Recently in Trends Category

A glimpse of the new monastery, originally uploaded by Holy Wisdom Monastery.

The Sundance Chanel notes that this new Wisconsin monastery may be "the greenest building in the US."

The <a href="http://benedictinewomen.org">Benedictine Women of Madison</a>'s new home features "Geothermal heating and cooling; solar panels; windows that open and natural lighting in all occupied spaces; rain gardens; roof gardens; tankless water heaters; and a slew of reused furniture including a renovated organ..." The sisters believe their new building has a "high probability" of receiving 63 of 69 LEED points, which would beat out the Aldo Leopold Legacy Center (also in Wisconsin), the current top dog of the US green building scene.

. . . The sisters have a long history of environmentalism, and note that "Reverence for creation is a deeply-held Benedictine value." Since 1996, the order has been involved in prairie restoration efforts around the Madison area, and other conservation and restoration efforts.

As I've noted in other contexts, monastics and religious congregations were social entrepreneurs before the term became trendy.

The Egypt fad inspired by the discovery of King Tut's tomb is a famous cultural moment from the 1920s. The ad copy points to somewhat less familiar but no less significant aspects of that era: new standards of cleanliness, a celebration of natural products, and the role of beauty & fashion in the promoting women's independence.

Want to understand today? Just go back to the 1920s . . .

I'm sure others will have pointed this out by now, but [these graffiti pictures] refer to a book by an Austrian mysticist named Guido von List, according to Wikipedia. The book, Das Geheimnis der Runen (ie, the graffiti in the first picture) continues to influence and inspire neo-Nazis, from which they derive the phrase "Sal und Sig" (the graffiti in the second photo) which I think means "Salvation and Victory."

Here in NYC last week: the latest JA NY Summer Show for the jewelry trade. One noteworthy trend--"enlightenment jewelry" is on the rise.

In pendants, sentimental pieces or "enlightenment jewelry"—those featuring religious or spiritual themes such as hamsa hands, luck talismans and zodiac symbols—were a favorite, especially among emerging designers at the show's New Designer Gallery.

When I was a burbling tyke, one of the shows I had to watch--in the sense of must-see TV absolutely wanted to watch--was Davey and Goliath.  As you can see from the recent Mountain Dew (licensed) parody above, a lot of other kids watched it too. 

It's easy to make fun of the simplistic religious moralism of the D&G films, although as a kid who mainlined South Park's Butters I have to confess that thought never occurred to me. But the truth is, these shows were genius.  Not just because they snuck in controversial social commentary--the whole idea required a leap of thought that is far from typical in do-gooding, let alone religious media strategy. 

On one level, you see in Davey and Goliath an ur-text for Calvin and Hobbes, right down to sledding. 

More fundamentally, you see a creator who looked at one medium--television--and saw that the traditional mode of communication in another medium--church--would not fit:

Mr. Sutcliffe was director of Lutheran radio and television ministry in New York when he was approached by church leaders about using television to reach young people, said his daughter, J.T. Sutcliffe of Dallas.

"They wanted to do a little sermonette sort of thing, and Dad said, 'In the television medium, people aren't going to put up with that.' "

He proposed a format that would offer sound theology while being entertaining, his daughter said.  

Marshall McLuhan generalized this insight in his observation that a new medium initially repeats prior patterns--TV shows plays and symphonies; people post static pages to the web--until the form of the new medium reshapes how we communicate.  In the electronic environment, McLuhan argued, if you don't see that education is also entertainment you understand neither. 

Sutcliffe saw that merely replicating old content wasn't enough; fun iconic scenes were the wave of the future.  And as we can see by all the Youtube links here, he was right.

Below, a landmark avant-garde parody of D&G:  He Was Once by Mary Hestand with Todd Haynes.

Back when I was studying for my religion Ph.D., the notion that Americans treated religion like shopping was the stuff of cutting-edge academic books and doctoral dissertations. Now it's just another article in Cosmo.

I am so old.

Next month: What Karl Barth's dialectical yes-and-no says about how far you should go on first dates.

Like the original scanner, I'm a serious devotee of Soviet constructivist art. Beyond the intuitive appeal of the form, I'm fascinated by the degree to which the message in early Soviet propaganda resonates with charity today. Not surprising, really, in part due to the degree to which the ideology of Soviet production adopted the principles of Taylorism, which is also a direct ancestor of the principles that animate social entrepreneurship.

Below: engineering creates the mechanism of efficient production by supplanting the spirit of obsolete faith.

‘‘My work is a response to all things plastic, black, evil and cheap that don’t give people the chance to explore the power of the body.’’ That tantalizing quote appeared in last Sunday's New York Times feature on Betony Vernon. The article may highlight the "titillating" aspects of Vernon's "erotic ceremonies," but as the writer also notes there's more to the sex than just sex. Her Paradise Found website explains:

"Ritual," "mission," "education," "mystery"--the language of transformation pervades Vernon's work. And it's not just talk: check out the following iconic design, which links the flight of the spirit to bone and flesh:

Besides offering a jewelry line, Paradise Found also doubles as a postmodern mystery faith, with a secret gathering place and rites known only to invited initiates--one more sign that we are living in the midst of a new Renaissance, where art, spirituality and commerce blend into one.

It's fair-trade, which means the more Divine Chocolate you eat, the more you help save the world.

Looks like my hidden agenda has been exposed. The last paragraph tells all:

An elaborate, jewel-inlaid religious icon has become the subject of a federal forfeiture suit against a convicted Reynosa drug boss.

Prosecutors allege that Carlos Landín-Martinez — a 52-year-old former Tamaulipas police officer turned second-in-command of Gulf Cartel operations in Reynosa — purchased the gold jewelry with proceeds from drug smuggling operations within the United States.

Landín-Martinez was wearing the piece when agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration arrested him at a local H-E-B in July.

In the form of a pendant, it features the image of Saint Jude, the patron saint of lost causes, inlaid with 128 diamonds, 36 emeralds and one ruby, according to an affidavit filed in the case. It is appraised at a value of more than $12,000.

“Persons who engage in large-scale drug trafficking tend to wear expensive gold jewelry as visible proof that they have been successful,” DEA agent Jaime A. Fernandez said in the document. They wear it “as evidence that they are criminals of consequence.”