geez and experiments in truth

i was contacted by geez magazine a while back to ask permission to use a photo. i was delighted to be asked having heard good things about the magazine (and pleased that that is the third magazine i have had a photo in this year). well yesterday a copy dropped on the doormat. hailing from canada, it looks great, is intelligent, funny and poignant. a couple of the people working on it have done time with adbusters which didn't surprise me - it has a similar feel. on the 'feel' of the magazine the eds replied in the letters page to someone who didn't like the name by saying that they wanted a name that suggests they are in the realm of religion but not in a typical way, that the exploration of topics is more like saturday evening over beers than sunday morning with its strictures. each issue has a theme. the current one is inspired by gandhi's notion of experiments in truth (which i was inspired by in mark scandrette's book a couple of years back) - put legs on an idea try something out such as downward mobility or sit in public, see what happens. don't just sit there theorising. the magazine is like greenbelt - i.e. it's a space in church life where you actualy feel good about being a christian rather than embarrassed if you know what i mean. the magazine has been running a daringly awkward sermon contest - 300 words only. the nest issue will have a bundle of winners.

on the subject of magazines conspire also looks like an interesting new zine on the block birthed out of the simple way community - a different approach to how the economics and distribution works, with communities subscribing to be able to distribute it free having signed up and agreed to donate towards it as a community.

we are doing our own experiment in truth again this week - off to run dekhomai at the london mind body spirit festival chatting with, listening to, praying with, massaging feet of, making prayer bracelets with, doing jesus deck readings for visitors to our stand. the experiment? take christian spirituality out of the church box and into the spiritual marketplace and join in with what god is already doing... if you pray, do pray for us. we hope the 'energy is strong' in our booth :-)

Comments

[emma]

Good work! Geez has some great articles. Conspire is a really nice little zine too - I had my first photograph used in a magazine when issue one of Conspire used one of my photos. Really great feeling!

[Sue]

The question remains where does Truth come from?

It certainly does not come from the usual self-possessed undisciplined every person who writes such zines, or struts their stuff on Face-book, You-tube etc.

If you examine the Great Tradition you will find that all of the Sacred Texts were written by men (and sometimes women) of great Spiritual Experience and Wisdom. More often than not they were Realized Saints, Yogis, Mystics, or Sage.

Put in another way all of the great religions, and the various esoteric practicing schools, and monastic communities within the Great Tradition, were founded by men and women of authentic and hard won Spiritual Experience and Wisdom. Which they demonstrated in their personal lives, and to such a degree that they were able to inspire others to accept their guidance and discipline.

Such people, and the highly structured disciplined communities that they founded were thus also the sources and inspiration of all authentic culture.

True culture comes from no other source. It never has, and never will.

[jonny]

that's an interesting view of culture and tradition. i don't really agree with such a static view of culture. those people who we now look to as great and traditional and spiritual were once edge people who upset the tradition with their new ideas and 'heresy' as they sought to follow christ in their culture to bring newness where the tradition had become deadened. i have written about newness and tradition in several places but one example is here - http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/preachingworship/worship/somethingoldsomethingnew.html

in cultural studies culture is seen as a site for contested meanings. new ideas are good but they will only last if they have weight and depth. this is very different to older ideas around high culture being formed by a group of elitists who control the wealth and arts. the church is sometimes in danger of leaning towards this older view - culture formed by experts of the tradition. i think an interplay is far more healthy. even rowan williams in his intro to mission shaped church recognises that renewal comes from the edges hence the need for fresh expressions. so we need to create an environment where there is permission for creativity around the edges rather than one of tight control.

[matybigfro]

Sue I'm not sure to what you refer by the "great tradtion" but I think in the Christian and Jewish Scritpures and tradtion flys very much in the face of the idea that truth is something achieed by human effort and discapline.

Many of the acclaimed voices of the christian scriptures were not great examples but mere humans. Take King David who as a young man was said to have a heart after the lords and yet in older years commited murder, adultery and other acts that hardly demonstrated 'Spiritual Experience and Wisdom'. Yet he is akey figure in both the Jewish and Christian traditions is writtings through out his life are a standard of worship, meditation and devotion.

[Lon]

Geez rocks, it's a canadian product i'm proud of... congrats on the photo!