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Beyond Rules and Roles: Day 1, Session 1 — Transcript

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0:01Heavenly Father we find ourselves at the
0:05beginning of this study with a sense of
0:08the weightiness of the issues with a
0:11sense of trepidation coming before your
0:14truth and your word on an issue that may
0:18have wounded Us in the past in issues
0:22that represent relationships that are
0:24dear to us that may face
0:27tensions in issues that we struggled to
0:30communicate to others in relationships
0:33and in contexts that
0:35matter and in our relationship to a
0:39society that is increasingly disoriented
0:42we wish to be oriented by your truth
0:45Lord I pray humble us before your truth
0:48help us to be receptive and attentive
0:51protect us I pray from anything that I
0:53say that may not be in line with your
0:55truth help us to have our eyes open to
0:59your word
1:00and attentive also to how we might Speak
1:04Your Truth into our world which seems so
1:07divorced and detached from the world
1:11that we encounter in the text Lord we
1:14thank you for the people who have come
1:16this morning we pray that you would
1:18grant us technological mercies that
1:20everything would run run smoothly and
1:22that you would bless us in this time of
1:25reflection and deliberation about your
1:28truth we pray these things in in Jesus
1:30name
1:35amen oh certainly
1:42um this would be fine
1:48yeah so before we begin it's maybe good
1:52to get a sense of how we approach this
1:55subject because often when we come to
1:57scripture on particularly a subject like
2:00this that feels urgent in our society
2:02and it is urgent we can come to
2:05scripture with an agenda with a set of
2:07questions with a set of concerns that
2:10make it difficult to for us to listen to
2:12what the scripture is actually saying
2:15and so at the beginning I want us to
2:16think about some of the ways in which
2:19this can prevent us from actually
2:22engaging with the scripture on its own
2:24terms some of the ways in which the
2:26voice of scripture may not actually
2:28answer our question directly but may do
2:31so in a more indirect
2:34fashion I've often talked about the
2:36importance of the watch word of
2:39attention I recommend for instance when
2:42people are reading the Bible to put
2:44their questions to one side to wait
2:49until you've read a passage three or
2:50four times and having read it three or
2:52four times to then start to think what
2:56questions have Arisen for me from the
2:59text
3:00because the art of asking questions well
3:03begins not so much with I mean we can
3:07often presume that no question is a
3:09wrong question and if you start off with
3:11the sorts of questions that are burning
3:13for you you'll be able to find some sort
3:16of answer and there's a right answer and
3:18there's a wrong answer but there are
3:19also good and bad questions and when you
3:23read scripture you'll find often as
3:24you're being attentive to the text that
3:28unusual questions arise not the
3:30questions that you started out with
3:32likewise we can often approach the
3:34scripture with a certain agenda maybe we
3:37expect to go through a process where
3:40we're working towards Doctrine or maybe
3:43it's some sort of devotional thought or
3:46maybe it's some sort of command what are
3:50we supposed to do and so we expect it to
3:54be like turning a handle going through
3:56the process and then at the end quite
3:59quite quickly
4:00you'll get the result that you're
4:02looking for and yet when you do that so
4:04often you're not engaging with the text
4:06on its own terms you've got your own
4:08project and the scripture fits within
4:11that and in a way that often mangles it
4:15or misshapes it and so I want us to
4:19start by actually looking at the text
4:23and thinking about it stepping back from
4:25the questions that we have and then
4:27having looked at the text and being
4:29attend enve to it on its own terms then
4:32going back to our questions and so I'd
4:34ask if at all possible I'm sure you have
4:38burning questions and I want us to get
4:40to those questions but for the time
4:42being just put those questions on the
4:45back burner allow them to simmer for a
4:47while and just be attentive to the
4:50scripture the scripture one of the
4:52things that we find is the scripture
4:54speaks to issues in ways that we're not
4:57used to so for instance when we're
5:00starting off at the very beginning of
5:01scripture it does not begin with a set
5:04of philosophical statements at least not
5:07in the form that we expect to find them
5:09it begins with a story a story of
5:12creation and the cosmos a story of the
5:15creation of man and the fall of Man it
5:17begins with this story of humanity
5:22spreading out the birth of Cain and Abel
5:24and then the events that happen in the
5:27garden and then in the wider land and
5:28then as the spread out into the world
5:31that's maybe not the way that if we were
5:34designing some religious system maybe
5:36not the way that we would go about it
5:39likewise in scripture we find songs we
5:41find law we find prophecy we find
5:45Parable we
5:46find the material in the Epistles we
5:49find apocalyptic prophetic material and
5:53these are not necessarily the sorts of
5:55things that we go to if we're looking
5:57for Doctrine and so when we approach the
6:00scripture with the doctrinal questions
6:02that often motivate us we find that
6:06we're restricted to a very small subset
6:09of the biblical witness it tends to be a
6:12few proof texts and those proof texts
6:14increasingly get Whittle down to a few
6:17heavy loadbearing
6:19words what does head mean what does
6:22helper mean what does exercise authority
6:25over mean and the more that we fixate on
6:28those sorts of question questions the
6:30more that we find
6:31that questions arise about how strong a
6:36particular interpretation of a term is
6:39and increasingly we find that there are
6:42tendentious bases for our whole suers
6:46structure and so what I want us to do in
6:48part is to as we step back and look at
6:51the whole witness of scripture to see
6:53the weight of our position being more
6:55widely distributed and so when we get to
6:58those controverted text we find actually
7:01the weight is not all being borne by
7:03that one term or by that one verse
7:06there's a lot of weight being spread out
7:08over that chapter or the biblical
7:11witness more broadly and then when we
7:13get to those we'll actually find that
7:15broader weight help helping to settle
7:17the questions that were causing us
7:20problems
7:21earlier the other thing that we need to
7:23recognize is that we do not come to the
7:26text as neutral persons we carry a lot
7:29of baggage not just from personal
7:31experience but also from the cultural
7:34background that we come from we come to
7:38the biblical text as modern persons
7:41persons who have been shaped by the
7:43world that has been formed by modernity
7:45technologically
7:48ideologically politically socially in
7:50all of these different ways we come to
7:52the text with a set of assumptions a set
7:57of priorities and values a set of um
8:01sort of implicit philosophical concerns
8:04that may not actually help us to be
8:06attuned to the text
8:08itself and so the instincts of mind that
8:11exist within any society will be things
8:16that arise from many different factors
8:17it will arise from the fact for instance
8:19that much of our identity is
8:22increasingly being worked out in digital
8:25spaces in contexts where we're
8:27constantly representing our ourselves in
8:30contexts where we find there's a sort of
8:34gender sort indifference and
8:37neutralization built into the very
8:39structure of the technologies that we're
8:41presenting ourselves within and so as we
8:43find ourselves inhabiting those sorts of
8:45contexts we'll be shaped by them and the
8:48habits of mind that we struggle with
8:50when we come to the scripture will be
8:53things that arise not just from
8:55ideologies but also from the world that
8:58we live in the things that we are
8:59surrounded by the cultural institutions
9:02that we inhabit and so one of the things
9:05that I want to begin with is an
9:07enumeration of certain of these
9:09instincts and forces and other aspects
9:13of the world that cling to us that shape
9:17our instincts that um determine our
9:20preoccupations our concerns and having
9:24at least taken some sort of audit of
9:27those things we can come to the
9:28scripture a bit more self-aware that we
9:31are not coming to the scripture as
9:33neutral individuals but as individuals
