed by fallen human beings in a fallen world.

Week 9 Response to Todd

Todd’s paper outline is extremely intriguing and the first point could be an entire paper.  “Engaging the divide between youth culture and the rest of society.”  There are so many complexities to this one point it’s amazing.  At times youth culture and the culture of the larger society are one in the same.  There are times when youth culture influences mass culture and vis versa.  This point I would imagine would be extremely difficult to limit.  There should be no loss for content in Todd’s paper at all.  Exploring how the praxis model would work in youth culture is also fascinating.

Bevans chapter 8

The transcendental model is perhaps the most liberal and most definitely the most “subjective” model of theology we’ve studied so far.  My skepticism is that the truth which is experienced “inwardly” will be reduced to nothing but mere speculation rather than responsible theology.  The power of this approach is that it takes into account the ways in which different people groups process different ideas.  It also recognizes that everyone who engages in reflection of his or her faith is engaging in theology.

Cobb chapter 8

Music plays the role of role of a drug in popular culture.  What we listen to ushers us into a state of euphoria for which we will gladly pay $16.99 ($9.99 from i-tunes) every single time.  The salvific aspect of music is it’s ability to rescue you from your present circumstances and transport you into another dimension, at least mentally.  The appeal is that we can enter a world that is not truly ours.  We can live vicariously through words and rhythms that at first don’t belong to us, but as we listen become ours.

Week 7 response to Emmet

Youth are constantly in flux.  It is perhaps the most harrowing and promising time in an individual’s existence.  Yet what it means to be “young” is constantly changing.  Chap Clark has done many studies regarding adolescense, and found that what it means to be 12 years old today is radically different from what it meant to be 12 in 1940.  There is today a frustration with childhood and youth that can be seen in the way that celebrities crash their ferraris and BMW’s.  Often we impose adulthood upon our youth.  When youth reach adulthood, in the sense of age, many times they now find themselves in a position to develop and live the childhood that was previously denied them in many ways.

Barker Chapter 14

Cultural Politics, or the politics of culture is intriguing.  The “power to name the world” is an awe-inspiring concept yet it is somewhat of a paradox.  Who is in possession of this “power?”  Politics often arise out of that which is cultural and impose governmental regulations and restrictions on culture.  Often the two blend and a clear line of demarcation is no longer able to be discerned.  At other times cultural representation is so powerful that is taken for absolute truth and reality.

Barker Chapter 13

The social classification of age is often over looked in the discussion of culture and society.  This is quite ironic being that it is a real biological difference in human beings.  Race is largely a social construct, yet it often dominates these types of discussions.  Often the young are the ones who are discriminated against in this area of study.  An adoloscent by default cannot do certain things an adult can do.  Teenagers are in a quandary, expecting to possess the maturity and level of responsibility of an adult, yet without many of the freedoms.  However, there are myriad reasons for this which cannot be explored in one blog.