DLGP

Doctor of Leadership in Global Perspectives: Crafting Ministry in an Interconnected World

Category: Uncategorized

Preach the Gospel at All Times and if Necessary, Use Words

By: on February 23, 2023

Humanism adheres to the understanding that each human has value and dignity; because of that inherent value humans have no need of religion to define what is moral/ethical/good. Humans can be good without God. Postmodern thinkers push back on the “one truth” because one’s experience is more revelatory to define one’s truth; truth is relative. …

7 responses

The Unmistakable Christian Influence on the West

By: on February 23, 2023

In his 2019 book, Dominion, author Tom Holland attempts to explain how Christianity became “the most powerful hegemonic cultural force in the history of the word” (p. xxv). It is not a history of Christianity per se, but rather he seeks “to explore how we in the West came to be what we are, and…

8 responses

I’ve Known Anxiety and Fragility

By: on February 23, 2023

I was a young adult, eager and enthusiastic, with my first experience of anxiety.  Maybe 19? Maybe 20? The memory is still blurred.  But I remember the thinning of my feelings as my heart palpitated wildly beneath my chest, the involuntary panic that I would never want another soul to know I carried around in…

11 responses

“It’s Over, I have the high ground…”

By: 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…

9 responses

A Way of Brokenness Intersecting with the Father’s Love

By: 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…

3 responses

A New Concept? I’m Not So Sure.

By: 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…

6 responses

Western Christianity: Down But Not Out

By: 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…

16 responses

The Little and The Overlooked – What Really Changes the World

By: 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…

4 responses

Shine More Brightly

By: 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…

5 responses

Suppose Holland is Correct…

By: 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.…

6 responses

Rocky VIII

By: 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…

2 responses

Tacit Knowing, Culture, and Lived Values

By: 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…

12 responses

¿Eres un árbol o un animal?

By: 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…

8 responses

“But… if Not”

By: 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…

8 responses

Vocation as a Means of Grace

By: 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…

3 responses

It’s All About Making the Bed

By: 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…

8 responses

Does it make cents?

By: 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…

7 responses

Gonna Party Like It’s 1995

By: 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…

7 responses