Thu 2 Apr 2009
I’m not sure if the same is true today, but in the early nineties when I was studying in Italy, I could walk into most restaurants and find next to some menu items (pizza in particular) an emblem containing the letters DOC. Standing for d’origine controllata (of authorised origin), the emblem is a certificate that the method used in preparing, say, a margherita pizza, is the same as was used to make the dish that Queen Margaret ordered. DOC indicates that the recipe, or wine, or other produce, is authentic. The customer is called to trust that the item to be consumed is authentic, as DOC certification is only given after inspection by a government official. The item is authentic in that it is true to its claims to history and to authority.
According to Marshall (2007), authenticity is a value of modernity that is tied to others such as individualism and personal freedom (p. 105). In late modernity, authenticity is also valued against perceptions of public life as a performance, of fractured and fragmented identities, and of weakening and corruptible power structures in social institutions.
The emerging church movement holds authenticity as a prime value. The whole notion of being “missional” is wrapped in ideals of “being true” to both faith foundations, and to the cultural environment. Emerging churches strip away symbolic practices that are seen to have lost their authenticity – robes, processions, lengthy prayers and litanies – and experiment with new practices that are more true to everyday living and thinking.
Symbolic practices are often the focus of discussion in the emerging church blogosphere: what stays in, what is taken out, by what are they replaced. Bloggers find online a forum to express their concern that modern religious life does not reflect what is “inside them” and a place to explore and evaluate what authentic religious life looks like. For them, the blogosphere is a parliament on the DOC of Christian churches. This parliament is founded on the values associated with the Internet: a place where the etiquettes and rules of proper religious communication are lifted in favour of “getting real”.
Yet – and another hat tip to Marshall – etiquette is found in all sites of human communication, a necessity that functions to “establish the nature of a situation, it’s predictability and whether the people involved can be trusted” (p. 106). Just like the DOC emblem on a restaurant menu, we look to cues to show us that, in a social environment, we can truthfully express what is “inside us”, what is true, and that others are in fact doing the same. So while the blogosphere is perceived as a place where the old rules of etiquette are evicted, other symbolic practices have taken their place. Over the next few posts I’d like to list some, in the hopes some readers could help me think about this topic more by adding their own thoughts and criticisms:
- The downplay
- Irreverence
- The hat tip
- Thanks
- Apologies
April 2nd, 2009 at 18:38
I agree with your thoughts here. Yes, the emerging church holds authenticity as a prime value, as you wrote. The mainstream church can learn much from this, both in regards to what people are looking for and in regards to the original commission given to the church that it so often has forgotten.
It’s not that the mainstream churches weren’t interested in authenticity all along. The difference is who is “conducting the inspections” today to deteremine who’s deserving of the DOC stamp (eg, the blogosphere).
That’s what’s challenging for me as a confessional Lutheran. By definition and by confession, our mark of authenticity is measured by scripture alone. That puts us at odds with the modern world.
April 2nd, 2009 at 21:36
G’day Tim,
Nice to hear from you again.
Totally agree with you that mainstream Christianity has always been concerned with authenticity. That the emerging movement is hailed as a new reformation comes from the recollection of Luther’s and Calvin’s call for a return to basics and a stripping away of structures that detract us from true faith.
It’s a cyclical problem, where the mark of authenticity is no longer tied to the value it symbolises. And I think the medium of communication has much to do with that. The rise of print paved the way for a new kind of thinking about “real faith”, and (as Tickle has mentioned) moved authority from the episcopacy to the printed word. The Internet, layered on print and audiovisual media, calls for another kind of thinking about “real faith” and is changing the DOC stamp and the methods by which it’s applied.
Gee, I hope that makes sense.