By: Ashley Goad on February 6, 2014
Every week in our church staff meeting, one member of the staff gives a devotion to center the group. This week, it was my turn. Let me be honest… I had forgotten it was my turn, and in user error, my iPhone neglected to remind me until 8:55am before the 9:00am staff meeting. I quickly…
By: Deve Persad on February 6, 2014
I have a confession to make before you continue on in reading. It may change your desire to read, it may even change your opinion of me. I’m willing to take that risk. Ready. Here it is: “I love math”. Math makes me happy. There is a long list of things that I am unable…
By: Chris Ellis on February 6, 2014
In the opening pages of Mark Noll’s, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, he writes, “The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind” (3). Noll traces what happened to the evangelical mind through Luther to Calvin, to the Puritans, to C.S. Lewis and through the fundamentalist movement. …
By: Phil Smart on February 6, 2014
Those of us who live in Grand Rapids are fortunate. Many of the major religious publishing houses are located here. My daughter Lindsey, a journalism major, has been applying to the various publishers. The feeling she received from Zondervan Books was that they exist to sell. Money is the bottom line, so they prefer light…
By: Phil Smart on February 6, 2014
Christians love to think that the sky is falling or that the end is near. Every generation has their own doomsday calculations from the Bible about the end of times. This has become a favorite pastime and illustrates what Mark Noll says in Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind – “evangelicals treat the…
By: David Toth on February 5, 2014
Just last night, February 4, Ken Ham (the creationist guy) and Bill Nye (the science guy), faced off in a debate at the creation museum in Hebron, Kentucky that was streamed over the internet. The debate question was, “Is the creationist view of origins a viable view?” My guess is that the debate did not…
By: Miriam Mendez on February 5, 2014
As I began to read The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time I could not disregard our reading from last week, Collateral Damage. Both texts deal with issues that have tremendous impact on society and humanity. And both books challenge us to not just sit and wait for “the power of…
By: Bill Dobrenen on February 1, 2014
I was married in 1981 and was a successful youth pastor at a large church with 300 kids in my youth group. My wife was a teacher at the adjoining Christian school. We were the perfect Christian couple. But within a month we began to argue about our differences. Perhaps this is somewhat normal with…
By: Richard Rhoads on February 1, 2014
I was 21, wet behind the ears and serving in my first youth ministry. Not long into my tenure I met a young man by the name of Ian. Ian had just turned 16 and was moving from the Jr. High into the Senior High ministry. Now, for years I had heard stories about Ian,…
By: Sam Stephens on February 1, 2014
The Social Animal: Hidden Sources of Love, Character and Achievement by David Brooks according to the author himself, “is an attempt to integrate science and psychology with sociology, politics, cultural commentary, and the literature of success”. Whether he succeeded in this attempt, it is hard to tell; but he certainly has tried hard and the…
By: Julie Dodge on February 1, 2014
I bought a new pair of glasses this week. I used to wear contact lenses almost all of the time, but as my eyes have aged, and with the reality of my really bad eye sight, I pretty much stick to the glasses. My plan was to buy a box of contacts (six lenses total)…
By: John Woodward on January 31, 2014
The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time by Karl Polanyi is in many respects Collateral Damage written seventy years earlier. This book for me was a huge education in basic economics that included history, politics and social theory, covering topics from the gold standard, the causes of WWII, and the transition…
By: Richard Volzke on January 31, 2014
Polanyi, in his book The Great Transformation, traces the evolution of social and economic transformation in the early 20th century. This book was written at the height of World War II and explains how the economic system moved to a market based system around the turn-of-the-century. Polanyi discussed that world’s economy moved away from the…
By: Ashley Goad on January 31, 2014
In the past three months, I have traveled to Haiti, El Salvador, Ecuador, and Uganda. In each of these countries, the culture, the economy, the land, the people, the goods… they are all distinctly different. Yet in two weeks, as I venture to Russia, I cannot help to think it will be the most socially…
By: Telile Fikru Badecha on January 31, 2014
Reading Karl Polanyi’s brilliant work on The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of our Time is very instructive, and it raised my curiosity to learn more about my country’s economic and political system, and its impact on social life. One of the central pieces from Polanyi’s discussion that struck me the most is…
By: Mitch Arbelaez on January 31, 2014
Interestingly this week, while reading Karl Polanyi’s book The Great Transformation my daughter was assigned a three minute speech debating the pros and cons of tariffs vs. free markets. She had me read her speech wherein she biasedly sided with free markets, with the understanding that the freer the better. Using some critical thinking analysis,…
By: Mark Steele on January 31, 2014
I have often been haunted by the idea how to die well. My career is providing housing and services to older adults. I have many senior friends who have finished their careers, who are retired and who continue to pursue their life passions as best as they can. I see them in many stages of…
By: Stefania Tarasut on January 31, 2014
The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time By: Karl Polanyi The Industrial Revolution not only changed life in the way that business is done, but it changed our relationship with the land. Our relationship with the land is a reflection of our relationship with the poor. Before the industrial revolution it…
By: rhbaker275 on January 31, 2014
During the LGP4 cohort’s synchronous chat, it was noted by Jason Clark, cohort lead mentor, that reading The Great Transformation, The Political and Economic Origins of our Time,[1] would give insight into “how capitalism came to be and how it shapes social life… i.e. economic history.”[2] It was clear in the initial reading, as I perused the introduction, contents, and…
By: Liz Linssen on January 31, 2014
Polanyi’s work, written during the tumultuous times of the Second World War, serve as a reflection and critique of the current self-regulating free market forces against the market economy of centuries past. Written in response to the flaws of free market forces such as inequality, war, oppression and social turmoil, Polanyi attempts to convince the…
