Wiki Update

I should have the Wiki going in the next week or so. When I went to look at what was available there were a huge number of ways to do it. I've narrowed that down to a couple and I'm testing which one is the best for our needs (simple editing interface and ability to track changes being the key things I'm looking for).

Journal articles available on the web

Hi,

Hope everyone's rested.

I just surfed the Journal of Religion and Popular Culture web site and found the latest issues has some articles that may relate to religious authority and virtual communication/community. In particular an article titled: "Miracles or Love? How Relgious Leaders Communicate Trustworthiness through the Web". I haven't read it yet, but hope to in the next couple of days.

Check it out for yourselves on http://www.usask.ca/relst/jrpc/articles7.html.

Paul Teusner.

Follow-up

Thank you all for a very stimulating meeting!

As part of the process towards publication here are:

1. a link to the PDF cut down SBL Style Guide (nb. it is designed for students and is not intended to be authoritative)
2. a link from Stephen to an Endnote plug-in for the SBL styles. (The relevant material is at the bottom of 2.2. Stephen makes no promises as to its quality, but offers it as a resource!)
3. As a guide to the style expected by the Journal Colloquium here are photocopies of a few footnotes colloquium1.gif
   and colloquium2.gif

I am will let you know about the dates for submission of articles when I hear back from Prof. Bill Loader, and am still working on getting email notification fixed for this blog (the addresses with punctuation idea was too simple the field has limited characters...) and will talk to Stephen about the Wiki when I have rested a bit! I am afraid this is the best of the photos, next time I'll maybe try to get a "real photographer"... ;)

Blog discussion

Tim, will there be time to discuss how this blog went? What people thought about it, liked, disliked?

p2p theology paper

probably 2 late, but here - p2ptheology.PDF - is my paper. The table forms the heart of the paper and I will basically speak to that on Saturday.

Ann & Mary's Powerpoint

Mary (who will not be able to be with us in person) has just sent me the Powerpoint for her an Ann's material. It is here (it is 4.5MB) and the link is here.

Vegetarian Options

I realised that I did not check the vegetarian options at the restaurant for Friday before booking, here is what I spotted from the menu (if Peter wants there are also fish options):
Starters:
Insalata Mista
Fresh garden salad tossed with our olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette dressing. Best around!
Antipasto Freddo
A traditional Italian way of commencing a meal with a stunning array of ingredients.
[Likely shared if we choose it, will include some meat items but also vege ones.]
Vol au Vent Carciofi
Vegetarians choice! A puff pastry case filled with artichokes and mushrooms, bound with a gorgonzola cream sauce.

Other dishes:
Maccheroni alla mamma mia
Gluten free. Wheat free. Tomato and basil infused macaroni, cooked to order, tossed with zucchini, vine ripened tomatoes, smoked provolone [I think cheese?], served with walnut pesto. Unique!
Panzotti Gorgonzola
Large ravioli filled with sun-dried tomatoes and mushroom, served in a martini bianco, sage, gorgonzola cream sauce.
PIZZAS
Ortolana
Eggplant, artichokes, fresh seasonal vegetables, olives and capers, topped with mozzarella.

[And of course the deserts!]

Hope this looks OK...

P2P theology part 2

Click here - grid.PDF - for a second part of the paper; which is basically a (developing) table that compares and contrast a number of "P2P" theological communities; including blogs, grid blogs and open source theology sites.

Location, food & facilities

One or two are asking, we will be in a room with Data Projector standard VGA cable, network (standard phone type cable not wireless yet, that's for next month) and therefore Internet connection.

I have booked an Italian restaurant for Friday evening, hope that cuisine will suit everyone. The other meals will be catered here.

I forgot to mention the pattern. There is about 3/4 hour each, so I assume we will BRIEFLY present our work (others having already read it) and leave as much time as possible for discussion...

Interview Schedule

Here at Waikato our project got ethics approval at the end of last week.

We have an interview organized for mid-this week, and in the meantime tried to tee up the Anglican church instead of the still-under-development Presbyterians. However, this website-management business seems to be a volatile one and the Anglicans' webmaster had been on the job for only two weeks: he's trying to find someone more experienced for us to talk to. In the meantime however the sites themselves are voluble.

The topics we're exploring are:

1. Relationship of Interviewee to website and website to church admin.
2. Reasons for church going online.
3. Website Design and functionality - i.e. issues of access, design and usability
4. Online communications, imagined audiences and the building of community
5. Online Ministry - distinctions between 'religion online' and 'online religion'
6. Local and National Networks - networking with whom and why.
7. Model of Church Governance - respective roles of administrative and spiritual leadership
8. Beliefs about Authority and representation of Church beliefs
9. Perspectives on the relationship between Church and State
10. Perspectives on individual conscience and moral/political Issues
11. Websites and mobilisation

So, on Saturday we will report on this work-in-progress and look forward to your suggestions for fine-tuning our interview schedule.

Thanks for the book references - neither of them in our library at the moment though.

Ann Hardy and Mary Griffiths

Peter's Paper on Virtual Theology

Peter's material, mentioned below, is HERE.

Theology as a virtual reality

I've been working on the first part of my paper and thinking about the name of the colloquium "Virtual theology." The result is almost another paper, but also sets the framework for the sort of argument I want to explore in the issues I posted earlier. There's some integration of the two needed, but here's something further on the idea that rather than talking about virtual theology, we need to be considering theology as a virtual reality.
Look forward to meeting up with all of you on Friday evening.
Peter

Hacking the Divine

Abstract

In this paper the metaphors of ‘God as hacker’ and human beings as created co-creators are linked with the narratives of creativity, novelty and experience that can be seen within contemporary technoculture. This type of approach is envisaged as one of many that might be used to engage with technology theologically. Drawing upon the tradition of God as creator and a functional interpretation of the imago Dei in humans it aims to open up a conversation with technology. This conversation looks to move beyond mere abstraction and into existential questions raised by new technologies together with identifying how to live wisely within the everyday technological world.

Hacking the Divine : A metaphor for theology-technology engagement