Prodigal Kiwi(s) Blog

Dave Andrews: Following Jesus…

I’ve valued the Jesus-following journey embodied by Australian Dave Andrews. I’ve valued his books (the first one I read being Christi-Anarchy),and the good number of interviews I’ve listened to over the years. I also had the privilege of reading a Masters thesis, which centered on Andrews and the Waiter’s Union in Brisbane. 

About Christi-Anarchy Mike Riddell writes:

'This book is a radical but loving reconstruction of the movement of Jesus Christ, in protest against its distortions.  Dave Andrews, one of the leading prophetic voices of our time, brings all of his passion and insight to bear in a way, which will both disturb and inspire. Christi‑Anarchy has that uncomfortable air of a message crying out to be heard, and I hope it is widely read.'        

Mike Riddell, Author, alt.spirit@metro3, Threshold of the Future: Reforming the Church in the Post-Christian West, and the bestselling Godzone  

The lads at Nomad (UK) recently interviewed Andrews. Here’s their promo.

“Dave Andrews has committed his life to serving the poorest and most marginalised people through small, local Christian communities. He's clearly a man who knows Jesus intimately, and has gained tremendous experience and wisdom. So why doesn't he consider himself, or even strive to be, a 'great man of God'?” 

You’ll find the Nomad nterview here. 

Miroslav Volf – Exclusion and Embrace…

I recently caught up on this Australian Big Ideas feature on Miroslav Volf and his work on Exclusion and Embrace. It first aired on the 26^th March 2014.

“Professor Miroslav Volf presents the idea of loving embrace as a theological response to the problems of alienation. This embrace is based on remembering events and actions truthfully and appreciating the position of people who have wronged you. And Miroslav Volf goes even a step further: He wants us to remember past wrong doings as already forgiven.”

You’ll find the podcast here. 

Unlocking Attachments

“Contemplation is the key to unlocking the attachments and addictions of the mind so that we can see clearly. I think some form of contemplative practice is necessary to be able to detach from your own agenda, your own anger, your own ego, and your own fear.

I find most people operate not out of “consciousness,” but out of their level of practiced brain function, which relies on early-life conditioning and has little to do with God encounter or grace or mercy or freedom or love. We primarily operate from habituated patterns based on what Mom told me, what went wrong when I was young, and the defense mechanisms I learned that helped me to be right and good, to be first and famous, or whatever I may want to be. These are not all bad but they are not all good either. 

All of that old and practiced thinking has to be recognized and accounted for, which is the work of contemplation. Without contemplation, you don’t see clearly. Everything is all about you, and you just keep seeing everything through your own agenda, anger, and wounds. Isn’t that most people you know?  Few ever achieve much inner freedom. Contemplation, sadly, helps you see your woundedness! That’s why most people do not stay long with contemplative prayer, because it’s not very glorious. It’s a continual humiliation, realizing, “Oh my God, I did it again. I still don’t know how to love!”

We need some form of contemplative practice that touches our unconscious conditioning, where all our wounds lie, where all our defense mechanisms are operative secretly. Once these are not taken so seriously, there is finally room for the inrushing of God and grace!”

Richard Rohr - Adapted from Hierarchy of Truths: Jesus’ Use of Scripture.

Learning to Rest

Via Simon Carey Holt. For the rest of the letter go here.

If You See Something Mysterious Today

Via Jason. 

Embracing the ‘other’ in love, truth and grace - interview with Miroslav Volf - part 1

Today an excerpt from Part 1 of a two-part interview. The subject of the interview is Miroslav Volf. The interviewer is Gordon Preece. 

“…Gordon Preece: In Exclusion and Embrace, you paraphrased Paul in Rom. 12 about leaving vengeance to God. You contrast a university common room setting of abstract academic debate of this issue with the actual genocidal situation taking place, when you were giving the lectures in the Balkans. How does this work out in relation to people who have endured horrendous wrongs?


Miroslav Volf: People who have endured horrendous wrongs want the injustice against them met, and they want the perpetrators of that injustice stopped, they don’t want it to happen to others, and they don’t want it to happen again to them. They want, ultimately, for the victimiser not to triumph over them, and I think that’s the role of God’s judgement, and that’s also the role of leaving vengeance to God. Exactly how God avenges the wrong, we may debate, but a setting in which a moral order which has been disturbed profoundly by violation of somebody’s rights by oppression is reasserted and re-established, that kind of transformative judging and redeeming action of God, is fundamental if there is to be hope for a world of love. 

So, judgement and the vengeance of God, and therefore from our side, fear of God, are fundamental in bringing about a world of love. I wouldn’t want it otherwise. I wouldn’t want anything [evil] that’s crawling on the face of the planet now to find its way back to ruin that world of love. So the transformative, purifying judgement of God is a condition of the world of love. In a small way we each experience that when we embrace faith, and when we are given a new birth in baptism we die, and we are raised again as new persons. Each repentance is a form of incarnation of that final judgement, turning away from sin to do righteousness…”

You can read the all of part 1 of the interview here. 

'Tikkun Olam' —To Mend the World: A Confluence of Theology and the Arts

Today, I want to highlight another theology book (pub. 4^th December 2013). This time one edited by Jason Goroncy, a friend teaching out of Dunedin, on my home island. 

While I’ve yet to read the book, I’ve been looking forward to its publication as I had the privilege of attending the conference from which the papers (largely) that make up this collection were delivered. It was a really special time, and I’m delighted both to see the papers I particularly valued in a published format, but also to seeing them reach a wider audience. The title of the book was the title of the conference, and the papers focus on the confluence between the arts and theology. I might get a chance to review it in due course, albeit it won’t be a critical review. 

