basic slides

Module number: TH6741 & 7741title: Engaging Culture

session: 1

Welcome! Great to see you!Have a seat; be comfortable, relax .We'll get underway shortly.

O Lord, open our senses:That our perceiving may draw us further into fullness of life.

O Lord, open our thinking and affectivity;That our naming may disclose your love and your will.

O Lord, open our lips;That our mouths shall proclaim your praise.

O Lord, open our art and expression:That our work may nourish humanity and resonate your praise.O Lord, open our senses:That our perceiving may draw us further into fullness of life.

O Lord, open our thinking and affectivity;That our naming may disclose your love and your will.

O Lord, open our lips;That our mouths shall proclaim your praise.

O Lord, open our art and expression:That our work may nourish humanity and resonate your praise.

What we're looking at over the course of this module... human beings as meaning-makers

signs, symbols, language, communication ....

power, difference, solidarity (sin and creational anthropology?)

theological approaches to culture

reading cultural artefacts

Could be a bit 'bitty': various things to get you started but not necessarily all joined up at this point.

How we're learning on this module ... Discussion Some exercises Listening Reading Some skills transfer ...

Why we're learning in this module....because mission and ministry thrives on good cultural exegesis.

To enable us to see the cultural wood for the trees ...

What we're looking at today ... introductions

perceptions of culture

How do we get a handle on it?

Starting to look at analytical tools

Could be a bit 'bitty': various things to get you started but not necessarily all joined up at this point.

How we're learning ... exercises

Listening

discussing

Reading ...

How we're learning ... exercises

Listening

discussing

Reading ...

Bibliography, webliography and assessment

Some things to note.

Link to assessment; the tools are the kind of things that students may want to use for their assessment.

Thinking about us, ourselves: background exercise ... (see handouts)

Thinking about ...culture(s) we grew up in ... what would you point to as important practices, objects or ideas to characterise it?

Culture. /kltj/, n ....

Write down your own, brief, informal, 'work in progress', definition of culture ...

Culture. /kltj/, n ....

Please share that brief, informal, 'work in progress', definition of culture with someone else.

Decide on a joint definition you could share with the rest of the group.

... and share it ...

Culture. /kltj/, n ....

Note down any good ideas, phrases etc from others' joint definitions.

Culture. /kltj/, n ....

Now look at the definitions on the sheets.

Which are most helpful to you, and why?

anything seem insightful for you?! anything surprise you?? anything you have questions about?+ anything to add to your definition(s)?

The sorting exercise.

In the beginning when You created;The earth was formless and desolate.

In the beginning was the Word;and all things were worded into being.

In the beginning, was the Word;And all being was worded into world.

The Word was with You in the beginning:And Word-less, nothing is nor can be named.In the beginning when You created;The earth was formless and desolate.

In the beginning was the Word;and all things were worded into being.

In the beginning, was the the Word;And all being was worded into world.

The Word was with You in the beginning:And Word-less, nothing is nor can be named.

Genesis 219 So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner.

God is effectively saying Look at the varieties here. What do you make of them? How do you see them? How are you going to classify them? and this is something to be celebrated rather than rued as a curse following on from the disobedience of Woman (later Eve) and Adam.

Adam gives names to the animals

Naming seems to me to imply, in one sense, contemplation. If you want to name something, that is to give a name, you have to sense it, feel it, hear it, taste it, move with it, smell it and/or look at it. You have to become familiar with it as a whole entity and you have to see it in relationship to other things and decide just what those relationships are.

Naming ...

Naming... we have to decide what the 'object' actually is. ... The word which we may translate into English from some languages as 'hand' may actually in some cases also normally include in its meaning what we would label 'forearm'. ... how we group things together or distinguish things from other things. If we label something as a 'finch', that is sufficient to distinguish it from 'warblers' or 'buntings' or 'sparrows'. But if we put it alongside certain other birds, we might want to look for further distinctions and name further using labels such as 'chaffinch' or 'bullfinch'. ...

Naming:

In Surah 2, v.31 the Qur'an reads in English

Allah taught Adam all the names of everything.

