By: Sam Stephens on April 12, 2014
Major shifts in history are a combination of a variety of elements which would include contemporary political and economic climate, needs and aspirations of the populace, available technology etc. The tipping occurs with a single individual or a group of people with a vision of transformation, passionately committed to something they firmly believe in, willing…
By: John Woodward on April 11, 2014
Murray Jardine’s book The Making of Technological Society: How Christianity Can Save Modernity From Itself got me thinking about my church. Let me describe for you what a typical Sunday morning service is like. About five hundred people swarm into our large building, most arriving within a minute before (and just after) the beginning of…
By: Richard Volzke on April 11, 2014
Jardine explains, in his book Technological Society, that the term liberal was originally associated with one who is free. In contrast, the term conservative was used to define an individual who wanted maintain the status quo.[1] I have always considered myself a conservative, however based on this definition I realize that lean towards being liberal.…
By: rhbaker275 on April 11, 2014
In the early nineteen-eighties, I bought my first computer. I walked into a Radio Shack to buy a white phone jack and observed this “machine” that looked a little bit like an all-in-one television and typewriter. I was mesmerized as the sales person showed me the wonders of the TRS-80 Model III. I went back…
By: Stefania Tarasut on April 11, 2014
I tried to summarize The Making and Unmaking of Technological Society by Murray Jardine, but Walter Mead, former President of the Polanyi Society and Professor Emeritus, Illinois State University, does a much better job than I ever could. Mead sums the book up by saying, Jardine’s discussion is a grand narrative that leads readers from early pagan culture…
By: Carol McLaughlin on April 11, 2014
Picking up this book, The Making and Unmaking of Technological Society: How Christianity Can Save Modernity From Itself by Murray Jardine, reminded me of a cross-country road trip using Google maps to plan travel from point A to point B. Only with this trip finder rather than a direct A to B route, there are…
By: Bill Dobrenen on April 11, 2014
My post this week is out of character for me, so please be patient and forgiving with my seemingly negative attitude for what begins with judgment ends with appreciation and grace. This week’s reading and writing led me down a very unexpected path, one that I hope, will also be an encouragement to my readers.…
By: Liz Linssen on April 11, 2014
Modern societies are facing a profound crisis in their inability to make moral sense of their technological capacities, a crisis which, according to Jardine, is a manifestation of a more fundamental issue: the ability for humans to positively change their environment. Until now, individual freedom has been the prized goal and way of modern liberal…
By: Michael Badriaki on April 11, 2014
Jardine starts his book, The Making and Unmaking of Technological Society by directly launching into the concerns he has about the state of American and Western society. He notes: My essential argument is very straightforward. First, present-day Western societies are in the grip of a profound moral crisis, and this crisis lies in the inability…
By: Julie Dodge on April 11, 2014
I was grading papers earlier this week – it’s something I do a lot of this time of the semester. These particular papers were about each student’s cultural identity. One paper in particular stood out. At first, as I was reading it from my linear, academic, and western perspective, I was frustrated. Instead of directly…
By: Chris Ellis on April 11, 2014
This week’s assigned reading for my D.Min. was 12 Books That Changed the World written by Melvyn Bragg. In the book Bragg highlights 12 books he thinks changed the world. They are: Principia Mathematica (1687) — Isaac Newton Married Love (1918) — Marie Stopes Magna Carta (1215) Book of Rules of Association Football (1863) On the Origin of Species (1859)…
By: Phil Smart on April 11, 2014
The way to write a book in which displeases everyone.…would be accomplished by creating a list of your favorites, such as 12 Books that Changed the World by Melvyn Bragg. We are in an age of lists. The trend began with the first US nationwide popular newspaper, USA Today. All types of lists began showing…
By: David Toth on April 10, 2014
The title of this week’s reading is 12 Books That Changed The World by Melvyn Bragg and the title he chose made me think about books I have read that had a significant influence on my life. Mutiny on The Bounty impacted me and also Richard Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor. The introduction of Bragg’s book is important as it explains…
By: Ashley Goad on April 10, 2014
I will be honest; when I picked up this book I had a preconceived notion from the title that the pages would discuss how technology and media have cultivated hyper-connectivity, and thus how the hyper-connected generation is redefining community. I was hoping for a sequel to the highly-solution-oriented The Church of Facebook by Jesse Rice.[1]…
By: Sandy Bils on April 10, 2014
“sHiFt” “12 Books that Changed the World” by Melvyn Bragg includes summaries and narratives about books that caused major historical shifts in thinking. He explains that his choices were to include, “…books that I could prove had changed, rootedly, the lives of people all over the land…” (321) The topics include science, women’s writes, slavery,…
By: Deve Persad on April 10, 2014
There’s really not much that I enjoy about reading the centuries old versions of the Bible. However, there is at least one verse that has always stood out to me more than others as I read the King James Version. It’s found in Matthew 5:2, it’s the introduction to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Matthew…
By: Fred Fay on April 9, 2014
Could a book change your life? Many popular books promise that. “Read this book and it will change your life.” Millions of books have been written. Few endure. But some books have changed society. They have changed the world we live in. This week I have read 12 Books That Changed The World: How words and…
By: Sandy Bils on April 9, 2014
We are used to polls and votes, where we are asked to tell our favorite books, favorite Italian restaurant in town, favorite politician. Our opinion and experience seems to be interesting to others. Some apps and channels on social media like foursquare, qype or yelp are mainly designed to satisfy our curiosity, what others like…
By: Garrick Roegner on April 9, 2014
Groucho Marx once said, “Outside of a dog, the book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read.” Books, or written communication of some sort, essentially make the world go around. They are the stuff of big ideas, paradigm shifts, and the basic core of life. Whether story,…
By: Stefania Tarasut on April 9, 2014
Two things happened last week. The first was that World Vision made a bold decision in recognizing same-sex marriages among their employees. The second important thing that happened was that what seemed to be hours later, World Vision changed their minds and retracted their support. Now, there is a lot to be said about their…
