By: Chip Stapleton on November 9, 2016
In the wake of the US presidential election yesterday, I have found it incredibly hard to untangle my thoughts – let alone my emotions – about theology, it’s purpose and usefulness in our lives and our world. [Warning: political opinion] One of the questions that I have been wrestling with is: how in the world…
By: Christal Jenkins Tanks on November 9, 2016
There is no denying that fact that today Americans woke up with many feelings, emotions, questions, etc. For some, the president-elect is seen as a revolutionary political messiah. A person who vows to protect the racist, bias, sexist, religious, and misogynistic ideals of America while reassuring them that their superiority is restored leaving the marginalized in…
By: Mary Walker on November 9, 2016
Who Needs Theology? By Stanly J. Grenz and Roger E. Olson “Taking faith into life means looking at the society in which we live through theological eyes.” (p. 127) “We invite you to set out on a journey toward becoming a reflective lay Christian theologian anyway.” (p. 135) “Perhaps the largest hurdle or greatest chasm…
By: Geoff Lee on November 9, 2016
One of the leading theologians of the denomination to which I belong reflected that our movement has traditionally preferred exclamation marks to question marks. This has certainly been my experience. I feel like I have grown up in a church full of exclamation marks, that has focused very much on experience and the heart,…
By: Pablo Morales on November 4, 2016
SUMMARY Collins told us that Level-Five leaders surround themselves with self-motivated people who seek understanding together. They learn from mistakes and develop an atmosphere where people’s input is valued. Hirshman told us that it is very important to develop this kind of environment because it allows people to have voice, and in doing so it can…
By: Jason Kennedy on November 4, 2016
In Charlene Li’s work, Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead, she describes a business and leadership world in which openness is the new key to success. Her book is divided into two parts: what is openness and how does a companies and leaders achieve openness. For her, she does not…
By: Kristin Hamilton on November 3, 2016
“So, who is your favorite social theorist?” This isn’t really the kind of question that comes up at dinner parties, sporting events, or (let’s be honest) in seminary hallways. Even now, after reading Contemporary Social Theory by Anthony Elliott, I couldn’t begin to answer that question. I can tell you that social theorists…
By: Phil Goldsberry on November 3, 2016
Introduction Show-and-Tell needs guidelines. Even the concept of “showing” must have some parameters or you can cross over lines that are both offensive, immoral, and possibly illegal. To “tell” is the challenge in today’s social media, world access through the internet, and hundreds of cable stations that bombard us 24/7. In a society that is…
By: Aaron Cole on November 3, 2016
Summary: Open Leadership, How Social Technology Can Transform The Way You Lead by Charlene Li is a guide to leadership in the 21st century. It is an almost sequel to Li’s first book, Groundswell, were leaders are given the how to’s of new technologies of social and mobile media. Open Leadership shows how the social…
By: Aaron Peterson on November 3, 2016
Open Leadership by Charlene Li who co-authored Groundswell is essentially a book about transforming relationships. There are 3 main sections. First, she makes the case that giving up control is inevitable and then gives 10 characteristics on what giving up control and being open look like. Second, she unpacks what a strategy to create open…
By: Chip Stapleton on November 3, 2016
As I worked through this interesting and engaging – but dense and challenging work, Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction by Anthony Elliot, my mind was racing with many questions (quite possibly to try and distract me from the hard work of processing all that I was reading). One of the questions that kept coming back to me…
By: Jim Sabella on November 3, 2016
I just came from a strategy meeting. The topic of the meeting was the ways in which we as a mission can reach the secular peoples of Europe by building bridges. It was more a symposium than it was a meeting, in that various people presented papers followed by discussions. One discussion centered on the…
By: Claire Appiah on November 3, 2016
Charlene Li—Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead Introduction Li observes that there has been a tremendous shift in power in which individuals have the capability of disseminating their views throughout the entire world. This state of affairs has been ushered in by huge and rapid increases in various types…
By: Geoff Lee on November 3, 2016
An introduction to contemporary social theory by Anthony Elliott In their book, Untamed, Alan and Debra Hirsch ask the question: “In our day, one is left wondering if it us who are actually being “evangelised” by the prevailing mass culture rather than the other way around.” Their argument is that “the church has…
By: Kevin Norwood on November 3, 2016
Are you open to change? Isn’t that always the question when there is a decision to become better? To become different? To get more education? Or you take a new job. Change is something that is difficult for most people but this books is a great guide or a…
By: Marc Andresen on November 3, 2016
I’m sure United Airlines wishes Dave had chosen Exit over Voice. He certainly wasn’t demonstrating Loyalty. At the beginning of Open Leadership: How Social Technology Can Transform the Way You Lead Charlene Li tells the story of Dave Carroll, and the non-response from Untied Airlines after he complained because they manhandled and broke his guitar.…
By: Stu Cocanougher on November 3, 2016
The Faces of 2016 Contemporary Social Theory, In Introduction, Anthony Elliott (2009) This book began by telling a story of a young, ethnically Chinese woman who was an American citizen, yet lived in England, worked and France, and had a boyfriend in Finland. This story set the tone for the rest of the…
By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on November 2, 2016
Frankly, I thought pursuing a Doctor of Ministry degree meant I never had to read about social theories and theorists, or Freud’s weird fascination with sex and the male anatomy again. But amazingly, Freud continued to pop up like a bad dream throughout many of the theories in this book. Despite my previous studies, I…
By: Lynda Gittens on November 2, 2016
Elliott, the author and sociology professor, confessed in the beginning that this book represents his argument supporting a contemporary social theory. He proposed social theory was “a resourceful, high-powered and interdisciplinary project of the social sciences and humanities, on the one hand, and an urgent critique of ideological thought and the discourses of reason, freedom,…
By: Katy Drage Lines on November 2, 2016
As an undergrad anthropology student many moons ago, I was introduced to Durkheim, Weber, and Marx. And while scholars such as Durkheim and Levi-Strauss straddle the disciplines of anthropology and sociology, I find more affinity with the anthropology field. Whereas anthropology seeks to understand and describe contexts, social theory inclines more towards projecting, predicting, and…
