Last night's theological reflection group was led by Dr Heather Walton of Glasgow University... get us! She led us in some explorations around 'God and Stuff', that is our relationship with the material world as made by human beings. It was very interesting and has spurred my brain to go off and do some mulling.
The thesis was, roughly, as I understood it, objects and artifacts both embody and make meaning for us, and so they become significant. This can conflict with a received protestant asceticism that equates material with worldly and elevates frugality for its own sake. Is it possible, she wonders, if in someway we can encounter God in or through the material world of everyday stuff?
A few random thoughts I've had so far are...
The contextual nature of semiotics (sorry, meaning of symbols (and language for that matter) is determined in a specific place by specific people) - the objects that carry meaning for me or my family of my church do so (or specifically in that way anyway) only in that context. One day most of the photos that mean so much to me, the yellowed theatre programmes, the degree certificates, the tatty toys will all be consigned to the bin because their meaning will die with me. Those that don't will move on to form part of someone else's 'stuff'. So, significance is partial and transient, rather than absolute and permanent.
There is a balance between eschewing materialism - the acquiring of more and bigger and faster and more shiny - and dull asceticism which denounces all things material. It is possible, surely, to hold possessions 'lightly', valuing them and enjoying them without becoming trapped by them. There must be, I feel, a middle ground somewhere.
The difference between 'value' and 'price' - pretty obvious really. I would not be gutted if someone took away my fridge freezer or my settee, but I would if they stole some of the meaningful tat from my shelf.
Something about the fact that if we are image bearers of God, with creative gifts (whatever shape that creativity takes) then our creativity has the potential to carry something of God's creativity too. I think I have to say potential, since if I believe in free will, and I do, then we can choose to abuse that creative potential in ways that are ugly or point away from God.
Heather linked beauty with the meaning of objects without specifying what that meant. I guess this is a hint at what philosophers and theologians sometimes call the 'third transcendental' - God is beauty. This is fine but I am not sure that, for me, beauty is a key feature in the objects that I choose to surround myself with, not least as I tend to live with lots of clutter and 'heaps' of things that are 'useful' (at least potentially). Hmmm. Maybe I need the other two transcendentals - goodness and truth - to widen the scope a bit?
So, how to ground any of this in a world of material 'stuff' during an economic downturn. Not sure of any useful answers... I'm not a great acquirer of 'stuff' in an economically materialist sense but I do have an awful lot of it. Maybe I need to be a little more alert to why I keep what I keep, and how it helps or hinders my disicipleship?
