2/ Personally I see culture and technology in a reciprocal and mutually influencing relationship. Blog technologies enable construction of identity, sure, but the converse is also true, identity construction is shaping the evolution of blog technologies. Consider how the most lauded trait of web 2.0 is its sociability in comparison to web 1.0. We are demanding that features fit us, that the technology evolves in more human(e) ways. Consider how, whilst mobile phones are reshaping the way we relate, the ways we relate to them are seeing them reshaped into colourful and customizable fashion accessories.

Another thing, consider how ambivalent our relationship to technology sometimes is. It can be real love/hate. I have written before on how technology is being used against itself, to introduce randomness, imprecision and chaos back into our lives when the tyranny of digital precision gets too much. Witness the popularity of the ipod shuffle, witness the popularity of electronic distortion in music. I find it interesting how Wiccans have been known to use google earth to identify urban wilderness zones so they can get away from technology for earth rituals. There is deep irony in this. Technology used to get away from technology. Here’s another thing. Consider how many bloggers use photoshop editing to cut, distort or mask their identities on their blogs. I myself use a mild distortion filter to degrade my blog bio picture quality. We want to be known and to remain unknown. We use technology to project our identities and to protect them simultaneously.

4/ I totally agree with your panelist. There is a strong undercurrent of retro-romanticim within the EC. I have seen this most clearly manifested in discussions about neocelticism and neomonasticism. The past is re-imagined for appropriation in the present. Often falls short of genuine critical contexualisation unfortunately. Another area where romanticism rears its head is in the appropriation of the ‘heretic’ motif by some voices. It would seem that unfamiliar with real heresy is a distinct advantage.

Thanks for the offer. My problem is this: my sample is too big. What I need is to be able to reduce the size using a proper statistical method. I know nothing of stats, or how to use stats to accommodate sample size. Got any pointers?

I have lots of stuff on Sample size – do surveying of customer satisfaction etc..

Sing out if you want some help.

Cam

Thanks for the references. I know Berger and Luckmann’s work well, but not well read on the Celts and their spirituality.

The panel’s point about constructing the past is something that could be built on by looking at Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann’s The Social Construction of Reality (Penguin 1966). They basically argue for the theory of the sociology of knowledge and suggest that knowledge is constructed and reinforced in social settings, especially social movements and networks. Ron Eyerman and Andrew Jamison, Social Movements: A Cognitive Approach (Pennsylvania State Uni Press 1991) look at the role played by “movement intellectuals” (whether the intellectuals are self-consciously acting as leaders or are de facto leaders) in reality-maintenance.

Where the glorious past can be reconstructed in church contexts is well illustrated by Donald Meeks in the contemporary interests in ancient Celtic Christian churches. He indicates that many “make hay while the sun shines” in creating portraits of Celtic Christianity. See his essays:
“Modern Celtic Christianity: The Contemporary ‘Revival’ and Its Roots,” Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology 10 (1) (Spring 1992): 6-31;

“Surveying the Saints: Reflections on Recent Writings on ‘Celtic Christianity’,” Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology 15 (1) (Spring 1997): 50-60.

Marion Bowman charts a parallel to this in the way pagan Celtic culture has been reinvented by Neopagan and New Age adepts in “Reinventing the Celts,” Religion, 23 (1993): 147-156.

Eric Sharpe has explored the construction of St Francis of Assisi as a modern-day “secular” saint and how in the late 19th century Protestants began to “reinvent” Francis (before Roman Catholics revived an interest in him). See Sharpe’s essay:
“The Secularization of Sanctity: the Case and Example of Francis of Assisi,” in The World of Religions: Essays on Historical and Contemporary Issues, edited by Garry W. Trompf & Gildas Hamel (Delhi: ISPCK, 2001): 287-308.

The examples of reinvented portraits of Francis and of the Celts could be pertinent to the point highlighted by the panel, particularly if you find examples among the reflections of individuals who identify with EC.