By: Phil Smart on May 8, 2014
For one year I studied Human Geography in a Master’s program at the University of Kansas. I was home for a year’s furlough from mission service in Brazil and was encouraged to study but ran out of money so never completed the degree. However, while at KU, I was exposed to Environmental Determinism, a precursor…
By: Mark Steele on May 8, 2014
Jared Diamond in in his book Guns, Germs and Steel attempts to answer the question why some societies advanced much quicker than others throughout history. He tracks the history of man 4 million years ago in Africa and 1.8 million years ago in a Southeast Asian Island in Java to the oldest fossils discovered of…
By: Liz Linssen on May 8, 2014
For Diamond, history reveals a story of inequalities among the development of the modern world and therefore demands an explanation. He asks the important question, “[W]hy did human development proceed at such different rates on different continents?” [i] He goes on, “In 11,000 BC, all societies everywhere were bands of preliterate hunter-gatherers with stone tools.…
By: Sam Stephens on May 8, 2014
Whether it concerns an individual, or a family, communities or nations, the most pressing question for humanity is this: What does the future hold? Then, the most frequently asked questions are: Where do we go from here? Where are we headed to? How do we get to where we desire to be? It isn’t very…
By: Richard Volzke on May 8, 2014
The book, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, was filled with controversial facts. While the author does appropriately state some of the factors that trigger societal development, Scripture doesn’t support some of the facts and statements that he provided. There was a large emphasis on evolution, however the author did not fully…
By: Fred Fay on May 8, 2014
Quite a few years ago I accompanied a group from the church I was working for on a missions trip to Ensenada. We passed through beautiful San Diego with palm trees, green foliage and modern buildings. Then as we passed over the border into Mexico everything changed. The ground was brown and barren. There were…
By: John Woodward on May 8, 2014
My confession: I have a Masters in history. Actually, I am a student of a very tiny part of history, which encompasses only modern Europe. I know that my focus is extremely narrow, but after reading Gun, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond, I am extremely humbled by how very…
By: David Toth on May 7, 2014
Jared Diamond’s book, Germs, Guns and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, is his attempt to answer the question, “Why did history unfold differently on different continents?”* I found the book to be well written, easily understood, and well researched. Diamond writes with a breadth of knowledge and global travel…
By: Sharenda Roam on May 7, 2014
In “Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies,” professor of physiology, Jared Diamond, asks the question, “How, though, did the world get to be the way it was in A.D. 1500?” To rephrase the question …”…why did human development proceed at such different rates on different continents? Those disparate rates constitute history’s broadest…
By: Chris Ellis on May 7, 2014
Guns, Germs and Steel is a fascinating read that tells the history of humanities development from the time we could begin to call ourselves Homo sapiens. There was much in this book I didn’t know, and I feel like I could read it again and find things I missed. The author tries to answer questions centered…
By: Miriam Mendez on May 3, 2014
You don’t have to go very far in the book to identify what Jardine’s argument is all about. In The Making and Unmaking of Technological Society, Jardine wants his readers to know that his argument is that present day Western societies are in the grip of a profound moral crisis.[1] He states that this crisis…
By: Miriam Mendez on May 3, 2014
Are the good intentions of Christians enough to engage and change the world? Can Christians pray long enough, hard enough and loud enough to affect change in the world? Are there enough Christians to fully embrace God’s call on their lives to change the world? Are Christians engaging in enough critical thinking that will help…
By: Richard Volzke on April 26, 2014
My personal interest: The last time I was in London was in the 1980s. I was in the military and spent a two-week in Portsmouth at a Royal Navel Base with the British Navy. During that time some of the British sailors took me to London for the weekend. As I was getting ready to…
By: Stefania Tarasut on April 17, 2014
Zygmunt Bauman’s book Collateral Damage: Social Inequalities in a Global Age, is a collection of essays and lectures given by Bauman at different times. I had a hard time following him and seeing the connection between the chapters. There is one interesting thought that I had while reading this book. As Christians, we cannot get…
By: Stefania Tarasut on April 16, 2014
The way I see it, there are two problems with consumerism. Actually, there are a lot more than two, but for the sake of this post I will only focus on two. First, “Consumerism is a type of spirituality… it is a way of pursuing meaning and identity, a way of connecting with other people.”[1]…
By: Mark Steele on April 13, 2014
Now don’t get me wrong, I love books and they have changed my life for the better; but what about the movies? I thoroughly enjoyed Melvyn Bragg’s book, 12 Books that Changed the World. Bragg is an Englishman who chose all English books by male authors. He summarized the books and shared why they changed…
By: Richard Rhoads on April 12, 2014
Over the years I have come to love reading and books. Throughout my life many books have had great impact on the way I think, process and even the way I live. A few books which stand out as great refiners are, The Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen; Sabbath by Dan Allendar; The Bible; Emotionally…
By: Mitch Arbelaez on April 12, 2014
Reading, or should I say more honestly, perusing, the book The Making and Unmaking of Technological Society by Murray Jardine, I felt I was shifting from reading a book of history to one about political theory, then one on economics, and then on consumerism, then philosophy and another on theology, even a bit on scientific…
By: Telile Fikru Badecha on April 12, 2014
“The Making and Unmaking of Technological Society” by Murray Jardine offers thoughtful analysis on the Western societies current moral crisis as the result of Christianity’s failure to engage with the culture of technology. Jardine writes, “ the present-day Western societies are indeed facing a moral crisis, and that this crisis is far more profound than…
By: Miriam Mendez on April 12, 2014
America’s problem isn’t too much religion, or too little of it. It’s bad religion: the slow-motion collapse of traditional Christianity and the rise of a variety of destructive pseudo-Christianities (PC) in its place. [1] This is Douthat’s argument throughout his book, Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Herectics. Douthat believes that America has…