9:35who have a lot of baggage with
9:38us so one of the things that we come to
9:41the scripture with is a sense of dep
9:46particularization and
9:48universalization we come to the
9:49scripture as those who think in terms of
9:52universal reason and who do not give a
9:57lot of attention to specific things
10:00and their role in helping to understand
10:02our world now you've probably been
10:04reading the scripture on various
10:05occasions and you think this is a very
10:08weird text the sort of text that I
10:11generally go to to understand my world
10:13don't spend a lot of time talking about
10:15what to do with the entrails of a lamb
10:18or what to do with or the meaning of
10:22sweat and it doesn't have this much much
10:25on the subject of blood that's not
10:26usually something that I'm thinking
10:28about enough or the sorts of focus that
10:32we see on a particular group of people
10:34arising from particular set of
10:37persons Abraham and Sarah or the arising
10:42from Adam and Eve and all these stories
10:45with key figures like David or Jacob
10:49this is not the way that we seek to
10:51understand our world if we seek to get
10:54to the root of
10:56reality we will develop some great
11:00scientific machine like you have in CERN
11:03or somewhere like that that's how we
11:05understand the root of reality and yet
11:08in some ways the CERN of ancient Israel
11:11is the Tabernacle or the temple that's
11:14how you understand reality and that
11:16seems very strange and foreign to us and
11:20so part of what we're needing to do is
11:21to learn a different way of seeing the
11:23world and a different way from that of
11:26inhabiting the world because the
11:28Tabernacle was not just something to
11:30look at it was something to live in
11:32terms of it was an orienting structure
11:35it was a sort of microcosm of the
11:37greater Cosmos and also a macrocosm of
11:41the human body if you look through the
11:43various articles within the Tabernacle
11:45you can see them corresponding to parts
11:47of the human body the treasure chest in
11:50the heart the Ark of the Covenant it's
11:52where you treasure the word of God it's
11:55where you meditate it's where you hold
11:57things within and
12:00you think about them deeply it's the
12:01realm of the heart and then you can
12:04think maybe about the altar of incense
12:06its connection with scent and smell or
12:09the the golden table the table of
12:12showbread and its connection with food
12:14and then in the temple you see five
12:17tables on each side five lampstands on
12:20each side and you think those are like
12:21the digits on my hands and this is in
12:25some ways a massive human model of the
12:27human body the heart or the head at the
12:30very center the realm that should be the
12:33Throne of God and then out from that the
12:35realm of the the Torso the the hands the
12:38realm of
12:40digestion and then go further out and
12:42you see these two great pillars which
12:44are connected with the great pillars of
12:47the
12:47legs and as you look through a structure
12:50like that you realize actually this is
12:54corresponding with the order of reality
12:57it's connected to the reality of the
12:59heavens and the Earth and how they
13:01correspond to each other is also
13:03connected to the human body and there
13:04are these relationships between levels
13:06of reality that people are learning to
13:09inhabit through something like the
13:11Tabernacle or the temple now that's very
13:14very strange to us and so part of what
13:16we need to do is if we're going to hear
13:18the scriptural witness in order to speak
13:21to our current issues we need to get
13:23into that way of thinking likewise if we
13:26want to understand something like
13:27baptism with within the context of a
13:30modern world and its structures of
13:32universalization and DEP
13:34particularization we will tend to
13:36understand it as in more abstract and
13:39generic categories it's a ritual of
13:42initiation it's a right of cleansing and
13:46those things are true but in scripture
13:49we understand baptism far more from its
13:51specific connections it's connected to
13:54the flood it's connected to the fact
13:55that the world is created Out of Water
13:58you have the great deep of the first day
14:01and then you have the waters above and
14:02beneath in the second day the third day
14:05the land drawn out of the water and so
14:08the world is Created from water in the
14:09same way human beings are drawn out of
14:11the water it's connected with the Waters
14:14of the womb it's connected with the
14:16Waters of the Red Sea through which the
14:19people of Israel were drawn it's
14:22connected with stories like the story of
14:26Joshua entering into the promised land
14:28crossing over the Border bord of the
14:30Jordan or it's connected with the story
14:32of Jacob wrestling with the angel at the
14:35Fort of the jaok the place where his
14:37name is mixed up and he receives a new
14:40name and a blessing this is in the same
14:43way a crossing point for us it's
14:45connected to all of these stories it's
14:48connected with the story of the flood
14:50the seed of the world set aboard set on
14:53the waters and then landing and New
14:55Covenant being formed and so there and
14:58that that's something that we find in
15:00the New Testament Peter says baptism now
15:03saves you and it's like the ark now
15:06that's not the way that we tend to think
15:08about these things but that's because
15:10we're moderns and so the more that we
15:13look at the scripture on its own terms
15:14the more that we'll find a dense network
15:17of particular things related to each
15:20other and not the abstract generic
15:22categories that we're may be used
15:24to and the other thing that we find
15:27within the modern world is our way of
15:29viewing the world often views those
15:32things that are most Salient to us as
15:34human beings
15:37relationships our bodies Our places our
15:41rootedness as secondary as even
15:45ephemeral or as things that are just
15:48some sort of epiphenomenon of the things
15:51that are really
15:52existing root matter and natural forces
15:58and so this is a
15:59description of the way that Galileo's
16:02way of thinking the of the world changed
16:05the structures of people's minds and how
16:08they look at their place within the
16:11world from EA BT the features of the
16:14world now classed as secondary unreal
16:18ignoble and regarded as dependent on the
16:21deceitfulness of sense are just those
16:24features which are most intense to man
16:27in all but his purely theoretic activity
16:30and even in that except where he
16:32confines himself strictly to the
16:34mathematical method it was inevitable
16:38that in these circumstances man should
16:40now appear to be outside the real world
16:43man is hardly more than a bundle of
16:45secondary qualities and so our sense of
16:48inhabiting the world the world truly
16:51being our home not just a place where
16:55there are natural forces at work in
16:57which we're trying to um gather these
17:00forces and control these forces but the
17:02world is a home where the there are
17:04these analogies between different levels
17:06of reality where we fit into part of the
17:10sort of choreography of creation that's
17:12a way of thinking of the world that the
17:14modern world and its modern ways of
17:17viewing things has largely rid us of and
17:22if we're going to read the Bible Well we
17:24maybe need to learn to recover it when
17:27perceiving cre in this sort of way this
17:30Modern Way becomes natural to us the
17:33sort of particularity a particular
17:35person Abraham the particular place the
17:39promised land the particular event the
17:42cross that those things that are most
17:44Salient within the world of scripture
17:47can gradually start to lose their
17:49gravity and we can start to think in
17:51very different categories man can more
17:54naturally approach and more nearly
17:57approach to the ultimate order of the
17:58Universe within the modern way of
18:00thinking as he more fully subjects
18:02Society to Universal and impersonal
18:07laws and so this is one of the things
18:10that we bring to the text now all of us
18:14I presume have some sense of the
18:17biblical world and some sense of it even
18:19in our bones and our guts we feel it and
18:22yet at the same time this Modern Way of
18:25viewing the world is also part of us
18:27it's also part of what we're to the text
18:30so before we begin it's important just
18:33to reckon with that just to register the
18:35fact and then as we move on to have a
