The problem with postmodernity

Grant Sandercock-Brown deconstructs a cliché

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he problem is I’m not a postmodern. It’s not a matter of choice. I’d like to be an emergent postmodern Christian (as a label, it has much more cachet than solidly evangelical). It’s just that I can’t be.

It’s not a lack of understanding. It’s not that I object to postmodernity’s vague beginnings. It doesn’t really matter whether it started with Nietzsche or architecture or Foucault. It’s not that there are as many definitions of it as there are writers on it. It’s not even that I got marked down in an essay for failing to differentiate between postmodernity and postmodernism (apparently postmodernity is “postmodernism expressed”). › Continue reading

Urban Forum #3: Aldred

Areopagus #13

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e have something to offer. We’re not just a mistake to be corrected or a problem to be solved… we’re life. Ray Aldred says things are changing for the first people of North America. The old faith model is flawed, is stumbling, and he sees the day when “we will impact the West as they see Christ incarnated in the Indian church.” This challenging talk, entitled Indian Incarnation, is from the second bi-annual Urban Forum in Atlanta and is the third of four lectures theRubicon is presenting from that conference. › Continue reading

Take it easy

Maxwell Ryan looks at a forgotten idea

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here has always been a suspicion in the minds of hard-working people that leisure is related to laziness, if not as brother then as first cousin. Such an outlook springs quite naturally from what used to be known as the “Protestant work ethic” - a phrase coined by sociologist Max Weber to describe the workaholic approach to life of people who put success first. Even success-oriented people, though, need leisure.

In our technologically advanced countries, where machines and robots now do the work of many people, and workers are getting paid more for doing less, the combination of increased income and shorter work week is creating problems such as boredom and the feeling that life has no real challenge. There is the tragedy of people with inner emptiness searching for something new to fill the increasingly empty weekends.

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What’s Your Price?

Vadim Khurin wonders who is for sale

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ow much is one to pay for you to change your mind? And how much does it cost to buy your behaviour? And what is the value of your faith? How much is enough for you to abandon your beliefs? What is the price that could force you to turn back from Him in whom you believe?

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Urban Forum #2: Claiborne

Areopagus #12

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et’s stop complaining about the church we’ve experienced and let’s become the church that we dream of. Shane Claiborne takes us from sit-ins to jail cells, from India to inner city hovels as he wonders how we can worship a homeless man on Sunday… and ignore one on Monday? From the second bi-annual Urban Forum in Atlanta, Claiborne calls us to rethink what it means to be Christian and to be set-apart.

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Strange sounds are back

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or all who wrote about the non-functioning iTunes Areopagus site we have good news. The technical issues are resolved and you can now listen to all 11 Areopagus episodes (with more to come) on iTunes, you can download for listening in your computer or on your ipod. You can also burn CDs of all the presentations. Sorry it took so long to get this fixed. Click here to load the Areopagus page in the podcast section of iTunes (you will need iTunes installed in your computer, which is a free download).

Note: this is a completely new podcast landing page on iTunes so please follow the link here or the updated link in the Areopagus section (top of the website) and delete all old Areopagus files in your iTunes.

The View From Here

Give-up playing church: Greg Paul

It wasn’t even a full moon – I checked.

We had an ‘incident’, or maybe two or three, at a drop-in the other night. The room had been very full when supper was served: every seat occupied, the couches and the floor in front of the fireplace full of sprawling people, late-comers lining the walls and watching hungrily for seats to come empty.

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More ‘communion’ - please?

by Major Richard Munn

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esus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” Luke 22:19

We have celebrated Valentine’s Day. I am told that teachers were the recipients of the most cards and gifts. Husbands and wives celebrated love for each other. Young men and women took the opportunity to send a signal of interest – sometimes anonymously – to that special someone who makes their heart beat just that little more swiftly, and if all went well a spark of romance ignited into full blown ardor.

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Urban Forum #1: Lupton

Areopagus #11

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n January the second bi-annual Urban Forum took place in Atlanta, Georgia. This 614 Network event, in partnership with the USA Southern Territory, attracted an international, trans-denominational crowd to find out the latest news, to debate and to learn about front-line ministry to the poorest. (For more background on the Forum click here to download a pdf of a revised article from Salvationist.ca). This Areopagus episode is the first of four theRubicon will be presenting from the Urban Forum.

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Cleaning out the worship closet

By Peter Lublink

The word “Worship” invokes so much meaning and controversy. Traditional, emerging, ancient-future, contemporary, modern, seeker-sensitive, post-modern, missional: everyone today has a word for their church’s worship. What’s needed is a clear sense of the values that underlie our discussions of worship.

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