The conference also featured a special screening of the outstanding NZ movie The Insatiable Moon that I understand you can find on iTunes. Watch the film and read the book for a multisensory experience! 

The book – 'Tikkun Olam' —To Mend the World: A Confluence of Theology and the Arts is described in this way: 

"Tikkun Olam"—To Mend the World is premised on the conviction that artists and theologians have things to learn from one another, things about the complex interrelationality of life and about a coherence of things given and sustained by God. The ten essays compiled in this volume seek to attend to the lives, burdens, and hopes that characterize human life in a world broken but unforgotten, in travail but moving towards the freedom promised by a faithful Creator. They reflect on whether the world—wounded as it is by war, by hatred, by exploitation, by neglect, by reason, and by human imagination itself—can be healed. Can there be repair? And can art and theology tell the truth of the world's woundedness and still speak of its hope?” 

Jason highlights the “Contents” of the book here. He includes a brief section of the Introduction.  My notes from the 2011 conference can be found here, here, here, and here. 

Freedom at Work: A Conversation with Peter Block.

My friend Len Hjalmarson introduced me to Peter Block a few years ago, specifically to his book Community: The Structure of Belonging (pub. 2009). The book was described in this way:

“…Modern society is plagued by fragmentation. The various sectors of our communities--businesses, schools, social service organizations, churches, and government - do not work together. They exist in their own worlds. As do so many individual citizens, who long for connection but end up marginalized, their gifts overlooked, their potential contributions lost. This disconnection and detachment makes it hard if not impossible to envision a common future and work towards it together. We know what healthy communities look like--there are many success stories out there, and they've been described in detail. What Block provides in this inspiring new book is an exploration of the exact way community can emerge from fragmentation: How is community built? How does the transformation occur? What fundamental shifts are involved? He explores a way of thinking about our places that creates an opening for authentic communities to exist and details what each of us can do to make that happen.” 

Since then, he’s written a couple of other books. Most recently a revised and expanded 2^nd edition of his book Stewardship: Choosing Service over Self-Interest (pub. May 2013). 

It’s this latter book that is the focus of a Sounds True conversation between Tami Simon and Peter Block. 

“…How do we create organizations that work for everyone? What’s the true role of the person called “the boss?” How is the concept of business stewardship different from our traditional notions of leadership? Where can we find true freedom in the workplace? Peter Block is a bestselling author and business consultant who teaches about chosen accountability and the reconciliation of community. Tami Simon speaks with Peter about these questions and more in a business conversation unlike any you’ve heard.” 

Here’s a couple of quotes strung together (a little bit of paraphrasing too):

“...Leadership is to initiate an alternative future. It’s an act on intention, an act of creativity…the task of leadership is to figure out the question we need to be asking and exploring together… The question is more powerful than the answer… A good question works on you…it opens space for other possibilities, for the unseen, and for alternative futures and possibilities…” 

You’ll find the podcast here. 

Simon Carey Holt - Eating Heaven: Spirituality @ the Table

Simon Carey Holt’s latest book was launched in Melbourne on the 8^th October. It’s titled Eating Heaven: Spirituality at the Table. Simon, “a trained chef, teacher, social researcher, minister of religion and homemaker, draws on experience and research to explore the role of eating in our search for meaning and community. To do so, he invites us to sit at the tables of daily life – from kitchen tables to backyard barbecues, from cafe tables to the beautifully set tables of Melbourne’s finest restaurants – and consider how our life at these tables interacts with our deepest values and commitments.” 

The book is described in the following way: 

“Sitting down at a table to eat is an activity so grounded in the ordinary, so basic to the daily routines of life, we rarely ponder it beyond the simple inquiry, ‘What’s for dinner?’ However, scratch a little deeper and you discover in eating one of the most meaning-laden activities of our lives, one so immersed in human longing and relationship that it takes on sacred dimensions.” 

Tim Costello the CEO of World Vision Australia commends the book with these words: 

“'Eating Heaven' is a soulful reflection by a man who savours Melbourne as a city. He explores it through the way people share food and table together. Through stories, reflections and recipes, he warms the heart, feeds the body and nourishes the soul.” 

You can find a PDF here, which includes the contents page and chapter 1. Purchasing the book can be done via its Australian publisher, the same publisher that gifted us his wonderful and award-winning earlier work God Next Door: Spirituality and Mission in the Neighbourhood. 

I’m looking forward to reading it in due course. 

A Work in Progress...Learning to Live Gratefully

Today, on a cloudy overcast spring day, a TED talk by photographer Louie Schwartzberg. Schwartzberg introduces a film project he’s working on by means of a wonderful short film narrated by Benedictine monk David Steindl-Rast, author of Gratefulness: The Heart of Prayer, a profound book that that has touched many.

Steindl-Rast and Schwartzberg have also combined to offer a forthcoming book A Good Day: A Gift of Gratitude (Nov. 2013), which is described in the following way:

“This moving gift book truly stirs gratitude for the gift of life and the everyday wonder and beauty of nature. It pairs one of today's most uplifting poems—the Internet phenomenon “A Good Day,” written by revered spiritual leader Brother David Steindl-Rast—with images by acclaimed filmmaker Louie Schwartzberg. Perfect for graduations, birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays—or just as a gift for someone you love—this inspirational package includes not just the book but a DVD with two short films by Schwarztberg (including Gratitude) and Brother David's own A Good Day video. The last page has a link to the “A Good Day” audio track, which you can use to create your own video or slide show on what you are grateful for.”

Now, as you watch the following film become mindful that “today is a gift that was given to you, and the only appropriate response is gratitude.”