Here is a beautiful video that features the music of Seattle Band, Barcelona. It is mesmerizing!
Friday, November 5, 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
John August Swanson
I love the work of John August Swanson. He is a visual artist with gift for capturing scenes of procession, joy and community. His work is copyrighted so I cannot show it here, but here are a couple of links:
In my classes, I often use his image of the "Festival of Lights". For some reason, I think of this as a Los Posadas procession. (I wonder if I remember that from his comments at a conference where I heard him speak about his work because it is not in the description of the painting.) It is a dual image for me. First, this image speaks of the importance of theological education. Education is never just for the personal enrichment of the student, or it shouldn't be. All education is for the benefit of others. I think of my students as preparing to go back out into the world as a procession of lights. A powerful image.
Second, this image reminds me that as we are in the world, we need to keep asking the question: "Is there room for Jesus to be born here? Is there room for hope to be born and thrive here?" Do we believe that hope is possible? I am reminded of a phrase from James Houston: "When you are in an age of darkness, light as many fires as possible." This image shows something of the hope of this statement.
Enjoy! And be one of the people bringing light and hope to the world!
-Chelle
In my classes, I often use his image of the "Festival of Lights". For some reason, I think of this as a Los Posadas procession. (I wonder if I remember that from his comments at a conference where I heard him speak about his work because it is not in the description of the painting.) It is a dual image for me. First, this image speaks of the importance of theological education. Education is never just for the personal enrichment of the student, or it shouldn't be. All education is for the benefit of others. I think of my students as preparing to go back out into the world as a procession of lights. A powerful image.
Second, this image reminds me that as we are in the world, we need to keep asking the question: "Is there room for Jesus to be born here? Is there room for hope to be born and thrive here?" Do we believe that hope is possible? I am reminded of a phrase from James Houston: "When you are in an age of darkness, light as many fires as possible." This image shows something of the hope of this statement.
Enjoy! And be one of the people bringing light and hope to the world!
-Chelle
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
My New Book; as if I have an old one...
Most of the authors met at the Lausanne Conference in Malaysia. (I'm the only one that didn't go...) On the way home from the conference a few of them asked the question, "Do I want to be an evangelical?" Out of this came a set of articles in The Other Journal dedicated to this question: Earth to Christians. Mark Russell, one of the original crowd, thought that this conversation would be a good book, so voila! here is the fruit of this original question.
I guess we all want to remain evangelical, in one way or another, because we spent the time writing this book. We even got together for a writing a few summers ago in order to all talk face to face about our chapters and our visions for the future of evangelicalism. It was a good time, though very tiring. We laughed a lot, cried a bit and, from time to time, fought passionately about our ideas. We, for the most part, agreed about the need for more conversation and flexibility within the tradition. We also agreed that the church needs a more robust understanding of God as Trinity and we need to live in the world in an attitude of humility and love of neighbor. What we disagreed about were the specifics of how this happens within the community of the people of God. But conversation is a very good place to start. Conversation about our passions, our difference and our commonalities (especially our love for God and God's love for us) is a vital key for creating community. If evangelicalism it going to not only survive but also thrive and flourish, then broader and more open conversation is needed to establish trust in the ranks. I tend to think that God is really the answer to all the questions but we are a diverse and creative people. Because of this, we are all called to take part in the formation of the church, the 'how' of this call on our lives to be the people of God.
The authors are Allen Yeh (he teaches at Biola), Michelle Sanchez (she is a pastor in Boston), Mark Russell (a missiologist, who writes and teaches about micro-finance in the two-thirds world and how business and missions can work together to help two-thirds world economies), Dwight Friesen (who teaches with me at Mars Hill Graduate School) and me, Chelle Stearns.
What did I write about in my two chapters? Worship and the Holy Spirit. Ahhh, for a really robust doctrine of the Holy Spirit within our understanding of the workings of the church!
So, look out for Routes and Radishes: and other things to talk about at the evangelical crossroads, Zondervan, 2010.
I for one benefited from conversing with this small group of theologians and pastors. Who are you talking to about these issues?
Peace,
Chelle
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Steve Reich
Right now, this very minute, I am procrastinating. I am suppose to be writing a book review. This book is all about music. In fact is a broad sweeping portrait of Western art music, which was developed over the course of the second millennium.
