I’ve just finished reading Tom Beaudoin’s book “Consuming Faith,” a follow on his book “Virtual Faith” in which he delves into the realm of the economy, spirituality, branding and theology. Tom writes that as he was on the speaking trail after writing “Virtual Faith” a number of people challenged him to look into the economy and it’s relationship to culture, something that he quickly realised was something lacking from his writing. Tom writes:

“talking about pop culture and spirituality without looking at the role of the economy was like writing about the rain forests without giving any indication that there are actually trees there” – Page xii

The book is almost a theological reader to Naomi Klein’s book “No Logo,” a book that explores questions of the relationship between our economic culture and our response to it as people of faith, it also asks theological questions of the branding culture, something that very few (if any) people have attempted to explore. Tom writes:

There is also spiritual power in these branded objects. Understanding ourselves as humans seems unavoidably indirect. We must always go through a third party. Individually and communally, we only come to know who we are in and through “mediations” other people, objects, symbols, language. Theological language makes this everyday reality sound elegant: the world is the potential sacrament of human becoming. – Page 7

Tom began his journey by exploring the relationship that he had with the branded objects, and the manufacturer’s relationship with it’s products and employers. Finding that all but one of the companies that he had invested his trust and money into, and for whom he had carried brands on his body were giving him the run around on his quest brought up questions trust and feelings of betrayal. Exploring this betrayal of trust he asked questions of the relationship between company and brand, brand and consumer, consumer and company as well as the relationship between the consumer and the economic culture itself, including those who make those products.

Questions of betrayal of trust posed theological themes of promises and covenant, how we respond to a covenantal relationship with a company or product that promises among many things the source of our own identity. Tom writes:

Contemporary philosophers emphasize that we all “perform” our identity. What they mean is that through speech patterns, gestures, clothing styles, and various verbal and nonverbal cues, we creatively put together who we are, as much as who we are is “given” to us naturally. We all have different personae that we “perform” or display, and those cues – verbal and nonverbal, clothing and makeup and energy and rhythm are all a part of the freedom we have to create who we are in different domains of our lives. – Page 5

Noting that the branding culture had a role in the development of one’s identity Tom began to delve deeper into the theological themes of our economy, the answer he finds is in Jesus’ role as God’s economist. Tom writes about Jesus’ teachings of an economic spirituality.

Jesus’ economic spirituality is strikingly simple, though far from simplistic. First he teaches that all resources are ultimately God’s. Secondly, Jesus teaches that one’s resources are to be used for the good of all. – Page 22

The term economic spirituality for some may actually sound like an oxymoron, however Tom makes an interesting observation…

“Corporate branding,” according to one manager, “is really about worldwide belief management.” The management of beliefs is the work of a spiritual discipline. – Page 44

Following on from this thought Tom likens the roles that the branding economy holds to that of a spiritual discipline, he reflects upon Ignatius’ Spiritual exercises, in particular those of teaching the imagination and sits them alongside the economic spiritual practices that do a similar role. Branding culture relies upon our imagination, we are taught brands, brands invade our imagination so that particular smells, sights, places remind ourselves of a brand and brands also inspire our imagination to think of ourselves and of the world in different ways, in Apple’s words “think differently.”

The formation of imagination, a true self, community, trust and new life are not only ways by which the economy offers a way of life. This dynamic is also found in many classic spiritual disciplines. – Page 44

Tom does some theological reflection on the human search for identity as well as some needed theological reflecting on the body, a theme that has been explored in feminist theological texts, but not as much in youth ministry or generational texts. Branding affects our understanding and acceptance of our bodies, of our very image, which then affects our image of God, as Tom writes:

Each of us, for example, relies on our own image – that is imaginative rendering – of God. Our experiences of God are drawn from our experience of our parents, our formal and informal religious education, and a host of other significant life experiences we’ve had. – Page 47

This book is a must read for those in youth ministry, as it offers something much more than Mike Warren’s skeptical exploration of youth culture and actually recognises the theological themes that arise out of the questions and needs of the consumers. Tom also goes further to reflect on how we, as consumers relate to those who produce the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the cars we drive…

I gaze down at my brands: shoes, jeans, shirts, gadgets, toys… at the same time I know that the materials that enable my comfort were forged under fluorescent lights in a large room of young women half a world away. I am thus doubly connected to even the far reaches of this planet. Those who make the stuff of my world, that i use and find pleasure and comfort in, in a way different from the stars, are already a part of me. Economic spirituality means fulfilling my part of my economic relationship with my global neighbor, the one who is part of the world on which my material or even religious body depends. – Page 88

Finishing the text Tom offers two different approaches to the questions that we are asked as a result of exploring Jesus’ economic spirituality, the indirect and the direct approach. In exploring these different approaches he provides some practical ways for Christians to respond to the searching and questions from his text and from the call of Jesus’ economic teachings, how we relate to one another and the world around us.

