By: Mike on September 14, 2017
The book by David Welsh, The Rise and Fall of the Apartheid, is a book about how black South African’s fought and gained a democratic voice from the elite ruling class of white Afrikaners.[1] Welsh’s work was published at the same time I was living in Botswana, a country known for its bushmen tribes, diamond…
By: Chris Pritchett on September 14, 2017
In his monumental work, “The Rise and Fall of Apartheid,” Welsh chronicles the conditions that led to Apartheid, the injustices and divisions that took place under its regime, to the influences that led to its collapse, along with the challenges that came in the aftermath of transition. The complexity of the situation as described by…
By: Jennifer Williamson on September 14, 2017
In The Rise and Fall of Apartheid, David Welsh offers a comprehensive and balanced history of South African politics in the 20th century. While I had some idea of the causes and challenges related to apartheid, I had not realized how complex the issues had been. Nelson Mandela is rightfully portrayed as a hero who…
By: Dave Watermulder on September 14, 2017
In his book, The Rise and Fall of Apartheid, historian and political scientist David Welsh quotes Absolom Vilakazi to say, “disorganization and disintegration are simultaneously accompanied by reorganization and reintegration.”[1] Part of what Welsh sets out to show in his book is the dynamic flow between “disorientation” or the deteriorating situation in South Africa for…
By: Greg on September 14, 2017
Do you ever wonder why people do what they do? Why we act the way we do to certain scenarios and situations reflects an understanding on who we are in that situation. I was thinking as I walked down the street today about the way the old people in Chinese society demand respect. It is…
By: Jake Dean-Hill on September 14, 2017
David Welsh’s book, The Rise and Fall of Apartheid, was very insightful and highlighted some aspects regarding the ending of apartheid in South Africa that I already had some interest in as a result of some movies and documentaries I have watched on the subject. The relatively peaceful transition was shocking to most everyone who…
By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on September 14, 2017
As I was listening audibly to the book Visual Faith, on art and its relationship to the church, many times the voice would say, “Image not included because of rights restriction”, and all I had was the words and my imagination. The author would describe the picture and I would try to visualize what he…
By: Dan Kreiss on September 13, 2017
Living in New Zealand during the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s allowed me a closer perspective of the ultimate demise of apartheid in South Africa and the ascendency of the ANC and Nelson Mandela in the new Republic of South Africa. I well remember the white South African immigrants fleeing what they anticipated would…
By: Jay Forseth on September 13, 2017
When I was in my college history class, I was taught apartheid was “apart-hood” and it brought to my developing mind a vivid picture of painful “separateness” for all people. My first memories of racial division came as a kindergarten student in the Denver Public Schools. My parents bought a house in the Denver city…
By: Jim Sabella on September 13, 2017
“I believe that making beautiful forms is theologically connected to our call both to listen and respond to God in prayer, praise, and sacrament.”(1) The church in which I grew up met in a rather utilitarian building on the side of town that was filled with immigrants. As the church developed and grew it moved…
By: Katy Drage Lines on September 13, 2017
What do an iPhone, a cloud column, and a Star Wars mug all have in common? Perhaps as we journey together through this post, we might discover the connection between these images. We step onto the path, first, by recognizing our earthiness as humans, connected as creatures to one another, the rest of creation, and…
By: Mark Petersen on September 13, 2017
With The Rise and Fall of Apartheid, David Welsh promises a sweeping historical overview of ground-breaking world events in southern Africa of the 20th century. What cultural and sociological realities coalesced with key agents to create and sustain this oppressive system of separateness? What movements and influences dismantled these structures in a relatively short time…
By: Mary Walker on September 13, 2017
…the one important fact for us is the significance of the marked rejection of all distinctively esthetic devises by those religions which are rational, in our special sense…But there can be no question at all that the systematic prohibition in devout Jewish and Puritan circles of uninhibited surrender to the distinctive form-producing values of art…
By: Shawn Hart on September 11, 2017
Last year I had the great privilege of taking a Holy Land tour of Egypt, Jordan and Israel. During the time I spent in Egypt, my tour guide was emphatically attempting to declare that the Egyptians during the time of Moses were not actually the bad guys that we see in Scripture. He continued to…
By: Chris Pritchett on September 8, 2017
My first visit to Africa was in college, when I studied abroad in Cairo for two months. It’s very difficult to imagine Egypt as “Africa,” because we in the West, when we think of “Africa,” we are formed to imagine sub-Saharan (black) Africa. The author of course addressed this and defined the term “Africa” generically…
By: Greg on September 8, 2017
The books we read, the movies or documentaries we have watched and interactions with people we have grown up with have shaped who we are. This is especially true when talking about an area of the world like Africa. The name alone conjures up many images from history of beautiful jungles, desolate deserts, primitive tribes…
By: Jay Forseth on September 8, 2017
To be honest, I feel a little sheepish. It has never, not even once, crossed my mind which continent shaped the Christian mind. I don’t think I intentionally cut Africa out of it, nor did I intentionally think Christian thought came mainly out of Europe. I might be a tad bit racist, or just not…
By: Dave Watermulder on September 8, 2017
There is an old line from Heraclitus that says, “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” The invitation that Thomas Oden makes in How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind, is for the reader to come to the water’s edge and look…
By: Trisha Welstad on September 8, 2017
Reading How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind by Thomas Oden is eye opening. I am impressed with how the historic names (Augustine, Athanasius, Tertullian!), experiences and libraries that came out of North Africa, have influenced the world in significant ways. Classical Christianity has not owned the gems coming from this continent over the centuries. The…
By: Chip Stapleton on September 8, 2017
I first read Jim Collins seminal leadership book, Good to Great, as a seminary student over a decade ago in (of course) a pastoral leadership class. According to the copyright, the accompanying ‘Good to Great and the Social Sectors’ monograph was already released, but we didn’t read it at the same time. In hindsight that was…
