After some initial frustration with trying to set this thing up, I think I have it. Here goes.
For a number of years now I've been working on a number of projects and so I thought that I would throw some of them out there. I'm hoping that I might be able to have some discussions with folks around these ideas. Each project has an animating question, one that I'm trying to get an answer to.
First, the Wild. What do we really experience in the wilderness? We say we feel closer to God when we get out there but what are we really experiencing? My friend Peter Hazellrigg and I have some thoughts but we are open to chatting with others. This line of questioning leads down all kinds of paths - natural theology, phenomenology, conversion, environmentalism, practical theology.
Second, the Ignorant. How do adolescents in the 21st century read the Bible? Is there a distinct adolescent hermeneutic and if so what is it? As a minister, I am always interested in finding out how people interpret the Bible. Its been my experience that youth tend to interpret it differently, if they interpret it at all. There is an overwhelming ignorance around this topic. The academy writes as if people know the Bible, ignorant of the fact that youth might read differently than they do. Pomo technologists see a new hermeneutic emerging but do not connect that to life stage. The church seems generally clueless on the topic. Ignorance all round.
Third, the Iggy Shuffle. I have a minor obsession with St. Ignatius of Loyola. I'm especially interested in how he might help young people to discern their vocation. Vocation doesn't get a lot of play in youth ministry. Why not? If the church can't offer some help, who can?
I won't limit myself to these three topics but seems like a good enough first post.
