“The Weekend Wanderer” is a weekly curated selection of news, stories, resources, and media on the intersection of faith and culture for you to explore through your weekend. Wander through these links however you like and in any order you like. Disclaimer: I do not necessarily agree with all the views expressed within these articles but have found them thought-provoking.
“The State of the Culture, 2024: Or a glimpse into post-entertainment society (it’s not pretty)” – Ted Gioia at his blog, The Honest Broker: “The President delivers a ‘State of the Union’ Speech every year, but that’s a snooze. Just look at your worthy representatives struggling to keep their eyes open. That’s because they’ve heard it all before. We have too. Not much changes in politics. Certainly not the candidates. There’s more variety at my local gas station, where at least I get to choose from three types of fuel and five flavors of Big Gulp. So forget about politics. All the action now is happening in mainstream culture—which is changing at warp speed. That’s why we need a ‘State of the Culture’ speech instead. My address last year was quoted and cited, and was absolutely true back then—but it’s already as obsolete as the ChatGPT-1 help desk at the Bored Ape Yacht Club. In fact, 2024 may be the most fast-paced—and dangerous—time ever for the creative economy. And that will be true, no matter what happens in November. So let’s plunge in.”
“Prophets and Poets” – Luci Shaw at Renovaré: “With feet in two worlds — the earth-bound reality and the unseen but utterly real transcendent sphere, Biblical prophets were specially chosen individuals. As commandeered by God they spoke to the people from God, and to God from the people, inhabiting the tricky threshold between heaven and earth. Their calling was to hear divine words, see divine visions, and then speak the prophetic message to their listeners, linking the transcendent and immanent. As a poet I have felt drawn to a somewhat similar task. Having ideas that seem to come from beyond me, and writing about them, seeing ’pictures in my head,’ then finding images and words to describe them, have haunted me from early childhood, encouraged by my writer father. As an adult I pray and dream that the words and ideas given me might say something true and meaningful to a reader, a listener. Presented with visions, permitted to see what others could not, prophets in Scripture were called to proclaim in human language what was ’un-seeable’ to their audience. Some of the most lasting and vivid poetry in Scripture came from the mouths of these prophets.”
“Wounded by the Inner Flame of Love: Journeying with John of the Cross” – Joyce Peasgood in Conversatio: “Numerous things make it hard for my students to come to know the spiritual giants to whom I introduce them. These saints lived within worlds that were dramatically different from ours. Often, they followed an austere lifestyle and practiced extreme forms of asceticism that are foreign to Western spiritual experience. They spoke and wrote in foreign tongues, their theological language differed from ours, and their writings on prayer and spirituality occasionally ruffle our theological feathers. However, when we step beyond these obvious dissimilarities, we see that they confronted issues and concerns quite similar to those we face today. Just as we do, they faced personal conflicts, societal injustices, the effects of suffering, and the diseases of body and soul. A blossoming interest in devotional literature has led to an increase in the availability of the spiritual classics. This has not always been the case. I graduated from a Bible college on the Canadian prairies in the mid-60s. I had never heard of John of the Cross, Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, Julian of Norwich, or Benedict of Nursia, to name a few. It was only in 1980, when I engaged in formal spiritual direction with a Catholic sister, that I discovered this broad host of spiritual friends.”
“Faith, hope, love, and AI: Our different responses to artificial intelligence point to different stories—and different Christian virtues“ – Samuel Wells in The Christian Century: “We need to talk about artificial intelligence. We can divide responses to AI into three groups. Let’s call them Not on Your Life; Yes, Please; and Yes, But. Each of these groups has an implied story. Not on Your Life anticipates the moment when AI reaches what’s known as the singularity, the point where technological development reproduces itself, uncontrollably and irreversibly, almost inevitably dominating human civilization. Stephen Hawking described our situation as like receiving a message from a superior alien civilization saying, ‘We’ll arrive in a few decades.’ He said that so far we’re replying, ‘OK, call us when you get here—we’ll leave the lights on.’ The Not on Your Life story is not one in which some of us are losers; it’s one in which we all are. It sees the takeover of the human domain by computers and robots as simply a matter of time. The story of Yes, Please is rooted in science fiction. This is an optimistic Silicon Valley story, one in which humans can eventually gain mastery over all limitations. It’s a story closely linked to transhumanism, the attempt to extend human life span and cognitive capability. It sees life as surrounded by unnecessary constraints and AI as a unique opportunity to overcome many of those constraints. The story of Yes, But isn’t fundamentally opposed to AI. It’s a story of how all new technologies tend to exacerbate the power differentials already at play in the world. Computer analysis reflects the data it is analyzing: bias against migrants, children, members of Indigenous communities, and people with disabilities could quickly be exacerbated rather than diminished by AI. It could be hardwired into employment screening or police records. At the simplest level, humans come to depend so much on AI that we can no longer think critically for ourselves, like a person who lives on fast food losing the ability to cook. As is often the case, Christians responding to challenges from social innovation are engaged in a clash of stories. Let’s take the three stories and see what’s at stake in each of them.”
“Personal Soul Care” – Dallas Willard from The Pastors Guide to Effective Ministry: “The call of God to minister the gospel is a high honor and a noble challenge. It carries with it unique opportunities as well as special burdens and dangers for members of the clergy as well as their families. These burdens can be fruitfully born and the dangers triumphantly overcome. But that will not happen unless the minister’s ‘inner person’ (2 Cor. 4:16) is constantly renewed by accessing the riches of God and His kingdom in the inner person. ‘Soul’ is here defined as the hidden or ‘spiritual’ side of the person. It includes an individual’s thoughts and feelings, along with heart or will, with its intents and choices. It also includes an individual’s bodily life and social relations, which, in their inner meaning and nature, are just as ‘hidden’ as the thoughts and feelings. The secret to a strong, healthy, and fruitful ministerial life lies in how we work with God in all of these dimensions. Together they make up the real person. They are the inescapable sources of our outward life, and they almost totally determine what effects, for good or ill, our ministerial activities will have. Natural gifts, external circumstances, and special opportunities are of little significance. The good tree, Jesus said, ‘bears good fruit’ (Matt. 7:17, NASB). If we tend to the tree, the fruit will take care of itself.”
“Bears in the Villa: For the first time since the fall of the Roman empire, wilderness is returning to Italy. Are Italians ready?” – John Last in The New Atlantis: “Sandwiched between two national parks on a winding mountain road, the Alpine village of Caldes, Italy, is so small as to barely warrant a label on most maps. With its thirteenth-century castle perched over a valley filled with apple orchards, nourished by the rushing waters of the river Noce, it seems an idyllic slice of rural Alpine life. Places like Caldes have long provided a welcome refuge for Italians in the summertime, when oppressive heat makes the close quarters of the great cities to the south unbearable. Here they can enjoy the illusion of rugged wilderness, dotted by hotels and holiday homes. In the cool mountain air, tourists bike the great passes of the Dolomites, splash their way down white-water rivers like the Noce, and hike and jog on trails that wind among the narrow valleys. It was to do exactly this that Andrea Papi left his home in Caldes in the evening of April 5, when the warm daylight of an early spring day yielded to the last of the winter nights. Stopping at an abandoned hut overlooking the valley, Papi took a short video, panning over the mountain valley, and posted it to his Instagram. The caption: ‘Peace ✌’ His peace was short-lived. That night, Papi was killed. When his body was found, it bore the signature marks of something reportedly not seen in Western Europe in modern times: a lethal bear attack.”
Music: The London Fox Taize Choir & Jacques Berthier, “Jesus, Remember Me,” from Jesus Remember Me – Taize Songs
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Matthew Erickson 