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: Mathieu Yuill on February 22, 2023
Many people have been quoted as saying versions of this, but Maya Angelou is probably the most recognizable person to have said “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” She said it in 2003 which was only…
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: Todd E Henley on February 22, 2023
The vagus nerve is the longest nerve of the autonomic nervous system and is one of the most important nerves in the body. The vagus nerve helps to regulate many critical aspects of human physiology, including the heart rate, blood pressure, sweating, digestion, and even speaking. When a person has an argument, series struggle, or…
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: Kristy Newport on February 21, 2023
When I began to read The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester, I began to wonder what it would have been like to be William Smith, finding different strata in the rocks and discovering coal…coal that could be traced and mapped. Having no background in geology, I thought: “I wonder if Bill has…
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: Kim Sanford on February 20, 2023
Edwin Friedman writes in A Failure of Nerve : Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix , “The notion that an entity can modify surrounding relationships through its presence rather than its forcefulness, moreover, is not unknown to science. Catalysts function that way, for example.”[i] Friedman emphasizes leading by presence, by virtue of who…
By: John Fehlen on February 20, 2023
Every once and awhile a book surfaces “for such a time as this.” The content is a prophetic punch in the face. Such is the case with “A Failure of Nerve” by Edwin H. Friedman. I remember feeling this many years ago with Mark Senter’s “The Coming Revolution in Youth Ministry”[1] and more recently with…
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: Audrey Robinson on February 19, 2023
In his book, The Protestant Ethic and the “Spirit” of Capitalism and Other Writings, Max Weber (1864-1920) utilized his professions of sociology and history to investigate the causality of modern capitalism and the religious forces of his day known as the Protestant Reformation. It is important to note that his work is considered a classic,…
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…
