By: Kristin Hamilton on June 2, 2017
It may not have been his intent, but Thomas C. Oden’s How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind left me wondering why non-Western cultures are generally viewed as less intellectual and intuitive than those from the West. I’ve noticed this bias in myself when reading works by Origen and Augustine (and other early Christian scholars), in…
By: Christal Jenkins Tanks on June 1, 2017
Thomas C. Oden author of How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind challenges the Western Christian narrative of Christianity and its origins in Africa. Oden states his purpose for his book in the beginning when he writes ” The thesis of this book can be stated simply: Africa played a decisive role in the formation of…
By: Stu Cocanougher on June 1, 2017
“Africa” For many, that word brings up a wide variety of thoughts. Jungles Exotic wildlife Bongo drums Grass huts Abject poverty War masks and spears Tribal Dances Oral storytelling Pagan religions The reality is that Africa could just as well be characterized by… The childhood home of Jesus. The home of Joseph, Moses, Simon…
By: Katy Drage Lines on June 1, 2017
Once, to break up the 10-hour drive from Eldoret back home to Turkana, our family turned off the tarmac to follow signs to the Treasures of Africa Museum in Kitale. This odd little private museum was founded by an eccentric Scotsman who wildly claimed that the Karamajong language—a kissing-cousin to Turkana, in the vein of…
By: Lynda Gittens on June 1, 2017
How Africa Shaped Christianity To my generation, the stories of the white missionaries going into an uncivilized world of Africa to share Jesus have always been the truth told; and the only book the white slave owners allowed their black slaves to read was the Bible has always been the truth told. Those truths…
By: Jim Sabella on June 1, 2017
Summary: Africa is the second largest continent in the world with 54 countries and over 1 billion inhabitants. Of those 1 billion inhabitants approximated 460 million are Christians and yet I know very little about Africa and its Christian history. I don’t believe that I am alone and Odeon would agree that much of the…
By: Geoff Lee on June 1, 2017
How Africa Shaped The Christian Mind Who knew? Christianity did not begin and was not primarily shaped in the West! The culturally insensitive would think that it did and that it was – that we are at the centre of the universe; that Christianity moved North to South and that it is a recent import…
By: Mary Walker on May 31, 2017
In an interview with Christianity Today Thomas Oden said that he dreamed that his epitaph would read: “He made no new contribution to theology.” The dream somehow said to me …that my calling as a theologian could be fulfilled through obedience to apostolic tradition.”[1] Mourned by many, Thomas C. Oden went to be with the…
By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on May 31, 2017
If Africa was the significant yet unrecognized influence on the origins of Christianity as promoted by the author, I couldn’t help feeling like I just discovered I was adopted and “my parents” were not my biological parents. I felt a bit duped by the misrepresentation of Christianity in my younger years of Christian teachings, for…
By: Kevin Norwood on May 26, 2017
I was in Londonderry, Northern Ireland on a school tour with my friend Derek Switzer. Londonderry or Derry, as he would call it, is quite an interesting place. The city is so divided that it is not possible to even call it by name without making people choose their side. Protestants loyalists call it Londonderry…
By: Stu Cocanougher on May 26, 2017
My 20th birthday was celebrated in a simple concrete and tile home in Pasig, Metro Manila. Weeks earlier, I boarded a 747 from Nashville to spend my 10-week summer break in the Philippines. My partner and I lived with a Filipino family who adopted us as their own. Our task was simple, serve Pasig…
By: Christal Jenkins Tanks on May 26, 2017
“Leading in the twenty-first-century world means maneuvering the twists and turns of a multidimensional world. The continually shifting landscape of global leadership can be disorienting; experience and intuition alone a re not enough. But cultural intelligence offers a way through the maze that’s not only effective but also invigorating and fulfilling.“[1] Leading with Cultural Intelligence…
By: Jason Kennedy on May 26, 2017
I am a student of history and of people. I am fascinated in studying how people think about any particular event or action. Recently, I have discovered a documentary on Netflix entitled The Seven-Five. It is a gritty tale of how cops, those sworn to serve and protect, ended up running drugs for Columbian drug…
By: Chip Stapleton on May 26, 2017
My third Sunday at Good Shepherd was a bit of a whirlwind. I was still very much learning the ‘ins and outs’ of what a ‘regular’ Sunday and so this ‘special’ Sunday was a complete mystery. This fact was complicated by the fact that I didn’t know that there was going to be a baptism…
By: Kristin Hamilton on May 26, 2017
Like David Livermore, I am fascinated by cultures and their differences. I love learning how different cultural values are lived out daily in the community as well as how they contrast with other cultures. Leading With Cultural Intelligence is like reading an encyclopedia or a dictionary in which I uncover new things that help me…
By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on May 25, 2017
With the ability to interface with cultures worldwide through travel and technology, and relating to various cultures in our communities, the development of CQ is essential if we are to create healthy relationships and communities. Cultural intelligence, as defined by Livermore as: “the capacity to function effectively across national, ethnic, and organizational cultures” (24), is…
By: Pablo Morales on May 25, 2017
SUMMARY In The Rise and Fall of Apartheid, professor David Welsh describes the social system of racial segregation that the National Party established in South Africa from 1948-1994. Walsh divides the Apartheid in three chronological stages in which several laws were established in order to ensure white supremacy in the midst of a multiethnic society.…
By: Lynda Gittens on May 25, 2017
At this moment in America, the term ‘intelligence’ has been on the news, social media, and social conversations. There are several ‘intelligence’ terms: Intelligence Quotient (IQ), and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Now on the news the terms we hear or read about Israel Intelligence, Europe Intelligence, and the U.S. Intelligence. In the atmosphere…
By: Phil Goldsberry on May 25, 2017
Introduction The doctrine of Original Sin is straightforward. The ramifications and fallout are more challenging to understand their impact and profundity. I would propose that one of the most heinous of our fallen/sin nature is a breakdown, and even hatred, for people who are different than us. This breakdown/hatred is profoundly the opposite of the…
By: Aaron Peterson on May 25, 2017
I read David Welsh’s huge tome, The Rise and Fall of Apartheid specifically looking for some leadership take-aways. I know the history is important and that details matter. Trust me, this book is packed, maybe too much so, with details. Since this is a leadership class and not a history class though, I decided to…