18:38sense of what we might be bringing to
18:41the text and what the text might be
18:43bringing to
18:44us this is related to what I described
18:47earlier as the
18:48abstraction Instinct the way in which we
18:51very naturally move away from particular
18:55things and move to more abstract things
18:57and we see this in many of the
18:58conversations that we have on the most
19:01Salient questions of gender and marriage
19:03and um sexuality we talk about sex as
19:08such there's less of a sense of the very
19:11specific reality of the Union between
19:13man and wife and its potential for
19:15childbearing sex becomes sex is sex as
19:18sex it's the erotic Union of bodies for
19:22Mutual pleasure and there's less of a
19:25sense of the particularity of this thing
19:27or the fact that the particular
19:28particular persons in that that Bond of
19:30love give R can give rise to a new
19:34individual in the world that is formed
19:37of that love and finds in that love a
19:39sight of welcome and so our way of
19:42thinking is very naturally to step back
19:44and we don't even notice that we're
19:45doing it we can think about Parenthood
19:49in ways that abstract from the
19:50particularity of motherhood and
19:53fatherhood and in all of these ways we
19:56are just following very modern instincts
19:59that will make it difficult for us to
20:00read biblical
20:02text another thing to notice is that we
20:05are people who are taught and formed to
20:10think of ourselves as
20:12individuals as persons who are detached
20:15from others and as persons who are in
20:18some
20:19way fit within the same
20:22fundamental structure as others as
20:25interchangeable we're all individuals
20:28and so the differences that we have from
20:30each other are fundamentally indifferent
20:33what matters is that we're all
20:34individuals now in some sense there is a
20:37Biblical truth there that we all stand
20:40before God on the same level ground we
20:44all are those who have an existence
20:48before God where we stand by ourselves
20:51ultimately we all have to give an
20:53account for ourselves and not just for
20:55um it's not as if your Society or your
20:58family can stand for you and so in that
21:00sense we are all individuals but the
21:03modern world presents us as
21:06indiscriminate and interchangeable
21:08individuals in all sorts of areas of
21:11life and then when we think about men
21:13and women we can think of that as
21:16aberations as something that doesn't re
21:19we're trying to minimize it we're trying
21:20to emphasize a quality of individuals
21:24and so the fact that we are men and
21:25women becomes an anomaly to be explained
21:29or to minimize and that is always going
21:31to be a struggle for us in the modern
21:33world the individual is the fundamental
21:36unit of measurement of humanity it's the
21:38universal building block by which
21:40societies are formed it's how we order
21:43our economy and many aspects of our
21:46society run on the principle that we are
21:48fundamentally interchangeable
21:50individuals the other thing that you'll
21:52find is that where does this leave the
21:56very particular relationship between for
21:59instance The Unborn Child and the mother
22:02it's one of the struggles that we have
22:04within the modern world where we have to
22:06communicate the importance of that
22:10relationship within structures that have
22:12been designed conceptual structures that
22:15have been designed for detached
22:17individuals there's no way to speak well
22:20of that relationship within such
22:22structures and so we talk about the
22:24rights of the unborn child for instance
22:26the unborn child as an individual within
22:28another individual this very anomalous
22:31relationship you don't usually have
22:33individuals relating that way and so
22:35people will think of illustrations like
22:37the person who has this um famous
22:42violinist connected to their internal
22:44organs and they can't detach without
22:46destroying their life and think that we
22:48can think about abortion well in that
22:51sort of terms you can't there's
22:53something very particular about that
22:54relationship that breaks the categories
22:57of individualism
22:59we're not supposed to think about it
23:01that way and deep down we know the world
23:03isn't like that we know the categories
23:05that the modern world has given us are
23:08the wrong categories for the task they
23:10have their place perhaps they can be
23:12useful in certain locations but for
23:15these deep moral
23:17questions we coming up short we don't
23:20find that they are speaking to that
23:23particular reality of the bond between
23:24the child and his
23:26mother and so this sense of the detached
23:30abstract individual ahistorical gender
23:33neutral uprooted from a context and a
23:36world that seems common sensical to us
23:39but when we step back we realize it is
23:42rather weird it doesn't actually fit
23:44even our lived experience there are many
23:46ways in which we realize this isn't true
23:49and it's a it's maybe a workable
23:52category for certain social functions
23:55maybe we need it for certain social
23:57functions but it's not going to Bear the
24:00weight of these deep moral
24:03judgments now this is one of the things
24:05that shapes the way that we think of
24:07what it means to be saved when we think
24:10about salvation we are brought into a
24:15very in terms of liberal thought
24:17anomalous
24:19relationship we are in Christ Christ is
24:23in us his Destiny becomes our destiny we
24:27are related
24:29in him to other people as if in a single
24:32body now that's not the way that we are
24:35taught as moderns to think it's not
24:38something that comes naturally to us now
24:40as Christians we do think this way and
24:41maybe we don't reflect enough upon the
24:43tensions between that and the categories
24:45that we've been given and so I want us
24:48when we're starting this off to think
24:51just we're very weird aren't we and we
24:54have certain categories that aren't good
24:56categories let's suspect spend those
24:58categories for a while and just be
25:00attentive to the reality that scripture
25:02puts forth and first of all does this
25:05actually match certain aspects of our
25:07lived reality that the categories of
25:10modernity don't and also what are some
25:12of the ways that we can think of ways of
25:15speaking about this that are more
25:17fitting to what scripture holds forth
25:20and then beyond that how can we
25:23communicate those to the people around
25:25us for whom scripture does not have the
25:27same authoritative force that it does
25:30for
25:32us Beyond this I think the category of
25:37equality related to individuals related
25:40to universalization and de
25:42particularization is one that holds huge
25:45currency Within These debates when we're
25:48having these debates that is in many
25:50ways the term that really matters and
25:53it's getting at something we it's
25:55getting at something that we feel on a
25:56gut level a society in which there is a
26:00sort of advantage for men where men
26:03dominate over women that's not a good
26:05Society we we sense that there's
26:07something about that that's
26:10off and yet the equality Vision has
26:15other problems one of the things that it
26:17does is it tends to place men and
26:20women's interests in competition and
26:22rivalry with each other we're all
26:25individuals we're all individuals in
26:27indis
26:28places in gender neutralized places and
26:32we're competing for the same things and
26:35we're fundamentally Rivals and
26:38competitors and as a result the idea
26:40that there might be some sort of Union
26:44between man and woman the sort of thing
26:46that we hope for in marriage that is not
26:50rivalrous that is not a straightforward
26:53hierarchical relationship where one
26:55party is dominating over the other but
26:58it's a relationship in both which both
27:01parties are strengthened as both parties
27:03rise to their full stature that just is
27:06not a way that we can easily think of
27:09it's almost forclosed to us by the
27:12categories that we approach the we
27:14approach things within where
27:16commensurability and equality are the
27:18dominating
27:20principles and so equality has a sort of
27:22axiomatic Force for us in a society that
27:25focuses upon individuals in terms of of
27:28these very dep particularized and
27:30universalized
27:32structures and so that atic force is
27:37something that will drive attempts to
27:39shape society and it's not just in terms
27:43of individuals that sort of dep
27:45particularization will also affect other
