Disappointing Stories 1 (Campmeeting 2014)

Hello again.  This week we begin Thursday's discussion, picking up some questions from our discussion of the Great Controversy and exploring history.  Our main question is: how do we live after disappointment?  After loss?  After evil?  How we answer this question matter immensely.

This week we talk about the Israelites, Jesus, 1844 and Louis Riel as well as the relationship between our stories and the story God is telling.  Thanks again for listening.

Please send us your questions and comments.  We love expanding the conversation.

Enjoy!

Disappointing Stories 1

Foundational Stories 1 (Campmeeting 2014)

We're back!  I (David) apologize for the lack of a podcast last weekend.  I was preaching at my local church and forgot about the podcast entirely.  If you're interested, let me know and I can post a link to it.

This week begins the second session from our Story presentations at Campmeeting 2014.  We entitled it "Foundational Stories."  Underlying the small stories we tell are larger stories about what stories are and how we should relate to them.  Technically, this can be termed "foundational philosophy."  To begin the presentation, Dale and I talked about how each of us began to grapple with foundational stories through our own (academic) experiences.  This is one of my favourite presentations because we lay out many of the guiding ideas that have shaped the rest of our thought.  It's great listening to it again and being reminded of these things.

I hope you enjoy listening.


Foundational Stories 1

Getting Lost In Our Stories (Campmeeting 2014)

In today's podcast, we explore some different ways we can relate to our stories and how that impacts on our lives.  Although we've covered these ideas in previous podcasts, this presentation allowed us to put a number of ideas together in an interactive venue.  We wonder through Gonzales, Alford and the Great Controversy asking questions like:

Why do we get lost?
What happens when we get lost?
How can we get lost in our everyday life?
How can we get lost in our stories?
What does it mean to live in a "found" way?

We're looking for our other set of recordings which hopefully have the various audience questions, but in the meantime, I cleaned up the audio as best I could.  Thanks again for listening and enjoy!  Part 2, the audience participation portion, should be available next week.

Getting Lost in Our Stories

Living with Different Stories (Campmeeting 2014)

Great news!  Over a year later, I've finally found the recordings of our "Story" series of presentations from Campmeeting 2014.  The format is quite a bit different from our usual discussions--we had a plan for what we wanted to say, rather than simply discussing questions, and we had some good audience involvement.  Although we've covered much of the content elsewhere, these recordings are very different because we're trying to connect a lot of our ideas together into a more coherent series of presentations.  I'm working on cleaning the recordings up for posting over the coming weeks.

To begin with, I was finally able to track down the recording of our Sabbath morning presentation at The Wave from Campmeeting 2014.  We had a lot of fun with this presentation.  This episode, we talk about the difficulties we face when we start with different stories, and how that has impacted Dale and I on a personal level as we have worked and traveled together.

Thanks for joining us.  Enjoy!

Living with Different Stories

PS: If you have trouble keeping up with us on Facebook, you can subscribe for email notification of new podcasts via the box to the right of this post.

Also, if you've enjoyed our podcasts, please check out our new blog How Shall We Read?  We've decided to spend some time studying and discussing the question of Biblical hermeneutics (interpretation) while our church is doing so at a global level.  This is a question of importance for all Christians and Adventists--not just academics--so we will be reading and writing easy-to-understand (hopefully) summaries and analyses of relevant material.

Whose Community? Which Story? (WO) (Campmeeting 2015)

Today is the final episode we recorded at Campmeeting this summer.  It sounds a little different because we recorded at the bottom of half ledge after spending about ninety minutes rock climbing.  There are occasionally people passing by and background noise, as well as a few guests.  Don't worry, though, the mic picked us up loud and clear.

This time we focused on a major issue in contemporary Adventism--the vote about Women's Ordination at the 2015 General Conference.  While this is the main topic, our thematic focus is the question of "who decides which story to tell about our community?"  In turn, what does that story mean?  And, how is that decided?  These questions of community narrative and identity have much larger resonances than a single vote about how to include women in our community and impact on how we view our own relationships to the community in light of various stories being told.  The discussion is by no means finished within Adventism.

