By: Jake Dean-Hill on September 14, 2017
David Welsh’s book, The Rise and Fall of Apartheid, was very insightful and highlighted some aspects regarding the ending of apartheid in South Africa that I already had some interest in as a result of some movies and documentaries I have watched on the subject. The relatively peaceful transition was shocking to most everyone who…
By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on September 14, 2017
As I was listening audibly to the book Visual Faith, on art and its relationship to the church, many times the voice would say, “Image not included because of rights restriction”, and all I had was the words and my imagination. The author would describe the picture and I would try to visualize what he…
By: Dan Kreiss on September 13, 2017
Living in New Zealand during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s allowed me a closer perspective of the ultimate demise of apartheid in South Africa and the ascendency of the ANC and Nelson Mandela in the new Republic of South Africa. I well remember the white South African immigrants fleeing what they anticipated would…
By: Jay Forseth on September 13, 2017
When I was in my college history class, I was taught apartheid was “apart-hood” and it brought to my developing mind a vivid picture of painful “separateness” for all people. My first memories of racial division came as a kindergarten student in the Denver Public Schools. My parents bought a house in the Denver city…
By: Jim Sabella on September 13, 2017
“I believe that making beautiful forms is theologically connected to our call both to listen and respond to God in prayer, praise, and sacrament.”(1) The church in which I grew up met in a rather utilitarian building on the side of town that was filled with immigrants. As the church developed and grew it moved…
By: Katy Drage Lines on September 13, 2017
What do an iPhone, a cloud column, and a Star Wars mug all have in common? Perhaps as we journey together through this post, we might discover the connection between these images. We step onto the path, first, by recognizing our earthiness as humans, connected as creatures to one another, the rest of creation, and…
By: Mark Petersen on September 13, 2017
With The Rise and Fall of Apartheid, David Welsh promises a sweeping historical overview of ground-breaking world events in southern Africa of the 20th century. What cultural and sociological realities coalesced with key agents to create and sustain this oppressive system of separateness? What movements and influences dismantled these structures in a relatively short time…
By: Mary Walker on September 13, 2017
…the one important fact for us is the significance of the marked rejection of all distinctively esthetic devises by those religions which are rational, in our special sense…But there can be no question at all that the systematic prohibition in devout Jewish and Puritan circles of uninhibited surrender to the distinctive form-producing values of art…
By: Shawn Hart on September 11, 2017
Last year I had the great privilege of taking a Holy Land tour of Egypt, Jordan and Israel. During the time I spent in Egypt, my tour guide was emphatically attempting to declare that the Egyptians during the time of Moses were not actually the bad guys that we see in Scripture. He continued to…
By: Chris Pritchett on September 8, 2017
My first visit to Africa was in college, when I studied abroad in Cairo for two months. It’s very difficult to imagine Egypt as “Africa,” because we in the West, when we think of “Africa,” we are formed to imagine sub-Saharan (black) Africa. The author of course addressed this and defined the term “Africa” generically…
By: Greg on September 8, 2017
The books we read, the movies or documentaries we have watched and interactions with people we have grown up with have shaped who we are. This is especially true when talking about an area of the world like Africa. The name alone conjures up many images from history of beautiful jungles, desolate deserts, primitive tribes…
By: Jay Forseth on September 8, 2017
To be honest, I feel a little sheepish. It has never, not even once, crossed my mind which continent shaped the Christian mind. I don’t think I intentionally cut Africa out of it, nor did I intentionally think Christian thought came mainly out of Europe. I might be a tad bit racist, or just not…
By: Dave Watermulder on September 8, 2017
There is an old line from Heraclitus that says, “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” The invitation that Thomas Oden makes in How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind, is for the reader to come to the water’s edge and look…
By: Trisha Welstad on September 8, 2017
Reading How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind by Thomas Oden is eye opening. I am impressed with how the historic names (Augustine, Athanasius, Tertullian!), experiences and libraries that came out of North Africa, have influenced the world in significant ways. Classical Christianity has not owned the gems coming from this continent over the centuries. The…
By: Chip Stapleton on September 8, 2017
I first read Jim Collins seminal leadership book, Good to Great, as a seminary student over a decade ago in (of course) a pastoral leadership class. According to the copyright, the accompanying ‘Good to Great and the Social Sectors’ monograph was already released, but we didn’t read it at the same time. In hindsight that was…
By: Christal Jenkins Tanks on September 7, 2017
“Simple Truths Good-to-great leaders understand three simple truths: If you begin with the “who,” rather than the “what,” you can more easily adapt to a changing world. If you have the right people on the bus, the problem of how to motivate and manage people largely goes away. If you have the wrong…
By: Kristin Hamilton on September 7, 2017
When you tell a recovering perfectionist that “good is the enemy of great,”[1] you tend to create an existential crisis for said person. In fact, it may take that person a few days to remind herself that great does not necessarily mean perfect…or so I hear. Anyway, most times I read Jim Collins’ book, Good…
By: Jean Ollis on September 7, 2017
Thomas Oden conveys passion for historical accuracy and spiritual justice in his book How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity. “Ordinary African Christian believers deserve to have a much more accessible way of understanding early African Christianity: its faith, courage, tenacity and remarkable intellectual strength.[1] Oden’s intent is not…
By: Jason Turbeville on September 7, 2017
While reading How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind by Thomas C. Oden, one thing continually ran through my mind. I was angry I had never been taught about the African influence on Christianity, but I was even more upset at myself for not figuring it out on my own. I have always known Athanasius, Origen, and Augustine…
By: Mike on September 7, 2017
Africa and Christianity Thomas C. Oden, the author of How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind, successfully overcomes his Caucasian, American, United Methodist, and Wesleyan bias when he characterizes Africa as the geographic cradle and “seedbed” for historic Christianity.[1] Oden provides the reader with a chronological survey of an Afrocentric ancient world, early African Christian fathers,…
