SCM Press is having a great sale that I recommend to persons (in the UK) interested in modern theology (via Andy). I especially recommend checking out the Radical Traditions series, all of which is on sale. This series is edited by Stanley Hauerwas and Peter Ochs, and includes some great texts along contemporary 'postliberal' lines, especially for those concerned about Jewish-Christian theological engagement.
Take Halden's advice - support non-conglomerate book publishers!
The April issue of Studies in Christian Ethics probes the concept of 'managerialism' and its (largely negative) relation to Christian identity. The papers collected here were given at the 2007 Annual Conference of the Society for the Study of Christian Ethics. Having been present, I definitely recommend reading the pieces by Wannenwetsch and Milbank - Mike Budde's and Richard Roberts's papers should also prove worth a read (though I'm shooting from the hip here; what Roberts did at the conference could hardly be called 'giving a paper'!).
Wannenwetsch and Milbank's essays are substantive analyses of existing theological and practical trends of commodification of the Gospel, though from very different angles - namely, strong Protestant (where has the externum verbum gone?!) and Anglo-Catholic (whither the Word's embodiment?!).
Allen Verhey - 'Manager and Therapist as Tragic Heroes: Some Observations of a Theologian at a Psychiatric Hospital'
Bernd Wannenwetsch - 'Inwardness and Commodification: How Romanticist Hermeneutics Prepared the Way for the Culture of Managerialism - A Theological Analysis'
Christine Gudorf - 'Managerialism and Charisma in Catholic and Pentecostal Churches in the Americas'
Richard H Roberts - 'Personhood and Performance: Managerialism, Post-Democracy, and the Ethics of "Enrichment"'
Eve Poole - 'Baptizing Management'
Michael Budde - 'The Rational Shepherd: Corporate Practices and the Church'
John Milbank - 'Stale Expressions: the Management-Shaped Church'
Of course these lame celeb-award ceremonies are notorious for mixing legends with newcomers, usually for the worse. But first Springsteen, now Bowie? - it speaks volumes about the band, and this time the organizers were right on.
I'm blogging to plug the brand new Colour Revolt record. Colour Revolt is the first band I 'signed' when I attempted to foster a coalition of local artists, in a way-too-DIY fashion, into a 'label'. That short-sighted venture became, under the far superior monetary and visionary expertise of Chaney Nichols, Esperanza Plantation. Colour Revolt has (co-?) released their newest album with the MS blues-inflected label Fat Possum Records (Andrew Bird, Townes Van Zandt, Dinsoaur Jr.).
The new album, Plunder, Beg and Curse, is a consistent maturation of that brilliant blend of sombre, intelligent grit-rock that those of us who know the band have come to expect. Each song threatens a deluge of well-structured beauty or chaos; most songs deliver on both. The Fat Possum bio does justice to this album: '...there's a lot of guitars in Colour Revolt. But they're not dumb guitars.... It's pretty sometimes, sure, but it doesn't do to leave gorgeous alone, and sometimes you have to punch the blushing bride in the face'.
This isn't 'strum hard and titillate' pseudo-rock. Pluder, Beg and Curse does both, at times, but only in the context of the brilliant whole where intricate and exploratory guitar work, a sound, innovative rhythm section, and vocals which can howl or whisper merge to offer reflective and forceful re-narrations of the human predicament. Lyrically, the album is both deeply religious and 
fittingly secular, for as the opening track has it, 'Eden is a hell of a place.'
All that to say, upon the 10th solid listen, there's no criticism I can yet muster. If rock and roll runs through your veins in any measure, give the opening two tracks a try here, or sample the whole and take the plunge here at the brilliant emusic.com. It's in stores April 1.
Just wanted to m
ention that I'm in a (somewhat self-imposed) writing crunch right now, and have no "plan" to blog more regularly. I'm also trying to get an old essay or two polished up for possible publication. Things are coming along nicely with my doctoral thesis - the end of my opening chapter on Barth's theology of the powers is at least in sight, which means that Yoder can be glimpsed on that same horizon. For that, I'm grateful.
