By: Nicole Richardson on February 23, 2023
Humanism adheres to the understanding that each human has value and dignity; because of that inherent value humans have no need of religion to define what is moral/ethical/good. Humans can be good without God. Postmodern thinkers push back on the “one truth” because one’s experience is more revelatory to define one’s truth; truth is relative. …
By: Jonita Fair-Payton on February 23, 2023
WARNING! This post may not be for you! I share: 1. My Heart 2. My Authentic Space 3. My Introspective Thoughts (I met with my Coach an hour before writing it) So, govern yourself accordingly, there is no love lost between us if you skip over it without reading. For everyone else, I invite you…
By: Troy Rappold on February 23, 2023
In his 2019 book, Dominion, author Tom Holland attempts to explain how Christianity became “the most powerful hegemonic cultural force in the history of the word” (p. xxv). It is not a history of Christianity per se, but rather he seeks “to explore how we in the West came to be what we are, and…
By: Pam Lau on February 23, 2023
I was a young adult, eager and enthusiastic, with my first experience of anxiety. Maybe 19? Maybe 20? The memory is still blurred. But I remember the thinning of my feelings as my heart palpitated wildly beneath my chest, the involuntary panic that I would never want another soul to know I carried around in…
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: Jennifer Vernam on February 20, 2023
Before I can wholeheartedly get into my assessment about this week’s reading, I have to clear the air about my initial reaction to Friedman’s Failure of Nerve.[1] It took me a few days to figure out how to articulate what wasn’t sitting right with me, and I think it is worth calling out. Friedman’s use…