All up this is a great book, I’d suggest reading it alongside Virtual Faith, No Logo or Lovemarks, rarely have I found pieces of theological work that addresses so many themes, questions of human needs and a radical response to the consumer culture in which we live. Instead of guilt tripping his readers Tom explores the needs that are the reason for the spiritual search that people have placed in products and in the brands that they relate too. Instead of calling the culture evil and writing it off, which many have previously done Tom explores the deep theological themes that the culture and brands raise. Instead of asking the questions and leaving us empty handed Tom goes the next step urges the reader towards a mature economic spirituality, towards a spiritual discipline that challenges the way that we live as human beings, as consumers and as members of a global economy that is much larger than just the local shopping centre or McDonalds…

Book Details:

Hardcover: 180 pages
Publisher: Sheed and Ward (January, 2004)
ISBN: 1580511384

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

More great quotes from the book:

“The brand is the most important asset of the company and its management must be of primary concern for top management as well as the board.” the shift is summarized most badly by business authors Al Ries and Laura Ries, who write that “Building your brand on quality is like building your house on sand.” Quality “has very little to do with brand success in the marketplace.” – Page 4.

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By focusing on branding, companies hope to make their logos into a “personality” that is, a lifestyle, an image, an identity, or a set of values. Brands should, in the words of one business report, “emote a distinctive persona” – Page 4.

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“The average ten year old has memorized from three hundred to four hundred brands. Ninety two percent of kids request brand specific products.” – Page 4.

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Companies compete to be the corporate sponsors of young adult life. Our images of our successful and confident selves are often “brought to you by…” – Page 5

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“The effectiveness of the logo depends upon it’s transparency and the immediacy of it’s meaning. The logo is designed to be grasped in an instant. – Page 7

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Only then did i begin to think about the double function of the logo or brand. Not only must it instantaneously conjure up a “personality” with which consumers can identify, it must also draw our attention away from how it was produced. The brand both reveals and conceals, a blindfolding embrace… – Page 11

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Jesus is most clearly God’s economist when he talks about life’s big questions, such as the sense God makes of human life. When Jesus talks explicitly about God’s final judgment on out lives – which he rarely does – he continually refers not to sexual issues; not to proper deference to a pastor, bishop or pope; not to the inerrancy of scripture; not to membership in a church; not to himself as my personal Lord and savior; not to right ritual. He continually refers to economic spirituality. Jesus clearly made economic spirituality in everyday life the ultimate expression of faithfulness to God… – Page 23

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Branding is a sort of religious system, a spiritual discipline, that can provide as persuasive a world view as the scriptures or any traditional religion. – Page 39

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Branding also offers a consistent, coherent identity, in which you are told about your true self; it offers membership in a community; it issues an invitation to unconditional trust; it offers the promise of conversion and new life. Thus, there is a way of life, an identity, that can be had by participating in the logo-centric economy. These are, after all, worthwhile ends and even deep human needs. – Page 44

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Imagination is a power that all humans have to put together our observations and experiences in a particular way, to find patterns of meaning in the observations, insights, feelings, and experiences of everyday life. Far from being the preserve of Tolkienesque fantasy, we each live everyday life utterly dependent on out imaginations. Who do you imagine yourself to be now, and who do you imagine yourself becoming? As philosopher Paul Ricoeur observed, “in imagining possibilities, human beings act as the prophets of their own existence.” – Page 47

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In the branding economy, the true self is a many faceted economic being: a consumer of a favored brand; a producer of meaning, status, or identity through your interaction with brands; an advertiser for corporations when you willingly billboard yourself by displaying logos on your body, in your house, through your speech. What is most important about your relation to yourself, then, is the way that relation passes through the screen of the brand. – Page 53

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Corporations see brands as “expressions of the soul” of the firm, beneficently establishing “covenant” with consumers, and extending a “brand promise.” Consumers are invited to trust this promise and covenant, the soul of the firm. They are successful when, in the words of youth researcher Alissa Quart, teenagers “feel that consumer goods are their friends – and that the companies selling products to them are trusted allies.” – Page 56

