Terry Eagleton Vs. Doc Dawkins

Wow did Marxist Critic Eagleton ever tear Dawkins a new one! His review of Dawkins God Delusion, begins:
Imagine someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds, and you have a rough idea of what it feels like to read Richard Dawkins on theology.

Eagleton isn't that bad a theologian either:

Dawkins, who is as obsessed with the mechanics of Creation as his Creationist opponents, understands nothing of these traditional doctrines. Nor does he understand that because God is transcendent of us (which is another way of saying that he did not have to bring us about), he is free of any neurotic need for us and wants simply to be allowed to love us. Dawkins’s God, by contrast, is Satanic. Satan (‘accuser’ in Hebrew) is the misrecognition of God as Big Daddy and punitive judge, and Dawkins’s God is precisely such a repulsive superego. This false consciousness is overthrown in the person of Jesus, who reveals the Father as friend and lover rather than judge. Dawkins’s Supreme Being is the God of those who seek to avert divine wrath by sacrificing animals, being choosy in their diet and being impeccably well behaved. They cannot accept the scandal that God loves them just as they are, in all their moral shabbiness. This is one reason St Paul remarks that the law is cursed. Dawkins sees Christianity in terms of a narrowly legalistic notion of atonement – of a brutally vindictive God sacrificing his own child in recompense for being offended – and describes the belief as vicious and obnoxious. It’s a safe bet that the Archbishop of Canterbury couldn’t agree more. It was the imperial Roman state, not God, that murdered Jesus.

Find the debate here. The Wiki article on TE also has a link to the above article and a response by someone. Sorry I'm too lazy to find out who. Also, Wikipedia - I still love you man. Those idiots who actually want to you be THE source of truth, are just bone heads anyway. I know that you are in the connection business, not the prophet/profit business. Hugs and kisses.

Indie music and secular theology - Isaac Brock

So I've just confirmed something that I had suspected for some time. The common denominator behind (some of) these indie bands that are doing a sort of secular theology is Isaac Brock, the lead singer of Modest Mouse and a former A&R for subpop (he signed Wolf Parade and invited the Shins to tour with him). As I've mentioned before, I'm intrigued by the theology of "Saint Simon" by the Shins, "Ocean Breathes Salty" and "Bukowski" from Modest Mouse's last lp, as well as "Dear Sons and Daughters of Hungry Ghosts" and "I'll believe in anything" by Wolf Parade. Frankly there is a litany of artists playing with or participating in God these days: Champion (Oh Lord, there ain't no heaven); K-os (everyday is Saturday night but I can't wait for Sunday morning); The Hold Steady (I feel Jesus in the tenements of young and awkward lovers / I feel Judas in the pistols and the pagers that come with all the powder); Death Cab for Cutie (If heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied / illuminate the nos on their vacancy signs ... then I'll follow you into the dark). What I notice in Champion is that he evokes "the Lord" while he negates the Lord's product (?) - heaven, and uses the vocal idioms of spirituals (post-spirituals - this might apply to Moby as well). With Death Cab what we have is just the desire to mine a catholic background for poetic phrases, but the fixation on darkness and the persistence of substance, of life, this does seem to be a secular eschatology. There is a wish to step beyond symbolism into some unity of identity. This must have to do with the ubiquity of the media, and the desire to escape it.

You hear something similar in the Shins "Saint Simon" (which now comes with Windows XP - hows that for indie?). The singer wants to let his guard down, allow himself no mock defense and step into the night. But his night is not a night of lack or negation, but rather the appearance of lady mercy (Our Lady of Mercy in a cloud of sonic beauty), with eyes so blue, which evokes this pietist response (nothing holds a roman candle to the sudden warmth you feel inside of you). The title of the song is also puzzling - Saint Simon - which leads you to think about the Catholic Canon, but which actually signifies the father of socialism, French positivist Saint-Simon. Thus the escape from answers seems not to be an escape from religion, but rather from politics, or political theory. This escape leads to mercy, and an encounter with beauty - the city of God?