This takes us on a rather different trajectory of thought from the Genesis version. It seems to me that the Qur'anic version could encourage an approach to naming, knowing and taxonomy which is all about finding, preserving or even perhaps imposing a single naming, one way of knowing, a sole taxonomy. In the Hebrew Bible, in our canon, God allows Adams names to stand. Adam names something and that was its name.

... It is not imposed by God on Adam, but instead God is happy for, gives space for, Adam to have his own ideas and then to endorse them. The Genesis picture is friendly towards the observation that human signs are, in the naming of semiotics, unmotivated, that is arbitrary. ...

Adam gives names to the animals

The Genesis story then, is giving us in embryo the namings that human culture brings to us through art and science. Art automatically gives us perspective from which to view certain things. For example, there is a way of looking at particular incident from scripture in a piece of art such as we get in the Sistine Chapel, for example, the artwork offers us particular interpretations. It offers us the fruit of the contemplations of an artist both of 'a something, of the materials being worked and the contextual issues of production and sharing. A work of art, in a sense, offers us a name for something. It is in a sense a kind of name in itself: a 'name' that is a painting, a sculpture, a piece of music, a poem, a dance, a novel or a play.

In the beginning when You created;The earth was formless and desolate.

In the beginning was the Word;and all things were worded into being.

In the beginning, was the Word;And all being was worded into world.

The Word was with You in the beginning:And Word-less, nothing is nor can be named.In the beginning when You created;The earth was formless and desolate.

In the beginning was the Word;and all things were worded into being.

In the beginning, was the the Word;And all being was worded into world.

The Word was with You in the beginning:And Word-less, nothing is nor can be named.

Thinking about culture ...

culture

This is my own attempt at a graphic 'definition' of 'culture'. ...I THINK it works and I think it may be generative ... appreciate thoughts after consideration ...

The intersection of three basic things .... (see next slides).

Thinking about culture ...

WORLD:Events,environment & artefacts

Waysofthinking

practicesculture

Thinking about culture 1/3 ...

Events,environment & artefacts

Waysofthinking

practicesculture

Invention of transistors

Invention of gunpowder

Lisbon earthquake

Warm climate (streetlife)

Thinking about culture 2/3...

world

Waysofthinking

practicesculture

Eating habits

queuing

Taking turns in conversation

Listening to music

Thinking about culture 3/3 ...

World

Waysofthinking

practicesculture

Individualism

hierarchical

egalitarian

non-violent

pluralist

Thinking about culture starting with an artefact ...

World:artefact

Waysofthinking

practicesculture

Cheap, (affordable), mobile telephony

Phone calls all over the place. Decline of landlines and payphones.

More spontaneous? Sense of connection and availability

Thinking about culture starting with an event ...

World:an event

Waysofthinking

practicesculture

Lisbon earthquake

Loss of confidence in providence.

Deism & atheism grow in plausibility

Churchgoing etc falls

Thinking about culture starting with a practice ...

world

Waysofthinking

practicesculture

Listening to music, alone

Music as 'private space'

'wired for sound'

Thinking about culture starting with a way of thinking ...

World

Waysofthinking

practicesculture

democracy

Voting, elections, plebiscites ...

Parliaments,ballot boxes,returning officers ...

Thinking about culture starting with your idea ...

World

Waysofthinking

practicesculture

Thinking about culture starting with your formative social experience ...

World

Waysofthinking

practicesculture

experience

exploration

(theological) reflection

Planning /action

The pastoral cycle -for theological reflection

Some (all?) should be somewhat familiar with this. Quick recap -use (handout?) unemployment example.NB unemployment is a cultural 'thing'.

Experience => 'text' or 'artefact'

The pastoral cycle -for Cultural analysis

Apologies: We interrupt your service to bring you an emergency definition of terms ...Note that this starts with Exploration -> 'text' or 'artefact'. The next slides move us into definitions of those terms. There is a handout to go with them.

text. /tkst/, n ....

In the context of cultural studies, the idea of a text not only includes written language, but also films , photographs, fashion or hairtstyles: the texts of cultural studies comprise all the meaningful artefacts of culture.Excerpted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_studies 31/03/2010.