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We live out our relation to our ultimate meaning through what and how we buy. Let the integration of faith and economy be the mark of the true spiritual seeker today, a consuming faith. – Page 107

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There is an authentic spiritual impulse at the heart of our branding economy. We use brands to do identity work for us, finally, out of our desire to be recognised by others, by a power greater than ourselves; and the desire to recognise and know others, to commune with others under a power greater than ourselves. And in this recognising and being recognised, we experience that great power that draws us inward and outward. – Page 106

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And so our brand economy discloses a task for spiritual maturity: knowing and being known by ourselves and others, without being governed by entitlement regarding who we are or what we buy. – Page 106

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Ben Shaw and Peter Downey are two authors from the northern beaches of Sydney, Australia who have written “Inspired Stuff” a great handbook about the Bible. The book attempts to:
a) tell people about the Bible
b) give some helpful background to the Bible
c) summarize what people will find between it’s covers
d) encourage people to read the Bible In doing so they’ve split the book into two parts.

Part 1 – The Great Journey
is made up of background information about the Bible. Where did it come from, who wrote it, when was it written, what’s it about.

Part 2 – The Big Picture
delves into the content of the Bible itself. The aim is to give readers a quick understanding of the big picture of the Bible, it’s stories and people. The aim of this section is to encourage readers to dive into the Bible for themselves and to equip them to do so. This book is, first of all, a map of the bible. It’s a guide, a non-academic map for people who are wanting a simple, easy way to explore the themes, people and places of the bible.

Don’t come to this book expecting a discussion of controversial issues, the authors have decided that the need to keep this book simple and, more importantly smaller than the encyclopedia Britannica that they’d concentrate on scratching the surface of the Bible, it’s geography, where it fits into the history of the land and the people.

This book is an introduction to the bible for people who think that they know a little and want to know more, for people who know nothing and more importantly this is a great book for young people who want to begin exploring the bible. This is about the big picture, it talks about where in the bible the books fit, about where the books fit in our history, about who can be found in the books and then provides you with a few miscellaneous facts like: “Ben Shaw wanted to name his cat Habakkuk but his wife wouldn’t let him”

This is an easy to read book, both of the author’s humour and style of writing turns what could have been a boring encyclopedia into a good, bite-sized, inspirational conversation about the Bible.

Book Information:

Authors: Ben Shaw and Peter Downey
Published: 2004 by Sons of Thunder Press
ISBN: 0975156101
Link : Peter Downey”s Website

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

“if the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist hammering on our skull, why then do we read it?… A book must be like an ice-axe to break the frozen sea within us” – Kafka

I’ve been reading Eugene Peterson’s latest release “Eat This Book” and I’m thinking of making it the first book in my yet-to-be-created online book club, it’s quite literally a book that has made me drool and crave more of as I’ve been reading.

He starts the book by likening the growling and playing that a dog does with it’s bone to the growling that Isaiah’s Lion does over it’s prey and then reflecting on the word “hagah” which is used to describe this growling. Hagah is also the same word that we usually translate to mean “meditate” quite obviously the image of a dog with his bone and one meditating on the scriptures would usually bring up two different images, but in bringing them together we start to see how Eugene would like us to view the scriptures, as a bone that we chew on, that we joyfully play with and gnaw on for ages, burying it and coming back to it in an almost ritualistic fashion.

The book’s primarily a sales pitch for the use of Lectio Divinia as a form and pattern of reading and “eating” the scriptures, opening up the ability for us to accept the metaphors and start to play with the text.

Last weekend I actually used some of the book as an introduction to a session on Lectio Divinia as a Spiritual Practice for young adults in year 11, 12 and first year university. The session went rather well, although I’m constantly reminded that when one trys to introduce something that is so different to the normally scientific/scholarly way that we read the bible it can scare people, and that Lectio Divinia is something that needs to be practiced in order to become comfortable with.

One of the great things about this latest series from Eugene is the addition of Study Guides which means that churches or groups could use it over a period of 9 sessions to go through the book and explore it’s questions and wisdom.

Eat this book is a text written to people who have become acutely aware of the ways that the words, poetry and metaphors in scripture have lost their life becoming just ink on a page and even more aware of the need for us and the Spirit to resurrect the words for our generation and world.

Book Information:
Title: Eat This Book
Author: Eugene Peterson
Paperback: 200 pages
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (July 29, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0802864902
ISBN-13: 978-0802864901

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

it (theology) is no longer thought of as a human discourse that speaks of god but rather as the place where god speaks into human discourse. in other words, theology is understood as the site in which revelation makes its appearance in the world, the place in which theos (god) impacts, and overwhelms, the human realm logos (reason). consequently we do not do theology but rather we are overcome and transformed by it: we do not master it but are mastered by it.

