By: Garrick Roegner on April 5, 2014
Zygmunt Bauman has posited that contemporary (or postmodern) society is characterized by “the growing conviction that change is the only permanence and uncertainty the only certainty (Liquid Modernity, loc 75).” We live in thus a liquid time, where structures and societal solids must be flexible, changeable, and ultimately liquid. Furthermore for Bauman this all is…
By: Telile Fikru Badecha on April 5, 2014
While reading Hunter James Davison book To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World, I found his third essay on the theology of faithful presence a great reminder to examine how I am doing in my relationship with God and others around me. Hunter begins with a…
By: Carol McLaughlin on April 5, 2014
It was impossible to read James Davison Hunter’s book, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World without considering recent events both locally and nationally. Two weeks ago a sudden and unexpected mudslide wiped out a small community in Washington State, leaving devastation and death in its…
By: Liz Linssen on April 4, 2014
Hunter’s work, To Change the World, attempts to explain why so few Christians have had significant influence for the Kingdom of God upon society in late modern times. Coming from a different and more pragmatic view than that of Douthat, Hunter believes that the means to changing the current anaemic Christian climate in America is…
By: Sandy Bils on April 4, 2014
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. No one remembers the former generations, and even those…
By: Michael Badriaki on April 4, 2014
“Can Bone Save The World?” Another way to ask the question might be; is Bono redemptive? I have my hunch, but I have another story to share about my introduction to Bono. Now, I had listened to the music of the band U2 here and there, but a number of years before I came to…
By: Julie Dodge on April 4, 2014
I’m going to be honest from the get go: I did not like this week’s book. James Davison Hunter’s “To Change the World”[i] left me unsatisfied. I know, how can it be? I read through various reviews of the book, thinking surely I must be missing something. The reviews were positive. One even referred…
By: Bill Dobrenen on April 4, 2014
I have been on a long spiritual journey; I am sure that many of us have been. This week’s reading and our last reading gripped my soul in substantial ways. Something must be happening in me. But answers to spiritual longings do not usually come in fancy packaging. In fact, the content that touched my…
By: Richard Rhoads on April 4, 2014
I love family traditions. Some of our traditions include, attending Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus, watching fireworks on the 4th of July and going to our family cabin each summer. However, one tradition stands out as our favorite is, “The Buck Demolition Derby”. Each year, around the 4th of July weekend, a local motor…
By: Richard Volzke on April 4, 2014
In Hunter’s book, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World, explains how Christians try to use evangelism, politics, and social reform to change the world’s moral values. The author outlines how Christianity attempts to use these tactics and as a result, experiences both negative and positive…
By: John Woodward on April 3, 2014
I believe that the Church sincerely desires to make a positive impact on the world, to bring about a more Christ-like society where God is honored and people live under His Lordship and receive His blessings. But, for most of my life, it seemed as if the Church’s every effort to bring these positive change…
By: Sharenda Roam on April 3, 2014
How does media help change our shared and personal spaces and create ours and others’ identities? Pingree and Gitelman explores this idea in their book “New Media – 1740 to 1915.” They look at a variety of media including the zograscope, the physiognotrace, and the telegraph, as well as others. What I find interesting is…
By: Fred Fay on April 3, 2014
Last week I watched the animated movie Frozen. It is a Disney adaptation of The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson. I have two girls, young adults, who just love it. I found myself being taken in also by the story and music. The theme of rejection, family pain and finding one’s identity in a…
By: Chris Ellis on April 3, 2014
When many people think of new forms of media they might think of Twitter, Skype or whatever is the latest and greatest in communication (Holograms are next maybe? ). But to only think of those forms that are new for OUR current time and place is to miss some valuable lessons learned from studying when…
By: Ashley Goad on April 3, 2014
Several years ago, I interviewed for a youth pastor position in northern Virginia. One of the questions was, “How would you describe your ministry to students?” While the committee expected to hear about creative programs, wild games and big mission trips, I instead told them my greatest love in youth ministry was practicing the ministry…
By: Deve Persad on April 3, 2014
It was a different world. The patio at the back is only vague memory. What I remember more is the soft cushion of lush grass that grew on either side of the stone walkway that extended from that back patio. The walkway made its way through, winding a little bit, and then beyond the garden…
By: David Toth on April 3, 2014
It was August of 1979 when I loaded up my household goods and my family and drove to Toccoa, Georgia to attend Bible college. The plan to make this move had been activated two years earlier and most everything had gone well, except the economy. Unemployment was high and interest rates were higher yet. My…
By: Phil Smart on April 3, 2014
Always Already New: Media, History and the Data of Culture by Lisa Gitelman, looks back so that she can look forward. I felt that this was a timely book as my son who is in his mid-20s came for a visit from Chicago two weeks ago. He had taken the train and as we met…
By: Michael Badriaki on March 30, 2014
When I get the chance to visit and live in various countries and communities, I always find myself wondering as to whether people in the non-western context experience vastly different effects of modernity. Charles Taylor’s book called Modern Social Imaginaries, labors to discuss the possibility of the presence of “multiple modernities”. Taylor notes: From the…
By: Michael Badriaki on March 30, 2014
While studying Bauman Zygmunt’ book called Collateral Damage: Social Inequalities in a Global Age, it was clear that the author provides a critique of modern-day social inequality, I couldn’t help but think about local and global inequity and disparities. I appreciated the perspective which promoted a vast understanding of the relationship between inequality, democracy and…
