Anonymity
Just so you know anonymity in comments is fine by me. However, as I sign of respect I personally would appreciate some form of consistency so that people can know 'who' they are responding to (it appears that more than one nameless figure has emerged). Whatever that looks like for you is fine. This looks like the fodder for a good future post. Virtual identity.

Violating violation?
I am not looking to start another discussion on what is art or what is beautiful? However, it may be worth reflecting that art in history appears only to have progressed in the violation (at least to some extent) of prior norms. Can we can run out of norms? Are we inherently conservative in that we will always construct 'norms'? Does this come some way in clarifying the popular notion of postmodern relativism. Postemodernism rather as an anti-conservative conservatism (echoing Gadamer's prejudice against predjudice)? I don't want to reduce this to mildly clever sayings. However, if art's intention is to evoke then what is the next significant norm to be violated?
Joel, if you are reading this I am sure you can think of some 'shocking' musical forms. Is there any currency left in travelling that road short of commiting ritual human sacrifice on stage?
Is there space for violating violation and offering explicitly conservative contributions (that are in no way associated with the popular notions of 'right wing')?

As I am reflecting on it I wonder if my comments relate only to the modern period. Did antiquity embrace conservative aesthetics? Or were their conflicts more tied up in the prophets and the myths?

Aesthetics
It has come to my attention that my conceptual analysis in the 'formal' was down. It's back in the game now. Remember this is just a draft, so any feedback would be great.

https://www.angelfire.com/indie/faith/academic.html

Scarred Reading
Topic: Reflections
Life cannot be read apart from its scars.

It tends to take very little for me to be annoyed with people and riding the bus to school everyday, as I have been recently, only aggravates the condition. In any event, I remember a person years ago who simply annoyed me. It is long enough ago and insignificant enough of an experience for me to not remember many details. However, I certainly remember being annoyed. I probably perceived him to be arrogant and impatient or perhaps rude in some way.
At one point in watching him I remember noticing a scar on the back of his head. Now this may well have come from his attempts show-off in front of people, but it made me pause. This is an important moment in reading, or in interpretation in general. A scar demands that we pause, that we withdraw our imposed judgment (interpretation) and remember that whosever voice we are trying to hear has already been imposed upon. A scar rages against our stereotypes and abstractions. This person, this text, is singular not manufactured. Recognizing our distance and our difference may remove those insulating readings which only fortify our beliefs.

Christ’s resurrection was complete with scars. His scars rage against any attempts to smooth or simplify his message. Sensitivity to scars allows our reading to respect the voice of our texts. It testifies to that elusive “third” discourse which allows boundaries to be crossed and understanding to occur.

Cyber-History?
Topic: Reflections
Following on the previous entry. What are the historical implications of our progressively deeper investment in cyberspace? Does the internet have history? Does that little button on the top of your browser represent what history is?
The sun never sets on the internet. The internet bears no scars. The internet allows access to no one who does conform to its code, though it in turn offers a vision of freedom (a western liberal notion again). You may click here one day to find nothing. The digital dissolves fully. Memory will remain only for you and not for the internet. What does this tell us about our priorities? Cyber-space will only challenge me to the extent that I let it.
This medium is not substantially different than most modern forms of communication. However, in its greater extension it appears to offer an alternative space (cyber) and an alternative home (page). I am sure that thoughtful geeks have been wrestling with this for years, sorry for getting in on it so late.

A small fish in a big sea
Topic: Reflections
This is a quote on the inside cover of Hans Urs von Balthasar's The Glory of the LORD vol.4.

Whoever cannot give account
Of three thousand years,
Let him remain in darkness, unlearned,
And live from day to day
- Goethe

Christians, in particular, are invested in the project of history. Our generation has witnessed the near 'collapse of history' given the exposed prejudices of those who write it. My own dip into the pool has proved overwhelming as the sources and the sources of sources prove unmanageably large and often conflicting. We remain situated within history and so cannot evaluate it objectively. However, we also cannot abandon giving accounts, 'lest we forget'. And perhaps this is part of the issue. Is 'history' an modernist invention? Do we really only have 'memory'? Is there a difference?

A Sad Song
Topic: Reflections
A few recent conversations have led me to reflect on music in general (see Blade's Blog on the links to the left) and sad songs in particular.
It seems to me that the notion of a 'sad song' has either to be oxymoronic or incarnational. There is a world of difference between a sad event and a sad song. The song may be of the same event but there is something in rhythm and movement of the song that keeps its images from collapsing into total despair. Given the advent season this may be something to reflect on as we continue to wrestle with the presence of Christ in a fallen world.
The incarnation as a taking up of our tragedy promising not to resolve and eliminate tragedy's presence but to offer a moving rhythm which defies the world's pressures of despair and nihilism.

Aesthetics
Topic: General Theology
For anyone interested. I have posted my conceptual analysis of aesthetics in the 'formal' section of IndieFaith. This includes my image developed below.

A Question
Topic: Rants
Why is it that eating can sometimes be the most annoying sound in the world?

Return of the Priest
Topic: General Theology
I have recently been fascinated by the role of 'priest' in the OT. These were people called to interpret the created order and understand how to facilitate appropriate relationships in light of a holy God. There remains a notion of the 'social construction of reality'. However, unlike the closed system of social theory these priests were required to be accountable to the above mentioned holiness. They were playing with fire and sometimes got burned (Lev 10).
I am currently reading Graham Ward's Cities of God and he speaks of urban planners as the new priesthood as they structure society in order to facilitate particular ideological goals.
Perhaps there is space to recover the once good name of the priest after sex scandals and protestant scholarship have so defiled it.
Many recent post in 'formal' expands on this thinking.