At Years End, the Series
I cannot believe I am saying this, but we are fast approaching the end of yet another year. And it seems that if there was one apparent trend over the course of 2022, it would be the multi-post series.
A number of themes that have spanned over more than a single blog post. Some were planned to that way, while others unexpectedly grew into a series over the course of writing.
In the course of weekly updates, it can get difficult to keep track of various series, so I thought I would bring together this year’s serial posts in one place. I have laid them out here in reverse chronological order, and regular readers might recognise some of the themes:
Cyberpunk: This four-part series was a response to watching Netflix’s Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. What was originally conceived as a single post grew into a series of four, and focussed on the underlying philosophical commitments that ran through the series. The first post looked at elements of French Personalism, while the second went on to consider the threads of the philosophy of the Romantics. The third took a turn to look at the metaphysics of possibilism, where what could be became a more fundamental reality than what was actually there. The series then wound up by looking at how nihilism was woven through the previous posts.
Streamlining: This two-part series was borne out of a thought experiment that looked at our culture’s tendency towards streamlining and the elimination of complexity. It began with just pure speculation on my part, that a link exists between the imperative to streamline and the culture of death. It went on to reference some theoretical work to underwrite this speculation, with particular reference to the sociologist and theologian Jacques Ellul’s The Technological Society. The focus here was on his theory on technique, which was “totality of methods rationally arrived at and having absolute efficiency [...] in every field of human activity”.
Two Priests in “Babette’s Feast”: The other two-parter looked at the theme of priesthood as covered (albeit very obliquely) in the classic movie Babette’s Feast. I say obliquely because, as mentioned in the posts, the topic of priesthood was never raised, and neither of the two characters chosen for analysis, Babetter Hersant and Lorens Loewenhielm, are themselves priests. Yet in their own subtle way, they highlight two important aspects of priesthood, namely the expense of self for another (which participates in Christ’s own kenotic priesthood) and the naming of things for what they are (which participates in the first Adam’s act of naming the creatures, thereby transforming creation’s posture to God).
Liquid Bodies: This three-part series of posts picked up on the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman’s use of the term “Liquid Modernity”, and was inspired by Angela Franks’ amazing couplet on the subject in Notre Dame’s Church Life Journal. The series began with a look at the metaphysics of bodies in postmodernity as written things, followed by another concerning the way postmodernity regards bodies as deposits of potential, rather than having any dense reality of their own, which concluded in the third post with the consequences of this metaphysics, namely the dissolution of the body as a mere plaything.
Secular Ecclesiologies: The inspiration behind this unexpected three part series was some extended time spent waiting on a flight and ending up in the various places and connective tissues that are now de regueur in airports. The underlying commitment was that, as William Cavanaugh once argued in his Theopolitical Imagination, there are formations and institutions which behave for all intents and purposes like churches, holding within them a secular parody of that branch of theology on the Church called ecclesiology. The series began with a reflection on airline lounge, followed by another on food courts. The bonus third episode looked at the subtle ecclesiology at work in trains, which are a mainstay of life in Sydney, where I spent a good deal of my professional life.
Porn is Not…: This three parter began as a single post and grew into a series a few years later, and sought to counter some of the common misconceptions on the point of pornography (mind you, this series is also embedded into other posts on the topic of pornography as a theological problem). The first countered the idea that pornography was about sex; the second post interrogated the idea that pornography was erotic; while the third looked into the impression that pornography was about bodies.
Renewal: This last three-part series was written at the start of the year, and focused on the hope for renewal that often accompanies the beginning of a year, especially following two hard years in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The series began with a reflection about conceptions of time, particularly time as appointed by God. The next two looked at how our drive for independence - and the cultural imperative towards new beginnings that come with it - leads us to ironically repeat the very things we are trying to escape from; that pair of posts ended with Luigi Giussani’s reflection on how it is the dependence of God that forms the proper basis on which genuine renewal is built.
These themes will be built upon and grow as the research on each theme develops, especially as we head into the new year, but I hope you find the exercise of putting them in one place helpful.
On the subject of the new year, this will be the final post for 2022. We at Awkward Asian Theologian will take a break and return to our usual posting in January. We thank our regular readers and a special thanks goes to our Patreon supporters.
Please keep a lookout on your socials on Facebook and Twitter for updates in the new year. Be assured of our prayers and we will see you all bright and early in 2023.
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