27:48things so for instance the idea that
27:51there is a natural inequality that needs
27:54to be rectified by scientific means so
27:59for instance we have increasing
28:02movements of science to develop the
28:04ability to have um gametes from skin
28:08cells so you can have a child that
28:11represents the justice that a same-sex
28:13couple does not have by Nature that they
28:16can have their own child a child with
28:18two fathers or a child that's gestated
28:21within an artificial womb and so there's
28:23a sense of this principle of equality
28:25that arises from this sort of Deep
28:28particularization and abstraction and
28:32universalization and then we need to
28:34activate this through Justice through
28:37political means Etc and so the world is
28:41something that we need to remake in the
28:43image of these values and those values I
28:46just want us to step back from them and
28:48maybe think they are a bit weird they
28:50are not the categories that 99% of
28:54societies before ours thought in terms
28:56of even the 30 years ago we weren't
28:59thinking in many of these ways they're
29:01strange for us too and so
29:04maybe we should think about holding them
29:07in question a bit or maybe we should
29:09also think about what fruit are they
29:11bearing when we look around us do we see
29:13a society that feels it's really got its
29:17head screwed on when it comes to sexual
29:19relations is handling these things with
29:21such wisdom and people are being well
29:24formed in relationship to their bodies
29:26men and women are getting on really well
29:28aren't they and there's no sense of
29:30tension or antagonism between them or
29:32their interest being at odds that's what
29:34we see isn't it not really and so we
29:38know that there's something wrong and
29:39everyone I think on some level knows
29:42there's something wrong that the
29:44structures and the categories and the
29:47principles and the values of modern
29:49society aren't actually
29:51delivering and the sense then is maybe
29:54we just haven't doubled down enough
29:57maybe we just haven't fought for these
29:59principles and insisted upon driving
30:02them through through technology politics
30:04ideology Etc maybe if we just went
30:07further maybe if we were just a bit more
30:09radical it might all work out and yet
30:13we've been trying that for a while it's
30:14not really led to a good
30:16place and so again maybe maybe we need
30:20to be in a more teachable position
30:23relative to other principles from
30:25societies and texts that do not share
30:28our fundamental values maybe we should
30:30go back to the drawing board and think
30:32about these things for the first time as
30:35if we had not thought about them before
30:38these principles of equality will also
30:40shape in ways that we may not even
30:43notice how we read particular texts so
30:46you've presumably on many occasions in
30:49having these sorts of conversations
30:51thought about a texts like Galatians
30:533:28 there is neither Jew nor Greek
30:56there is neither slave nor free there is
30:59neither male nor female for you are all
31:02one in Christ Jesus Paul's teaching
31:06equality well is he I mean is that the
31:09primary thing that he's focused on
31:12actually what he's focusing more in upon
31:15is Unity you are all one in Christ Jesus
31:20and in that structure you're no longer
31:22at odds with each other one party's
31:26Advantage is no longer another party
31:28detriment there's not a zero sum game
31:30here there's a situation where the old
31:34divides that would set Jew apart from
31:36Gentile that would set slave apart from
31:39free whether those are covenantal
31:40divides or whether they are divides in
31:43Social sociopolitical orderorder or
31:45there maybe the divides that we
31:48experience between us as men and women
31:50all of those divides cease to be
31:53divides the differences remain but there
31:57is fellowship ship and unity and a sense
31:59that one party's benefit is the other
32:02party's benefit it's the vision of the
32:05church where there's a sort of paradox
32:07there's the Paradox that you receive
32:10more the more that you
32:12give think about the way that the gifts
32:15of the Spirit work the church has been
32:17given one great spiritual gift the
32:21spirit himself received at Pentecost and
32:24that gift is
32:26represented to many members of the
32:28church by those many members and so each
32:31one of us expresses a spiritual gift
32:35that we have received and actually it's
32:38not our spiritual gift it's the church's
32:40spiritual gift ministered through us
32:42there's a sense in which Christ has made
32:45us participants in building up his
32:48church and
32:50so I can you can every one of us can be
32:55involved in this process not just as
32:57recipient of the spirit but as agents of
33:00the spirit now the more that you
33:03exercise your gift the more that you
33:05receive it and so the more that you give
33:08the more that you have this is not the
33:11way that we're used to thinking because
33:12we're used to thinking in terms of
33:15rivalry Zero Sum games
33:18opposition and when we think in terms of
33:20the unity of the body of Christ there's
33:23a different way of thinking and so those
33:25divisions are not primarily about
33:26equality they're about unity and the
33:29fact that we are different and those
33:32differences matter the hand cannot say
33:36to the eye I have no need of you nor the
33:39eye to the hand we all have need of each
33:42other and we are all stronger together
33:44the hand apart from the body is just a
33:48severed limb but with the body it's a
33:52hand likewise the eye the eye apart from
33:56the body does no seeing but with the
33:59body it can coordinate the actions of
34:01the whole and so as we're thinking about
34:04these issues we will instinctively jump
34:07to these categories of things like
34:10equality pay attention to the text
34:13listen to it maybe you've not heard the
34:15words that have been used and thought
34:17enough about what they imply and so I
34:19want us to think about these sorts of
34:23things as we begin this study I also
34:26want us to think about
34:28liberalism liberalism in its broader
34:31sense is very much the society that we
34:34swim in and so it's been described by
34:37John Gray in terms of a quadrilateral
34:40taxonomy individualist which we've
34:42discussed egalitarian which we've
34:44discussed Mist in terms of constant
34:48Improvement getting better all the time
34:50and
34:51Universalist and this can appear in many
34:54different gues you have the sort of
34:56Classical liberalism you have
34:57Progressive liberalism that we
34:59experience a lot today we have a more
35:01libertarian Vision we have neoliberal
35:03visions and all of these are various
35:06species subspecies of this greater
35:09species and it's distinguished by a
35:12commitment to the Primacy of the
35:14individual as the unit of social
35:16analysis and Order and as the center of
35:19gravity for ethics and meaning in
35:21society and the maintenance of the prior
35:25priority the Primacy and integrity of
35:28the individual against internal against
35:30external forces that would compromise it
35:33and so this is very much the the
35:37structure of thought the structure of
35:40social order that we inhabit and the
35:43more that we find
35:45ourselves thinking in these categories
35:47of liberalism the more that these are
35:49common sensical and natural to us the
35:52more that certain aspects of scripture
35:54will appear
35:55strange the liberal subject for instance
35:58is a person who has ascended above the
36:01plane of local
36:03attachment above the plane of the
36:05particularity of the body and the way
36:07that my body and your
36:10body they're particular bodies my body
36:13if you saw my parents you'd know that
36:15they were my parents because I look like
36:17them in various respects my body has a
36:20history that connects them to the me to
36:23them my body is rooted Here and Now my
36:27body is a body that is not a generic
36:30body it's a male body and so there's
36:33this sense that we have with in the
36:35modern world that makes us at least not
36:39think that much about those particular
36:41things and how they matter and the ways
36:43in which we are related to other people
36:45on account of those so the idea of being
36:48one flesh in marriage it's hard to think
36:51about within a liberal
36:56Society the other thing that we focus
36:58upon is
36:59choice and so the centrality of the
37:03individual the inviable self must be
37:06beholden to no one and under no one's
