Q Combinations 5: Kamienska & Wyeth and a winter hope

If the last Q combo was a chronological mismatch of artist and poet, this one is seasonal. Today’s still been pretty warm for a British September day, so it’s perhaps rather incongruous to be thinking about winter. But a dear friend and colleague, Jennifer, sent me this all too brief poem last week, and so I felt it was a perfect combo contender.

Closing the gap: sitcoms, spin and suspicion

Paul Arnold, the coordinator of the Church and Media Network (MediaNet), kindly invited me to write a post this week to point to how Wilderness engages with media issues. So here is the result:

When Jeremy Paxman gave his MacTaggart lecture at the 2007 Edinburgh International Television Festival, he actually created his own headlines. After a spate of scandals at the time, he described how his employer, the BBC, had been left with “a catastrophic, collective loss of nerve,” with the bigger question of whether the corporation “itself has a future.” Those comments are even more relevant today, with many seeking to exploit its insecurity. The precariousness is indicated by the fact that big celebrity guns have been marshalled to speak out in its defence.

The Unbearable Reductionism of a Binary World

There’s no escaping binaries these days. Every conceivable detail of modern life seems to be reduced to digital 1s and 0s. As computing technology encroaches ever further, it makes resisting binaries seem harder than ever. In/Out, Left/Right, Same/Different, Them/Us.

A Model of Political Preaching: Judicial wisdom on Immigration

I very rarely tweet about talks I’ve heard – not because they haven’t been good necessarily, but because I usually think even the better ones tend not to travel well (usually because they are well embedded into their contexts). But that’s another story. Last Sunday was different. Judge David Turner was speaking as part of All Souls’ short series on flashpoint issues in next week’s General Election. His topic was Immigration.

Kim Philby & Jim Angleton and the genesis of A Wilderness of Mirrors

So here is the second of 3 promotional films for Wilderness of Mirrors (the first can be found here on the Kickstarter campaign – only a week to go for that remember!!).

Time to stop doubting and learn to love immigration

RANT ALERT (This is v abnormal for me, but I’m quite exercised about it!)

I’m getting tired of people complaining about immigration, and just wish politicians would have the courage to speak up for it. The UK has ALWAYS been a country of immigrants – you just have to look at the history of London’s East End over the last 5 centuries to see this.

Selfies and Silhouettes: at Düden Falls in Antalya

Part of the tour package on Wednesday was a visit to Düden Falls, which I’d heard were pretty spectacular – and as it was more or less on the way back from Termessos (see yesterday’s post), I was fine with that. Have to say that I was decidedly underwhelmed on arrival – as it’s situated in a rather built up Antalya residential area (surrounded by tower blocks and shacks offering roadside cuisine).

Abandoned and Unexcavated: the charms of Termessos

Amidst a fairly busy schedule in Turkey this week, managed to occupy a day off with a trip into the mountains above Antalya to the abandoned city of Termessos. It’s power and wealth derived from controlling the only local pass through the mountains – but its construction, so high and so elaborate (temples, theatre, agora, civic buildings, many houses etc), must have been an astonishing feat of engineering and endurance.

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 71 (August 2014)

Sorry this late – It’s been an absolutely CRAZY month (including finishing a job, moving house and going on a couple of week long meetings.) Soon, normal Q service will resume, I promise!

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER, I SUPPOSE.

Sacred Treasure

• This is important: Paul Vallely’s much linked (rightly) article: Christians: the world’s most persecuted people
• Nice interview with my Langham US colleague, Ben Homan, on preaching globally
• Damian Thompson as provocative as ever – about that other agent provocateur, Richard Dawkins, and his new offensiveness to the Left.

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 70 (July 2014)

Sacred Treasure

• We refuse to be enemies. This is an astonishing story from a family of Palestinian Christians living in Bethlehem.
• Dominic Lawson (son of former Chancellor Nigel, brother of celeb chef Nigella) writes wonderfully about his 19 year old daughter with Down’s Syndrome.
• Abp Justin Welby’s address at the National Prayer Breakfast, on 17th June – some great stuff
• Chris Green asks whether or not we should preach like TED talks

Friday Fun 48: Monopods vs Monobracchs Cricket

Well, the book’s first draft is done and sent off – the initial editors’ comments are awaited with trepidation. But the good news (I hear you ALL cry) is that I can get back to some serious blogging. And what better way to mark this momentous event than by offering some Friday Fun.

