Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Today I have my final Theology exam, and then I'm going on holiday. Exam finishes at midday, I get the eurostar at 2.30pm, then connect from Brussels to Amsterdam. I'm away for just over 2 weeks, in which time I shall be going to Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague, Cologne and Brussels, and deciding what to do next.
Monday, June 01, 2009
some short reflections on a theology degree
Some friends and I were reflecting on 3 years of theological study the other day in between some final year exams. There are a number of points I want to reflect on.
- All of us who were chatting come from some kind of Christian background. All of us had found studying theology a challenge to that faith- Some of us felt a little stronger, some of us a little weaker, some of us perhaps a little stronger in something else.
- All of us agreed that we thought Jewish theology/ thought/ philosophy was done better than Christian theology, and taught better. We all have a lot of respect and affection for all of our teachers, however, there was a feeling that, across the board in terms of lectures, books, websites etc. Jewish thinkers tended to be much more interesting, much more academic, and much more intellectually honest. Christian theology often tries to hide from some of the difficult questions, whereas Jewish thought seems to almost embrace them. We may enjoy our classes equally, but the books we have to read less so! We also recognise, of course, that part of the attraction may simply be the appeal of something a little different.
- Much of the problem with Christian theology, we felt, was because of the odd nature of theological teaching. There are 2 types of Christian theologian. There are those like us who have been to a university and studied theology in an academic department. And there are those who have been to seminary or minister training courses, some of which claim a 'degree in theology'. There was a feeling that too much is written by 'doctors of theology' who are really just popular christian personalities who have been granted honours by less than reputable colleges.
This is not a slight against ministerial training- I know and respect many ministers, and many of the best academic theologians are also ministers. But for those who don't train twice, the content is different, and it's confusing to have everyone using the same titles: certainly, a degree in theology is no substitute for ministerial training! I would like many more ministers to do academic theological training as well, because I think their ministry might benefit and academia might benefit. And I would like televangelists and Christian celebrities to not claim degrees in theology or divinity unless they really have one.
With so many people from so many backgrounds all writing 'theology', all claiming to be 'theologians', I don't think its suprising that Christian theology can so often look quite weak or ill-thought-out.
Saturday, May 09, 2009
This blog hasn't really functioned through my student days quite as I had intended. When I started, I wanted to use this as a place to reflect upon what I was learning, and to think aloud a little about theology. I didn't really do that much, though.
For the last three years I have posted very little. I'm not entirely sure why that is. I'd like to think its because I have learnt that listening/reading are often far more valuable than talking or arguing my corner, which is often woefully underinformed. I'd like to think that, but I don't think that's quite true, I still talk too much and listen too little.
I suspect it has more to do with time. As a student I only spent 8 hours a week in the classroom, but I did spend a lot of time thinking about what I was learning. Because you are constantly being taught new things, finding out new opinions and information, and learning different ways to argue, it often seems pointless to say today definitively what my opinion is, because tomorrow it will probably be different. If I look back over some of the essays I have written in the last three years I can see very big changes in thought and attitude, as well as some threads of similarity that kind of weave their way through, perhaps showing my personality wrestling with all these new ideas.
I am now nearly at the end of my time as a student, at least for now. I have three exams left to do, and then I am done. After my final exam, I am going to Europe for a couple of weeks to relax, and then I'm probably going to find a job. I don't know what the future of this blog will be, but I hope I use it a bit more in the next three years than in the last three.
For the last three years I have posted very little. I'm not entirely sure why that is. I'd like to think its because I have learnt that listening/reading are often far more valuable than talking or arguing my corner, which is often woefully underinformed. I'd like to think that, but I don't think that's quite true, I still talk too much and listen too little.