37:08Authority ultimately must stand alone
37:11and so a focus then comes upon a society
37:14grounded upon choice and non coercion of
37:17any kind no pressure no external
37:20requirements and this sort of vast
37:22socially enforced nonaggression pact
37:25between persons of IND different
37:28convictions and ensuring that we all can
37:31be these detached individuals without
37:34actually bumping into each other and
37:36hurting each other of course never works
37:38very well and many of the theories that
37:42we're dealing with today are sort of
37:43Downstream of these commit commitments
37:46and very often what we find is when
37:49we're dealing with questions for
37:50instance of
37:51transgenderism we have swam down the
37:54same stream that leads to that point
37:58we're somewhere further Upstream but
38:00many of those deep instincts are our
38:02deep instincts and so I want us to maybe
38:05at least recognize where we've swam down
38:08from and where those paths those streams
38:12might
38:13lead ideologies can be attached to the
38:16self as means of private self
38:19articulation transgenderism for instance
38:22it may be incoherent and intellectually
38:25inconsistent with various forms of
38:27feminis ISM but both can be affirmed in
38:29the very strongest of terms and treated
38:31as Beyond challenge because they're
38:33increasingly tied to individual choice
38:36and your truth and projection of
38:39that modern society also I think creates
38:43very vulnerable and hyp sensitive selves
38:46through cutting us loose from Deep
38:48structures of belonging and just the
38:52sense of gravity that I have a given
38:54identity I do not get to choose who I I
38:57am my body gives me an identity my
39:01gender gives me an identity my family
39:04gives me an identity my place gives me
39:06an identity and the more that we cut
39:09people off from that and say that
39:10ultimately you're who you choose to be
39:14people become very anxious and they
39:16become very detached from those things
39:19that otherwise would ground them and
39:21give them a sense of
39:23orientation and so the disorientation
39:26that we see with in the modern world and
39:28you can see it in people's bodies you
39:30can see it in the way that they comport
39:33themselves they're not at home they feel
39:36besieged Aaron Ren has talked a lot
39:39about the negative world and I think
39:41it's interesting to look around us and
39:43realize in some ways everyone feels that
39:45they're living within a negative world
39:48who thinks that they're winning at the
39:50moment everyone feels besieged and in
39:53part because everyone is increasingly
39:55besieged as Christian we feel it very
39:58keenly we are in a society that is
40:01hostile to us in ways that it was not
40:03hostile in the past we feel that there's
40:06a a context in which things that were
40:09once grounding and taken for granted are
40:12up in the air and open for dispute or
40:15disputed so strongly that anyone who
40:17would Express what was formally common
40:20sensical can be squeezed out of society
40:24and so what we find ourselves in is a
40:27context that is just hostile and
40:32disoriented a society in which these
40:35forces have left none of us feeling at
40:38home even to the point of not feeling at
40:40home in our own bodies we see this also
40:43in the ways that people are
40:45raised the whole vision of child rearing
40:48is often Downstream of these principles
40:51of individualism these principles of
40:54choice it doesn't necessarily lead to
40:56Happy
40:58happy young adults to secure young
41:01adults it doesn't lead to a situation
41:03where people feel that they really know
41:05who they are if you tell a child you
41:07must work out who you are you must
41:09Define yourself you must choose for
41:12yourself that isn't actually something
41:15that most of us are equipped for as
41:17young kids who are very impressionable
41:20and very vulnerable to distorted
41:24narratives that we are increasingly
41:25bombarded with with uh an extreme
41:29exposure to social media and other
41:32forces the other thing that we'll find
41:35particularly when we're reading through
41:36scripture is when we come with these
41:39principles of choice and
41:41self-de many of the things that we
41:43encounter in scriptures feel like
41:45violations to us and I think we aren't
41:48the only ones to experience the struggle
41:50of trying to express a different sort of
41:54society and values in the modern world
41:58so for instance this is something that
41:59you'll often find Muslims struggling to
42:01do how do you express the fact that
42:04dressing in a particular way or
42:06celebrating a particular Feast is not
42:09just a matter of your individual
42:11self-expression and choice it's not just
42:14your anti-patriarchal action it's not
42:17just the means by which you're
42:19expressing some sort of solidarity
42:21within a political
42:23struggle it's something that is a deep
42:26sense of identity
42:28and belonging that isn't chosen but is
42:31not thereby something that's merely
42:33imposed upon you by force and as
42:36Christians we can often struggle to
42:38express this too there's a sense in
42:43which our bodies are given our
42:46identities are in many ways given to us
42:49we can't just choose who we are that
42:51does not mean that we are radically
42:54unfree in the sense of being in bond
42:57bondage there is a sort of Freedom that
43:00can come with givenness and a sort of
43:02bondage that can come with Choice when
43:05you see people who are a drift within a
43:07society of radical choice they don't
43:10often seem very free their lives and
43:15identities become fragmented there can't
43:18be a consistent line that holds them
43:20together as they were as a
43:21seven-year-old to what they will become
43:24as a 70y old one of the things that
43:27enables us to keep Unity across time is
43:30things that make us unfree commitments
43:34the fact that when you for instance
43:36marry someone you make a vow and you
43:39bind your future self and in binding
43:42your future self you become free to be a
43:46unified self across time in ways that
43:48you would not be without that and so
43:51freedom and binding are not necessarily
43:55at odds in the same way some sort of
43:59structural expectation even hierarchy is
44:02not a bad thing we can experience this
44:06in the context for instance of an
44:08orchestra where the conductor frees
44:12people who would otherwise be just doing
44:15their own thing to be a unified
44:17expression of beautiful sound and
44:20together to do something that none of
44:21them could do by themselves or even just
44:23jamming together there's something
44:26remarkable that can occur as we live
44:28within a greater order that is not just
44:30Chosen and so trying to communicate
44:33these things to moderns first of all
44:36ourselves is always going to be a
44:37struggle but that does not mean that if
44:40we step back and even look at our lived
44:42experience we won't recognize these
44:44things to be true recognize deep within
44:48our nature deep within the nature of the
44:50world the nature of the relationships
44:52that we have these things resonate and
44:56they res resonate in a way that feels
44:58like a breath of fresh air in a my Asma
45:01of just toxic um toxic atmosphere
45:06because we don't hear these truths and
45:08there are so many aspects of ourselves
45:10that we can't express so many ways in
45:14which we feel that the things that are
45:16most Salient to our
45:18existence have no form of expression
45:21given to them within the conceptual
45:22categories that we've
45:24inherited and so stepping back and
45:27thinking about these things in a
45:28different way I think is absolutely
45:31essential at the beginning of a project
45:33like
45:34this the other thing we need to notice
45:36is that for Universal universalism de
45:39particularization abstraction and
45:41individualism to be effective reality
45:45Nature has to be fungible and malleable
45:48you have to be able to reform nature in
45:49your image in the image of the ideology
45:52that you bring to it and so in some ways
45:55there is a gnostic flavor to many ways
45:57that people view reality an evil
46:01demiurge has established empirical
46:04reality as a vast illusion might suggest
46:07that there are men and women and that
46:10there are real differences and those
46:11things really make a difference in the
46:13context for instance of child birth and
46:15rearing but really that's just an
46:18illusion created by this evil demiurge
46:21and if we think in terms of the deep
46:24ideological truth of individ idual ISM
