By: Jean de Dieu Ndahiriwe on February 25, 2023
In Prisoners of Geography, Tim Marshall shares several ideas, and as I read the book question remains whether there will ever be peace on this side of heaven. I found this book interesting and will look at a few key ideas. My main takeaway is that, as suggested in his title, we might all be prisoners…
By: Chad McSwain on February 25, 2023
Have you ever considered that maps, or more precisely, the ground beneath you influences how you think? Without a doubt, we take the ground and maps for granted. We live in an age of pocket GPS that guides family road trips and gives accurate milage and minutes to the nearest McDonalds, yet this is a…
By: Jenny Steinbrenner Hale on February 25, 2023
Maps. They tell us the mysteries of the ground upon which we walk. They also highlight the strategies humans have used to mold and shape their lives in their front and backyards, according to their topography, throughout history. I have always loved maps and associate them with new adventures, unique learnings about the world, trail…
By: Jonathan Lee on February 24, 2023
Tom Holland, the author of Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind, is a British writer who wrote novels and historical non-fiction books on topics of classical and medieval history. In Dominion, Tom analyzes the rise and impact of Christianity on the western world. He divides the book into three parts – Antiquity, Christendom, and…
By: Kally Elliott on February 24, 2023
There is a member of our family who we all, and I do mean ALL of us, allow to set the agenda. She is needy, definitely the most anxious member of the family, afraid of her own shadow, and constantly demanding attention. Always watching, following us from room to room, she is undifferentiated and fully…
By: Denise Johnson on February 24, 2023
It is not hard to see that we no longer live in a Christian dominated society. The fluidity of thought, values, and the definition of what is right and wrong changes so quickly it is hard to keep up. All the while there is one group or another crying out that their human rights have…
By: Jenny Dooley on February 23, 2023
I approached Edwin Friedman’s book, Failure of Nerve, with a great deal of curiosity and a fair amount of apprehension. I am quite familiar with the practice of non-anxious presence discussed in his book and yet I notice myself faltering in certain anxiety prone situations. In my attempts to restore equilibrium and balance I…
By: Nicole Richardson 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. …
By: Troy Rappold 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…
By: Pam Lau 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…
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…