I suspect it has more to do with time. As a student I only spent 8 hours a week in the classroom, but I did spend a lot of time thinking about what I was learning. Because you are constantly being taught new things, finding out new opinions and information, and learning different ways to argue, it often seems pointless to say today definitively what my opinion is, because tomorrow it will probably be different. If I look back over some of the essays I have written in the last three years I can see very big changes in thought and attitude, as well as some threads of similarity that kind of weave their way through, perhaps showing my personality wrestling with all these new ideas.
I am now nearly at the end of my time as a student, at least for now. I have three exams left to do, and then I am done. After my final exam, I am going to Europe for a couple of weeks to relax, and then I'm probably going to find a job. I don't know what the future of this blog will be, but I hope I use it a bit more in the next three years than in the last three.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Trying not to be Vitriolic in my Defence of TPB
As the mainstream media is chirping on about today, the founders of The Pirate Bay have been sentenced to a year each in gaol, and to pay £2.5million in damages to the record, film and software companies involved. Everyone has an opinion, so here's my 2p.
The music and film companies (MaFC to save space) have continually acted like the big bullies of the internet and the small man, and I'm glad to see a group of people who are brilliant in their utter defiance. There are a few things the MaFC need to realise. First, people want things for free. Second, people are lazy. If you want to reduce piracy, make it easy to get things free legally.
BBC iPlayer, 4oD etc. have proven that the combination of giving something for free that is easy reduces piracy of that content. I used to use illegal streaming websites to catch up on TV shows I'd missed, and anyone who has ever done that knows it's a pain in the arse. You spend forever scouring the internet for a link that works, and hours waiting for it to buffer. And sometimes it cuts out in the middle. Why on earth would I ever do this when I have iPlayer and 4oD and the rest of them? They are free, as the old method was, but crucially they are SO much easier to use. And, in the case of 4oD, people are more than willing to tolerate advertisements if it is part of this package of making their life easier.
I was never big on torrenting TV shows, because they take up too much disk space. And even I, with my Tera Byte of storage space, can't really see the point of holding on to tens of gigabytes worth of a TV show I'll probably only want to watch once. The legal sites have won me in this battle.
Music is different, however. MP3s take up far less space than TV series. You can torrent an album, and it is without any of the DRM shite that makes iTunes unviable to people like me (who, amongst other things, despise Apple's software and products, and own a Creative Zen PMP instead of an iPod). I didn't have a home internet connection back when Napster first existed, but I do remember Kazaa, WinMX and various other fileshare products. They were never very good, and it was difficult to download whole albums, just random tracks, often at poor quality. BitTorrent, however, makes it easier and faster. Seems like a winner.
However, I, like many of my friends, have recently discovered Spotify, an application that lets you stream (almost) any music you want, legally, for free, immediately. You type in a song or artist in the search bar at the top, it returns a list of playable results. It doesn't yet have everything ever, but it has a hell of a lot. This piece of software is free, easy and instant. All you need to use it is an internet connection, and this makes it very useful. Most of my music files are stored on one of my external hard disks. I use a laptop, which I frequently carry about with me, meaning that I often don't have access to all of my music unless I'm also carrying my Zen.
Most of the places I use my laptop- at work, at college, at home, at the library, in Starbucks- have wifi. I am not likely to carry a half TeraByte hard disk around with me just so I can listen to tunes, but Spotify means that I can listen to almost anything almost anywhere I have my computer. It occasionally plays a short advert in between songs, or puts a small banner ad in the software somewhere. It's easy and it's free, and it makes me think pirating is a waste of time. And, because it's easy and free, I'm willing to put up with some adverts, like on 4oD.
If the MaFC want to cut down on piracy, heavy-handed bullying of ISPs, torrent websites and end-users are not going to work. This makes people hate them, and they make me even less likely to consider paying for their products, because who wants to support an evil corporation, right? I don't buy Kenco because I remember an interview with their CEO who was arguing against Fairtrade. I'll never buy their coffee now, because they're permanently lodged in my mind as 'evil'. And Music companies fining 13 year olds or a group of defiant Swedes isn't going to help their image, especially not when Google can do exactly what TPB does, but the MaFC are clearly too scared to take on someone their own size. I'm not a capitalist, but I do think if we're going to be a capitalist economy, we need to play by the same rules. If your buisness model can't survive, you deserve to go bankrupt. Now don't get me started on farm subsidies...