46:27and liberalism we can get behind that
46:30and with our science we can overcome the
46:33demiurge we can act against that natural
46:36order that's binding Us in actual fact
46:39this nature is purely socially
46:41constructed and needs to be reformed in
46:43line with our Universal
46:46principles those privileged individuals
46:49who have obtained Enlightenment can see
46:51through and fight against the illusion
46:53that pres prevents everyone else from
46:55perceiving the truth
46:58and within this sort of struggle
46:59struggle the social construction of
47:01reality can be presented both as the
47:04power that enslaves us and is that that
47:07might release us and so we're Bound by
47:10these structures of reality these
47:12structures of social reality that if we
47:15just realized that these are not natural
47:17these are not forces that are just given
47:20we could fight back and we could make
47:22reality in our own image men and women
47:25for instance have been social socialized
47:27into patriarchal and sexist ways of
47:29thinking and acting and they can
47:31potentially be socialized out of them
47:34the true reality beyond the deceptive
47:36empirical realm of appearances is that
47:39men and women are ultimately equal
47:42interchangeable individuals in many
47:44respects and this truth is veiled by
47:46social
47:47construction now as Christians there's
47:49something that we can recognize to a
47:52degree here we believe in sin we believe
47:56in in a world that has been radically
48:00distorted we believe that people have
48:02been alienated from Deep realities of
48:06themselves and the world in which they
48:07live we recognize and we see around us
48:12this sense of disorientation that I've
48:14already
48:15described and within the modern world we
48:17also experience a sort of loss of
48:21gravity when we think about the
48:23experience of someone thrust into space
48:26the experience of the astronaut who's
48:28living in micro gravity no longer
48:31feeling the effects of the Earth's
48:34gravitational pull upon their body their
48:36muscles start to atropy they're going
48:39through the they're flying round in
48:42orbit of the the world and they're
48:45experiencing a number of Dawns in a
48:46single day they're in a situation where
48:49there is no clear up and down and
48:52they're feeling nauseous their bodies
48:54were not designed to be in that sort of
48:57environment and there is a sort of zero
49:00gravity context that we are inhabiting
49:03within the modern world a world that's
49:05shaped not just by the ideologies but by
49:09our exertion of power over nature to
49:11keep nature and its constant reminders
49:14of reality at Bay to ensure that we're
49:17not trying to live within in terms of
49:19the grain of nature but nature
49:23is it's denied ultimately nature needs
49:26to be reformed in terms of our
49:29fundamental values and there's a sort
49:32of plasticine character to this do you
49:36call it plasticine over here is it
49:38Playdoh or
49:39something it doesn't have a natural form
49:42that's being suppressed by the person
49:44modeling it the most that we can say is
49:46that the plases model form is an
49:48arbitrary and artificial one but there's
49:50no natural form at least on the higher
49:54level and what we find mind in society
49:57is often something similar the sense
50:00that we could be fashioned very
50:02differently and asserting this deeper
50:05plasticine quality to reality and the
50:08ways in which we can be interchangeable
50:11involves some fairly strong claims about
50:13our
50:14malleability now there is a sense in
50:18which human beings have a lot of
50:22adaptability we can act in very many
50:26different ways in different sorts of
50:28societies if you study anthropological
50:30literature you'll see that the dynamic
50:33of man and woman plays out in radically
50:36different ways across history and in
50:38different
50:40cultures but one of the things you'll
50:42also notice is that if you were randomly
50:45put in any society and men and women
50:47behind your back were mixed up You'
50:50recognize that something was arai
50:52because we are recognizable even in
50:55these contexts of so social formation
50:58you can think about the ways that this
51:00could be compared to a dance there is
51:02something
51:04artificial and not merely natural in so
51:08much of what human beings do and as a
51:10dance there's a sense of exuberance a
51:14sense this is not just laws that you
51:16need to obey there's a dynamic that
51:19brings you together with other people so
51:22for instance think about the way that
51:24within societies we all speak different
51:27languages from culture to culture but
51:30human beings always speak languages and
51:32they always speak languages in ways that
51:35will have consistencies we all talk
51:37about some of the same things we talk
51:40about the sun we talk about the sky we
51:42talk about human persons we talk about
51:44human relationships we think talk about
51:46social
51:47structures and every language will have
51:50some sort of category for these things
51:52we'll talk about the natural order the
51:54the faer and the Flora within our
51:56environment
51:57and so human beings are speaking
52:00creatures and that's natural to us but
52:03the ways that we'll speak will vary
52:05likewise as men and women we will play
52:09out that reality in many different ways
52:12but that is a deep reality of human
52:14existence and so on the one hand there
52:16is a sort of social construction but
52:19forming Society in different ways is
52:22natural to human beings it's something
52:25that is deep in within us as people who
52:29have been created in God's image God is
52:32the Creator and he has created us as
52:34subc creators as those who are forming
52:37not just the world around us but forming
52:40ourselves there are people today that
52:44are formed in ways that no human beings
52:47in history before had been
52:49formed we
52:51have I don't know we have people engaged
52:54in um software engineering there were no
52:58software Engineers 100 years ago well
53:00maybe some very primitive ones but we
53:03have a society that has created new
53:05forms of persons we have new forms of
53:08Institutions we have universities that
53:11didn't exist a few thousand years ago we
53:14have structures of human relationship
53:18that are new and that's part of the
53:20goodness of humanity that we grow and we
53:22become new things in line with the
53:25creative potential that God has has
53:26given us it's like the way that there
53:28are laws governing the way that music
53:32works not everything is going to sound
53:34good when you play it on a musical
53:36instrument there are laws behind um
53:39making something sound Pleasant the ears
53:42and you learn those you learn a musical
53:44instrument you learn your um scales and
53:47you go through the practices and over
53:49time you begin to learn that there's a
53:52flexibility you can make many different
53:54forms of music you can can have
53:57classical music and Jazz and pop music
53:59and all of these Express different sorts
54:01of things all of them are consistent
54:04with at least to some extent with the
54:06fundamental forms of Music we may have
54:09differing op opinions over some types of
54:11music but when it comes down to it there
54:14are fundamental structures and freedoms
54:17within those structures freedoms that
54:19are not just well you're not bound at
54:22this point but they're
54:24invitations invitations to be something
54:27more to grow into the creative potential
54:30that God has given us and so what we
54:32have is not the vision of pure social
54:36malleability the sort of evil demiurge
54:39that's hiding the true reality that is
54:41one that can be
54:43neutralized but we have a recognition of
54:45a world that has been shrouded by sin in
54:49many respects but a world that is good
54:53and true and beautiful and that as we
54:56live in that world we can live in it in
54:58ways that are creative and
55:00imaginative we don't have to live in
55:02terms of the structures of 50 years ago
55:06we need to think imaginatively of what
55:08it means to Faithfully live out these
55:11realities in a new world a world that's
55:14arising through new technological
55:17structures new social forces new
55:19relationships to the material order and
55:22to do that in a way that is faithful
55:24requires imagination and creativity and
55:27a dynamic where we're not just doing it
55:29by ourselves we're working with other
55:33people the other thing that we need to
55:36work on here is this sense of the