But if the Shins are contemplating the city of God, Modest Mouse is protesting the truthiness of contemporary Augustinians. Throughout The Good Times are Killing Me Brock lists the faults of God (seemingly to God - like Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof):

If God controls the land and disease
Keeps a watchful eye on me
If he's really so damn mighty
My problem is that I can't see
Well who'd wanna be?
Who'd wanna be such a control freak?
Well who'd wanna be?
Who would wanna be such a control freak? (Bukowski)

But in between his disillusioned questioning, Brock provides some lines that approach the sacramental (Ocean Breathes Salty):

Your body may be gone, I’m gonna carry you in.
In my head, in my heart, in my soul.
And maybe we’ll get lucky and we’ll both live again.
Well I don’t know. I don’t know.
I don’t know. Don’t think so.
...
Well that is this and this is this.
Will you tell me what you saw
and I’ll tell you what you missed,
when the ocean met the sky
You missed when time and life shook hands and said goodbye.
[You missed] When the earth folded in on itself.
[You missed] And said “Good luck,
for your sake I hope heaven and hell
[You missed] are really there, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.”
[You missed] You wasted life, why wouldn’t you waste death?
[You missed] You wasted life, when wouldn’t you waste death?
The ocean breathes salty, wont you carry it in?
In your head, in your mouth, in your soul.

Clearly Brock is a conflicted lyricist. He does seem to describe a doubter's thoughts about a "natural" Eucharist. I can see a protagonist standing on the shores of Puget Sound, looking out too eternity, confronting the loss within. Which leads me to more of Brock's complaints and accusations about God:

You were laying on the carpet
Like you're satin in a coffin
You said, "Do you believe what you're sayin'?"
Yeah right now, but not that often
Are you dead or are you sleepin'?
Are you dead or are you sleepin'?
Are you dead or are you sleepin'?
God I sure hope you are dead

Well you disappeared so often
Like you dissolved into coffee
Are you here right now or are there
Probably fossils under your meat?
Are you dead or are you sleepin'?
Are you dead or are you sleepin'?
Are you dead or are you sleepin'?
God I sure hope you are dead

Now the blow's been softened, since the air we breathe's our coffin
Well now the blow's been softened, since the ocean is our coffin
Often times you know our laughter is our coffin ever after
And you know the blow's been softened, since the world is our coffin
And now the blow's been softened, since we are our own damn coffins
Well everybody's talkin' 'bout their short lists
Everybody's talkin' 'bout DEATH!

Well, perhaps that's enough of Brock for the day. He gets a bit blasphemous for me (though he his usually talking about God by talking about someone else, like Bukowski). Wolf Parade seems to continue Brock's conflicted description of God, but where Brock seems to hold onto something, carry a burden of lost-fundamentalism perhaps, WP just seems lost in Montreal's relativity:

I got a hand
So I got a fist
So I got a plan
It's the best that I can do
Now we'll say it's in God's hands
But God doesn't always have the best goddamn plans, does he? (Hungry Ghosts)

Ok, so maybe that does sound like post-fundamentalist angst, but I still think it's concocted. Brock's is dripping with real, untold history, WP, not so much. Here's a glance at "I'll believe in anything", which has a nice critique of urban relationships embedded in it:

Give me your eyes
I need sunshine
Give me your eyes
I need sunshine
Your blood, your bones
Your voice, and your ghost

We've both been very brave
Walk around with both legs
Wait for the scary day
We both pull the tricks out of our sleeves

But I'll believe in anything
And you'll believe in anything
Said I'll believe in anything
And you'll believe in anything

If I could take the fire out from the wire
I'd share a life and you'd share a life
If I could take the fire out from the wire
I'd share a life and you'd share a life
If I could take the fire out from the wire
I'd take you where nobody knows you
And nobody gives a damn
Said nobody knows you
And nobody gives a damn

So WP seems to have some trickle down angst inspired by Brock. There will be more on indie music and secular theology in the future. Some of my past posts cover this as well.

Treat yourself to some of 2006's best!

Stressed

The day of judgment is upon us. The "us" I refer to is my phd cohort at WLU/Waterloo in Religious Diversity in North America. Tomorrow we write our general comprehensive exam. I'm a bit of a wreck. I've been reading too late at night which gives me these academic dreams. I wake up at five or so and realize that I've been thinking about say the plethora of names in Prebish & Baumann's Westward Dharma: Buddhism beyond Asia anthology.

I'm beginning to forget that which I have already put to memory. I've already studied these books sufficiently, say Casanova's Public Religions in the Modern World, and now my mind is rearranging his argument. I have a tendency to forget the shortcomings of a book. I like to idealize the texts I've read. I think it has something to do with managing cognitive dissonance. If I like part of an argument, I begin to intentionally "forget" those elements that I don't find harmonious. It's like purgatory.

