I have just returned from one of the best events in which I have participated for a very, very long time: the Garage Blackboard Lectures. I am told that they started when a few students got drunk one night and thought, hey, let’s have some lectures in our beaten up old garage. And so it began.
The setting provided a very different and welcome feel:
As you can see, a good crowd turns up – attentive, relaxed, with sharp minds and sharper questions:
And this goes on for hours (I was there for more than six hours). Two speakers, each for an hour or so; plenty of discussion … and a keg:
In the break we all had soup:
No tired old positions here, since everything is up for debate and rethinking. This is where new ideas and practices happen.
The biggest surprise for me – on the question of Marxism and religion – was the number of theological questions: on grace, miracle, predestination, God, creation …
Thankfully, we were encouraged on our way by a Chinese revolutionary poster:
