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: 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)…
By: Phil Smart on April 11, 2014
The way to write a book in which displeases everyone.…would be accomplished by creating a list of your favorites, such as 12 Books that Changed the World by Melvyn Bragg. We are in an age of lists. The trend began with the first US nationwide popular newspaper, USA Today. All types of lists began showing…
By: David Toth on April 10, 2014
The title of this week’s reading is 12 Books That Changed The World by Melvyn Bragg and the title he chose made me think about books I have read that had a significant influence on my life. Mutiny on The Bounty impacted me and also Richard Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor. The introduction of Bragg’s book is important as it explains…
By: Sandy Bils on April 10, 2014
“sHiFt” “12 Books that Changed the World” by Melvyn Bragg includes summaries and narratives about books that caused major historical shifts in thinking. He explains that his choices were to include, “…books that I could prove had changed, rootedly, the lives of people all over the land…” (321) The topics include science, women’s writes, slavery,…
By: Fred Fay on April 9, 2014
Could a book change your life? Many popular books promise that. “Read this book and it will change your life.” Millions of books have been written. Few endure. But some books have changed society. They have changed the world we live in. This week I have read 12 Books That Changed The World: How words and…
By: Sandy Bils on April 9, 2014
We are used to polls and votes, where we are asked to tell our favorite books, favorite Italian restaurant in town, favorite politician. Our opinion and experience seems to be interesting to others. Some apps and channels on social media like foursquare, qype or yelp are mainly designed to satisfy our curiosity, what others like…
By: Garrick Roegner on April 9, 2014
Groucho Marx once said, “Outside of a dog, the book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it is too dark to read.” Books, or written communication of some sort, essentially make the world go around. They are the stuff of big ideas, paradigm shifts, and the basic core of life. Whether story,…
By: Sam Stephens on April 6, 2014
The last reading, for my current D.Min program: New Media,1740-1915 edited by Lisa Gittleman and Geoffrey Pingree brought back memories of my childhood days and my enchantment and captivation with the dozen or so stills that ran at a single time through the Bioscope. The Bioscope man came through the streets on weekends singing the…
By: Mark Steele on April 5, 2014
Last week, my company had another update and debate about engaging in social media. We talked about engaging social media two years ago and decided we would ignore face book and yelp comments. We reasoned we did not know that much about social media and if we did begin to respond to comments, we would…
By: Garrick Roegner on April 5, 2014
Zygmunt Bauman has posited that contemporary (or postmodern) society is characterized by “the growing conviction that change is the only permanence and uncertainty the only certainty (Liquid Modernity, loc 75).” We live in thus a liquid time, where structures and societal solids must be flexible, changeable, and ultimately liquid. Furthermore for Bauman this all is…
By: Sandy Bils on April 4, 2014
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. No one remembers the former generations, and even those…
By: Richard Rhoads on April 4, 2014
I love family traditions. Some of our traditions include, attending Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey Circus, watching fireworks on the 4th of July and going to our family cabin each summer. However, one tradition stands out as our favorite is, “The Buck Demolition Derby”. Each year, around the 4th of July weekend, a local motor…
By: Sharenda Roam on April 3, 2014
How does media help change our shared and personal spaces and create ours and others’ identities? Pingree and Gitelman explores this idea in their book “New Media – 1740 to 1915.” They look at a variety of media including the zograscope, the physiognotrace, and the telegraph, as well as others. What I find interesting is…
By: Fred Fay on April 3, 2014
Last week I watched the animated movie Frozen. It is a Disney adaptation of The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson. I have two girls, young adults, who just love it. I found myself being taken in also by the story and music. The theme of rejection, family pain and finding one’s identity in a…
By: Chris Ellis on April 3, 2014
When many people think of new forms of media they might think of Twitter, Skype or whatever is the latest and greatest in communication (Holograms are next maybe? ). But to only think of those forms that are new for OUR current time and place is to miss some valuable lessons learned from studying when…
By: David Toth on April 3, 2014
It was August of 1979 when I loaded up my household goods and my family and drove to Toccoa, Georgia to attend Bible college. The plan to make this move had been activated two years earlier and most everything had gone well, except the economy. Unemployment was high and interest rates were higher yet. My…
By: Phil Smart on April 3, 2014
Always Already New: Media, History and the Data of Culture by Lisa Gitelman, looks back so that she can look forward. I felt that this was a timely book as my son who is in his mid-20s came for a visit from Chicago two weeks ago. He had taken the train and as we met…
By: Sam Stephens on March 26, 2014
A Brief Guide to Ideas by William Raeper and Linda Edwards provides a great overview of thoughts, philosophies and ideas of the Western world since almost the beginning. The book makes it plain and clear that philosophy cannot be brushed aside as lacking relevance in the present post modern, post Christian culture as it may…
By: Mark Steele on March 23, 2014
Raeper and Edwards in their book A Brief Guide to Ideas does a fair job summarizing philosophical and theological thought through the ages. What caught my attention was their chapter titled How Should Society be Organized (Raeper and Edwards 1997 p. 137)? I have had the opportunity to travel internationally the past few years, especially…