Religious Faith and Spiritual Experience

The book Mysticism and Sacred Scripture is summarised on infinibeam as follows:

This is the fourth volume in an influential series that presents a basic revaluation of the nature of mysticism. Each provides a collection of solicited papers by noted experts in the study of religion. This new volume will explore how the great mystics and mystical traditions use, interpret, and reconstruct the sacred scriptures of their traditions.

It is also the book that’s arriving next week from Amazon. I was lucky enough to have had Mysticism and Language prescribed for me to read last year. I found Katz’s work so inspiring I went on to purchase the rest of the series – Mysticism and Religious Tradition and Mysticism and Philosophical Analysis. A few weeks ago I found a second hand copy of the fourth book and promptly ordered it.

It may be one hell of an ugly book cover but I really can’t wait to get into it!

BaT Design

I really love the creative process – from concept to frustration to fruition. Here’s the logo for my design company. Both Bev and I have been thinking for a long, long time about doing more design work. We’re finally stepping up to the task!

Associate Editor on the DFV

I’ve told a number of my friends and associates about a project I’m working on – the DFV (Divine Feminine Version – a version of the NT that is gender-inclusive in reference to humanity and feminine in reference to Godde). A large group of individuals have been contributing for several months now and a core team has emerged. I’ll be continuing as part of that team as an Associate Editor. We’ve recently set up a WordPress blog for The Christian Godde Project.

Now I know from face-to-face conversations with a lot of my friends and associates that a lot of people are unhappy with me for two reasons: 1) adopting the word “Godde” in place of “God” and 2) participating in a version of the NT that is opting to render references to Godde in the feminine.

I’ve been quiet

There are definately times in life when real world conversation takes precedence over online conversation and this has been one of those seasons for me. This post is personal rather than abstract and I’m guessing that this year many of my posts will also be personal rather than theoretical.

I’ve finally settled on a Masters in Theology, or rather the sub-discipline focusing on Christian Spirituality. I’m going to be doing some grounded research into people’s actual experience of Godde today – not what the Bible says or the theory that we talk about but the actual in’s and out’s of what people’s relationship with Godde looks like in practice. The goal is to understand how better to enable small and medium sized gatherings of people to pursue intimacy with Godde together.

So this year I’ll be doing all the background reading I need to, designing and testing the interviews, and then doing interviews with a small group of people. Next year I’ll be submitting all of that as my ‘research proposal’ (Which is the bulk of the work) and producing my thesis.

A couple of us have also been talking through the Divine Feminine Version of the NT, or DFV. You can read up a bit about at the website. At this stage we’re working toward a version of the Gospel of Matthew. The goal is to gather support and criticism for the project to shape it to be the best it can be. I’m looking forward to us ‘getting there’ so that we can go further with it.

Research Paper: Our Experience of Godde

I am planning a research paper on our experience of Godde. A core part of the Christian faith is our relationships with Godde and I am keen to delve into the depths of our unique experiences. I’m interested in looking into what this relationships actually looks like in our lives. There are a number of things we believe, things we should say, things we ought to experience – but what are our actual experiences? what does the actual relationship, our own unique one, actually feel like? what does it mean to us? what does it look like?

Understandably information at the moment is a little sketchy as it is still work-in-progress.

Though quantitative data will play a supportive and balancing role, this will essentially be a qualitative research paper into our experience of the trinity. Anyone interested in participating may contact me. I will spend the next month (i.e. mid-March to mid-May) preparing the actual questions and would look to do the bulk of the research over June and July

You may participate through two avenues:

1. On the internet via a form (possibly PDF, possibly a Website Form)
2. Through a one-on-one in-depth interview

I look forward to hearing from you

Our Father Who Art in Heaven

Last week our home group session focused on The Lord’s Prayer. We printed out a few different translations of the Matthew 6:9-13. Then we chopped them up and made sure that each verse was together in all the different versions. We shared out the verses among us, with each person or couple reading the verse they held in the different translations. Then we each had to personalise that particular verse, i.e. we had to use our own words and not quote a translation.

Girls can’t throw!

