Bridge over Karišnica
August 2016

Autumn afternoon by the river
Taken in November 2015

The brilliance of Socality Barbie

Socality is one of the recent movements within Christianity, heavily leaning on online presence. To be more precise, on a carefully crafted, aestheticised image of urban, hipster millennials in search of authentic Christian spirituality. It first took off on Instagram, where it continues to exist as a stream of landscape photographs, adventure snapshots and upbeat selfies. What initially constituted it as a movement (on the official website it's also described as a platform and a concept) was a large number of people posting selfies with the caption "I am @Socality", thus identifying with the idea behind the project.

The campaign remains about mobilizing Christians active on social media, encouraging them to form networks with the aim of "connecting churches, organizations and businesses to work together for community development." The website doesn't reveal much about the theology behind it: article 6 under Who We Are simply states that "Socality, at its foundation, is about loving God, loving people and committing to the process." It all has an emerging church feel to it. At least the rhetoric is very similar in that there's an attempt to provide space for people who would otherwise not go to church and who don't feel comfortable about the idea of organized religion, while still identifying as Christian.

However, FAQ briefly mentions that Socality leadership team is "in or under leadership in Bible-believing churches." I've found that much more telling, although it's left me wondering why this piece of information has been relegated to the proverbial small print, with no further details available. Technically, a Bible-believing church could be anything from a traditional Quaker community to the LDS Church. The only group of people who wouldn't find this reference vague at all are the evangelicals. I might be wrong, but I've come to the conclusion that Socality is basically a conservative evangelical attempt to woo the otherwise rather liberal millennials. If so, it's a clever ploy, but also very naive.

With only 178.000 followers on Instagram, Socality has been far surpassed by Socality Barbie who, at present, has 1,3 million followers, plus a steady fan base on Twitter. Who on Earth is Socality Barbie? The Guardian recently published an article about this "newest social media sensation", within its Fashion section, describing it as a parody of an impossible lifestyle - the sort of lifestyle reflected by the constant stream of images on Instagram, Tumblr and elsewhere, showing happy, healthy young people (most of them conspicuously white, but that's another subject), living the life of adventure and authenticity. Socality Barbie has been subverting the whole concept by posting the exact same kind of images, only substituting actual people with a Barbie doll and adding witty comments, exposing the largely superficial nature of (self)representation in the social media.

The Guardian article doesn't even mention the original Socality and its evangelical agenda, focusing instead entirely on Instagram as "a world of commodified hipsterdom." It does sound like a fair description of much of the social media landscape, but what does it say of religious efforts to profit from that or conform to it?

P.S. Only several days ago, Darby Cisneros, the person behind the Socality Barbie persona, announced she will be ending her Instagram presence, at the height of its popularity. The Instagram account will stay open for a while.

An old door
August 2015

Book Reviews #9

FICTION

East of the Mountains by David Guterson

A story of one man's dealing with mortality in the face of a terminal illness. Planning suicide in order to preempt a more ignominious death, the main character goes on a journey through the verdant landscapes of Pacific Northwest. The epic-sounding title, however, positions his suicide mission within the bigger and delicately suggested narrative of (religious?) hope in the midst of the perceived lack of personal agency. As in his other novels, Guterson's prose is evocative and gentle, conveying both the sense of frailty of the human condition and the indomitable power of the spirit.

NON-FICTION
Wilderness Seasons: Life and Adventure in Canada's North by Ian and Sally Wilson

First published in the '80s, still brimming with freshness and optimism of two city slickers embarking on a journey into the wild. After reading it I had an overpowering wish to erect my own log cabin, make bannock and adopt several different kinds of rodents, among other things. Thoroughly enjoyable, although the Wilsons' reports make seem living in the harsh conditions of Canada's north perhaps a bit too fun.

FICTION
Quaker Indictment by Irene Allen

Another in Allen's series of Quaker-themed crime novels. Elizabeth Elliot, an elderly Quaker with a propensity for encountering gruesome acts of crime in the most unlikely places, solves another mystery thanks to her power of deduction and devout allegiance to Quaker ethics. Sweet.

NON-FICTION
Antigone's Claim by Judith Butler

One of the leading contemporary theorists revisits Sophocles' Antigone and presents her analysis of the complex intersection of gender, kinship, custom and ethics. Not so much a treatise on Antigone per se, the book is a continuation of gender theories introduced in her earlier works. In a nutshell: power structures and norms function only as long as individual human beings consent to them, there is nothing foreordained and cut-in-stone about them. Plus: universal is actually pseudo and the "genuine" is never really genuine.

