{"id":19805,"date":"2018-10-26T13:57:13","date_gmt":"2018-10-26T20:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=19805"},"modified":"2018-10-26T18:59:36","modified_gmt":"2018-10-27T01:59:36","slug":"who-do-you-see-and-what-do-you-hear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/who-do-you-see-and-what-do-you-hear\/","title":{"rendered":"Who do you see and what do you hear?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I wrote about the limitation of the dominant Western perspective in William Dynrness\u2019 book Visual Faith<\/em>. Dyrness is a good example of this week\u2019s text by Peter Frankopan. In The Silk Roads: A New History of the World<\/em>, Frankopan introduces the reader to world history from a non-Western center. \u00a0Unlike Dyrness, who takes a primarily Western view of visual art in his conversation, Frankopan turns the globe to center on Eurasia and expands the silk roads of trade both East and West.<\/p>\n

The title of Frankopan\u2019s book, The Silk Roads<\/em> implies a conglomeration of roads. As Bettany Hughes writes in her review, \u201cThe plural is important. Historically, the Silk Roads were a network, not a single highway.\u201d[1]<\/a> Hughes continues to explain the title, noting \u201cFrankopan\u2019s study, subtitled \u201cA New History of the World\u201d, reminds us that one-way systems are a recent invention. Traffic \u2013 physically and culturally \u2013 typically runs two ways, and certainly did along the Silk Roads.\u201d[2]<\/a> Of course the idea of silk in the title comes from the trade of silk and other textiles and goods on the network of travel. Yet, throughout the text there is more than just the facts of trade and geographical routes. The more than six-hundred page text is filled with the stories of the happenings along the roads by their travelers.<\/p>\n

The value in Frankopan\u2019s text is that he communicates a perspective for which most of the Western world is\u00a0 ignorant. Frankopan recognizes the need to include parts of the world that are left out in traditional history lessons. He sees that others belong to the story of the past and takes it upon himself as a scholar of Byzantium history to include them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>From the beginning of Frankopan\u2019s text, he communicates his passion for world history, beginning with geography. As I read about the map over his bed as a child I smiled. The idea of place and belonging is so important to our family that we have hung a map over our son\u2019s bed (pictured here). When we meet people from different places or go on trips we show him the location on the map. We want him to see that the world is bigger than our home and that all people in it are part of God\u2019s creation.<\/p>\n

One of the limitations of The Silk Roads<\/em> is those who are still not included in the history of the world. \u201cThe West is not at the center of the book, and this is good news. The axis between the Middle East and Far East is at the center of the work. However, for this reason, different, distant world regions (Australia, South and even North America) receive little attention. Such a book seems a typical of American, Europe an, and even Russian traditions where history is generally shown as a continuous line from Greeks and Romans to present-day West-Europe.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

To leave out much of three continents does not allow for a full history of the world. In focusing on a different perspective, Frankopan is seen by some as anti-European and anti-West. Indeed, writing a history of the world is quite a huge task, one that should probably be done in multiple volumes with a timeline (such as the chart I bought last year, pictured here) to go with it. The reality is that all of the world has a history that needs to be communicated. Without knowing history, one does not know themselves, their DNA, or where they are headed.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This week I went to California for a work trip (with a day of cultural experience at Disneyland with our family) for the Institute of Pastoral Thriving. Meeting with three female pastors, two of them being women of color and one who may be the next president of her denomination, I hoped to hear some of their experience and wisdom on how to serve our pastors well over the coming years. What I did not expect was the impact of their stories on me and how I am beginning to listen and see from a new place of empathy and angst. My meetings with these women revealed to me how nearly like unicorns they are, as three of a small number who have led well in non-traditional ways while fully embodying their calling. These women work in the evangelical world and have risen despite many critiques and wounds. Both women of color I spoke with are still leading as minorities on their team and are not empowered or understood in ways that free them to do all of the labor unto the harvest God has called them to. In many ways, my experience with the people I am meeting is similar to being able to pick out a particular instrument in a song for the first time. Once you hear it you can\u2019t not hear it. And, once you hear the instrument in one song, it begins to come alive in every song you hear.<\/p>\n

Frankopan\u2019s text illuminates the less heard instruments of the world and their impact on the song history sings to the present. These women\u2019s stories are doing the same in my context. I am listening to hear their melody well so our team of conductors might facilitate the harmonization of a thriving pastoral community. As it relates to my own research, I am learning the injustices toward these gifted leaders so I might co-create one of many volumes of belonging for those who have been unreasonably marginalized. Prayerfully our work together will make the future less like the past.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Hughes, Bettany, A Review of Peter Frankopan’s The Silk Roads: A New History of the World. <\/em>The Telegraph, August, 2015. https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/books\/what-to-read\/the-silk-roads-by-peter-frankopan-review\/ (Accessed, October 21, 2018).<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Hughes.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Kradin, Nikolay, A Review of Peter Frankopan’s The Silk Roads: A New History of the World<\/em> (London: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, 2015)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week I wrote about the limitation of the dominant Western perspective in William Dynrness\u2019 book Visual Faith. Dyrness is a good example of this week\u2019s text by Peter Frankopan. In The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, Frankopan introduces the reader to world history from a non-Western center. \u00a0Unlike Dyrness, who takes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1029],"class_list":["post-19805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-peter-frankopan","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19805"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19820,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19805\/revisions\/19820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}