If theology comes to be understood as the place where God speaks, then we must seek, not to speak of God, but rather to be that place where God speaks. Through our words and actions we seek to be the site of revelation through which people encounter the life-giving Word of God. pp21

At last, a book that’s come out of the “emerging conversation” that made my head hurt, it actually made it ache, my eyes blurred, my mind needed space to take it all in making me put it down a number of times to digest, a book that moves beyond the practicals of why and how churches involved in the “emerging conversation” go about their call to be “church” in a postmodern setting, and offers something to the wider theological community that might have been under the understanding that postmodernity and it’s deconstruction may not have anything to offer it’s conversation.

Many of the previous books on the “emerging conversation” / “emerging church” / “alternative worship” have opened my eyes, told me that I’m not alone, many of them have made me feel welcomed, accepted, enlightened, excited that there are other weirdos like me out there trying to do stuff differently, but this book…

This book made my brain hurt, it stretched me, it pulled me in one direction, then it pulled me in another, it made me think, it made me feel , it invited me into a theological dialogue that I hadn’t entered into before. It said things that I thought I knew, then asked me why I knew them, it asked me to think about truth, God, faith, Christianity and then offered me not only a postmodern critique of the traditional understandings but instead offered me a postmodern creative answer to some of the mode prevalent modernistic religious arguments and issues of our time.

What is important about revelation is not that we seek to interpret in the same way, but rather that we all love it and are transformed by it… Such enslavement to the idea of revelation as offering a naked insight into God has meant that the development of a robust theology of reconciliation has always proved difficult within much of the contemporary Church because of it’s emphasis upon the primacy of what we believe about our beloved over and above the insight that what unifies us is our desire to embrace the beloved. Pp 17-18

We all get God wrong, a lesson that Pete Rollins who’s grown up and lived in Ireland knows all too well, he’s seen the result of a Church and a world that argues over their particular interpretation of their revelation of God and Truth, and it’s to this Church that Pete writes this book. It’s this insistence that perhaps Christianity has focused on interpretation rather than our desire to embrace God that got me thinking, in particular that it is so important that a book like this needed to come from someone who is participating in the “emerging conversation” in order to get a few of the critiques attention.

Apologetics, says Pete has been limited to two arguments, wonder and word, either a case is build upon reason or upon the miraculous wonder in order to convince another of the “truth” of Christianity, in either case it’s seen as unreasonable for someone to be faced with either argument and still not believe. After deconstructing these approaches to apologetics he suggests a different way, a way in which a discourse is opened up, a powerless discourse that involves poetry and “hints” rather than one that is based upon an argument of wonder and reason. In this way we are being like Jesus, inspiring thirst in others rather than forcing our interpretations upon them…

In a world where people believe they are not hungry, we must not offer food but rather an aroma that helps them desire the food that we cannot provide. We are a people who are born from a response to hints of the divine. Not only this, but we must embrace the idea that we are also called to be hints of the divine. pp37

Pete throws his voice into what could have been explained as a void of active heavy theological thought in the emerging conversation in order to create something that I hope will become a growing theological conversation that will use the creative edge of the emerging conversation to stretch our understanding of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, vocation, prophecy, ecology amongst many other streams of theological thought. The emerging conversation has long been seen as purely deconstructive with nothing much to offer, this is something that Pete is not ashamed of, infact suggesting that one of Jesus’ primary acts was the deconstruction of all religious movements, because if God is known, yet unknown, revealed yet concealed Christianity should then as a religion should always critique itself… Just as Jesus did.

In Jesus I see not merely an individual who acted as a catalyst for a new religious movement, but also a subversive prophet who signaled the end of all religious movements. To be part of the Christian religion is to simultaneously hold that religion lightly…. Jesus employed a deeply deconstructive approach to religion which both affirmed and critiqued the movement that began in his lifetime. Christianity, following this deconstructive and subversive element in the life of Jesus, is then a religion which critiques its own religiosity. pp44

And, it would be amiss of a book that is inspiring a conversation about how we don’t talk about God to not include the idea of “Truth” in it’s pages. Truth, says Pete is relational, rather than being described or interpreted it is trans formative. This particular thought may well be amongst the most difficult to grasp for a Church that has for many many many years seen truth as something that can be proven, a descriptive reality that can be argued for, or in many cases can be fought and battled for. The idea that Truth is an act that causes transformation can be fairly relative, and it’s not really something that we can prove, instead its something that can only really be attested to by those who have experienced the transformation…

