{"id":19826,"date":"2018-10-27T15:14:28","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T22:14:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=19826"},"modified":"2018-10-27T15:15:52","modified_gmt":"2018-10-27T22:15:52","slug":"pulling-from-a-lot-of-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/pulling-from-a-lot-of-things\/","title":{"rendered":"Silk Roads Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Silk Roads by Frank Dupaport is history book that is surprisingly easily digestible. Although rather sizeable, the chapters mostly divided by different roads of era, theme and topic make it consumable in self-contained chunks. Silk <\/em>Roads has been received with great positivity through most industries. I was surprised to see that, beyond just the normal amount of book reiviews that are available through a google search, I also noticed how many reviews there were for this book on youtube. And then beyond this I was surpsied to and how many interviews and resources there were from Frank Dupaport. Searching Peter Frankopan on Google Scholar revealed that this book, only being published since 2014 has already being cited in other published works 117 times. This book may end up being a standard in world history and eastern history commentary.<\/p>\n

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One thing I was not prepared for though was that this book is not actually a history of the world, but is intentionally limited in scope. Frankopan admits this right off the bat, \u201c\u201cAbove all, I hope to inspire those who read this book to look at history in a different way.\u201d[1]<\/a> I definitely think he accomplishes this! Consider just this one quote, \u201c\u201calthough scholars have long called this period the Renaissance, this was no rebirth. Rather, it was a Naissance\u00a0\u2013 a birth. For the first time in history, Europe lay at the heart of the world.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0This challenge so much of what I have came to find as common knowledge, and yet is hard to argue with.<\/p>\n

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Micheal R Drompp from Rhoads College writes eloquently in his review of Silk Raods, \u201c<\/em>These issues raise the important question of the book\u2019s intended audience. It appears that the author is speaking primarily to persons who already possess some understanding of the major contours of world history; his goal is not to introduce them to world history per se but rather to encourage them to think about it in a particular way, with their gaze firmly on the world\u2019s \u201cspine\u201d as the fulcrum for much of his consideration of principal themes in world history.\u201d[3]<\/a> I agree with Drompp and I think Frankopan was successful in reorienting the axis of the world to an area we are often unfamiliar with.<\/p>\n

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Similar to our very first read of our very year when we read, How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity by Thomas C. Oden. In it this book and through reflection of writing the blog, I was enlightened to see how much of the outside world I had actually ignored. For our study as students in a D.Min. program at a Christian Seminary, the chapters that dealt with the spread of the different faiths over the different eras was particularly interesting for us. Frankokan himself said this was one of the highlights of his research and writing the book on the Silk Roads, of how religion seemed to keep popping up[4]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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I think both of these books had a large amount of credence. This process though of being in the doctoral program has taught me to focus on not assume that the author is right and that the author is smarter than me. But when it comes to history I feel especially inept. And especially so when I am facing a well referenced, massive book, like Silk Roads.<\/em> is that white culture is the dominant culture, and so extra work has to be done to see and even notice those other cultures which fall in the gaps and sometimes sink into a underground type of culture[5]<\/a>. After studying this book, I am more thankful for the selection of Hong Kong as our 2nd<\/sup> year destination for studies. Seeing the connection that the Silk Road has provided.<\/p>\n

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A few months ago I was reading The Four<\/em> with the children\u2019s pastor at my church and one of things that jumped out at us right away was the phrase \u201cFascinating, but worthless.\u201d It was used when describing the value of a study abroad program at NYU on Chilean Businesses. The program was \u201cIt does sound fascinating\u2026 but also most surely worthless.\u201d The Children\u2019s pastor at my church asked, \u201cso ughhh\u2026 how do you feel about your Hong Kong trip coming up?\u201d<\/p>\n

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I said, \u201chmmmmmm\u2026 Not Sure!\u201d. It sounds fascinating, but what it will it actually do for me? All I could answer at that point was what the Capetown trip had done for me, which I feel is a lot.<\/p>\n

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I am tempting to put this Silk Roads<\/em> book through that same filter. So fascinating! Where is my application. I think as Deep Change <\/em>suggest one of the most important changes, is when your assumptions are changed. In this regard Silk Roads<\/em> has been a very impactful book. A core shift is of course very significant. But application wise I\u2019m not sure how to use this book at all. this is just an observation. Most of this semester\u2019s reading has been about current leadership practices and discoveries that are very applicable.<\/p>\n

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Frankopan mentions that ,\u201d We are seeing the signs of the world’s center of gravity shifting \u2014 back to where it lay for millennia,\u201d and there are huge implications for that for business and large scale denomination leaders. But I am failing to see a realistic bite size action for me with all of that information. \u00a0Is this book fascinating but pointless? What can I actually do with it? Maybe encouraging our church to take mission trips to that region instead of just Latin America?<\/p>\n

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I\u2019m interested in your thoughts, how do you see yourself using this book in your work and ministry?<\/p>\n

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Works cited<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=NJ54ojX5zlM<\/a><\/p>\n

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