#2 Preamble to #3

It’s been almost 12 months since I wrote that first post on the Mexican fisherman and the MBA graduate. It was very much written from intuition, and, as one can see, with a felt “longing of some distant echo that has been lost”.

I have been on quite a journey of discovery since then, just uncovering the landscape on the ideas behind that intuition and longing. The discovery is not over – it still feels like a beginning, but this is a journey to be shared. So in the next post (#3), I do a high-level flyover of this landscape to show the scope of the blog and to identify the start of research threads that others could pick up if I get hit by a bus. (Why is it always a bus?).

The blog will drill down on the themes and resources used in the flyover and flesh them out and discern what it means for the here and now. But I will break a number of blog “rules”.

Rule #1: Have an ‘avatar’ in mind as your target audience.
Well, this is good advice, but I don’t have an avatar. Instead of generalities, I have specific people in mind – friends, acquaintances and family who have patiently listened, showed interest, and engaged with me on this rather nebulous thinking; and have encouraged me on the journey. Thank you to those on a recent trip to Canada for lively discussion – I’ve come back determined to put down this info as a result of those serendipitous encounters in a movie theatre in Halifax, on a boat to Vancouver Island, and in an Irish pub in Banff.

(Having said this, my millennial oldest son thinks I could picture my ideal reader if I was forced to. His feedback to me was quite good so I include it as follows: “I think maybe you do have an avatar. I would suggest your avatar is an intelligent adult named Hope who seeks her own flourishing and that of those around her. She craves stimulating thought about how to operate meaningfully within her life in a first world community and looks to tenets of Christian spirituality to help her navigate this challenge. ” Not bad.)

Rule # 2: Keep it simple and in bite-sized soundbitey chunks.
Also good advice. Simplicity comes towards the end. I’ve always thought that those that truly know their subject can distill it down and make the complex simple. Well, as I am at the beginning of this journey, I am far from having that expertise. But I welcome you on the journey to simplicity as together we draw out the gold. Chip Heath from Stanford contends that simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, a measure of credibility, emotional impact, and vivid exemplifying narrative all give an idea more impact than the truth of the idea. There are a lot of ideas out on social media that fit this criteria and so accepted as truth, but are not. In contrast, he says that ideas that are more complex, seemingly banal, or abstract, only equally credible, dull, and lacking a fascinating story, can’t compete – even if true. I will try to bring in story, personal reflection and questions to try to make these ideas as exiting on the page as I think they are. But beware: I will bring in ideas that do go contrary to accepted worldviews, but please persist with me. And there is a lot to cover: The flyover, as you will see, shows this blog won’t focus on one small area, but tries to address a large but interconnected journey of inquiry.

Rule #3: Write from a neutral position.
Another admirable rule particularly given our tendency to bias from “system 1” thinking as defined by Kahneman. (System 1 is shortcut thinking – a bit like this sentence.) However, as philosophers such as Gavin D’Costa illustrate, there is no neutral position or set of criteria on which to stand to arbitrate between worldview, because such a set of criteria becomes a worldview in itself. One has to make assumptions at some point in order to make sense of any system of thought (Gödel’s incompleteness theorem). It’s better to declare one’s presuppositions, assumptions, and epistemological stance upfront, and to let all ideas contend in the marketplace of ideas.
Therefore let me declare that I write as someone who is convinced by the witness of history and my own expertise that Jesus’ life, death and resurrection has been the defining event of history. In my blog I hope to show how this changed society at the deepest levels of consciousness and has been the single most creative cultural, ethical, aesthetic, social, political, and spiritual force in history (thank you, David Bentley Hart for these words).

Having said that, I will, however, challenge some of the syncretism with Hellenistic thought that many Christians hold today – 2000 years can add a lot of “lenses” to how we see the world.

Rule #4: Understand how to make money.
Again good advice, particularly as I have to live somehow. For now, let’s just say that I am cashing in my financial capital to form social and Kingdom capital. As we will see, everything that the Christian community brought into being (Hospitals, Orphanages, Schools and universities etc) did not only not have a business case, but were radically counter-cultural.

So enjoy the blog, and join with me in the discussion on what this means for the South East of Brisbane, and the unfolding story as this thought takes shape.