55:39shrouding of reality the sense that
55:42there is some fundamental reality that's
55:45being hidden from us and we have to take
55:47radical action against nature or
55:49radically argue against nature
55:52ideologically there is a fundamental
55:55suspicion that we take we look through
55:58things we do not rest our Gaze on
56:01anything that actually commands it
56:04because our gays can always see through
56:06things to their elus illary and their um
56:10deceptive
56:11character and what I want us to do here
56:14is to let our gaze rest on something
56:16that's true and sure and good and
56:19beautiful and with that short with that
56:22we find in scripture to look at our
56:25world again
56:27in ways that help us to see what is good
56:29and beautiful in our world and to see
56:32those things also that are the Illusions
56:35are the things that are hiding from us
56:39those things that really
56:41matter the other thing that we find
56:43within the modern world is a sort of
56:45logic of totalization the universal
56:48society and vision of ideology that it
56:50advances is not merely an abstraction
56:52from particularity in one bounded
56:54location but a claim to to a universal
56:57logic that all parties and all places
56:59must submit to and so liberalism and
57:02other positions of universal reason
57:04believe themselves to be endlessly
57:06scalable transplantable and replicable
57:09they're at home everywhere and nowhere
57:12and before the power of this sort of
57:13universal Reon reason and its optimized
57:16techniques all persons places Customs
57:20values identities traditions and
57:22societies are rendered plastic and
57:24fungible like fired bricks for its great
57:28Babel and in contrast to our socio to
57:32other sociopolitical orders Universal
57:34cultures characteristic IM modesty and
57:37self
57:38absolutization is seen in its conviction
57:40that its structures and its values are
57:43not merely the most fitting and
57:44effective for 21st century Western
57:47societies but for everyone they enable
57:50us to gainsay every society that has
57:53pre-existed us and to say that not only
57:56are these things legitimate but they are
57:59morally incumbent on all human societies
58:02to adopt it's liberalism typically
58:05functions as a totalizing Doctrine even
58:07as it firmly opposes other doctrines
58:10pretensions to
58:11ultimacy and so this is the context
58:14within which we are having these
58:15conversations it's a context within
58:18which we'll find some of the reality of
58:22nature coming out in unexpected ways so
58:25for instance Veil particularism talked
58:27about the way that there is a Detachment
58:30from the particularity for instance of
58:32man and
58:33woman Detachment from the particularity
58:35of the you Union of man and woman in
58:38marriage to think about marriage as such
58:40or sex as such let's think about for
58:44instance the ways that in our Universal
58:47visions of the human person often the
58:50person encoded within that is a certain
58:53type of person generally an adult male
58:57an adult male does not have a womb does
59:00not have a body that can be connected to
59:02others in the way that the infant is
59:04connected to his M to its mother's body
59:07and so there is already coded in this
59:10supposedly Universal thing something
59:12that's very particular and it's
59:15veiled and as we look through our
59:17society we'll see this in many ways and
59:19it's not always the male sometimes it's
59:21a implicitly paradigmatic female and we
59:26find I think in many of our societal
59:29institutions a sort of switch in some of
59:31the coding so the typical um figure
59:35within liberalism in the past was more
59:37male independent adult male um and that
59:40vision of a high agency independent
59:43adult male of means and now it's no
59:46longer so much that it's the more
59:49vulnerable um female victim and that
59:53leads to different Dynamics but at the
59:54same time the both cases of a sort of
59:57veiled
1:00:01particularization so taking stock of who
1:00:05we are how we think the world in which
1:00:08we live the forces that have shaped a
1:00:10world that is very
1:00:12strange I believe that when we come back
1:00:14to the scripture we'll find first of all
1:00:17that sense of disorientation this text
1:00:20is strange to us but we'll maybe realize
1:00:22a bit more why it appears strange to us
1:00:25maybe maybe we are the ones that are
1:00:28strange one of the concepts that has
1:00:31been very helpful in thinking about
1:00:32these aspects of our world is we i d
1:00:38weird it's a description of modern
1:00:41persons like us we're western w educated
1:00:46e industrial I rich are and Democratic
1:00:52or individ we're individuals as well and
1:00:56in all of these ways we've been formed
1:00:58in a way that is anomalous within the
1:01:01greater scope of human society across
1:01:03cultures and historically and
1:01:05recognizing ourselves to be weird will
1:01:08put us in a very good place to read
1:01:11scripture and maybe realize we are the
1:01:13ones that are weird not the scripture
1:01:15itself maybe we should be thinking more
1:01:17about blood maybe we should be thinking
1:01:19more about specific places and persons
1:01:22and events in history as the things that
1:01:23are most Salient maybe we should be
1:01:25thinking thinking about ourselves as at
1:01:27home in the world maybe we should be
1:01:29thinking about ourselves as those whose
1:01:32very bodies implicate Us in relationship
1:01:35with other people and as we do that we
1:01:38may find when we come back to our more
1:01:41immediate world that things jump out of
1:01:44out out at us that we hadn't seen before
1:01:47maybe we recognized things that we'd
1:01:51never recognized previously maybe we see
1:01:53people around us in a different way
1:01:56maybe you'll see your spouse or your
1:01:57child in a different way maybe you'll
1:02:00see your own relationship with your body
1:02:02in a different way this is something
1:02:05that we'll be thinking about
1:02:06particularly tomorrow the way that
1:02:07scripture talks about the body in ways
1:02:10that give it a weight and a significance
1:02:13that is quite shocking it's a weight and
1:02:17a significance that makes us feel
1:02:19suddenly the weight of our body our
1:02:22bodies have gravity they matter and
1:02:25weightiness is not something that we
1:02:26used to in the world of light
1:02:30modernity so um at this point I think
1:02:34it's probably good to pause for a few
1:02:37moments if anyone has any questions on
1:02:39what we've discussed so far before we
1:02:41move
1:02:48on
1:02:50lialis
1:02:53do so I use John Gray's
1:02:56quadrilateral taxonomy so he talks about
1:03:00when you say quadrilateral ta just the
1:03:01four
1:03:03um
1:03:06sorry I do have to I do speak foreign
1:03:09languages
1:03:11sometimes I'm not sure if you speak in
1:03:13tongues in this church but it's maybe an
1:03:15example um let me go back to discussion
1:03:20of it here
1:03:23um the C categories that he discussed
1:03:26are
1:03:28individualist um which we did discussed
1:03:31the idea that the individual is the
1:03:32fundamental unit of society our
1:03:36fundamental unit of analysis of social
1:03:38order Etc egalitarian this principle of
1:03:42equality and that leads to it leads to a
1:03:45certain sense of commensurability and
1:03:47exchangeability um and
1:03:51fungibility the idea that we can
1:03:53exchange people can be exchanged the
1:03:56differences between them are not the
1:03:59differences between them are ultimately
1:04:00indifferent it doesn't really matter at
1:04:03the deepest level Mist we have a a story
1:04:07of progress we think that things are
1:04:10getting better we think that liberalism
1:04:12is carrying a torch for the human race
1:04:15and it's getting rid of all the old
1:04:17superstitions all the old Customs that
1:04:20stand in the way of us rising to our
1:04:22full stature as choosing individuals
1:04:26and so you'll see it's a sort of
1:04:30eschatology it's a vision of where
1:04:32things are going what is the utopian
1:04:34society that we're working towards and
1:04:36this is something even as Christians we
1:04:38have at a gut level we feel it even
1:04:40technologically and I'm sure that's
1:04:42maybe that may well be something that
1:04:44you feel far more keenly in the Bay Area
1:04:46than feel elsewhere in the country that
1:04:49sense of a narrative that's underwriting
1:04:52so much of what people are doing what
1:04:54they're hoping for what's orienting them
1:04:57here and now that sense that technology
