Shifting Perspectives
It’s not always easy to accept that maybe what you have believed to be true, taught to you by your elders in your favorite history classes, only represents one possible scenario. The understanding of world events from a Euro-centric perspective fails to acknowledge the significant influences people in the East have had in regard to ideologies, economics, faith experiences, the arts, fashion etc. Peter Frankopan’s book ‘The Silk Roads: A new history of the world’ attempts to shift the historical focus from Greece, Rome and the West to Persia, China and the East, centering world events on the routes between West and East.
Being a history buff, I was immediately drawn to this book. It is always enticing to read about historical events from a new perspective, one that will shed new light on previous conceptions about them. The Western historical perspective is limited by its narrow focus thus, reading from a more Eastern focused work offered to bring greater balance to my understanding.
The idea that our culture is solely based upon the advances made by the Roman empire who built upon the Greek empire fails to acknowledge that these cultures while hugely influential were also shaped by those with whom they came in contact. “We do history and the human experience a disservice if we follow a linear, teleological narrative through time, imagining it to be unidirectional or neatly boxed.”[1]To negate the influence of Persia, China, Afghanistan and the like on world events past and present is to maintain just such a unidirectional narrative. As Frankopan points out in the preface to the book; “History was twisted and manipulated to create an insistent narrative where the rise of the West was not only natural and inevitable, but a continuation of what had gone before.”[2]Unfortunately, for most of us taught in a Western school system, this is the narrow and limited history in which we have been instructed.
The overlap of the monotheistic faiths is highlighted in the early part of the text. From our current polarized perspective it seem untenable that people practicing Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam not only got along but, according to Frankopan they often borrowed from one another. This explains some of the undeniable similarities evident between the faiths. It is often difficult for 
those of us so far removed from the initial developmental stages of the various faiths to accept the idea that there is any commonality between the faiths. It is much more comfortable for us to assume our superiority as sole possessors of all that is true. This is not pluralism as one does not necessarily have to undermine the belief in Jesus as ‘The Way’ in order to recognize what Christianity shares with other faith expressions. But, this view is not limited to ignorance about our connection with other faiths, the narrow Western view of history has also tainted our understanding of our own faith expression.
It was at the very beginning of this DMin journey that we read Oden’s text ‘How Africa shaped the Christian Mind’, which for many of us was the first we had ever considered the influence that Christian thinkers and theologians of African descent have had on the worldwide Christian faith. Again, many of us have been trained in Western ideologies with little care or understanding how other cultures have impacted our faith expressions. This overtly Western perspective permits an arrogance that promotes an ethnocentric faith experience and assumes that this represents the entirety of Christian orthodoxy.
It is little wonder then that the Christian church is frequently written off as bigoted, myopic, and imperialistic. In this postmodern age where institutional dogma is roundly rejected and an inherent skepticism prevails, the Church can ill afford to appear ignorant and out of touch. In Fall 2017 Oden and now this semester Frankopan, challenge readers not only to consider an alternative view of 
history but to carry this perspective forward into the present, recognizing the cross pollination that continues to occur between cultures. This will likely draw the Church toward a more multi-ethnic experience, more representative of the worldwide Christian movement, Imago Dei, and more attractive to emerging generations.
Perhaps Frankopan’s book will motivate us to further investigate other histories that we ‘know’ to be true making ourselves available to the possibility that our histories are more connected than we ever realized. It belies the idea that globalization, so ubiquitous in the contemporary world, is something new brought about by the technological age. We have been influencing one another from before recorded time.
[1]Hughes, Bettany. “The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopa, Review: ‘charismatic’.” Review of The Silk Roads. Accessed August 15, 2015. www.telegraph.co.uk.
[2]Frankopan, Peter. The Silk Roads: A New History of the World. New York: Vintage Books, 2017. P. xviii
About the Author
Dan Kreiss
Former director of the Youth Ministry program at King University in Bristol, TN and Dean of the School of Missions. I have worked in youth ministry my entire life most of that time in New Zealand before becoming faculty at King. I love helping people recognize themselves as children of God and helping them engage with the world in all its diversity. I am particularly passionate about encouraging the church to reflect the diversity found in their surrounding community in regard to age, gender, ethnicity, education, economic status, etc. I am a husband, father of 4, graduate of Emmanuel Christian Seminary, an avid cyclist and fly-fisherman still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.8 responses to “Shifting Perspectives”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Dan!
I think you pointed to the right phrase, a “Euro-centric perspective” when it comes to history. I’m also a history buff and the older I get, and more I learn (including from this book!), I discover how Euro-centric my own education tended to be. This is also true of Seminary and courses on Church History– right?
So, I guess a question that I have is, what is the way forward? I mean, how do we shift our perspective or focus, how do we help the church to have a broader view, how do we lead into those conversations within our communities or schools or whatever? I liked that you referenced the book about How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind. Africa as a continent and place in particular that gets left behind or misunderstood. Anyway– good conversation and I enjoyed your blog!
Thanks, Dan. Great thought here. It’s been interesting for me to learn about WWI and WWII from a French perspective. USAmericans often scorn the French as weak and unable to defend themselves, so I had no idea how strong and important the resistance movement was until I lived here. Our two sons learned European and World History from a French perspective and now that they are in Uni in the States, they realize how different their perspective is. Did your kids have a similar experience in learning history abroad?
Dan,
I appreciated your take on Frankopan and his broader, divergent view of history than the one we are accustomed to learning. I agree with Jenn that we learn history within a particular context that is often myopic and ignores other perspectives or realities. In Canadian high schools, for example, we learn that the War of 1812 had a different take on the outcome (ie. that the British prevailed, not the Americans). I’m sure the truth lies somewhere in between. All else may just be #fakenews. 😉
Dan,
Being a history buff and LGP ministry leader, how do you think Frankopan stacks up against Biblical history?
I would not support worshiping other gods, nor support the co-exist movement, which seems to marginalize Christianity and promote pluralism. There are some absolutes that just don’t change because someone else says they do.
As a marketplace chaplain I will seek to serve, reach, and reflect Christ to anyone, anywhere, anytime; but reserve the right to maintain my own personal faith beliefs.
Stand firm,
M. Webb
Hi Dan,
I wondered if your history passion would come out, and it did! In fact, you shined, my Brother.
I fully understand my personal bias with History from a Western perspective. This book made me wonder though–Is the communist Chinese government giving their own version? Of course! They are at least as biased. I am quite sure they aren’t even open to other versions. Am I right? Or just nuts? (Or both probably).
Dan,
There is a quote by Winston Churchill “History is written by the victors” and this history will always seek to make the victors side look better than it was and the conquered to look worse than it actually was. That is why it is so important, like you said, to be exposed to not only what we have been taught but to seek out the whole story. I know that we are not the only ones to do it, I am sure the Chinese do the same thing. When my wife lived in Germany in the 80’s she said there Germans who contradicted that the Holocaust even happened and called it Jewish propaganda. That is the problem with just believing what you are told.
Great post brother.
Jason
Hey Dan – a strong and important reinforcement of the problem of cultural superiority and ethnocentrism. This quote was bomb: “This overtly Western perspective permits an arrogance that promotes an ethnocentric faith experience and assumes that this represents the entirety of Christian orthodoxy.”
its funny how much history books can differ in the presenting of “facts”. Id be curious to now read some more history that puts europe or the mediterrean in the center.
great point about pluralism. Pluralism can also come in justifying other religions and under-affirming your own in an attempt to be modern or bigoted.