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,…
By: Mark Petersen on September 7, 2017
Thomas C. Oden’s brief work, How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind, is a tantalizing, mouth-watering attempt to whet the appetite of the reader toward feasting on new ideas. His astonishing premise radically reshapes traditional Western concepts of the foundations of the Christian faith which I was educated under. Gone is a myopic, Eurocentric perspective on…
By: Kyle Chalko on September 7, 2017
Thomas C. Oden’s book, How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity challenged me and how I have considered Christianity. It is true that many westerners and Europeans have viewed Africa Christianity with the same sort of mindset that the colonizers did. Many hold the attitude that every academic or…
By: Lynda Gittens on September 7, 2017
Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes because of an excellent spirit [was] in him, and the king thought to set him over the whole realm. Daniel 6:3 KJV Let all things be done decently and in order. 1 Corinthians 14:40 KJV According to the website Know Jesus Know Peace, in…
By: Jennifer Williamson on September 7, 2017
There is no doubt that African influences and voices were paramount in shaping Christian thought and self-understanding. In How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity, Oden endeavours to “Set forth the basic vision for a renewed initiative in the theological and historical reassessment of early African Christianity” (Kindle loc…
By: Katy Drage Lines on September 7, 2017
Ubiquitous on office shelves across the business, social and religious sectors, Jim Collins’ book Good to Great and its companion, Good to Great and the Social Sectors are undoubtedly required reading for leaders and potential leaders, especially those who want their companies or organizations to be “great.” I believe Collins’ simple, straightforward explanation of what…
