By: Darcy Hansen on January 19, 2020
As I read through Polyani’s The Great Transformation, words shared by Lord Glasman during our London/Oxford Advance kept resurfacing in my mind. He shared these words as he tried to explain the circumstances that predicated Brexit in the UK: “You think you’re acting in an altruistic way, but it’s really about self-interest in the end.”…
By: Shawn Cramer on January 14, 2020
Building from a rich history and tradition, Evangelicals have the opportunity to innovate towards the next adjacent possible. Duke Divinity School proposes that traditioned innovation is “a way of thinking and being that holds the past and future in tension, not in opposition, [and] is crucial to the growth and vitality of Christian institutions” (Faith…
By: Joe Castillo on January 14, 2020
I want to reflect on chapter 5 from the book “Evangelicalism in Modern Britain” because it resonates with my own Methodist experience. I want to focus primarily on “The Methodist Holiness Tradition.” as I perceive it. There are two points that I come to mind as I read the chapter; WE ARE MADE HOLY IN…
By: Greg Reich on January 13, 2020
“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, You who seek the LORD: Look to the rock from which you were hewn And to the quarry from which you were dug.” (Isaiah 51:1 NASB) Though I have previously studied church history I must admit that I, like many, have tended to localize and personalize it without…
By: Dylan Branson on January 13, 2020
Have you ever looked at the social institutions of our world and simply asked the question, “Why?” Why is this here? Why is this run the way it is? Why does this group of people seem to thrive under these conditions while others don’t? At times we realize that our current situations are in place…
By: Steve Wingate on January 13, 2020
“God has established boundary stones in his word. They are primarily found in the Law but are elaborated on and repeated throughout the entire Bible. Our spiritual ancestors, through the history of the Church, have set a pattern for living by these ancient landmarks. These may be our fundamental doctrines, our Biblical pattern for living,…
By: Jer Swigart on January 13, 2020
Ten days after the 2016 Presidential election, I was invited to Washington DC to offer an analysis of white Evangelicalism in America. Throughout the polarizing election season that had just concluded, many had found themselves dumbfounded by the adamant support for Donald Trump by white Evangelicals. As the months unfolded, it seemed as though the…
By: Darcy Hansen on January 13, 2020
It was cold and wet. Quiet permeated as the sun gently rose over the tree-lined ridge. The trails were muddy at the Abbey. The flow of air into my out-of-shape lungs was shallow and swift as I climbed the hill that, at the moment, felt like a mountain. I took the first right turn off…
By: Steve Wingate on November 25, 2019
Okay, I have to say this book title sounds just a bit tad more than ironic. The title actually sounds sacrilegious! But, quite the title. As far as a marketing scheme, it is genius. Since I am probably being groomed as a scruffy cultured individual, it’s probably a must-read. So, I read. What the title…
By: Chris Pollock on November 23, 2019
The last few months have been full of all kinds of new learning for me. I have thoroughly enjoyed the books we have not read together. Yes, it has been highly informative the learning from different perspectives, viewpoints of classmates on books they haven’t read and sharing my thoughts (to the best of my ability)…
By: Nancy Blackman on November 21, 2019
https://youtu.be/BacjILwcJf4 PC: @detroitshooting James I stood before my brothers (형제) and sisters (자매) staring into their souls, hoping to hear what I wanted to hear. I have read a portion of their lives in the anthology, “Mixed Korean: Our Stories,” but that is such a small tidbit of who someone is. “The act of reading…
By: Greg Reich on November 19, 2019
We live in a world consumed with knowledge. According to Berrett-Koehler Publishers there were over 700,000 books self-published in 2015. In 2013 over 300,000 books were published by traditional publishers. To date there are well over 1 million books self-published every year. A book has less than a 1% chance of being stocked by a…
By: Jer Swigart on November 19, 2019
In How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read, Paris-based professor of French literature and psychoanalyst, Pierre Bayard, has fused French satire with sheer brilliance. While the title suggests a hack’s guide to reading-by-never-reading, the book is a thoughtful examination of the art of reading. Throughout its pages, Bayard reveals how unrealistic it is for…
By: Dylan Branson on November 18, 2019
At some point, we’ve all be there: We were assigned to read a book and, for whatever reason, we decided we could better spend our time doing something else. Whether it be because we were just put it off for too long, we began the book and were bored to tears once we started it,…
By: Shawn Cramer on November 17, 2019
At first glance, Pierre Bayard’s provocatively titled book, How to Talk about Books You Haven’t Read, appears like a pithy how-to book to help doop others in conversations about literature. In our microwave culture, one might be tempted to situate Bayard’s work along with others that promise the quick, unearned benefits of a life-long pursuit…
By: Darcy Hansen on November 17, 2019
Johannes Gutenberg developed the Gutenberg Press in 1454 by merging two of his key inventions: a printing press and a mold for making reusable, movable letters.[1]In his experimentation of book development, Gutenberg desired to produce letters that were equal in quality to that which expert scribes were able to produce by hand. The first font…
By: Joe Castillo on November 16, 2019
“It seems hard to believe that a book called “How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read” would hit the best-seller lists in France, where books are still regarded as sacred objects and the writer occupies a social position somewhere between the priest and the rock star. The ostensible anti-intellectualism of the title seems more…
By: Chris Pollock on November 10, 2019
“Blind Certainty – a close-mindedness that amounts to an imprisonment so total that the prisoner doesn’t even know he’s locked up.” David Foster Wallace, 2005 Kenyon College Commencement Speech. I have tried ‘so hard’ to figure out how to think through some things in my life that I know I have not had the mental…
By: Simon Bulimo on November 10, 2019
QUICK TO LISTEN AND SLOW TO SPEAK (JAMES 1:19) We are living in a world that is full of struggles and misunderstandings, which has led to conflicts in the community and families. Families are being broken, institutions are unstable due to poor communication, and governments have collapsed in most of its sectors or ministries due…
By: Steve Wingate on November 7, 2019
When my muscles get tired from playing soccer I can almost hear them telling me to STOP working out so hard! But, it’s then that I am probably getting stronger. When my fingers are stretching too far to reach the c#add-9 chord, I can almost hear them telling me STOP reaching so far. But, as…