The spring term has gotten off to a great start, but has enough distractions of its own: namely, Brian Brock's survey of the Tradition of Christian Ethics, which I'm sitting in on for education and edification, and which is immediately preceded by either a Systematic or Practical Theology seminar. Both of the latter have some great readings lined up, and I'm theoretically frustrated - but, for time's sake, pragmatically thankful - to have to choose between them. Yet I'm both intellectually and pragmatically grateful for the chance to read some Charles Taylor (on secularity and religion) once a month this term, under the judicious guidance of Phil Ziegler.
On to music: I have to mention that Molly and I just bought Boxer by The National (which got Paste's top album of 2007; incidentally, I asked for 6 of their top 10 for Christmas, and am also enjoying in that regard the latest from The Boss, Modest Mouse, and Iron and Wine) and Feist's The Reminder, both of which are quite phenomenal albums as a whole. Next purchase: the latest from Cat Power.
So, take heart: if you have to waste away on the web, there's plenty to hear and see; you'll get all the theo(b)logy you need from Ben, Halden, and Rev. John Wright (who remain my favorites), some good political commentary from 'strong democrat' Benjamin Barber, some lovely sights at JPG magazine, and some healthy late-modern criticism from the wonderful Immanent Frame, where Talal Asad, and even Taylor himelf, show up from time to time. But keep me in your google-readers, if you want; I haven't decided to delete this bad-boy yet.
UK celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has been recently entangled in a bit of a PR-broil with his main source of income - Sainsbury's - after publicly declaring his confusion as to why they would not turn up for a debate on factory-farmed chicken. He's now apologized in an open letter to Sainsbury's staff, noting that he has always valued their commitment to animal welfare and that his words were taken out of context. If one reads the letter, it seems clear that Oliver meant what he said, though the Mirror article skewed his real emphasis on the state of the industry. This line from the letter particularly caught my eye: 
"I am proud of my longstanding relationship with Sainsbury's but it certainly wouldn't be right if I couldn't be seen to be questioning any of the supermarket's standards.' Makes you wonder how much corporate pressure was put on Oliver for expressing sentiments that might affect company profit.
Oliver's 'manifesto', as the Mirror reported it, revolves around the following:
Change law so egg products like mayonnaise, say whether they are battery, free range or organic.
Supermarkets must end food price war which doesn't work and isn't sustainable.
Farmers making 2p a chicken is just ridiculous.
There has to be a stigma attached to bargain chicken.
Public should buy British food and search out Union Jack to stop undercutting from foreign producers.
Demand better standard of life for chickens, with RSPCA sanctioned conditions and a naturally growing bird, not one that matures at 38 days.
High street shops - from fast food to sandwich bars and restaurants - must specify where chickens are from.
At any rate, the naked chef's investigation of battery-reared industrial chicken airs tonight on Channel 4 at 9 pm. I urge you to watch.
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In book news, Duke theological ethicist Amy Laura Hall's long-awaited manifesto of reproductive bio-technologies - Conceiving Parenthood: American Protestantism and the Spirit of Reproduction - is finally out. View details and order here.
Most of you are aware by now that Steve Holmes, theology prof. at St. Andrews, is now blogging. He has an excellent series of reports on Bruce McCormack's excellent lecture series given recently at Prof. Holmes' home-university, the first of which can be found here.
Paul Molnar and George Hunsinger are weighing in there as well, attempting to defend the ancient faith. I haven't made up my mind about this whole how-to-read-Barth-on-the-Trinity game, but I can say that McCormack severely impressed me, despite my initial indifference to a novel "Reformed" position and worries about a nominalist re-assertion of the ultimacy of the eterneral divine "decree". His thoroughgoing desire to think with Barth (and with Barth, through Hermann, Dorner and Ritschl) to a post-metaphysical theology is something we shall all at least learn from.
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