The music and film companies (MaFC to save space) have continually acted like the big bullies of the internet and the small man, and I'm glad to see a group of people who are brilliant in their utter defiance. There are a few things the MaFC need to realise. First, people want things for free. Second, people are lazy. If you want to reduce piracy, make it easy to get things free legally.
BBC iPlayer, 4oD etc. have proven that the combination of giving something for free that is easy reduces piracy of that content. I used to use illegal streaming websites to catch up on TV shows I'd missed, and anyone who has ever done that knows it's a pain in the arse. You spend forever scouring the internet for a link that works, and hours waiting for it to buffer. And sometimes it cuts out in the middle. Why on earth would I ever do this when I have iPlayer and 4oD and the rest of them? They are free, as the old method was, but crucially they are SO much easier to use. And, in the case of 4oD, people are more than willing to tolerate advertisements if it is part of this package of making their life easier.
I was never big on torrenting TV shows, because they take up too much disk space. And even I, with my Tera Byte of storage space, can't really see the point of holding on to tens of gigabytes worth of a TV show I'll probably only want to watch once. The legal sites have won me in this battle.
Music is different, however. MP3s take up far less space than TV series. You can torrent an album, and it is without any of the DRM shite that makes iTunes unviable to people like me (who, amongst other things, despise Apple's software and products, and own a Creative Zen PMP instead of an iPod). I didn't have a home internet connection back when Napster first existed, but I do remember Kazaa, WinMX and various other fileshare products. They were never very good, and it was difficult to download whole albums, just random tracks, often at poor quality. BitTorrent, however, makes it easier and faster. Seems like a winner.
However, I, like many of my friends, have recently discovered Spotify, an application that lets you stream (almost) any music you want, legally, for free, immediately. You type in a song or artist in the search bar at the top, it returns a list of playable results. It doesn't yet have everything ever, but it has a hell of a lot. This piece of software is free, easy and instant. All you need to use it is an internet connection, and this makes it very useful. Most of my music files are stored on one of my external hard disks. I use a laptop, which I frequently carry about with me, meaning that I often don't have access to all of my music unless I'm also carrying my Zen.
Most of the places I use my laptop- at work, at college, at home, at the library, in Starbucks- have wifi. I am not likely to carry a half TeraByte hard disk around with me just so I can listen to tunes, but Spotify means that I can listen to almost anything almost anywhere I have my computer. It occasionally plays a short advert in between songs, or puts a small banner ad in the software somewhere. It's easy and it's free, and it makes me think pirating is a waste of time. And, because it's easy and free, I'm willing to put up with some adverts, like on 4oD.
If the MaFC want to cut down on piracy, heavy-handed bullying of ISPs, torrent websites and end-users are not going to work. This makes people hate them, and they make me even less likely to consider paying for their products, because who wants to support an evil corporation, right? I don't buy Kenco because I remember an interview with their CEO who was arguing against Fairtrade. I'll never buy their coffee now, because they're permanently lodged in my mind as 'evil'. And Music companies fining 13 year olds or a group of defiant Swedes isn't going to help their image, especially not when Google can do exactly what TPB does, but the MaFC are clearly too scared to take on someone their own size. I'm not a capitalist, but I do think if we're going to be a capitalist economy, we need to play by the same rules. If your buisness model can't survive, you deserve to go bankrupt. Now don't get me started on farm subsidies...
Public Rules and Religion
I often think about the potential conflict between rules- be they laws of the land, or codes of conduct within organisations- and religion. Often, religions have their own rules, some of which might conflict or seem to conflict with these other social or societal laws and rules.
