A friend put me onto this fantastic resource recently called Beyond Belief - http://beyondbelief2006.org/. It is a website which features the lectures given at a conference recently relating to the relationship between science and religion (from a 'conflicting worldviews' perspective largely in favour of the later). It features most of the big names in the ‘New Atheism’ movement and gives a great introduction to their thinking. There is approx. 16 hours of lectures.
In short, I think that their critique basically works in relation to any religious system which sets itself up as a metanarrative. I just think that the view of religion expressed here is based upon the same ontological conditions as the science they affirm... something I would like to question. More on this at another time!
With the idea of revelation as rupture (see previous posts) the notion of a religious service is radically transformed. Often an evangelical church service is designed to bring clarity to those who attend. At least this is the point of the sermon which often seeks to expound upon a piece of scripture, showing how one can apply it to daily life. This approach operates from the idea of revelation as manifestation and can be caricatured (although the truth is often pretty close to this) as a talk with three points all beginning with the same letter and delivered in such a way that the listeners are left in little doubt as to what the bible is really saying in relation to a certain issue.
The role of the pastor is thus a mix of bringing clarity to the text (for instance, telling us what the parables really mean) and translating the scriptural message into a contemporary setting. In other words, the message of the bible is believed to be monolithic and relatively clear to anyone who reads it with the help of the Holy Spirit (a heavenly hermeneutic procedure that treats the text as a book i.e. as a singular message). In a more post-modern terminology this is about rendering the presence of God into a metaphysics of presence.
For those involved with forming post-secular faith communities (often called emerging cohorts) the role of any particular gathering is rarely about bringing clarity and ideally never about outworking singular interpretive strategies. Rather there is an embrace of what may be called ‘transformance art’. Transformance art seeks to create a context which invites revelation. It seeks to do this insomuch as it endeavours to employ ingredients such as music, art, poetry, prose, pillow fights (you would understand if you had been at the last ikon), ritual and reflection to form a rich new wine that ruptures the old wineskins of our current thinking and praxis. Much like the films of David Lynch the best question at the end of an ikon gathering may not be ‘what does it mean’, but rather, ‘how have I been moved, challenged and changed in the engagement’.
By attempting to decentre interpretive strategies through the formation of a theodrama which immerses individuals in a tactile-audio-visual context, transformance art seeks to evoke an openness to respond to others and that Absolute Other many of us call God.
This is what I call ‘transformance art’ and it is, I would tentatively suggest, a new art form (derived from very ancient Judeo-Christian ideas) which the emergent cohorts are experimenting with and which may well change how we structure faith communities in the 21st century. It may also mean that more faith gatherings take place in venues like art galleries rather than church buildings.
