MacGyver & Bricolage – #awaf reflections
13 Jul 2009
The french have a word, le bricoleur, for odd job man, and a chain of hardware/building supply companies, called Mr Bricolage. The bricoleur is like MacGyver (for anyone old enough to remember that TV series) who takes whatever is at hand, as a resource to produce complex instruments to deal with immediate problems.
And within french philosophy, there is an understanding of the way human beings construct from the diverse resources around them as ‘bricolage’. The nature or bricolage, of using whatever is to hand, has had some resistance from the church at many times, with regards to the formation of the Christian life. The desire to see pure resources, preserved through history, that are liked controlled substances, handled correctly, and in the same way at all times, stands in stark contrast to the bricoleur and handy man who makes do with what is to hand.
It can be argued that in terms of mission, the gospel has more in common with the handy man, making use of what is at hand, within the world, and context and culture that the people of God experience. Paul at Mars Hill (acts 17), reaches for the resources of the location he is in to speak and share the Gospel. A MacGyver moment?
But one problem with bricolage, is that within a consumer culture, that so often collapses everything into lives of isolation, centered around what makes me happy, rather than what is best for us all, it become about the shallow use of resources around us. The church and christians can’t resist bricolage, calling people to only use authorized resources, that are pure and timeless. We’ll we can but it won’t get very far.
But we can call attention to how shallow and superficial our use of resources are. Is this the best we can do with the amazing resources available to us as human beings, and as Christians? Perhaps the problem is not of bricolage, but of the lack of creativity and the self centered inaneness, of so much that passes for ‘creativity’.
MacGyver might inspire us, that we live at time with the most amazing access to resources, and that from the things around we could produce the most amazing creations in response to the seemingly impossible problems we face. Taking our bricolage ‘deeper’, into the nature and mission of Jesus, that knows no limits to it’s depths.
10 comments
Trackback
Comment by steven hamilton
1.36 pm on 13 Jul 2009
“a MacGyver moment”
classic. now i’m going to be looking for “MacGyver moments” to engage in a ministry of deeper bricolage…
Comment by Jason Clark
1.37 pm on 13 Jul 2009
I love it when a plan comes together…oops wrong TV show
Comment by fernando
8.10 am on 14 Jul 2009
I’m probably not going to surprise you at all by saying I’m a bricolage kinda guy.
One criticism I’ve often heard of bricolage is that it’s a “baskin robbins” approach to theology, just pick and choose your flavours. Perhaps. There is sometimes that kid of pick and mix approach to faith and worship. That can be pretty shallow.
But, I see it as something different. An admission that our “faith identity” is not formed from just one source, from just one received tradition. A bricolage is only insubstantial and shallow if we are insubstantial and shallow.
In fact, isn’t shallowness just as much a possibility if we have only drunk from one well and not just a result from drinking of many wells?
Comment by Jason
8.58 am on 14 Jul 2009
I’m a bricolage kind of guy to, and think it’s the normal nature of missional incarnation
What determines what is shallow and what is deep, might depend on what ends and understanding of human identity and life we pick and mix around.
Your suggestion is what I was trying to illustrate, control of resources isn’t deep, and isn’t normal. In that sense it can be very shallow. The depths of the church traditions, and the humanity of Jesus and his missions, are so deep, we haven’t come near to plumbing them.
But too often our bricolage is pastiche, fetish and shallow self creation, around a life ordering that is far from the mission of Jesus and I think we don’t need much analysis to show that is the plight of consumer culture.
With all we have available is this the best we can do with it?
Comment by steven hamilton
11.41 am on 14 Jul 2009
have you guys read gustavo gutierrez and his book “we drink from our own wells”?
he touches on this in his introduction and then expands from there on throughout the book…
Comment by Jason
11.48 am on 14 Jul 2009
I haven’t read that Steve, thanks for the heads up,
Jase
Comment by fernando
7.12 am on 15 Jul 2009
Steven – that’s a fascinating reference to bring up in this context. I agree that the notion of theology as the journey of a practising community fits right in here.
But, there’s also another point, about opposition to bricolage. In South America it is really hard to talk from a position of racial purity with any sustained credibility. But, to be blunt, in a lot of evangelical contexts in the US, UK and Australia, my experience is that claims of doctrinal purity carry or come from a position of implied racial purity. They are exactly the kind of elitist spirituality that Gutiérrez rightly attacks.
It’s interesting to look at bricolage in terms of cultural identity from a class perspective, before we ask the questions about bricolage and doctrine.
Thanks for the reference, you’ve inspired me to do some re-reading!
Comment by Beth
12.33 pm on 18 Jul 2009
FYI, I’ve responded to this on my blog (http://untiltranslucent.blogspot.com/2009/07/jason-clark-who-was-one-of-speakers-at.html)using the metaphor I’m most fond of in thinking about how to assess what we end up with after our bricolage — whether or not the event functions grammatically.
Comment by Jason
9.43 am on 19 Jul 2009
Thanks Beth, is was great to meet you, and thanks for the link to your post, very insightful.
Jase
Pingback by deep church, deep wells at Deep Church
2.44 pm on 23 Jul 2009
[...] writes… Recently one of the conversations begun by Jason on this blog – MacGyver & Bricolage – moved both myself and an online acquaintance to go back to read about cultural identity and [...]
Comments are now closed.