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David Dark

Auteur de Everyday Apocalypse

6+ oeuvres 520 utilisateurs 5 critiques 1 Favoris

A propos de l'auteur

David Dark teaches in the College of Theology at Belmont University and among the incarcerated communities of Nashville, Tennessee. He is the author of The Sacredness of Questioning Everything. Everyday Apocalypse and The Gospel According to America. His writing has appeared in Pitchfork, Paste, afficher plus Books Culture and Killing the Buddha. afficher moins
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Sometimes it's fun to be so behind on your reading list. I've wanted to read "Gospel According to America" ever since it first came out...11 years ago. (That gives you a good idea of my chances of EVER finishing my reading list.) However, I'm sure many wounded conservatives would heartily agree that, in that intervening decade, America has undergone a radical revolution and a decided slide to the left. Here is why that matters: Dark is writing in the aftermath of the 2004 presidential election (you know, Bush vs. Kerry), but I promise you I had to constantly remind myself of that fact for it seemed like Dark was writing about the current 2016 election cycle.

In a sentence: This book explores the important relationship of the Christian Gospel and the American ideal of democracy as expressed through popular culture (literature, music, movies, et. al). In a word: This book is "prophetic" ( in the best and most biblical sense of that term). It is not, however, some sort of dark and foreboding "expose" of moral crisis. Sure, there is moral crisis aplenty-hypocrisy, will-to-power, consumerism, rage against "the Other," politics run amok-but Dark manages to keep the book focused on redemptive themes.

Ever since reading "Everyday Apocalypse" (one of the books that first produced a hunger in me to truly and deeply understand my culture), I've been astounded by Dark's range of cultural knowledge. He appears to be as comfortable with Nathaniel Hawthorne as he is with Bruce Springsteen. It's a rare gift, but it also made the book a bit difficult to follow at points. For example, halfway through his spectacular chapter on American pop music, I realized I hadn't even heard half of the songs he was referencing. But the range of references demonstrates the depth of these conceptions in the American psyche. He literally finds support for his claims EVERYWHERE.

Dark's basic assessment is that American democracy (in its purest sense) is ultimately an expression of the Gospel (in its purest sense). The point of connection is "truth-telling." And only "truth-telling" is liberating. However, Dark also emphasizes an important caveat: the truth that humans are able to tell is always and ever and only a PARTIAL truth for we are finite beings. In fact, the most dangerous elements of American culture arise from those sectors that claim THE (final, complete, overpowering) Truth. The pursuit of Truth to Dark is more valuable than its capture, for then it so often and so easily gets twisted to meet our own small ends.

I suppose perhaps the highest compliment that I could pay is to say that this book made me wish to write a book like it...to continue the conversation...to explore these ideas in new cultural generations and different cultural arenas. Or, at the very least, go sit in on one of Dark's highschool English classes. Now THAT would be something to behold.
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Signalé
Jared_Runck | Jul 1, 2016 |
I think David Dark more closely matches my philosophy than anyone else I've ever read. This was an unexpectedly wonderful book and I had high expectations based on the title. I follow the idea that anything worthy of our efforts and time should be able to stand up to some questioning - our politics, our religion, our relationships, our passions. I think my favorite chapter of the book was "Questioning our Offendedness," in which Dark discusses how people commonly try to show what they stand for by opposing things. He points out that rejecting something we consider immoral does not, on its own, make us moral. What we stand for is more important than what we stand against. That was just one argument that really resonated with me. There were many other positions expressed in this book that made me feel as if my subconscious had written it without my knowing.… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
zdufran | 2 autres critiques | Jul 11, 2011 |
OK. I loved this book. A lot. The Sacredness of Questioning Everything made me reexamine pretty much everything that enters my head. I think about the music I listen to, the news stories I hear, the books I read, the speeches I attend, the sermons I listen to, the television programs I watch, the links people send me on Facebook — everything. Dark challenges the reader (specifically Christians, but I do think that most readers would like this book) to make sure they question what they are taking in, so that they really know what they are consuming, and whether or not this it is helpful to living a relavant and beautiful life. And he also challenges people to be creators instead of just consumers — to change the status quo if something isn’t working. If we only listen to or read things we fully agree with, we miss out on the opportunity to change our minds, to be open to engagement with other people, and to rethink how we’ve always thought. If we care more about being right than we do about the people who are around us, then what kind of Jesus are we sharing with people?

I spent over an hour the other day typing up a bunch of quotes I’d highlighted from this book. I’ll save your eyes and just give a sample here:

“Against this all to common culter of insane self-assertion, the expressions “as far as I can tell” and “as far as I know” and “to my knowledge” signal a vigilant awareness concerning our own limitations. I’d like to see this self-criticism more frequently displayed by pundits, politicians, and professional religious figures who confuse their gut feelings for integrity and a changed mind for weakness. What the pundits call wishy-washiness, the Bible calls repentance.” (page 16)

“Complaining about Harry Potter or getting worked up over The Golden Compass or pitting ticket sales of the Narnia films against Brokeback Mountain is a much less complicated call than that whole business about loving neighbors, to say nothing about loving enemies.” (page 56)

“Films like Big, Patch Adams, and Hope Floats are interesting enough, but if such sentimental fare is what mostly constitutes our media diet, our affections might slowly become–here this!–merely theoretical, sentimentality preying on our nervous systems from one day to the next. We get to the point that we save our strongest emotions for people who don’t exist, Or in the case of sports figures, celebrity politicians, and radio talk show hosts, we get most worked up and alive (if you can call it being alive) by way of people we don’t know and who in all likelihood don’t want to know us. The living, breathing people next door or in the next cubicle or in the same house who might benefit from our showing love to them emotionally get left behind.” (page 72)

“I suspect there’s something a little demonic in finding others boring or unworthy of our interest. Something profoundly antithetical to the life to come that Jesus describes, something resistant to the hospitality to come, the good graces on which we’ve all along depended.” (page 241)

Read my full review here: http://letseatgrandpa.com/2010/12/03/76-the-sacredness-of-questioning-everything...
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Signalé
letseatgrandpa | 2 autres critiques | Dec 8, 2010 |
From the back cover: "Is Your God Big Enough to Be Questioned? The freedom to question is an indispensible and sacred practice that is absolutely vital to the health of our communities. According to author David Dark, when religion won't tolerate questions, objections, or differences of opinion, and when it only brings to the table threats of excommunication, violence, and hellfire, it obstructs our ability to think, empathise, and live lives of authenticity and genuine engagement..."

This is a book for Christians. It encourages questioning and deep thought, but from within a Biblical world view.

I'm going to have to re-read this book at some future time. It was quite dense and definitely not a light read. There was so much substance to the book that I don't think I took it all in the first time around.

The book begins with a compelling image of what "God" means to some people, the idea of a fearsome, distant judge who requires praise from people in order to be happy with them. I could really relate to this image, and to the sense that this image must be inherently wrong. I commend Dark's efforts to encourage Christians to examine their beliefs and move toward a more authentic understanding of God. This will be very challenging to Christians wanting to think deeply about what it means to truly engage their faith.

I didn't find this book compelling all the way through. I simply found it a bit too wordy, I think some of the power of Dark's ideas was lost to me. But I will try again in the future.
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Signalé
fionareadersrr | 2 autres critiques | Jun 7, 2010 |

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Œuvres
6
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Membres
520
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ISBN
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