Class Homework Week One

The introduction to cultural theory is an interesting task. My thoughts are:

"To write this book I have had to live in digitized, cathod rays, and and news print artifacts more than I am ordinarily inclined to do." The sentence in the acknowledgments states my issues with this writer. If you are being stretched to understand culture by diving into culture why are you writing this book? You need to dive into culture and live in it comfortably and freely to REALLy understand where culture is. From the Blackwell Companion to Theology and Pop Culture

I really liked the Barker book because it had clear concise understandings of the beginnings of cultural theory. The definitions were simply laid out and really cast a strong understanding of how and why someone would engage in popular culture. Though dense because it's textbook design it does seem important to recognize the definitions of what culture is.

Bevins Contextual theology book is a nice book. I think its interesting though that we, in the last few years are just starting to make connections in theology with popular culture. Why is this a new discipline and how is Christendom in diciline? For being in decline is this healthy thing for the church? Can we rise up from the ashes and make a new, healthier church for a new post-modern context.


REFLECTIONS AFTER CLASS:
I am intrigued with the history of cultural theory. I think it's a topic that should be in every school and every college. It's interesting to note where it came from. People wanted to be elitist, have their knowledge and their understanding be known, followed, understood. I like there was a split of high and popular culture. I think it's interesting to note that the church didn't change, the church didn't recognize that people were not connecting with this all so high art of preaching and teaching and there were some who wanted to create how they were inside culture and interacted with it. Why do we still struggle with this today? What is the blocker for us to see what is standing in the way of seeing people where they are at?