The other thing I've been thinking about is conferences in May. There are three that I want to attend. The first one is The Atlantic Canadian Studies Conference in Halifax on May 3-5. The topic is "knowledge in action" which seems like a title dreamed up by someone who is ignorant of Foucault and Said. I've submitted an abstract on the Catholic imaginary in Ann-Marie MacDonald and David Adams Richards. These are two of the authors I am working on in my thesis, and so my work will be productive. Second conference I want to apply to is the regional AAR in at U Waterloo held on the same weekend. The paper I want to deliver is on secular theology in "indie" music with a glance at the cultural habitus, and subjectivity of ipod users (and the subgroup of "indie" music listeners). The songs I have in mind are 1) "Saint Simon" by the shins, which uses a Zizekian model of subjectivity to talk about an encounter with the sublime; 2) "We are no where and it's now" by Bright Eyes, which addresses the problem of place in a imaginary that has disavowed God; 3)"Ocean Breathes Salty" by Modest Mouse, which uses an image of an earthy Eucharist (Ocean Breaths Salty want to carry you in in my head in my heart in my soul) yet ends on a faithless note. I'm captivated by the God talk in this secular space, and I'm also interested in the social-cultural impact that the ipod has had. I think the ipod makes hyper-subjective communities that are a mix of private and public - perhaps priblic, or pubvate, in that one purchases music, is part of some imagined community of listeners, and has no contact with them what so ever, except at a concert. Also, this public commodity reshapes the internal realm and becomes a type of language that expresses one's interiority: note song lists on myspace (yes I've fallen for this trick). Anyway, if I can't present this at the AAR, which is likely, I'll try to submit it to the CSSR in Saskatchewan, May 27-30, though my wife wants me to be at her cousin's wedding in Colorado that weekend. My poor beautiful idea of secular theology may go to waste. It's sad isn't it...

Craig Finn shook my hand

Craig Finn, the lead singer of The Hold Steady, is an unlikely rock star. He wears coke bottle glasses, with big plastic frames, denim shirts - like an Ivy league professor out for a beer. He makes obscure references to John Berryman, Minneapolis, and Kerouac. He talks about Catholicism all the live-long day - and when he is not talking about heading to the 5:30 folk mass, he's talking about being born again (and he is excentuating this with a series of quirky hand gestures a la Gord Downey). Of course, he is doing this through a persona - Holly - Hallelujah (or some omniscient narrator). She's a "hood rat". She tattoos "Jesus lived and died for all your sins" and "Damn right I'll rise again" on her body with some home made kit.

When Finn is not talking about Christianity he's talking about getting high. He thanked the crowd in advance for who ever smoked him up after the show last night. Yet his drug antics - which he claims are all in line with Catholic moderation (I'm tempted to believe him) - seem a bit like some sort of Eucharistic celebration. His most Catholic record was Separation Sunday. I'm expecting Vatican III from him on the next one? Papa Finn? Perhaps. More like the laity taking on the social realm, for the sake of the social realm. I think of him as a bit like Rebelais.

He came down from the Showplace theatre stage (cold, cold Buffalo), visibly exhausted, and shook hands with his little hood rat friends. I was one of them, and proud of it. His band mates are a tad eccentric. There is a bit stylistic difference - we have Finn, his lead guitarist and his drummer, all who seem to appreciate normalcy in fashion. Then we have the piano man, drinking a bottle of wine, dressed in a three piece suit, with a french earwax stiled mustache, and a beret. He likes to do this crazy genuflecting thing with his hands at times, which looks a bit funny beside Finn who is doing this flapping clapping thing - the band can't dance - but they can make me dance. Then we have the bassist, who really goes to town, God-love him. He was dressed like Popeye last night - sailor's cap, red and white striped shirt. He would stand at the edge of the stage and flip out dollar bills to the audience. He repeated that at the end of the show with Camel cigarettes. But listen to the base line to Massive Nights before you judge him.

Great show for Finn and the gang.

The Hold Steady - Massive Nights
Live show in Tallahassee

Hold Steady for The Hold Steady!

I'm going to The Hold Steady concert in Buffalo tonight! It should rock. I just confirmed it last night. If you haven't heard the hold steady yet listen to First Night, this is one of their slower, piano based tunes. It has that kinda slow build at the end - reminds me of positive tension by Bloc Party.