Thanks for listening and enjoy!

Whose Community? Which Story?

Community Stories (Campmeeting 2015)

In this session, recorded on the Thursday of Campmeeting, we explore the difficulty and necessity of telling community stories--stories about who we are together.  This begins with a brief summary of Derrida's discussion of hospitality and the competing needs for clear boundaries and for open boundaries.  This is the difficulty of telling our stories and sharing them with others, without become bound to them in unhealthy ways.  Of course, the discussion is much more interesting than this brief synopsis.  And yet again, we have a few guests sitting in on the recording.  Please join us.

Thank you for listening.

Community Stories

In other news, Dale and I are putting together a new blog project.  In the aftermath of the 2015 San Antonio General Conference, our Adventist world church has committed to an in-depth study of hermeneutics (basically rules and methods of interpreting the Bible).  Our interpretations of the Bible profoundly impact our picture of God and the way we live as Christians.  Our plan is to provide a series of concise summaries of relevant Adventist materials for those who may not be so inclined to academic studies.  Stay tuned for more information.

Belonging Without Belonging (Campmeeting 2015)

This is our Tuesday podcast from Hope Campmeeting.  After our opening discussion, we turned to one of the questions Dale raised: Why is it that we can belong to a community for years and yet lack any real relationships with the people in that community?

We explore this through Homi Babha's idea of the unhomely--the ways in which we avoid the hard reality of encountering people who tell different stories than us, varying conceptions of community and society, and through Donnie's questions about privilege--about the ways in which we fail to attend to the specifics of our belonging in a particular group of people.

Thanks again for listening and enjoy!

Belong Without Belonging

Community Questions (Campmeeting 2015)

It's been a long time since Dale and I have recorded together, but we finally sat down at Hope Campmeeting this year to explore some ideas we both been thinking about.  Our central focus is community--what is it?  how do we build it?  what are barriers to community (particularly within Adventism)?  More specifically, we focused on the connections between boundaries, identity and stories and how our conception of those can help or hinder deep and meaningful relationships.

For each of us, this discussion sprang out of significant personal experiences in the past year or so.  We start by talking about those experiences and the questions raised.  That discussion leads into a rather wide-ranging consideration of various themes and struggles in living together and relating to those with different stories.

As the week went on, we dove directly into specific questions raised in this opening discussion and got to share the experience with some friends who came along for the ride.  I will be posting those as I get time, over the next few weeks.  Thanks for listening and enjoy.

Community Questions (CM2015)

Difficult Beginnings: Living After Loss

Taanshi! Anosch ga-achimon apishiish por ma parantiiy, por la nasyoñ di Michif, pii toñ nistwer-inaan, la bataayd  batosh, lii zanii nwer, pii taanshi kaa-ishi-pimaachshiyaahk avik ooma listwer.  Apre, ga-wiitamaatin por kotak li mooñd - nitshiyiniwak eekwaniki wiishtawaaw, maaka pahkaan - lii adventist, pii taanshi kaa-kii-ishi-machipayihk soñ nistwer-awaaw.  peeyak keekwaay itaakwan daeñ lii deu - li vaeñ deu li mwaa'd oktob - maaka sa praañ kiyawiya chii-peehtaataman!

Hello! In this podcast we look at the question of founding trauma - the impact a difficult beginning can have on a people later on.  We have an idea that the beginning is a very good place to start for a very good reason, and that as communities, we often don't look at our own beginnings critically enough in terms of considering the negative consequences those beginnings can have on how we function in the present.  We do this through bringing together two stories, two communities, that come together on a single date.  These communities are both important to me, in fact, I am a part of both of them - the Métis Nation, and the Adventist Church, and the date that brings them together (slightly roundabout) is October 22nd, 1844. From here on in the stories continue on the recording.

     Difficult Beginnings

(Note: At one point I said "wife" when I meant "daughter".  There's probably other errors as well, but I figured this one was worth clarifying).

