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…
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)…
