Marginal Christianity

http://percaritatem.com/2014/04/20/jazz-as-an-example-of-macintyres-notion-of-practice/?fb_action_ids=10202466926689079&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582#sthash.yH2kMSDW.dpbs By Cynthia R. Nielsen 20‑Apr‑2014 No comments In his work,  After Virtue ,  MacIntyre  provides a multifaceted definition of practice as well as a helpful discussion of a practice’s internal and external  goods. As he explains, a practice is any coherent and complex form of socially established cooperative  human activity  through which goods internal to that form of activity are realized in the course of trying to achieve those standards of excellence which are appropriate to, and partially definitive of, that form of activity.[1] Clearly, jazz qualifies as a complex, socially created, communal human activity. The excellent jazz improviser, for example, must achieve a  high level  of technic...

http://www.chrismorton.info/ Some practices or habits we engage in are thin , like exercising or brushing our teeth. We do these habits toward a particular end, to be in shape and have clean teeth . Thin practices don’t touch on our identity. “It would be an odd thing, for instance, for me to think of myself first and foremost as a ‘tooth brusher.’ These practices or habits don’t touch our love or fundamental desire .” Thick practices or (liturgies) are rituals of ultimate concern , rituals that are identity-forming and telos-laden, that embed particular visions of the good life, and do so in a way that seeks to trump other ritual formations. So what kind of liturgies do the people in the congregation you serve in embody? How do they increase pe...