(Note 2: The top half of this post is in the Michif language - relevant considering the subject matter of this podcast.)

Thinking about Community: Applying Lessons from Language Revitalization to Faith Communities

I (Dale) spent the last two weeks recording Nuxalk in Bella Coola, while also working with language teachers towards understanding the steps to making the language a part of everyday life - making a community around the language.  The process brought to my mind many questions about community building in general.

Some communities are incredibly resilient in the face of outside pressure, while others melt away. Yes, you can blame the pressure, but when you look at a range of situations, the key factor seems to be not the amount of pressure on the community, but the stories that the community uses to hold itself together.  Kill the stories, and you destroy the ability to resist.  Take away the language, take away a voice, then teach a new language and a new voice--new stories--and recovery becomes very challenging.

This means that the strength of a community is in its mechanisms for passing on stories, for using them, for speaking--the strength lies in the community's ability to make those stories central to life.

In this podcast, we look at the idea of "church"--asking why and if church is working, assuming that the role of church is to build and strengthen a different kind of community rather than just be a window dressing for an already-existent community. I bring my experience working with language revitalization to bear on the question of the purpose of education, community, and what a recognition of this purpose means for how we regard gathering together.

   Listen to "Thinking about Community"

A question to get us started - what is the "work" that we do at church? what is it we accomplish, what are we trying to accomplish, how might we better pursue those goals?

Spectrum Review Part 5: Reflections on the Journey

This podcast closes our coverage of the 2013 "A Third Way" Spectrum Conference.  We've already covered the meetings and highlighted some of the ideas and speakers that stood out to us.  This week we decided to just share our stories and reflections on the journey across the border to Chattanooga--being Canadian in the South, the effects of sleep deprivation on Dale, observations of America from the outside, and finding yourself among family on the other side of the continent.  This was definitely the most fun we've had recording in a while.  I hope you enjoy it as well.

I don't know what we'll be talking about next week, but we already have a list of topics stored up from the conference and before.  Needless to say, we'll probably be referring back to our time in Tennessee for sometime to come.  In the meantime, enjoy.

Spectrum Review Part 5

Nietzsche, Paul, Story and Practice: Spectrum Review Part 3

This week we look at a few different things, continuing on the theme of language or story breaking down.  David briefly presents his experiences reading Nietzsche and how his writings kept taking him back to Paul, then we look at the question of how the way we live can be at odds with the stories we tell  We look at this question in the context of two of the other roundtable discussions from the Third Way Conference, on Adventist story-telling and on the history of pacifism within Adventism.  Both are examples of how the stories we tell, or forget to tell, can stand at odds with how we view the world based on our beliefs and lifestyle choices.

Specturm Conference Review Part 3

Our question this week - what are stories that you were told as a child that did not mesh with the way your family lived, or with the beliefs you were raised with?

Daily Transformation Roundtable Discussion

This week we continue from last weeks discussion, exploring some of the practices and stories we use to negotiate life--to live by wayfaring, to keep growing and moving forward.  Over the past weekend, I had the opportunity to attend a holistic (brain) health conference  in Vancouver which was quite interesting.  There were various speakers on addiction, brain health, yoga, breathing, etc.  One of the main presenters spent much time talking about how interconnected our bodies and minds are--if your brain is injured, it can have a profound influence on behaviour.  Conversely, healing your body can also heal your mind.  In our discussion, we range across the spectrum, from more physical practices to attitudes and perspectives that help us embrace change. 

Thanks again to our campmeeting guests.  This is the last of the campmeeting podcasts, so we won't have any more up until after the AF conference in the beginning of September.  We should be picking up our regular Monday release schedule by mid to late September.

Enjoy!

Daily Transformation Roundtable

Reading The Bible as (Non)fiction: Why Interpretation Matters

Well, for those who said they don't always have time to listen, we're late this week.  It's been a busy and crazy couple of days, so I apologize for the late post.

