Cornerstone Festival cstoneXchange 2007

The listing of seminars for the 2007 Cornerstone Festival for cstoneXchange is now online. The festival will be held from June 25-30. My presentations are listed below:

"Going Native? How Far is TOO Far? (and How Far Isn't FAR ENOUGH?)"

In history of Christian missions overseas missionaries have long wrestled with communicating the Christian faith in culturally appropriate forms, and in drawing upon the culture to create indigenous expressions of church and Kingdom community. But how far is too far? When does "contextualization" cross the line into syncretism? Western Christians are not used to appreciating the importance of this question in "Christendom" culture, but the shift to post-Christendom and increasing religious pluralism make these the leading questions for faith and living in the twenty-first century. These presentations will introduce the issues and will explore how the history of missions and the diverse cultural expressions of Christianity might inform our understanding of communicating the gospel and expressing it in America. We will also consider the relevance of creativity and artistry to the theological and missional tasks.

"Feast of Fools: Burning Man, Rainbow Gathering & Holy Festivity"

History has seen the rise of a number of utopian community experiments, and this is also the case wit the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. One of the more interesting post-modern utopian experiments is the Burning Man Festival in Nevada. This seminar will explore the meaning of this festival for participants, and will consider it in comparison with other countercultural utopian movements such as the 1970s Rainbow Tribe. We will also explore the relevance of festival as a missing dimension of the church's connection with nature and the liturgical calendar of celebrations and what Burning Man might be "saying" to the church's omissions as a result.