The Judeo-Christian view of truth is concerned with having a relationship with the Real (God) that results in us transforming reality. The emphasis is this not on description, but on transformation. This perspective completely short circuits the long redundant debate as to whether truth is subjective or objective, for here Truth is the ungraspable Real (objective) that transforms the individual (subjective)… The Truth in Christianity is not described but experienced… If we take truth to mean any act which positively transforms reality, rather than what describes reality…. pp56

But, how then do we interpret the scripture, or do we now see the scripture as something that cannot be interpreted, but instead something that can be described? Peter offers the suggestion that we interpret scripture in the same way that Jesus interpreted them, noting that Jesus himself held his own prejudices while reading the texts, but also suggesting that it’s precisely this prejudice that gives Jesus’ teachings their power and saltiness. Peter suggests that this prejudice is “love” and that while we use this prejudice in all that we read and is revealed to us then our faith becomes more than (just) an ethical/moral faith based on a moral/ethical handbook and is transformed into much more.

Jesus came to teach us a way of life that is dictated by the radical excess of love rather than an ethical rulebook… While ethics says, “what must I do in order to fulfill my responsibility?” love says “I will do more than what is required.” If, for instance, it was the right thing to do to buy a flower on Valentines Day for your beloved, then love says, “i will buy more than one.” Love is never satisfied by what is required but must always do more. pp65

One has to understand that this book is exactly what it’s title suggests, it’s a conversation about how we should not speak about God, it’s a recognition of how our current and previous dialogue/interpretations of God have lead us into wars, arguments, disagreements, denominational differences and an inspiring beginning of a dialogue that can, (if entered into) possibly see the end of such interpretations. This is a book that has come out of a postmodern theological dialogue and asks the Christian Church to cease arguing over “right belief” and to, instead focus on “believing in the right way”, and it’s this particular conversation that makes this book all the more important for us to read, and to dialogue over.

In order to discover this alternative reading, we must break down the word “orthodoxy” into it’s greek roots, ortho (right) and doxa (belief), and read them as if one was reading Hebrew – that is, from right to left. Thus “right belief” becomes “believing in the right way.” Thus we break down the binary opposition between orthodoxy and heresy by understanding the term “orthodox” as referring to someone who engages with the world in the right way – that is, in the way of love. Here religious knowledge is not something that is opposed to love, nor secondary to it; rather the only religious knowledge worth anything is love. pp66

If the theological conversation within this book wasn’t enough to inspire you to purchase the book then you may be further inspired by the thought that Peter decided that it was necessary to explore how such a conversation, such a theology, such theory translates into a liturgical framework. So, instead of continuing to delve into the thoughts in the first 3/4 of the book he has included 10 liturgical frameworks, including the thoughts and ideas behind the liturgy that have been formed by the faith community of activists that he is a part of in Ireland named IKON. This is a way in which Peter can show the reader how the ideas in his book can contribute to the Church community. These liturgies include liturgies from Easter, Advent and the Queer service which was held at Greenbelt 2005 that inspired so many people…

I hear that Peter’s got a new book coming out soon titled “Being Evangelised” and, if it’s anything like this offering I’ll be one of the first 20 people to get my hands on it and my teeth into it… but until then go out, purchase the book, enter the discussion, let me know what you think, I’d be interested in hearing other people’s views…

For too long the Church has been seen as an oasis in the desert – offering water to those who are thirsty. In contrast, the emerging community appears more as a desert in the oasis of life, offering silence, space and desolation amidst the sickly nourishment of Western capitalism. It is in this desert, as we wander together as nomads, that God is to be found. For it is here that we are nourished by our hunger. pp43

Pete’s Blog: http://blogs.ignite.cd/Pete/
Buy the book: How (Not) To Speak Of God
IKON Community Website: Ikon’s Website
Buy the IKON community cd “Dubh”: Dubh
Jonny Baker’s review of the book: How (Not) To Speak Of God
Read what Andrew Jones had to say: How (Not) To Speak Of God
Read what Scott McKnight had to say: How (Not) To Speak Of God
Read Brad Anderson’s review: How (Not) To Speak Of God

Book Information:

Title: How (Not) To Speak of God
Author: Peter Rollins
Paperback: 144 pages
Publisher: Paraclete Press (August 1, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1557255059
ISBN-13: 978-1557255051

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars