Jolyon White, University of Otago Theology Graduate, Corrects Misleading Advertising on National Party Billboards

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billboards, drill it mine it sell it, Jolyon White, National Party, Social justice enabler, the rich deserve more, Theology, University of Otago, Waihopai

Jolyon White, a graduate in Theology from the University of Otago, has been cleaning up those misleading National Party Billboards that have been littering the landscape recently.

White co-ordinated the campaign which added ”The rich deserve more” and ”Drill it, mine it, sell it” stickers to signs around the country.
– The Press

National Party Billboard with the truth added

The Press alleges that Jolyon managed to fix up some “700 National billboards”, which is just an outstanding effort. Compare this with Jesus, who only cleansed the one Temple.

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (56th session) notes that while the extent of child poverty has declined in recent years, it remains concerned that about 20% of children in New Zealand are living under the poverty line…. New Zealand is ranked in the bottom third of the OECD for income inequality…. Incomes remain much more unequal than during the 1980s…. New Zealand has large and persistent income differences between ethnic and gender groups.  There are also an unacceptably large number of children experiencing hardship.  The choice to favour investment in other segments of the population over children will have adverse consequences for New Zealand in the future.  Insufficient response to this very unsatisfactory situation contributes to the overall grade of D.
– The New Zealand Institute

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Jolyon White interviewed on Close Up (click to view)

Jolyon is currently the poster boy for doing Theology at the University of Otago:

Jolyon joins the ranks of other famous social justice protestors in recent years who have utilised creative vandalism, including one group that caused $1m worth of damages to the U.S. spy base at Waihopai – a military unit based in New Zealand which participates in the slaughter of Iraqi and Afghani men, women, and children. On 21 October 2010, the Centre for Theology and Public Issues invited one of the Waihopai protestors to speak at the University of Otago.

Now these are real heroes. Like this guy:

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The Dunedin School Blog is Back!

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Dunedin School, Roland Boer

You can stop sending  us your requests! 
The world’s southernmost centre of religious and biblical studies is back in business!

Update: Expressions of excitement are beginning to pour in from all over the world. This TwitPic is from Orientalist scholar, Roland Boer, on a Central Committee-sponsored outing on the majestic Yangtze River:

“Woohoo – great to hear the Dunedin School blog is back!” – Chairman Boer on the Yangtze

Further Update: Gavin Rumney of Otagosh mentions The Dunedin School and Karl Barth in the same post. The bastard.

 

The Wisdom of Squirrels and Dwarves

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Penguin Sex, Pesky Squirrels, Religious Jokes

To celebrate James Crossley’s kind inclusion of The Dunedin School among those few weblogs that exhibit a ‘far higher level of political sophistication and learned interaction with a wider array of scholarship in the humanities than other blogs’, I wish to continue our exemplary critical work by providing our fine readers with two sophisticated, tasteful religious jokes (sadly, I didn’t write these – we all know that most academics do not have a sense of humour):

What happens when you type 'squirrel pope' into a search engine

1) Adapted from a joke by Adam McFarlane in Esquire magazine (June 2007, page 44)

There are four country churches in a small Scottish town … a Presbyterian church, a Baptist church, a Methodist church, and a Catholic church.  Each church is overrun with pesky squirrels.

One day, the Presbyterian church calls a meeting to decide what to do about the squirrels, who are, as has been noted, pesky.  After much prayer and consideration (and the employment of some well-loved if  dubious logic), the leaders of the church determine that the squirrels are predestined to be there and they shouldn’t interfere with God’s divine will (especially given that it favours them – the clergy, not the squirrels).

In the Baptist church the squirrels take up habitation in the baptistery.  The deacons meet and decide to put a cover on the baptistery and drown the squirrels in it.  The squirrels escape somehow and the next week, there are twice as many of them.

The Methodists get together and decide that they are simply not in a position to harm any of God’s creations, even if they are rodents.  At least they are not papists, they reason.  So they humanely trap the squirrels (who are, as has been noted, pesky) and set them free a few miles outside of town.  Alas, three days later, the squirrels come back, as do many pesky things at the end of three days.

But the Catholic priests come up with a most effective solution.  They baptise the squirrels and register them as members of the church.  Now they only see them at Christmas and Easter.

2) From Mark Z. Danielewski’s visionary novel House of Leaves

What happens when you type 'penguin pope' into a search engine

The seven dwarves went to the Vatican and when the Pope answered the door, Dopey stepped forward: ‘Your Excellency’, he said, ‘I wonder if you could tell me if there are any dwarf nuns in Rome?’

‘No, Dopey, there aren’t’, the Pope replied.

Behind Dopey, the six dwarves started to titter.

‘Well, are there any dwarf nuns in Italy?’ Dopey persisted.

‘No, none in Italy’, the Pope answered a little more sternly.

A few of the dwarves now began to laugh more openly.

Well, are there any dwarf nuns in Europe?’

This time the Pope was much more firm.  ‘Dopey, there are no dwarf nuns in Europe’.

By this point, all the dwarves were laughing aloud and rolling around on the ground.

‘Pope’, Dopey demanded, ‘Are there any dwarf nuns in the whole world?’

‘No, Dopey’, the Pope snapped, ‘there are no dwarf nuns anywhere in the world’.

Whereupon the six dwarves started jumping up and down and chanting, ‘Dopey fucked a penguin!  Dopey fucked a penguin!’

The Dunedin School mentioned in Academic Article

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self-promotion

The Dunedin School has been mentioned in an academic article published in the world’s leading journal on the Bible and critical theory, The Bible and Critical Theory. James Crossley (University of Sheffield), a sometime commenter on this blog, writes:

“Unlike the mass media, biblioblogging is not directly dependent on corporate financial backing and so more and more figures from overtly different perspectives would be able to follow Wrong’s lead and open up different ways of thinking about the politics of biblioblogging from within the world of biblioblogging, perhaps even donning the mask. There are now also occasional exceptions, such as Roland Boer’s blog, Stalin’s Moustache, and the collective, Dunedin School, which also have a far higher level of political sophistication and learned interaction with a wider array of scholarship in the humanities than other blogs.”

(James Crossley, “N.T. Wrong and the Bibliobloggers.” Bible and Critical Theory 6.1 (March 2010): 03.11.)

“Political sophistication and learned interaction.” Yeah, baby!

The Dunedin School understands that description as applying especially to us, rather than Roland Boer’s Stalin’s Moustache. For Roland just goes on about sex, penises, testicles, and prairie oysters – and with some decidedly spurious etymologies. He’s the veritable Roger Lambert of biblical studies.

Auckland Biblical Studies – Now Almost as Big a Nerve Centre of Innovative Biblical Studies as Dunedin?

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Auckland, Dunedin, Elaine Wainwright, Jesus the Bum, lyings down, nerve centre, Robert J. Myles, Roland Boer

The Dunedin School

There are rapid developments afoot within innovative biblical studies in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Robert J. Myles, of new blog Jesus the Bum, has challenged the hitherto unsurpassed supremacy of Dunedin as the seat of radical biblical scholarship. Says Robert:

“I do feel bound to challenge any claim such as this that might work to silence the “Other” innovative biblical scholarship happening around the country.”

An allegation of hegemonic supremacy, too, it seems. But Robert goes further, suggesting that counter to our ‘About’ page, Roland Boer never described Dunedin as “the great nerve centre of innovative biblical studies in New Zealand”. The obvious, even disturbing, implication is that this was nothing but a Dunedin School fabrication!

“The Dunedin School has claimed on a number of occasions to be “the great nerve centre of innovative biblical studies in New Zealand,” I believe recapitulating a claim made in an earlier post by Roland Boer, perhaps in jest (mysteriously, of course, the original post can no longer be found).”

Moreover, he labelled such a claim “pretentious” – which could only be possibly true if somewhere in the country there existed a genuine contender to our title. But… as if.

Yet Dunedin is not taking the challenge from these Northern pretenders lying down! Indeed, taking up the Levitical concern with one’s “lyings down”, we will rise to the challenge, ever more vigilant and critical. Robert has awakened Dunedin from its slumbers. Watch out.

שנה טובה

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Maori Jesus, שנה טובה

The Ideal Climate of Dunedin… for Scholars

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bracing, Dunedin

Most people are agreed that the weather in Dunedin is a long way from idyllic. But as the June 1871 edition of Evangelist notes, the weather is just ideal for one peculiar breed of folk: scholars…

“The climate in Dunedin, from its bracing character, as compared with the more warm, and, in some instances, weakening climate of the northern parts of New Zealand, presents an advantage for study, which those who have had experience in warm climates will fully appreciate.”

(‘Notes of Travel in New Zealand’, Evangelist, June 1871; quoted in the Otago Daily Times, 28 December 2009)

Dunedin School makes it into World’s Leading Journal on the Bible and critical theory

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b&ct, Bible and Critical Theory, Dunedin, Julie Kelso, Theory

The Dunedin School blog has had a mention in the world’s leading journal on the Bible and critical theory, The Bible and Critical Theory. In the current editorial (October 2009), the Editor, Julie Kelso directed readers of the journal to our call for papers for the upcoming 2010 Bible and Critical Theory Seminar in Dunedin (7-8 February 2010). The seminar series is regarded as the world’s leading seminar on the Bible and critical theory.

Public Lecture: Heidi Campbell on ‘When Religion Meets New Media: Considering the Religious-Social Shaping of Technology’

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Communication, Heidi Campbell, Public Lectures, Technology

The Dunedin School would like to invite all of you to a public lecture sponsored by the University of Otago’s Department of Theology and Religion:

Dr. Heidi Campbell, Texas A&M University, will deliver an Open Lecture entitled ‘When Religion Meets New Media: Considering the Religious-Social Shaping of Technology’ on Monday 16th November at 5.10pm. The lecture will be held in Burns 7 St David Seminar Room 2.

Dr. Campbell has a PhD in Practical Theology and Computer-mediated Communication from the University of Edinburgh-Scotland and is been an active researcher studying religion and the internet. She is author of Exploring Religious Community Online (Peter Lang, 2005) which explores the relationship between online and offline Christian communities and implications online religion has for offline faith communities and religious institutions. She is also co-editor of A Science and Religion Primer (Baker Academic, 2009) an introductory resource to the study of science, technology and religion and author of the forthcoming book When Religion Meets New Media (Routledge, forthcoming 2010) on how religious communities negotiate their use of new media. Dr. Campbell writes about her research interests also in her blog: When Religion Meets New Media.

Feast Your Eyes on This! St Clair (Dunedin) Surfies …

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Bible and Critical Theory, Dunedin, St Clair, Undie 500

What you might expect to see WHEN you come to the B&CT Conference next Feb …

This guy’s name is Little Ollie and you might get lucky enough to see him:

OR, if you prefer …

Dunedin? IT’S ALL RIGHT HERE!

And these guys are STUDENTS, in case you didn’t realise – a migratory species of bird that arrive in February …

Bible and Critical Theory Seminar Call for Papers: Dunedin 7-8 February 2010

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b&ct, bible & critical theory, Dunedin, pubs

The next Bible and Critical Theory Seminar will be held in Dunedin, “the nerve centre of innovative biblical studies in New Zealand” (R. Boer).

Important Information first:

DATE: 7-8 FEBRUARY 2010

CONTACTS:

James Harding (james.harding(at)stonebow.otago.ac.nz)

Roland Boer (roland.t.boer(at)gmail.com)

Papers are invited on all aspects of the intersections between the Bible and critical theory, which also includes matters of religion, politics and culture.

Due date for paper proposals: 31 December 2009.

Apparently James and Gillian are working their way through each of Dunedin’s pubs, in order to select the venue. I hear that the front-runner at the moment is the Captain Cook Tavern, well patronized by University of Otago students.

Update: The venue will be The Bog. See here for the location.

Update: Transport and Accommodation details.

Dunedin’s own Pruitt-Igoe: The Burns Building

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Arts, asbestos, Burns Building, Dunedin, Otago, Pruitt-Igoe, sewerage, sheep's arse, traumatized

Perhaps the most famous urban housing project was St. Louis’s Pruitt-Igoe – a paragon of modernist vision, theoretically perfect in conception, and – as a result – an unmitigated disaster for human habitation. Built in 1954, the multi-story housing was such a failure that it had to be demolished by 1972.

But here in Dunedin, we have our own monument to modernist vision. And it has survived!

Dunedin’s own Pruitt-Igoe is known as The Burns Building, and is home to the outcasts and pariahs of academia (practitioners of the Arts). While Pruitt-Igoe was unable to withstand the postmodern turn of the latter Twentieth Century, the inhabitants of The Burns Building (and in particular the long-time prior inhabitants of the fifth floor) have blissfully ignored such passing trends. Despite the lingering asbestos, the sewerage smells which waft up from the ground floor, and a design which shows all the aesthetic flair of a sheep’s arse, The Burns Building has withstood the test of time!

Today, the legacy of Pruitt-Igoe survives only in photographs and the trauma-plagued eggshell minds of its former inhabitants. But The Burns Building survives and continues to traumatise its own inhabitants to this very day.

But let these pictures speak for themselves:

Pruitt-Igoe:

Burns:

Pruitt-Igoe:

Burns:

Pruitt-Igoe:

Burns:

Pruitt-Igoe:

Burns:

Pruitt-Igoe:

Burns:

Pruitt-Igoe:

Burns:

New Dunedin Schoolers: Steph Fisher & James Harding

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James Harding, Stephanie Fisher

Linked more in spirit than in physical presence to Dunedin, Stephanie Louise Fisher has joined us at The Dunedin School religioblog. Steph is a PhD candidate under the learned wing of Maurice Casey in Nottingham, studying the invention known as Q.

Also, Dr James Harding, Lecturer in Hebrew Bible, University of Otago, and leading proponent of The Dunedin School has amalgamated his prodigious blogging efforts with ours.