FICTION

Fisherman's Son by Michael Koepf

Flashbacks from a difficult childhood merge with the present struggle for life. Numerous elements were employed in the skillful weaving of this story: portrayal of economic hardships, racial tensions, coming-of-age process, paternal absenteeism... There's a touch of certain gender stereotyping in presenting male characters (fathers, more specifically) as grand, stoic figures who withstand it all. Still, a good read.

On why I love Leviticus

I recently had an email exchange with a friend over the Book of Leviticus. He suggested I should post some extracts from my email here. Thanks for your comments, Ken.
You wondered why I consider Leviticus one my favorite books of the Bible. Couple of reasons. I am still a historian at heart and I find Leviticus extremely rich in historical data on the Jewish society of the period, their fears, frustrations, attitudes to physical and mental purity, understanding of expiation, attitude towards different classes within the society, etc. Much of what we know about the Greek society has also been extracted from its laws preserved on stone monuments. It can be quite tedious to read legal documents, ancient or modern for that matter, but I have come to appreciate them for the abundance of details they provide on the inner workings of a system. I don't come from a fundamentalist background, so I have personally never experienced cultural conditioning that would attempt to implement OT legal strictures today. I feel free to read Leviticus as it is. And when actually placed in its proper context of mid-1st millennium BCE Mediterranean, it is quite progressive in comparison with the legislation found elsewhere in the region.

[Leviticus] is a collection of ancient documents that cannot (and, really, does not need to) compete with modern science or withstand its scrutiny. Fundamentalist religion does need to do these things, but that's a self-imposed race against both time and common sense. I see the Bible standing as a silent witness to their folly. The Bible actually does make sense when read contextually, and the more seemingly tedious or backward a text is, the more sensible and meaningful it becomes when put in its historical and social context. In that sense, Leviticus is firmly grounded in a particular time period and gives a vivid portrayal of the people, whereas some other books or narratives within them do not. The creation narratives, a lot of the Psalms, Job and some other are timeless and universal. Leviticus, being a legal code, is very specific and grounded in time. While it may not have the poetic beauty of some of the other texts, it is still invaluable.

Bible meet correction tape dispenser

Couple of days ago I finished my grand project of 2008. I can now say that I have actually read the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. It was a great quest, one that has left me with even more questions than I had initially. (I took that as a good sign.)

Apart from having a better grasp of the Bible, the most important lesson I have learned is that very often translators simply cannot be trusted. Being a translator myself the notion hardly surprised me: innocent mistakes are made and personal judgments are often wrong. But for some reason I expected the Bible translators to subscribe to particularly high standards, unattainable to us mere mortals, the Bible being sacred writ and all. For instance, one would normally not expect to find bits and pieces deliberately mistranslated for the purpose of turning the Bible into a weapon in the ongoing culture wars. Right?

I started with this project in the spring and for that purpose I had bought the lovely designed English Standard Version (ESV) Journaling Bible. I have blogged about this edition earlier, uncritically and with some naivete. I still love it for its extra wide margins for personal journal entries and, more importantly, for the way it reads. Anyone used to the language of the Revised Standard Version or its celebrated ancestor, the King James Version, is likely to be happy with the ESV. Others might complain that its English sounds a bit unnatural and awkward. However, that is a matter of personal taste resulting from being steeped into a particular tradition.

But then came the famous "clobber passages" and the infamous insertion of words, phrases and concepts that simply are not there in the original languages. Basically, depending on where they (or, rather, their financiers) stand, translators will resort to pretty much anything to prove their ideological point. I am not being fair to real translators. People behind the ESV were involved in an adaptation, not translation. Besides, most of them are not known to be linguists of experts in Hebrew or Greek to begin with. It does say that it is merely an adaptation in the book itself, in the proverbial small print that I initially failed to notice, where it is stated that the text of the ESV is adapted from the Revised Standard Version, an earlier translation considered too liberal by some and now made new and improved for the conservative evangelical audience.

The realization made me angry at first. I even entertained the thought of getting rid of the ESV altogether and starting afresh with a different and more reliable version. But I persevered, because at some point the editors' biased choice of words stopped being relevant. The Book and I have had months and months of shared experiences behind us. I read from it every morning before going to work and every night before going to bed. I had it with me on my journeys, I continue to write notes and comments on its carefully studied pages... When I turn to, say, Nehemiah chapter 5 I instantly get the image of a crisp early morning at the seaside where I first read from the prophet. It is too late now: there are factors of shared history and emotional attachment involved. It has become mine.

After a while I figured out how to live with its shortcomings: by liberating it from its re-writers' political agenda with a little help from the texts in the original languages and a humble correction tape dispenser. I am absolutely positive that my intention is by no means more blasphemous (if at all) than the numerous textual interventions done by the "translators." Besides, the letter killeth and the spirit giveth life.