There seem to be various solutions to this. Sometimes, a compromise is possible. For example, the Sikh requirement to carry a sword (Kirpan) in environments where the carrying of knives and other potential weapons is not appropriate has often led to Sikhs opting to carry a small symbolic representation of the Kirpan, rather than carrying a proper sword.
However, such compromises are not always possible or desirable for a religious person. In some cases, particularly in terms of the rules of an organisation, religion is often seen as a kind of trump-card, meaning that if a particular thing has religious significance, rules can be bent or broken. An example might be a company with strict uniform rules allowing religious clothing such as the veil, kippah, turban etc. In this case, it is the rule-giving authority that makes a compromise, rather than the religious person.
But what if neither side can easily compromise? I remember a case here at work where a student was seen using a Havdalah candle in her bedroom at the end of Shabbat. As a hall of residence, we have strict rules against any kind of naked flame or smoldering items (incense, cigarettes etc.) being used in the buildings (and most outside parts of the site). In cases such as these, what should be done? On the one hand, we must have respect for religious customs. On the other, using candles for religious reasons is not any safer than using them for any other reason.
I don't have an answer, but I think it's a discussion that needs more attention, because most people tend to either ignore the religious side or to give the religious side a trump-all-card. And somehow, I think there needs to be a sensible middle ground, if only we can think one up.
There seem to be various solutions to this. Sometimes, a compromise is possible. For example, the Sikh requirement to carry a sword (Kirpan) in environments where the carrying of knives and other potential weapons is not appropriate has often led to Sikhs opting to carry a small symbolic representation of the Kirpan, rather than carrying a proper sword.
However, such compromises are not always possible or desirable for a religious person. In some cases, particularly in terms of the rules of an organisation, religion is often seen as a kind of trump-card, meaning that if a particular thing has religious significance, rules can be bent or broken. An example might be a company with strict uniform rules allowing religious clothing such as the veil, kippah, turban etc. In this case, it is the rule-giving authority that makes a compromise, rather than the religious person.
But what if neither side can easily compromise? I remember a case here at work where a student was seen using a Havdalah candle in her bedroom at the end of Shabbat. As a hall of residence, we have strict rules against any kind of naked flame or smoldering items (incense, cigarettes etc.) being used in the buildings (and most outside parts of the site). In cases such as these, what should be done? On the one hand, we must have respect for religious customs. On the other, using candles for religious reasons is not any safer than using them for any other reason.
I don't have an answer, but I think it's a discussion that needs more attention, because most people tend to either ignore the religious side or to give the religious side a trump-all-card. And somehow, I think there needs to be a sensible middle ground, if only we can think one up.
Twitter in Blog
Just a quick note to say I've now added a Twitter widget to the side of the blog, so you can keep up to date with my mundane flow of thoughts live, as they happen.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Case in Point
Further to my thoughts on blogging yesterday, Maggi Dawn has just posted about a recent discussion of atonement and violence across the blogosphere (initiated by a column in the Guardian).
Since I just did my dissertation on atonement theology, arguing against violent/ retributive approaches on ethical grounds, I find this discussion both interesting and helpful. And it removes a bit of the guilt I was feeling about blogs distracting me from my actual work!
Since I just did my dissertation on atonement theology, arguing against violent/ retributive approaches on ethical grounds, I find this discussion both interesting and helpful. And it removes a bit of the guilt I was feeling about blogs distracting me from my actual work!
The Value of Blogging, and Why Twitter Has Caught Me
I have an essay to do, an oral part of my dissertation to prepare for, and exams to revise for. So although, like most students, I am looking for any excuse to procrastinate, blogging seems to make me feel especially guilty. More so than Facebook or Twitter. I think it's probably because this is meant to be my theological or 'thoughtful' blog, and doing or reading or thinking about theology that isn't directly getting my work done seems a bit cheeky.