This week is the first of a set of podcasts exploring the Bible as nonfiction.  This particular podcast grew out of discussions I have had on Reddit about reading the Bible.  When I was writing my thesis, I had to wrestle with the concept of nonfiction and the common idea that "nonfiction" can be opposed to "fiction" in the way that "true" is opposed to "false" or to "lie".  Some thinkers go so far as to argue that nonfiction is always fiction to begin with.  The point is not that there isn't a difference, but that nonfiction, like fiction, is a creative expression, rather than an actual reproduction of events.  For my thesis, I was interested in nonfiction as a story which demands recognition for the particular way it orients itself to a shared reality.  In other words, there is something different between merely telling a story and saying this story happened to me (or someone I know).  The latter demands a different kind of response.

So, this week, we take up questions some of our awesome listeners have asked about objective truth and the use we make of the Bible.  I realize this may be a little difficult for some of you to grapple with, but I hope you will bear with us at least through this week and the next as we explore what this means in terms of Bible study and interpretation.  How we understand the Bible makes all the difference and is shaped by our own experiences.  Imagining things to be otherwise denies our experience and stories (our testimony), leaving us in a frighteningly lifeless place.

Enjoy:

Reading the Bible as (Non)fiction: Why Interpretation Matters

Next week, we will look at some practical ways of applying this orientation to the Bible and life.

Freedom as Responsibility: David's Thesis Part 1

Release fail.  I apologize.  I've been sick and largely incapable of useful thought for the past few days, so the release is late.  Sorry.

This week is the first part of a discussion Dale and I had about my MA thesis.  If you're interested in reading it, let me know, but I will warn you that it is a dense 100 pages of critical theory.  This is the much simpler version.

In my thesis, I explored three wilderness nonfiction books: Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild, Peter Gzsowski's The Sacrament, and John and Jean Silverwood's Black Wave.  My question was "what is at stake in these stories that they each operate, at least partially, in an apologetic (explanatory) mode?"  My summary statement was that I was exploring "freedom as responsibility grounded in a recognition of mutual vulnerability and enacted as a contest for meaning."  The project allowed me to work through and articulate a number of ideas I've been wrestling with for the majority of my adult life, as such, it is probably my clearest articulation of the importance of story, the role it plays in our lives, and the importance and meaning of our engagement with it.  This ties back into much that we've discussed so far.

This first part ends with a question about why there must be a contest for meaning.  Part 2 answers next week.  Enjoy.

Freedom as Responsibility: David's Thesis Part 1

If anyone is interested in undertaking the reading of my most significant work thus far, it is available through the UVic Library website, here.

Part of the podcast is here.

The Truth About Stories, Part 2

Three weeks ago we started a discussion of how stories impact and interact with our lives, looking particularly at Tom King's book The Truth about Stories. Here is a continuation of this talk, looking at the same situation from a different perspective.  We talk about the power of stories to grab us, to promise us a future, and to disappoint us horribly.  Specifically I talk about the story of the triumphal entry, and the story of the Romanian revolution of 1989. We then ask ourselves what is the story of Christianity, and begin a much larger discussion of God's relationship with stories.

The Truth About Stories, Part 2

And on Spreaker

Responding to Violence: Security, Responsibility and the Nation-State in Light of the Boston Bombings, Part 2

As promised, here is part 2 of our discussion of responding to violence in light of the Boston Bombings.  The first part didn't seem adequate and raised questions that both of us continued to think on.  We decided to address some of those questions in a second podcast.  It's not enough to say "forgive" in the face of sustained violence--we must find a way to respond that limits future violence without simply escalating force and violence.  If our only response to violence is escalating use of force and power, we do not address the problem.  However, we have to go deep to change this perspective.  Our response to violence is grounded in a number of stories about individuality, community, morality, freedom and God.  Our final question is does God merely do security theater as some contend?  This week, we try to explore some of those issues a little further.

Responding to Violence: Security, Responsibility and the Nation-State in Light of the Boston Bombings, Part 2

In the future, we are aiming for Monday releases so we have time to prep the recordings over the weekend.  Sorry about the late podcast this week, but Muskwatch is hard at work revising his thesis after a successful defense.  Next week, we'll be back with The Truth About Stories, Part II.

