In that presentation, I talked about the idea of
conceptions of the Divine, along similar lines to those in my
post on the subject of such conceptions (which rather drew on the
work I did for the Woodbrooke presentation), talked about how they
relate to different conceptions of what is going on in a Quaker
business meeting, and laid out the traditional (theistic) view of
business. I then followed this up with my own non-theist conception,
and I was very gratified to see that people could largely accept
that, while they could not be considered equivalent, not “the same
thing in different terms”, they were compatible.
In the series I am working on, concerning such
conceptions, I will be including both the traditional conception and
my own conception once again. I will also be including one conception
that some strict materialist Quakers might recognise. That isn't
enough, though. I want to explore more conceptions, but I'm a little
worried about my own ability to come up with ideas.
For that reason, I am turning to you, the readers
of my blog, to suggest ideas for things you'd like to see. These
could be entirely hypothetical, such as asking how I think a person
with a given set of beliefs and conceptions concerning the Divine
(and/or the transmundane/supernatural) might conceive of Quaker
decision-making. It could also be really concrete and require me to
do some research (if I haven't happened to pick it up from enough
people with a given set of beliefs). It could even include you, if
you want!
So if you want to see explorations of how a
neopagan who believes in practical magic might approach the business
method, or want me to relate your own Trinitarian, Nicene-based
theology of business – based on what you tell me but with my own
observations – or any other permutation, strange or everyday, just
let me know. You can drop suggestions in the comments below, or on
the comments of any link to this post that I post on Facebook, or in
reply to my link to this post on Twitter. If you'd rather not be
public, you can private message the Openings
page on Facebook – which would also be good if we need to have
a longer conversation about your own conceptions.
I will be able to come up with enough stuff
without any input from you, but I'm absolutely sure that the overall
piece will end up much better with your ideas. So please, get in
touch and let me know what you'd like to see.
UPDATE: The post series is now up, but additional ideas for new posts as addenda
are still very much welcome.
