Yesterday Jude and I went to the Dickens Fair at the Cow Palace. We danced, ate bangers and mash, and Fagan offered to take the young lad off my hands. It was a jolly good time, and it stimulated thoughts on ritual space and our desire to participate in a collective story.
Aside from the actors, the crowd was a mix of steam punks, neo-Victorians, Dickens fanatics, and families who were looking to have a good time on a Saturday afternoon. As we entered into Victorian London, each group was given a ritual space to enact their different sub-cultural identities. Steam punks could visit the legion fantastique. The neo-Victorians could meet the queen herself. While the dickens fans took photos with Pip, Mr. Pickwick, and The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, families took their children to meet father Christmas, and enjoyed hot apple cider.
Each group sub-cultural narrative was incorporated into a larger narrative through the division of space. Together these groups created a an imagined version of Victorian London. Ultimately we want to maintain our individual identities and participate in and even enact a larger story. The Dickens fair allowed those who attended to do just that.
Two questions for the church: 1. Can we make use of ritual space help individuals become participants in the larger story of the missio Dei, while maintaining their own identities? Have you come across any creative attempts at this? 2. What role can narrative theology (particularly the idea of theodrama ) play in interpreting other enacted communities (from comic-con to biker rallies)? In other words can a theology be deducted from the performance of identity?
Hey Jimmy. JT here. I don't know what your questions mean, but I do like stories. I especially like Victorian stories (Phantastes), and even Victorian poetry (George Meredith), and Victorian preachers (JC Ryle) too. I just got a book called Victorian People and Ideas: A Companion to the Reader of Victorian Literature. It will probably be very boring, but I think it will make other reading very not boring. I know your entry isn't about Victorian things, but that was on my mind. What do you think about the spiritual direction England took before and during the Victorian period and the fruit it bore, especially compared to France? France gave us more elegant equations, paintings, and poems than England did, but the London Missionary Society gave some far away places some really good news.
ReplyDeleteSorry the questions weren't clear. I have gotten accostemed to using academic jargon and its hard to back off sometimes. All I meant was: 1. how do churches use physical space to help people enter into the larger story of Christ and his church?
ReplyDelete2. Can we get to peoples understanding of ultimate concerns/God by which story(ies) they are acting out? Vanhoozer sees theology almost as a script for participating in the divine drama of redemption. I wonder if we take this idea can we work backwards. Can we work out the script from watching part of the play?
Know back to the Victorian's. I am a fan of Dicken's though he can be unnecessarily wordy, and overly sentimental. George McDonald is great and his influence on Chesterton, Lewis, and Tolkien can't be overestimated. Chesterton himself bridges the Victorian and Edwardian periods and he is one of my favorite authors.
When it comes to the religious legacy of Victorian England I think of the rise of evangelicalism in England. Spurgeon, the modern missions movement, and social movements like abolition, temperance, etc. I think that the worldwide evangelical movement was really forged in 19th century, so we owe these pioneers a great deal. We definitely wouldn't have a conference like this year's meeting in Capetown without them.
However, we can't accept the Victorians uncritically. The intertwining of missions and colonial power often had devastating long term effects both spiritually and economically on colonized peoples.
Thanks Jimmy-Cool. Space? Don't know much. Our church has a bunch of paintings in it that some of our people did. They are great paintings. While our pastor was preaching through the Revelation, my friend Dan sketched 10 of the stories. They hang on the wall and remind me of how the world will end.
ReplyDeleteBy 'the stories they're acting out' do you mean the way they live? If so, sure. Watch how they live and it'll tell you what they think of God. I get an A+ for that one.
Haven't read Dickens. So many words! You know, I'll have to get back to you about the intertwining after I finish this book. I've been reading "On the missionary trail" lately. It tells the story of a small deputation of London Missionary Society workers who were sent to all of LMS's outposts to encourage and bring a report. I think a lot missionaries unnecessarily got the blame for the mis-deeds of their countrymen. British whalers who had been dreaming of meeting Tahitian women were enraged to find they had all become pious. When they returned to England they slandered the missionaries for it. Tennyson wrote romantic poems about virgin Tahiti and said bad things about the missionaries. But he had never been there. The converted Tahitians thanked the missionaries for helping them stop infanticide and war. They even gave the LMS a bunch of coconut oil so that they could afford to reach more islands.
JT, out.