Responding to Violence: Security, Responsibility and the Nation-State in Light of the Boston Bombings, Part 1

Well, we had planned to release The Truth About Stories Part II this week, in which Dale explores a story about story that is particular meaningful to him.  That will be up in a few weeks.  However, it seemed more relevant to post a discussion we had about the recent Boston bombing.

First, I must express our sympathy for the people and communities impacted by this tragedy.  Life is not meant to contain such horrific pain and loss.  However, the stories we tell about loss and in response to loss are especially powerful and thus especially worthy of attention and consideration.  Too often, in our pain, we speak stories which only immortalize and extend the pain we have suffered rather than grapple with it and resolve it in any meaningful way.  As such, I must clarify that my sympathy also extends to the two young men involved, as well as their communities and to those involved in other less widely spoken stories, including the explosion in Texas and the Rehtaeh Parsons story.  We live in a broken and often brutally painful world and our response to that pain matters immensely.

This podcast focuses on the question of how we respond to vulnerability and loss, especially in terms of the stories set in motion by the nation-state and its representative authorities and authoritative speakers.  These are not easy questions and our exploration may prove unsettling to some, but I ask you to bear with us.  Given the complexity of these issues, we recorded a second podcast which, as per the poll results, we will release next week.  In the meantime, here you are:

Security, Responsibility and the Nation-State in Light of the Boston Bombings, Part 1

Or alternatively:

the same podcast on Spreaker

The Truth About Stories, Part 1

One of the most influential books for me, giving shape to how I view the world, was Tom King's book The Truth about Stories - which he gave as the 2003 Massey lectures.  In his book he starts with a creation story, looking at how the story impacts how we view the world, and how the story shapes how we view stories themselves.  Among everything else in this wonderful book,  he states that "the truth about stories is that that's all we are." In other words, what we are as people, is the nexus of all the stories that we live in, our relationships, and our developing ideas.  In part 1 of this two-part podcast David and I try to explain how this idea impacts our thinking, starting an exploration of what the stories of our culture are, and some of the implications for how we give meaning to our lives.

The truth about stories discussion, part 1

And if you prefer, the same, but on "Spreaker"

If you enjoyed this discussion, we return to it from a different angle in The Truth About Stories Part.

Made for the Story?

One of the ways to start talking about something is to, well, start talking about it.  To that end, here is the first in a long series of podcasts! Unfortunately I pulled out the mic when we were already a little bit into the conversation, so here's an intro.

We were talking about Jacques Ellul's book On Freedom, Love, and Power in the context of a discussion about how we use stories, especially in a culture where we have stories that can tell us what to do in every decision.  Do we view our myths and stories as boundaries, boxes, that we must live in, or do are they less boundaries and more guides?  Do we have a mixture of the two?  Our discussion is here:

     Were we made for the story, or the story made for us?

     And a second link via Spreaker with it's own forum for comments

And an addendum - here are links and citations to some of the texts and stories referenced in the course of the the discussion.

     Brown, Wendy. States of injury: Power and freedom in late modernity. Vol. 120. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.

     As it Happens interview with Tariq Ali on the death of Hugo Chavez

     Ellul, Jacques. On Freedom, Love, and Power. University of Toronto Press, 2010.

     Ingold, Tim. Lines:: A Brief History. Routledge, 2007.

     Selmanovic, Samir. It's Really All About God: Reflections of a Muslim Atheist Jewish Christian. Jossey-Bass, 2009.

     The Hebrew Yeshua versus the Greek Jesus, a presentation by Nehemia Gordon, a Karaite Jew

     Choice: a podcast from Radiolab.

Many of the other stories referenced, The Bible, Rambo, The Shawshank Redemption, The Hurt Locker, and The Hobbit you'll have to find for yourself, as well as the two works by Joss Whedon referenced, Firefly and Angel.