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.<\/p>\n
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A Lesson From Winchester<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n In Simon Winchester\u2019s book The Map that Changed the World[1]<\/a><\/em>, the story of William Smith displays this truth. William Smith was a canal digger who unearthed a revelation that would shape history as we know it. He discovered the different layers upon which the rocks were arranged and the differences in the fossils that were excavated in these layers. He embarked on an expedition around England, observed the rocks, and created a map, which would eventually become the map that changed the world. But he experienced great hardship due to the resistance his discovery found from the deeply religious English community. It wasn\u2019t until later on in life that his achievement was recognized and he was honored.[2]<\/a> If one was to find Smith ten years after his highly advanced, ground-breaking map of England was created, one would not find a successful, highly-esteemed man. Rather, Smith was seemingly unremarkable, unassuming, and worthy only of pity. No one would guess this was a man whose work would greatly shape science, the industrial revolution, and the world.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The lesson I want to highlight is this: the little, overlooked moments in history are often what shape the world for future generations \u2013 for good, for ill, or, more often, an amalgamation of both. To parse this out further, I want to highlight another example of this lesson from Tim Marshall\u2019s Prisoners of Geography[3]<\/a><\/em>, and then pull the thread from Marshall back to its origin.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Africa \u2013 Colonialism\u2019s Artificial Borders<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Marshall\u2019s Prisoners of Geography<\/em> highlights how much of what happens in the world, the conflict, geopolitics, and economic growth, is a result of the cards that were dealt from the land people live on. The geography of one\u2019s country can provide advantages and disadvantages. Marshall contends that \u201cThe rules of geography which Hannibal, Sun Tzu, and Alexander the Great all knew, still apply to today\u2019s leaders.\u201d[4]<\/a> This is a surprising assertion for us who imagine ourselves immune to the limitations of nature due to the advancement of technology. But this sobering limitation, as Marshall lays out in his book, is still true.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In his chapter on Africa, a fascinating insight emerged. This insight affirms the lesson that small moments in human history, whether they be decisions, actions, or ideas, have lasting ripple effects.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In writing about Africa, Marshall informs the reader about the line drawing to create \u201cnation-states\u201d that the European colonizers forced upon the locals. He writes,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But colonialism forced those differences to be resolved within an artificial structure the European concept of a nation state. The modern civil wars are now partially a result of the colonialists’ having told different nations that they were one nation in one state, and then after the colonialists were chased out, a dominant people emerged within the state who wanted to rule it all, thus ensuring violence…, one of the biggest failures of European line drawing lies in the center of the continent, the giant black hole known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo- the DRC. Here is the land in which Joseph Conrad set his novella Heart of Darkness and it remains a place shrouded in the darkness of war. It is a prime example of how the imposition of artificial borders can lead to a weak and divided state, ravaged by internal conflict, and whose mineral wealth condemns it to being exploited by outsiders.[5]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n These artificial lines have since caused immense harm, conflict, and an unending list of problems careless colonialism created. Such decisions affect history far greater than those making the decisions realized.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But what was the idea that shaped colonialism, and what its inception? To answer that, we turn to Dr. Willie James Jennings, author of The Christian Imagination<\/em>.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The Genesis of Race-Based Social Stratification According to Jennings<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Jennings work on identifying the conceptual origins of race in The Christian Imagination<\/em> begins with a Portuguese historian by the name of Gomes Eanes de Azurara (or Zurara). This was Prince Henry of Portugal\u2019s royal chronicler.[7]<\/a> Jennings writes about Zurara\u2019s account of a \u201critual of slave capture and auction\u201d in which Prince Henry was present.[8]<\/a> In reflecting on the event, Zurara locates the suffering of the African slaves within the providence of God, and highlights (possibly for the first time) the differences of the African slaves, thus providing language for whiteness and non-whiteness. Jennings writes,<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Zurara deploys a rhetorical strategy of containment, holding slave suffering inside a Christian story that will be recycled by countless theologians and intellectuals of every colonialist nation. The telos and the denouement of the event will be enacted as an order of salvation, an ordo salutis – African captivity leads to African salvation and to black bodies that show the disciplining power of the faith.[9]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n Thus, the trajectory of human history was altered. The repercussions of race-based social stratification is endless.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The unassuming and overlooked people (William Smith), decisions (European creation of African nation-states), and ideas (Zurara\u2019s race-based social stratification) often, with the seemingly slightest adjustment, greatly alter the direction of human history. As Christian leaders in our rapidly-changing world, we must now, more than ever, slow down, pay attention, and ask God \u201cWhat is going on? What are we overlooking that is going to have great effects on the future?\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n May we be attentive to the Spirit\u2019s highlighting of the unassuming and overlooked.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> Simon Winchester, The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology<\/em> (Harper Collins, 2009).<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Ibid. 281-290.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Tim Marshall, Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World<\/em> (Simon and Schuster, 2016).<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Ibid. 5.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Ibid. 122-123.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Willie James Jennings, The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race<\/em> (Yale University Press, 2010).<\/p>\n