Ruth Katz, the author of A Language of Its Own: Sense and Meaning in the Making of Western Art Music, touches on key turning points in the formation of Western music. By the time she gets to the twentieth century, yes the century of Arnold Schoenberg!, she tells a tale of the primacy of self expression for the creative genius/composer, the dissolution of traditional musical unity (via triadic tonality) and, most importantly, the fissure between the composer and the audience. In other words, by the end of the nineteenth century, composers had became so obsessed with originality, creativity and self-expression ("But art belongs to the unconscious! One must express oneself! Express oneself directly!" Schoenberg in a letter to Kandinsky) that audiences just didn't get what was going on. Concert goers began to disconnect and stop attending performances of "new music."
As I was contemplating this, I was reminded of an interview with Steve Reich (contemporary American composer) that I had heard a number of years ago on Terry Gross's "Fresh Air." It is a delightful interview with Reich explaining his various compositions and thoughts about the various techniques that his uses. Along the way he tells a number of funny anecdotes, highlighting both the difficulty of performing and listening to his music.
My favorite story is about a performance in 1973 of Reich's Four Organs. This was not the premier of the work but, instead, a more mainstream performance at Carnegie Hall in NYC. This simply meant that the audience was more conservative--preferring Mozart or Beethoven--and did not know what they were getting into. Evidently, there were three distinct moments when concert goers attempted to stop the performance. At one point a woman walked down the center aisle, banged her head repeatedly on the stage and wailed, "Stop, stop! I confess!" Ah, twentieth century music. Who says audiences don't get into this music? I would call that extreme audience participation. When is the last time you felt motivated to run down to the front of the stage at a classical music concert (no, I don't include the last U2 concert you attended!).
Anyway, for anyone who is interested, I thought that I would include a link to Terry Gross's interview with Steve Reich. It is well worth the 40 minutes of your life, even if you dislike Reich's music. However, you may be surprised!
Oh, and look for my book review in Book & Culture sometime in the future.
Enjoy!
-Chelle
Ruth Katz, the author of A Language of Its Own: Sense and Meaning in the Making of Western Art Music, touches on key turning points in the formation of Western music. By the time she gets to the twentieth century, yes the century of Arnold Schoenberg!, she tells a tale of the primacy of self expression for the creative genius/composer, the dissolution of traditional musical unity (via triadic tonality) and, most importantly, the fissure between the composer and the audience. In other words, by the end of the nineteenth century, composers had became so obsessed with originality, creativity and self-expression ("But art belongs to the unconscious! One must express oneself! Express oneself directly!" Schoenberg in a letter to Kandinsky) that audiences just didn't get what was going on. Concert goers began to disconnect and stop attending performances of "new music."
As I was contemplating this, I was reminded of an interview with Steve Reich (contemporary American composer) that I had heard a number of years ago on Terry Gross's "Fresh Air." It is a delightful interview with Reich explaining his various compositions and thoughts about the various techniques that his uses. Along the way he tells a number of funny anecdotes, highlighting both the difficulty of performing and listening to his music.
My favorite story is about a performance in 1973 of Reich's Four Organs. This was not the premier of the work but, instead, a more mainstream performance at Carnegie Hall in NYC. This simply meant that the audience was more conservative--preferring Mozart or Beethoven--and did not know what they were getting into. Evidently, there were three distinct moments when concert goers attempted to stop the performance. At one point a woman walked down the center aisle, banged her head repeatedly on the stage and wailed, "Stop, stop! I confess!" Ah, twentieth century music. Who says audiences don't get into this music? I would call that extreme audience participation. When is the last time you felt motivated to run down to the front of the stage at a classical music concert (no, I don't include the last U2 concert you attended!).
Anyway, for anyone who is interested, I thought that I would include a link to Terry Gross's interview with Steve Reich. It is well worth the 40 minutes of your life, even if you dislike Reich's music. However, you may be surprised!
Oh, and look for my book review in Book & Culture sometime in the future.
Enjoy!
-Chelle
Monday, September 6, 2010
John Cage
I really don't know if anyone is reading this blog, but I'll put stuff up from time to time. I have another class blog. I just wrote a post about the composer John Cage. I thought it was a good crossover to this blog, so here is the link:
http://thetheologicalmosaic.blogspot.com/
Who knows what life would really be like if we lived into chaos more. Madeline L'Engle talked about the task of the writer as that of creating (shaping) cosmos from chaos. I wonder if that is really what Cage is doing, or did he just like chaos for the sake of chaos...
http://thetheologicalmosaic.blogspot.com/
Who knows what life would really be like if we lived into chaos more. Madeline L'Engle talked about the task of the writer as that of creating (shaping) cosmos from chaos. I wonder if that is really what Cage is doing, or did he just like chaos for the sake of chaos...
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