Friday, March 30, 2012

The Triduum Tragedy


Herr Ei had been for some time seeking an appropriate mechanism to dip his parts in oil.


However, unbeknownst to him, the Triduum machine had a tragedy in store.

Children on the streets of London recount this story in considerably greater detail each Triduum, in the hopes of collecting enough Lenten guineas to buy their chocolates.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Hurdy Gurdy Liturgy

The musicians have heretofore only preformed for the world; the point is to rock it. (True translation of the 11th Feuerbach thesis)

Saturday, March 24, 2012

If the Trojans had been Victorians in Jerusalem.

Friday, March 16, 2012

A Canadian Reading Slavoj Žižek

The only way Canadians are allowed to read Slavoj Žižek

Thursday, March 15, 2012

His disciples use steam pipes



We have, in our most recent traversing of a ley line, happened upon an alternate narrative, where the followers of Christ have received a slightly redacted version of the gospel of Matthew, but with dramatic results. 


The last verse of their gospel, which they take very seriously, and invest considerable funds and artistry fulfilling, reads, 


"Go therefore and make pipe organs for all nations, forced air contraptions that might glorify in glorious sound the one whose name is Father, Son, and Holy Steam."

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Crossing the Secular


Steampunk Theology is Punk

There's no getting around that a big part of steampunk, especially in its cinematic iterations, is about style. It's about the cool factor, the best example of which are the recent Sherlock Holmes movies.

In other words, it is about the steam, and the brass, and the alternative histories proceeding from a specific past--but steampunk is also about the punk. It's cool, and cool specifically in the way a nerd can beat you up with his or her toys is considered "cool."

Which begs the question how theology can be steampunk. Is there any value in offering theology a cool factor. Is patina a theological category? Is theology a style?

I think the answer, if we are honest, is yes. Various theologians gain a certain caché if they can convince their readers that they are moving forward, theologically speaking, out of an alternative and reconstructed golden era. Radical orthodoxy is like this, with its constant references back to Duns Scotus.

Then there are the Barthians. Or the two authors of this blog, both of whom would like to see theologies based out of St. Maximus the Confessor on the ascendancy. Let's not even start talking about Whitehead.

Theologians do the steam punk thing especially by name dropping. Clergy do it with their clothes (and so quite like the actual steampunk movement).

But the real question is, does this patina matter for the substance, or is it "only" patina.

Here, steampunk offers an insight. For steampunk, the patina is the substance. What you see is what you get. One might say the same for steampunk theology. It isn't just that theologians like to drop names, it is that those names matter, and quick references to them dredge up whole alternative trajectories that those in the know, know.