The Blah day yesterday on "Mission in a Consumer Culture" was excellent. Dr Pete Ward and Johnny Baker were both on great form bringing wisdom, insight (and humour) to the mission dialogue mix.
Dr Pete Ward opened the batting by critiquing the danger of seeing Consumer Culture as only bad, specifically he demonstrated:
1. How this view very easily leads into a Dualism which consciously or unconsciously can see a polarised view whereby Church = good and World =bad.
2. That this can lead to a seperating of 'high' and 'low' culture whereby there is some sort of theological legitimisation given to the high culture (that the church is happy to embrace) but writing off 'low' culture as bad/not legitimate.
3. It mask the extent to which the Church draws from and is effected by popular culture.
4. It has the effect of rubbishing what those outside of the church value/find meaning in.
Ward went on to look at Colossians and that it is Christ who holds ALL things together. There isn't a division evident that would allow a Dualistic approach.
Ward then explored how we make sense of consumer culture (but was very clear that there is a line between endorsing 'consumerism' (advocating the system) and understanding and particpating in the cultural system that exists, Ward is exploring the latter not legitimizing the former).
Consumer Culture means our sense of self is linked to what we choose and what we consume. A helpful historical charting of this was offered whereby if you were born into Medieval times your identity was fixed at birth, e.g peasant, nobility etc. Early modernity would see self defined by what you produced. Post Modernity is a place where identity is now defined by what we consume. (Discourses of poverty, race, sexuality etc still exist but are viewed through the lens of consumerism).
Ward demonstrated how locked into the consumer culture we are even if we think we are opting out. the tongue-in-cheek example being of someone who opts out of the media led consumer culture to relocate to a hamlet in Wales. As part of this they produce a web site of what they are doing and how it's going, the also invite people to pay to come and stay to support their opting out.
Contextual mission can have the advantage of moving us from a negative mindset which flows from a 'culture is bad' discourse, i.e moving us from condeming to asking, what is it we can affirm? (Telling people they are wrong/bad is not a great starting point for mission).
Ward explored 'Diffusion vs Translation' that is, do we have a cultural understanding of faith that we then attempt to place into the surrounding culture (most practice that he observes) or do we attempt to understand the culture and translate faith into it's new context.
The discussion question posed to us was, "to what extent do you think you particpate in a consumer culture?"
Pete concluded with a critique of the position "I am not part of consumer culture" as not only being less than true, but leading to less empathy with, and more judgment of, those outside of the christian faith. His espoused position (and one he feels is better and more honest) being, "This is how as a Christian I particpate in a consumer culture!"
(Will write up part 2, Johnny Bakers' input in a seperate post)
(A link to Tim Gorringe's book on culture and mission, looking at diffusion and translation can be found here)
Nothing new there then! Niebuhr was writing this stuff in the fifties.
Sorry I missed this... school commitments ... but intend to read the book soon