One of my recent excitements is the quirky Cox’s Fragmenta. This is edited by Simon Murphy from a really bizarre tome in the British Library – essentially a scrap-book of news clippings kept by one Francis Cox (1752-1834) on every subject under the sun. In fact, it takes up 20 feet of shelving. So I thought it might be fun to pick out a few choice morsels.

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 69 (June 2014)

Sacred Treasure

• God raises the dead – even for preachers like Chris!
• Why Emily Letts filmed her own abortion…
• The Twitter Disconnect: Why Christians are more loving in real life… some good stuff here
• A Nick Cave service??! Looks a lot of fun (H/T Maggi)

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to spying… Charles Cumming’s A Colder War

It hardly needs saying, but spying did not stop with the collapse of Communism. But if spying continued, it naturally follows that so did betrayal. The haunting question provoked by every betrayal is, “Why?” Perhaps it was easier to understand during the Cold War. The globe’s ideological map was drawn all too clearly. However flawed the enemy might be, believing in their ideological stance always made it forgiving those flaws much easier. But what about today?

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 68 (May 2014)

Sacred Treasure

• This is good: John Piper gives 10 lessons from a hospital bed 
• I’m not busy… so says Ian Paul apparently
• Larry Hurtado deftly sorts out the whole Jesus Wife document farrago here and then a follow-up here

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 67 (April 2014)

Sacred Treasure

• Giles Fraser nails it on euthanasia
• Kevin de Young on celebrity pastors etc
• Andrew Brown writes an inspiring obituary of Margaret Spufford (mother of one of my literary heroes, Francis)

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 66 (March 2014)

Sacred Treasure

• Why Benedict Rogers, a Christian, opposes the very idea of a Christian political party
• So a mural artist in Montenegro considers Tito, Marx and Engels deserves to be depicted in hell… what do you think?
• Some good news from Cranmer: highlighting all the UCCF outreach efforts this term

A Cambridge wander

Have been spending this week in Cambridge for the CICCU main events. It’s been a really encouraging time. But I had a lovely time on Tuesday afternoon wandering around with my camera, revisiting old haunts and generally taking it easy. Marvellous. Even more marvellous was the fact that the sun actually came out. Hard to believe when the south-west seems afflicted by hurricanes and tsunamis.

Q marks the spot – Treasure Map 65 (February 2014)

Sacred Treasure

• Mikhail Kalashnikov was apparently in ‘spiritual pain’ over his (in)famous invention
• Dave Criddle has some wisdom about engaging with the likes of Ricky Gervais on Twitter
• Andrew Brown is pretty good here, at least in what he affirms (if not in what he denies).

Q Conversations 5: Politician Elizabeth, Baroness Berridge

Elizabeth Berridge, until very recently, was the youngest woman in the House of Lords, the UK’s upper house in Parliament. Raised to the peerage in the 2011, she was before that a barrister and then in 2006 became Executive Director of the Conservative Christian Fellowship which exists to bring together Conservative Party voting Christians of all denominations. She describes herself as a classic Tory ‘wet’, as opposed to the ‘Dry’ Thatcherite end of the party’s spectrum. If that terminology is rather meaningless to you (or even sounds mildly offensive!) then listen in!

The Uncertainties of Contingency: What if Franz Ferdinand didn’t die in 1914?

I have stood at the very spot where Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were shot by Gavrilo Princip 100 years ago. And the impossible “What If” question occurred to me even then. So when I noticed that eminent historian Ned Lebow had published an examination of the issue, I leapt at it. The assassination was such a fluke, so preventable, so absurd that the yearning for a different outcome of that moment is great. As he says at the start (having summarised some of the counterfactual options),

None of these what-ifs strains our understanding of the world because most royal processions do not stray from their intended routes, and most security details would have rushed the archduke and his wife to safety at the first signs of violence. In this instance, the so-called factual, not the counterfactual, is what strikes us as unrealistic and incredible. (p16)