1:05:01that sense that social reform that um
1:05:06these societies of I mean Pro protest
1:05:10the whatever we're doing to work towards
1:05:13this constant move of progress and we
1:05:16think that in 20 years time our kids
1:05:19will see our errors and they'll be
1:05:21reforming us and there's a sense there
1:05:24of a way of the future person who's I
1:05:29mean it's there's a sense that the youth
1:05:31are leading the way and the sense of um
1:05:34youth leading the way leads to a
1:05:37resistance to wisdom and the weight of
1:05:41tradition being passed on the weight of
1:05:43experience even the sense of a world
1:05:46that has a certain degree of fixity to
1:05:49it and we experienced this very much
1:05:53places like the internet the internet
1:05:54has been through about about three or
1:05:56four iterations in our lifetimes the
1:05:58very earliest internet was a very
1:06:00different place from the internet that
1:06:03we've moved into now and there have been
1:06:05a few other internets along the way and
1:06:07we do not know what things are going to
1:06:09be like in 10 years time we do not even
1:06:12know are we going to have artificial
1:06:14general intelligence next year are any
1:06:18of our jobs going to be around these
1:06:20sorts of questions are very live to us
1:06:22within a world that is constantly in
1:06:24flux and changing and people's sense of
1:06:27their own bodies their life stories
1:06:29being influx is related to this larger
1:06:32structure not just of improvement but of
1:06:35flux and change towards this complete
1:06:39it's always moving towards
1:06:41optimalization and the other thing that
1:06:43you'll find in this is there's a a value
1:06:45given to more and greater speed um
1:06:51integration connection um and all of
1:06:55these ways they don't actually make
1:06:57things better much of the time a society
1:07:00where things are faster is not
1:07:01necessarily a society where people are
1:07:03happier a society where there's such a
1:07:06turnover and people go through so many
1:07:08different gigs um and no longer have a
1:07:11career or a sense of vocation that
1:07:13unifies them is not necessarily a
1:07:15society in which people flourish
1:07:18likewise a society where we bring more
1:07:20and more people into connection with
1:07:22each other how is that working out for
1:07:24us is it a society where we have more
1:07:26rational and calm discourse probably not
1:07:30so we have a very unusual set of forces
1:07:34that are connected to that mist impulse
1:07:36and the next one the final category is
1:07:39Universalist the sense that the values
1:07:43that govern our society are values that
1:07:45govern every society or should govern
1:07:47every society and they have a moral it's
1:07:51morally incumbent on societies to reform
1:07:54in terms of our un unversal liberal
1:07:56values and so we'll judge former
1:07:59societies and you'll often see this even
1:08:00in our media there will be the voice of
1:08:03the audience represented in a movie
1:08:05about some historical time who expresses
1:08:07very modern sentiments that are
1:08:10completely at odds with the people
1:08:12around them but stand in for the
1:08:14audience who believe that the society
1:08:16needs to be reformed in terms of our
1:08:18modern liberal values and the sense that
1:08:21there might be different ways of
1:08:23ordering society that aren't
1:08:24fundamentally wrong on that account just
1:08:27because they aren't liberal that's very
1:08:29strange to us and so when we're reading
1:08:31the scripture I think we find that
1:08:39too the philosopher yes
1:08:49yeah any more questions we have about
1:08:53five minutes left I think
1:09:11I mean the many ways there are
1:09:13fundamental tensions within liberalism
1:09:15partly between the subspecies of
1:09:17liberalism none of them um it's kind of
1:09:21underdefined and so the liberalism will
1:09:24be at ODS with themselves so for
1:09:26instance how do you secure equality is
1:09:29this just a very ideological equality or
1:09:32is it something that to what extent does
1:09:34that need to be worked out through
1:09:36social measures for instance does it
1:09:39mean equality of opportunity or is any
1:09:44inequality in outcomes a result of a
1:09:47fundamental betrayal of liberalism those
1:09:49are things that different subspecies of
1:09:51liberalism will argue over so there's
1:09:54not fundament agreement actually one
1:09:56thing I should mention as well is the
1:09:59degree to which modern society has been
1:10:02shaped by the forces of the Society of
1:10:04the spectacle that we increasingly live
1:10:07in Realms of representation that are
1:10:10detached from the immediacy of concrete
1:10:13bodily
1:10:14existence and so I find even being here
1:10:17in this room teaching in person and
1:10:19talking to you and being in the same
1:10:23location that's very different different
1:10:25from what I'm usually doing which is
1:10:26teaching over the internet and that
1:10:29context creates different Dynamics when
1:10:32you're actually in the same room as
1:10:35people the place mediates relationships
1:10:38there's a sense of groundedness that
1:10:40arises just from being somewhere with
1:10:43other people I think the other thing
1:10:45that we find is that when we're in this
1:10:48realm of the
1:10:50spectacle we are constantly representing
1:10:53ourselves and certain things fit within
1:10:56that representation and others don't for
1:10:58instance the representation is largely a
1:11:00thing of words it's our beliefs our
1:11:03ability to speak in terms of a certain
1:11:06cultural
1:11:07etiquette many things do not appear in
1:11:11the spectacle you don't see age the
1:11:14elderly you don't see disability in many
1:11:17ways in the spectacle you don't see
1:11:20people's Deeds for the most part in the
1:11:23spectacle you see their good sentiment
1:11:25their ideologic ideologically correct
1:11:28viewpoints you don't necessarily see
1:11:30them and the other thing that we find I
1:11:33think within the realm of the spectacle
1:11:35that we inhabit particularly on social
1:11:36media as we're constantly representing
1:11:39ourselves it's like a great mirror um
1:11:42the mirror is perhaps one of the most
1:11:45profound
1:11:46Technologies if you think about living
1:11:49imagine your life without a mirror if
1:11:52you can never see your face and if you
1:11:55lived in a society where there was no
1:11:57real still clear water that you could
1:11:59see your reflection in or clear metal or
1:12:02something like that and there were no
1:12:04mirrors how would you regard yourself
1:12:07and then what would happen if the mirror
1:12:08was introduced into your Society what
1:12:11would change it would be disorienting
1:12:14but it would also be terrifying you'd
1:12:16wake up and see yourself in the morning
1:12:18and it would be a shock I mean I
1:12:19certainly get that experience in the
1:12:21morning but there's a there's a sense
1:12:23that we have had a mirror introduced to
1:12:26our society over the last few decades
1:12:29and we haven't really processed what's
1:12:31going on um we haven't processed the
1:12:34degree to which we are presenting
1:12:37ourselves and positioning ourselves and
1:12:39posturing in a mirror in which we are
1:12:42now seeing ourselves a realm of words
1:12:44and images that we're presenting
1:12:46ourselves within one that's very limited
1:12:49in what we can actually show there and
1:12:51so much of people's sense of
1:12:54disorientation and also the way that
1:12:56they're trying to articulate their
1:12:58identity is determined by that social
1:13:02and technological structure think about
1:13:04the degree to which even things like a
1:13:07Disney movie will play a sort of
1:13:10political role for people you need to be
1:13:14represented now I'm not sure people
1:13:17thought about that in quite the same way
1:13:19in the past when people weren't so
1:13:21situated with the within the spectacle
1:13:24seeing yourself on the screen big or
1:13:26small was less of a
1:13:29preoccupation that doesn't mean there's
1:13:31no need for seeing models and other
1:13:34things like that uh role models that we
1:13:37can recognize ourselves within but often
1:13:40there's a certain way of understanding
1:13:43ourselves within the realm of the
1:13:44spectacle that is very strange and maybe
1:13:47we've not thought about it enough
1:13:48because it's a novel situation but we're
1:13:51living within it this is the the water
1:13:55that the fish is swimming
1:13:57in um we are taking a break is it 15
1:14:01minutes and then

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