Ah Andrew...
Far North Coast Presbytery Lay Preacher Day will be working on some of this
tomorrow at a workshop in Lismore - (I'm sitting in the Rex Lounge at the
moment at Mascot!)
One of the things we will be looking at is... Multiple Intelligences and the
implications for communication, engagement and transformation... especially
when it comes to worship and spiritual development.
The Lay Preachers will be looking at how different people will have their
"ah-Ha" moments triggered by different ways of worshipping and engaging with
the Word - whatever that means!
We will look at how different physical experiences and emotional experiences
can help or hamper when it comes to spiritual engagement.
One of the more "sacred-building-experiences" I have had was at the Abbaye
in Souvigny in France (somewhere near Dijon). I went there with a group of
Pipe Organists (I was a ring-in) and some of them played an amazing organ.
The wonderful thing was that every time a note was played, every column and
stone seemed to vibrate in empathy. In effect, the building acted as a large
soundbox. When you sang and listened, you couldn't help but realise you were
caught up in something bigger. I have had the same sensation when standing
overlooking the Megalong Valley or when reading Elihu's account in Job - a
lovely passage about how amazing God is.
Mark Hillis (Rev at Toronto) put me on to looking at Multiple Intelligences.
I also have collected some stuff odd David Lazear's website if anyone is
interested. This area of work has been strongly influenced by Walter Wink's
stuff from 30 yrs ago and since. In "Transforming Bible Study" he was one of
the first to look at engaging the whole brain in Bible Study (left and right
brain activity) - since then, some of us are working on a range of
strategies that include:
* THE OBJECT-BASED SMARTS includes: ImageSmart (visual-spatial
intelligence), LogicSmart (logical-mathematical intelligence), BodySmart
(bodily-kinesthetic intelligence) and NatureSmart (naturalist intelligence).
* THE OBJECT-FREE SMARTS includes: SoundSmart (musical-rhythmic
intelligence) and WordSmart (verbal-linguistic intelligence).
* THE PERSONAL SMARTS includes: two sections - PeopleSmart
(interpersonal intelligence) and SelfSmart (intrapersonal intelligence).
I tend to believe that God made us to use at least all this and more...
especially when we are trying to listen and discern from the Holy Spirit.
- Amelia
YW Amelia Koh-Butler
Associate Director ELM (Education for Mission)
> Board of Education - NSW Synod
> Uniting Church in Australia
> 16 Masons Drive, North Parramatta NSW
> Ph: (02) 8838 8908
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Andrew Swenson
Sent: Friday, 6 August 2004 11:07 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: FW: Religion and Psychobiology
I know that this thread seemed to die last week, but I haven't had a chance
to reply until now, plus I wanted to re-read my reply before sending it.
To add another dimension,
How does God, or maybe more correctly the Holy Spirit, make us aware that we
are in the presence of God?
>From my experience it is through feelings, states of mind & emotions.
To walk into many an old church building, I can 'sense' the sacredness of
the space, and sure there are many factors to produce that 'sense', certain
forms and images that I have been culturally programmed to understand, evoke
the feelings or emotional state required to achieve that 'sense'
When I enter into worship I 'sense' the presence of God in the form of the
Holy Spirit, and I know, particularly since I'm a regular worship leader at
my church, that the way we use songs, prayers and bible readings can
'induce' a feeling of being in the presence of God.
All these experience's can be scientifically reduced to chemical changes
that occur in the brain, so does that mean that they are not really
experiences of God?
How is God meant to make us aware of his/hers/it's presence if not through
using the chemical make up of the brain?
I have started to read Philip Yancey's "Rumours of another World" in which
he talks about humans being reductionist's, that is we seek to understand by
reducing the object of our attention to its constituent parts, thus removing
the wonder and mystery, but does that remove the 'miracle' nature of many of
the things that occur in our experience?
As an architect, I can look at a building that I have been involved in with
through construction and understand the ups and downs of the design,
documentation and construction processes involved, I can see the constituant
parts involved in producing the building and yet I can still stand and
admire the miracle that is that building.
Yet even as creator of a building I can not relate to that building outside
of the designed intent. I must move through, be sustained by, react to the
building using the systems's through which the building was designed and
constructed.
Or I could look at a building like the Sydney Opera House and no matter how
much research I do into the creation of that structure, understanding for
instance the policitcal interference etc that marred the original concept, I
still can not deny the granduer of the building. For an addition to be
constructed to the Opera House, the designer's and builders must approach or
relate their work from the starting point of the original design otherwise
they will be destroying what has been previously created.
So how does a super-natural being interact with the natural system that
he/she/it created, without destroying the balance of what he/she/it created?
My answer is that surely such a super-natural being could limit themselves
to working from within the confines of the system, but that is not to
discount the fact that they could interact in a super-natural way yet
because we are talking about the spiritual or super-natural realm we will
always have difficulties understanding because we can only experience the
super-natural realm through this natural one and we can only reduce it using
the apparatus we have available to us.
I'm sure you've grasped where I am coming from, but one final example before
I sign off, does a scientific description of 2 people passionately kissing,
that is the transfer of bodily fluids, the mingling of multitudes of
bacteria, germs etc, the number of muscle's used to make the mouth & tongue
move in such ways etc, the chemical changes that occur in the brain etc,
really change the desire and the enjoyment derived from kissing? Does it
make a kiss any less special?
In my limited experience, the answer is no it doesn't.
Cya
Andrew Swenson
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of robert dummermuth
Sent: Friday, 30 July 2004 11:13 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Religion and Psychobiology
>To put more specifically what I think Clare was implying - Do we *need*
>to distinguish 'chemically-induced states' from 'genuine experiences of
>divinity'? Or might experiences sometimes be both chemically induced
>(externally or internally) and at the same time genuine experiences of
>divinity. Why posit the question as either/or when it may (at least in
>some cases) be both/and?
Throwing in another link (or kink). What do we do when our theology of
"sacrament" says that we have a real experience /encounter with the divine
whether we feel anything - chemically induced or transcendentally inspired,
or feel (experience) nothing at all except a "cold, impersonal" rite.
Peace,
Rob
--
Robert & Barbara Dummermuth
Uniting Church in Australia
Esperance / West Nullarbor Patrol
18 Hicks Street, Esperance, 6450
tel 08 9071 1184
fax 08 9071 5814
mobile 0428 532 304
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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