It has been said that “…the gender-neutral language is driven by those who demand that we be politically correct and sensitive to gender issues” (Makkai in Pothress and Grudem 2004: xxi) and is an unnatural driving force (Makkai in Poythress and Grudem 2004: xx-xxii). Is this the case?

I was first introduced to the so-called ‘politcally correct’ language in Std. 3. (Grade 5) I was told that “Girls can’t throw.”

This was a categorical statement from adults. The plain truth, however, was not only that “Girls can indeed throw a ball” but further that they could several could in fact through a ball harder, faster, further and more accurately than a number of the boys. Despite noting the rather blatant discrepancy between the stated truth versus the actual truth I was labelled precoscious. It would seem that this is once again happenning in reference to opening up our language in reference to God toward the gender inclusive “Godde” and further toward openness to the feminine in Godde reflected in us.

The Divine Feminine NT Study Bible

There are a number of gender inclusive translations available. The idea behind them is to render masculine references understood as generalisations not specifically intended to reference a male in gender inclusive ways. They still refer to Godde in the masculine and retain masculine and feminine pronouns where applicable. There has been considerable controversy surrounding the debate.

Wayne Grudem has an MP3 available around the controversy along with a book he wrote with Verne Poytheress (cover to the right). The MP3 is just over an hour long and 10.3mb, so it’s worth downloading and listening to for anyone who’s interested in the debate. My copy is only arriving the end of January so I’ll share some more thoughts after I read it.

Gender inclusive translations include the Good News Bible, the New Living Translation, the Revised Stand Version and Today’s New International Version.

To date there is no translation that refers to Godde in gender inclusive terms. I’ve recently joined a project that intends to reference Godde in the feminine. Our intent is to provide a translation of the NT to enable people to relate to Godde through feminine. We see this as an additive and alternative to other translations available.

In addition to the translation project we’ll also be publishing a collection of essays around the gender issues and Godde. We’ll explore male and female as the image of Godde along with Godde as fully masculine, fully feminine and yet transcending both. We’ll also briefly delve into feminism and egalitarianism among other specific issues relating to gender inclusivity and the gender of Godde. Additionally we’ll delve a bit deeper into the controversy and argue positively for the inclusivion of feminine and gender inclusive language in reference to Godde.

As a banner term we’re calling the project “The Christian Godde Project” and using the following two summaries to set out that the scope of this project includes:

• The Divine Feminine Translation: a free translation of the New Testament, gender inclusive in reference to humanity and feminine in reference to Godde.
• Godde – the divine feminine: A collection of essays exploring humanity as the image of Godde and of Godde as fully masculine, fully feminine while transcending both.

I’d love to hear thoughts on this project, so please post them. Also suggesting specific issues you’d like covered would be great.

We’re currently recruiting people for the project, so if you’d like to contribute to a project of this nature please contact me and we can pick the conversation up from there.

Great Discoveries

I made two great discoveries over the December period.

Vibram FiveFingers. Seriously butt ugly but equally comfortable. They’re the best footwear ever – next to the foot itself that is. I generally wear Merrells because they’re the most comfortable allround footwear ever, that is until now. My shoe of choice for the last 3 years has been the Chameleon Stretch. Now I’ve ‘upgraded’ to these ugly beauties below:

The second discover I’ve made happens to be the most awesome chocolate. Generally I’m a chocaholic. The Lindt Excellence Chilli is so awesome. Dark chocolate with a chilli bite to it.

My feet have a new level of comfort and my taste buds a new level of pleasure. Life is good.

Studyplans

Life has been busy recently leaving little time for personal blogging. The end of my Honours is on the horizon and I’m busy meeting with a number of people around planting a church.

I’m in the mids of preparing for two written exames – Religion in Private and Public Life and Contemporary and Alternative Religious Traditions. In the first I’ve focused on mysticism and the second on the the New Age, esoteric and the occult. Both subjects have been a lot of fun.

I’m also intent on doing a Masters next year focusing on Mysticism. I’m currently trying to decide whether to do the Masters in Religious Studies or in Theology. Both give me the option of focusing on mysticism. I’m currently waiting to hear from a couple universities about the way forward.

Any thoughs would be appreciated.