Handmade Faith
I recently reread Barry Taylor’s excellent book Entertainment Theology: New-Edge Spirituality in a Digital Democracy. I can’t recommend it more highly. I hope to blog a little about the book, but to get it started here is an excerpt that does a good job of summarizing much of the book’s aim.
“…the emergence of a new kind of spirituality [is] the real subject of this book. We have discussed this spirituality’s emergence already, but it is important again to reference a few of the defining characteristics before we go on. This expression of religion is an experiential and hands-on expression of belief - post-creedal, post-orthodox, and post-specialist. By this I mean to say that (1) it is not dependent on traditional religious structures for its acts of worship and ritual making, (2) it is not exclusively focused on continuing ancient traditions in the new cultural matrix, and (3) it generally demands no professional clergy to administer truth, instruction, and dogma. However, it is by no means antagonistic toward traditional faith expressions; jaded perhaps, suspicious definitely, but it recognizes the contribution traditional faiths make to the present situation. There is curiosity, even embrace at times, of religious rites and practices, but often at arm’s length, and arbitrary in accepting or rejecting certain ideas.
“This spirituality tends to be handmade faith, fashioned in the crucible of life in a globally connected world. It is everyone’s concern and opportunity and requires no membership in a particular organization or institution - this is the democratization of spirit I alluded to earlier. It is as much informed by popular culture as it is by ancient tradition, hence my use of the phrase ‘entertainment theology.’ Entertainment theology does not mean that the subject we discussing is inconsequential or slight; rather, it points to a source of the impulse (the primary source, as I see it). Everything is being filtered through the media spectrum, everything is entertainment, in that it comes to us via interactive technology and media outlets, whether from a bookstore or from the World Wide Web.”
