All God's Children & Blue Suede Shoes

[ANT]

All God\'s Children & Blue Suede Shoes

All God's Children & Blue Suede Shoes - Christians & Popular Culture
By: Kenneth A. Myers

I just started reading this yesterday. Has anyone else here read it? Or, heard anything about it?

The book is about ... (Back Cover)

Where did popular culture come from?
Why is it the way it is?
How does it influence Americans in general and Christians in particular?
Ken Myers provides fascinating answers to these questions. He sees pop culture as a culture of diversion, preventing people from asking questions about their origin and destiny and about the meaning of life. Two aspects stand out -- A quest for novelty and a desire for instant gratification. In addition, this culture offers something very appealing -- the illusion that you set your own standards, you can choose, you are the master of your fate, you deserve a break, you're worth it

[Edited on 9-29-2005 by ANT]

 

[PuritanCovenanter]

It has been a long time ago but doesn't it talk about digital clocks also. You can't see time moving because you don't have a second hand. It came out about the same time Hot Tub Religion came out by Packer. I have forgotten things that I read that long ago. I may still have the book stashed in a box somewhere. Is your cover still purple or has it faded to dull blue yet?

 

[ANT]

Purple and yellow. No fading yet!

I've only read the introduction so far, but will be reading more soon.

 

[Richard King]

I haven't read it but I heard it referenced favorably on RC Sproul JUNIORs basement tapes.

 

[Augusta]

I want to get that book. I heard an interview with Ken Myers and Mike Horton and he was great. It sounds really interesting. I will have to look for it around here or get it online.

Ant your synopsis reminded me of the Sat Night Live skit with Stuart Smalley....

I am good enough
I am smart enough
and doggonit people like me.

[Edited on 9-29-2005 by Augusta]

 

[ANT]

Originally posted by Augusta
I want to get that book. I heard an interview with Ken Myers and Mike Horton and he was great. It sounds really interesting. I will have to look for it around here or get it online.

Augusta, If you are interested, I'll sell you this copy for $2 + S&H when I am done reading it. Just let me know if you are interested.

 

[Michael Butterfield]

I have read the book and it is especially good if you are a baby boomer, but it does certainly have wider application. We had to read it for a worship class and I did not know why until I read it. It has everything to do with Worship. I highly recommend it!

 

[Michael Butterfield]

Here is a passage from the book. I think for this subject of Christians and popular culture, it is one of the most insightful that I have read. Previous to this particular quotation the author has been asserting that the myth of rock-n-roll is pantheistic and giving the necessary disclaimer that all who play or listen to rock are not pantheists, Kenneth Myers says the following:

". . . since we are all tempted to some form of idolatry, it is helpful to know where we need to erect some defenses. If the rock myth does involve the tacit endorsement of pantheistic, primitivistic [this is, per the author, the noble savage idea of Jean-Jacques Rousseau] celebration of the self and the senses, there must be something in the music that somehow corresponds to the myth. It is not likely that rock will make professing pantheists out of many people, but its place in our society does pose some other challenges.. . . rock´s threat to religion is that is forces "˜churches to compete [with rock-dominated culture] on the basis of their ability to titillate the instincts of their worshippers,´ thereby making religious leaders

"˜entrepreneurs of emotional stimulation. Once God becomes a commodity for self-gratification, his fortunes depend on the vagaries of the emotional marketplace, and his claim to command allegiance on the basis of omnipotence of omniscience banishes in a blaze of solipsism* as his priests and shamans pander to the feeling, not the faith, of their customers.´

How much of the liturgical and educational life of our churches has been influenced by this need for emotional stimulation, whether or not the music we sing sounds at all like rock? How many sermons are shaped by the necessity of communicating to a culture dominated by this new sensibility?"

I really believe this quotation has a great deal to say to us particularly in the light of the way we see worship moving in our day. The author goes on to mention the idea that this context has also influenced the whole area of charismatic theology. The author puts it this way:

"The charismatic claim was that non-intellective bodily and emotional forms of communication from God were a central aspect of true piety. One must ask to what extent the controversy over this claim was settled by the power of exegetical proof from the Scriptures, and to what extent the controversy simply died down because the new cultural sensibility of instinctiveness made it difficult to sustain any argument, especially an argument concerning ecstatic utterance.
One must also ask to what extent the popularity of the charismatic claim is due to the work of the Heiliger Geist (Holy Spirit) and how much was simply the effect of the Zeitgiest.. . .

The evangelical churches in America by and large consented to the legitimacy of the charismatic claim at about the same time they stopped fussing about rock "˜n´ roll."

*The theory that the self is the only thing that can be known and verified. The theory or view that the self is the only reality.

 

[Michael Butterfield]

Here is another great quote out of the book by Blaise Pascal, Selah:

. . . all unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber . . . . They have a secret instinct which impels them to seek amusement and occupation abroad, and which arises from the sense of their constant unhappiness.

 

[Pilgrim]

Ken Myers is the head honcho of Mars Hill Audio, where he interviews Christians in various fields, analyzing culture from a Christian perspective. He was a former producer at NPR but left to do his own thing. In some ways, Mars Hill is what NPR should be. I sent off for a sample tape from them but never got around to subscribing.

http://www.marshillaudio.org/

 

[RamistThomist]

I have his interview with some lady flannery o connnor scholar. Its called, "Thomist Hillbilly" or something like that.

 

[SmokingFlax]

Quote:

"Augusta, If you are interested, I'll sell you this copy for $2 + S&H when I am done reading it. Just let me know if you are interested. "


Ant.

If Augusta doesn't want it, I'll buy that from you. If you're still operating on the "first dibs" principle of your past book sales that is...

Also, if anyone else has any strong recommendations about books dealing with the arts & culture from a Christian perspective I would greatly appreciate it. I've already read a bit of Schaeffer's work on the subject (which is awesome) and Gene Veith State of the Arts.

 

[RamistThomist]

Originally posted by SmokingFlax
Quote:

"Augusta, If you are interested, I'll sell you this copy for $2 + S&H when I am done reading it. Just let me know if you are interested. "


Ant.

If Augusta doesn't want it, I'll buy that from you. If you're still operating on the "first dibs" principle of your past book sales that is...

Also, if anyone else has any strong recommendations about books dealing with the arts & culture from a Christian perspective I would greatly appreciate it. I've already read a bit of Schaeffer's work on the subject (which is awesome) and Gene Veith State of the Arts.

Henry Van Til, The Calvinist Concept of Culture
A. Kuyper, LEctures on Calvinism
C. Van Til, relevant sections of The Protestant Doctrine of Scripture
Hegeman, Plowing in Hope

 

[ANT]

Originally posted by SmokingFlax
Quote:

"Augusta, If you are interested, I'll sell you this copy for $2 + S&H when I am done reading it. Just let me know if you are interested. "


Ant.

If Augusta doesn't want it, I'll buy that from you. If you're still operating on the "first dibs" principle of your past book sales that is...

Also, if anyone else has any strong recommendations about books dealing with the arts & culture from a Christian perspective I would greatly appreciate it. I've already read a bit of Schaeffer's work on the subject (which is awesome) and Gene Veith State of the Arts.

OK ... That sounds fine. If Augusta doesn't want it, It's yours.

I'll wait to hear from her, and let you know.