Pirates and Privateers (in praise of half baked ideas!)

...our faith is always under threat from blockage, from those who would control access to forgiveness, to grace, to truth. We need good Christian pirates to plunder and raid these places, to demand that these goods are released for all.

From Kester Brewin's entertaining and challenging series of blog posts "A plea for Christian Piracy" to which Richard Sudworth writes a critique...  I do find the writing and thinking of Kester and Pete Rollins helpful and in many ways inspiring and I have great respect for Richard and am in no place to argue (I'm no way near intellectual or academic enough!) with his critique... so I'm not going to try!  I would say that both Pete and Kester are helpful for me not just for what they say but for the way they say it... they both dwell in a narrative world, they speak in stories and ideas which translate... I can grasp what they are saying and in doing so I can even critique them myself... someone once said that all the best ideas where at some point "half baked"... it seems to me that these blog "discussions" often assume that each speaks in complete and formulated theories and it becomes a case of "which camp are you in" (some of the comments to Richard's post for example)  I like half baked ideas, I guess that's why I find Pete and Kester helpful, not because they offer a complete package for me to adopt or not but because they tell stories which leave space for me to reflect, to work through.

Technorati Tags: Blogging: Christianity: Culture: Emerging Church: theology

Comments

[Richard Sudworth]

That's a really fair reflection Mark... And I appreciate the little nudge about being more inclusive in the discussion. I'm conscious that in responding to Pete and Kester, I too am formulating my ideas and they are very probing thinkers so need an exacting critique. I think you make a very good point about the need for narrative and Kester and Pete do that well... And narrative is very powerful! Thus, a concern to pull back from the powerful story (myth?) of the outsider as redemptive per se. But thanks Mark for your important corrective to any polarising in the debate.

[becky]

Mark - as a writer, I'm a major fan of stories (with emphasis on the plural). My only concern is what happens in the US when only those stories that can find publishing houses are the ones that get told. Often the really good stories remain hidden and I find one of my jobs is to go out searching for these gems.

[michael volland]

cheers Mark - good thoughts.

on this subject - you have to check out the comment from a guy in Australia in response to a post on my blog about Rollin's 'The Orthodox Heretic'.

its here:

http://michaelvolland.wordpress.com/2009/10/11/the-orthodox-heretic/#comments