By: Michael Simmons on February 22, 2023
Tom Holland’s book Dominion is a wonderful book for anyone interested in the ubiquitous nature of Christianity in global development, particularly Western thought. Holland’s book is about 500 pages long and broken into three sections, which outline this development from Christ to today. Fortunately for me, Dr. Clark only assigned us to listen to Tom…
By: Caleb Lu on February 22, 2023
“It’s over Anakin, I have the high ground!”[1] My brothers and I throw this quote around from time to time to make fun of everyone’s least favorite Star Wars trilogy. It’s a funny exchange (supposedly very serious) between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin as they engage in a lightsaber duel that ends with Anakin jumping up…
By: Cathy Glei on February 22, 2023
What is going on? I have never witnessed so much anxiety in children as I have in the last five years. Previously in my role as a Kindergarten teacher, I witnessed so many children who came to school with so much fear and anxiety and I often wondered “what is going on?” Children, as early…
By: Kayli Hillebrand on February 22, 2023
In Tom Hollands comments during the “Theos Annual Lecture” he captured the essence of his book Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind, articulating just how influential Christianity has been in the shaping of society. Holland, an accomplished historian, author, and broadcaster with the BBC focusing on historical documentaries, provides the audience with a deeper…
By: Roy Gruber on February 22, 2023
Tom Holland is an award-winning historian, author, and broadcaster. In Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind, Holland tackles social and ecclesiastical theology and its influence on the Western world. Classified under theology, Holland demonstrates how Christianity began humbly but grew to dominate Western culture and thought and continues to do so today. Holland states…
By: David Beavis on February 22, 2023
A common illustration of the great effect of small mistakes involves navigation. Whether one is steering a ship or flying a plane, the slightest unremitted adjustment in the direction can throw one completely off course. A single degree of difference can cause one to be thousands of miles off the intended destination. A Lesson…
By: Eric Basye on February 22, 2023
From the get-go, the authors of Cynical Theories make a bold and accusational statement with the cover, and subtitle, “How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity – and Why This Harms Everybody.” Helen Pluckrose, a British author and cultural critic, teamed up with James Lindsay, an American author, mathematician, and critic, to…
By: Andy Hale on February 22, 2023
For as long as Western culture can trace its history, Christianity has been at the center. Quite literally, most American towns were built with a Christian congregation in the middle of the city planning. But the centering of this religion within most Western cultures has begun to wane, wobble, and even fall in many cases.…
By: Greg McMullen on February 21, 2023
This last week after we learned how capitalism has affected the Great Commission, we now see how geography and culture can have an impact on Christianity and the Great Commission. We take another step in learning and growing in Tim Marshals book Prisoners of Geography and Winchester, The Map That Changed The World. Both authors bring…
By: Elmarie Parker on February 21, 2023
“We are goldfish swimming in Christian [I would suggest Judeo-Christian] waters.”[1] Tom Holland’s colorful description of Christianity’s influence on the western mind left me smiling. Throughout his Theos Annual Lecture, Holland gave illustration after illustration of how the dogmas of Western, secular-humanism are implicitly rooted in the Christian narrative. What has been tacitly assumed by…
By: Russell Chun on February 21, 2023
¿Eres un árbol o un animal? Are you a tree or an animal? (Spanish) Edwin H. Friedman uses the tension of opposites, intentional polarization of thought to challenge the readers concepts on leadership. Going out on a limb, I reached back to the definition of dialectic dialogue. (philosophy a: discussion and reasoning by dialogue as…
By: Jennifer Vernam on February 20, 2023
Before I can wholeheartedly get into my assessment about this week’s reading, I have to clear the air about my initial reaction to Friedman’s Failure of Nerve.[1] It took me a few days to figure out how to articulate what wasn’t sitting right with me, and I think it is worth calling out. Friedman’s use…
By: Travis Vaughn on February 20, 2023
“Calm is contagious.” About a decade ago, I read Rorke Denver’s book, Damn Few: Making the Modern Seal Warrior. While reading Edwin Friedman’s book, A Failure of Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix, Denver’s story of a particular combat event came to mind. After he described a pretty horrific scene, Denver wrote,…
By: Chad McSwain on February 19, 2023
Are our vocations a means of grace? Do we fulfill the very calling of God by being employed? These are some of the questions that are considered by the investigation of Max Weber in his work, The Protestant Ethic and the “Spirit” of Capitalism [1]. Weber concludes that the rising Protestantism gave the context and…
By: Becca Hald on February 19, 2023
“It’s all about making the bed!” That was my brilliant deduction. It was 2:00am in the morning. I was a college student studying for my midterm on the Protestant Reformation. In my exhausted stupor, I decided that this was the reason for the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic Church was all about making the bed. What…
By: Caleb Lu on February 18, 2023
Max Weber’s work, Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, gives some insight into the influence of the Reformation, especially Calvin’s thoughts on predestination, on the development of capitalism. More exactly, Weber’s thesis is that Calvinistic predestination created an anxiety amongst Christians that found its resolution in the doctrine of providence. That providence was…
By: Laura Fleetwood on February 18, 2023
The forces that shape our culture and worldviews are layered and complex. It’s quite an undertaking to look back on history and attempt to trace the threads that form our current leadership environments. Anyone who does so must acknowledge that such discoveries, while insightful and helpful, are also surely biased through the lenses through which…
By: Daron George on February 18, 2023
The Summary “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” by Max Weber and “Evangelicalism and Capitalism” by Dr. Jason Clark explore the relationship between religion and the rise of modern capitalism. Weber’s book focuses on the historical and cultural factors that led to the development of capitalism in Europe. At the same time, Clark’s…
By: Jean de Dieu Ndahiriwe on February 18, 2023
Max Weber, German Social Scientist and author of The Protestant Ethic and The Spirit of Capitalism, Explains and reveals an interesting way of looking at Capitalism and its relationship to Protestantism. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (German: Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus) is a book by Max Weber, a German sociologist, economist, and politician. Begun as…
By: Mary Kamau on February 18, 2023
Critical Theory has become a buzzword common in politics and social justice academic talks and even found its way to the school curriculum, yet only a few know its sources. James Lindsay and Helen Pluckrose have delved into this topic. They have tried to demystify it in their book, Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made…