Pause to make sure this is understood.

Note background in Cultural Studes -genesis in English department and applying the techniques of literary analysis to non-written texts.

artefact /tifakt/, n ....

A cultural artefact is a human-made object which gives information about the culture of its creator and users. ... The usage of the term encompasses [what] is recovered at archaeological sites; however, man-made objects of modern society are also cultural artefacts. ... a television is an artefact of modern culture.From http://www.statemaster.com/encyclopedia/Cultural-artifact accessed 31/03/2010

Check understanding.

Note overlap in meaning with 'text'. Anthrropological and archaeological origins.

EXCURSUS

CON/TEXT

NT word: only found in NT -twice. How might we work out what it means; how to translate it?

EXCURSUS

CON/TEXT

Word is:

EXCURSUS

CON/TEXT

To translate we need to:look at contexts (in passage, intertextual, cultural background, etymological etc)And at related issues in 'target' language.

Descriptions of popular culture

Identifying relevant questions and norms from religious traditions

Mutually critical conversation: pop culture and religious tradition

New insights for belief and action

Lynch's cycle -for Cultural analysis(p.108)

Some (all?) should be somewhat familiar with this. Quick recap -use (handout?) unemployment example.NB unemployment is a cultural 'thing'.

Experience => 'text' or 'artefact'

Exploration=>of context, backgroundsociology etc

(theological) reflection

Planning /action

The pastoral cycle -for Cultural analysis

Some (all?) should be somewhat familiar with this. Quick recap -use (handout?) unemployment example.NB unemployment is a cultural 'thing'.

Experience => 'text' or 'artefact'

exploration

(theological) reflection => relating 'exploratory' matters to theological considerations

Planning /action

The pastoral cycle -for Cultural analysis

Some (all?) should be somewhat familiar with this. Quick recap -use (handout?) unemployment example.NB unemployment is a cultural 'thing'.

Experience => 'text' or 'artefact'

exploration

(theological) reflection

Planning /action => how we respond Christianly

The pastoral cycle -for Cultural analysis

Some (all?) should be somewhat familiar with this. Quick recap -use (handout?) unemployment example.NB unemployment is a cultural 'thing'.

Experience => 'text' or 'artefact'

Exploration=>of context, backgroundsociology etc

(theological) reflection

Planning /action

The pastoral cycle -for Cultural analysis

On the basis of what we've done so far, what kinds of things might we bring to bear to generate and elucidate a description of a cultural text or artefact?

Some (all?) should be somewhat familiar with this. Quick recap -use (handout?) unemployment example.NB unemployment is a cultural 'thing'.

5 Questions ...

1. What do sunglasses assume about the way the world is?2. What do sunglasses assume about the way the world should be? 3. What do sunglasses make possible? 4. What do sunglasses make impossible (or at least a lot more difficult)?5. What new culture is created in response?

http://www.culture-making.com/five_questions/sunglasses

What are our answers?

Compare with the handout ...

Some (all?) should be somewhat familiar with this. Quick recap -use (handout?) unemployment example.NB unemployment is a cultural 'thing'.

5 Questions ...

1. What do/es ... assume about the way the world is?2. What do/es ... assume about the way the world should be? 3. What do/es ... make possible? 4. What do/es ... make impossible (or at least a lot more difficult)?5. What new culture is created in response?

http://www.culture-making.com/five_questions/sunglasses

What about our own examples of cultural texts or artefacts?

Some (all?) should be somewhat familiar with this. Quick recap -use (handout?) unemployment example.NB unemployment is a cultural 'thing'.

Methodological Coda: Guidelines for Everyday Theological Interpretation of Culture

See handout.

Look at the guidelines.

Have a go at using with the texts /artefacts already used in class today.

Between sessions ...

Look at the reading (handout). Esp Barthes

Choose a cultural artefact /text and prepare to guide the rest of the group into what you've found using the 5 Questions (L6) or the 10 guidelines (L7).

You'd have 5 mins.

And finally ....