I like Twitter. I like that it forces me to condense my superfluous, meandering thoughts into 160 characters. I think it lends itself quite well to the SMS generation, already used to thinking in short-hand and recieving news as a collection of headlines and sound-bites. But I worry about the pervasiveness of this kind of thinking or knowledge-gathering.
I live in, study at and work for a university, so I spend a lot of time in a culture that values long-think - spending a great deal of time thoughtfully reading and preparing and discussing. It is almost taken for granted that we shouldn't take the media at face-value; I subscribe to The Economist and Guardian Weekly, and often pick up a broadsheet, or read them online, in addition to the free London newspapers.
However, I fear that this culture might be dying out. The university halls where I live and work get the Guardian, Times and Mirror delivered everyday, and place them in the lounge. Most evenings when I go to steal the crosswords, these papers have clearly not been touched by the 500 students who live here. This worries me, even if it does mean I get to steal the crosswords. I hope it's because they buy their own, but I doubt it. I have more hope that they will read more as they progress through their degrees, since more of our residents are first years.
What I love about blogs is that they facilitate the sharing of news and ideas in an instant and often digestible way. For news, they sit alongside the newspapers, giving varied and unorthodox views and insights. All the media is biased, and blogging often more so, but taken together, it has the potential to give a fuller picture. In the traffic of ideas, I feel blogging plays a very important role. As I've posted before, I think all theologians should blog. Blogging has the ability to disseminate ideas quickly, and to generate feedback, collaboration, critique or rebuttal in a timely fashion that speeds up the whole process of idea generating. For all the crap that exists in the blogosphere, there is definately some gold out there, that is well-thought and considered, and takes time to read and appreciate, and necessitates more than 160 characters.
So even if I'm become rather inept at keeping my own blog up-to-date, it is my sincere hope that everyone else keeps at it!
I like Twitter. I like that it forces me to condense my superfluous, meandering thoughts into 160 characters. I think it lends itself quite well to the SMS generation, already used to thinking in short-hand and recieving news as a collection of headlines and sound-bites. But I worry about the pervasiveness of this kind of thinking or knowledge-gathering.
I live in, study at and work for a university, so I spend a lot of time in a culture that values long-think - spending a great deal of time thoughtfully reading and preparing and discussing. It is almost taken for granted that we shouldn't take the media at face-value; I subscribe to The Economist and Guardian Weekly, and often pick up a broadsheet, or read them online, in addition to the free London newspapers.
However, I fear that this culture might be dying out. The university halls where I live and work get the Guardian, Times and Mirror delivered everyday, and place them in the lounge. Most evenings when I go to steal the crosswords, these papers have clearly not been touched by the 500 students who live here. This worries me, even if it does mean I get to steal the crosswords. I hope it's because they buy their own, but I doubt it. I have more hope that they will read more as they progress through their degrees, since more of our residents are first years.
What I love about blogs is that they facilitate the sharing of news and ideas in an instant and often digestible way. For news, they sit alongside the newspapers, giving varied and unorthodox views and insights. All the media is biased, and blogging often more so, but taken together, it has the potential to give a fuller picture. In the traffic of ideas, I feel blogging plays a very important role. As I've posted before, I think all theologians should blog. Blogging has the ability to disseminate ideas quickly, and to generate feedback, collaboration, critique or rebuttal in a timely fashion that speeds up the whole process of idea generating. For all the crap that exists in the blogosphere, there is definately some gold out there, that is well-thought and considered, and takes time to read and appreciate, and necessitates more than 160 characters.
So even if I'm become rather inept at keeping my own blog up-to-date, it is my sincere hope that everyone else keeps at it!
Sunday, March 01, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Hiatus
Apologies for the hiatus, but I will probably continue to be away for the next couple of weeks. My final year dissertation is due on the 2nd of March, and my MA application is due this Friday. After that I'm designing lighting for a musical at the theatre, then it's my birthday. Then I will be back, hopefully with lots of things to write about!
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