Category: Biography, Drama, History
By: Mario Hood on October 17, 2019
In 1983, Apple launched its computer Lisa, and the last project Jobs worked on before he was let go. Jobs released Lisa with a nine-page ad in the New York Times spelling out the computer’s technical features. It was nine pages of geek talk nobody outside NASA was interested in. The computer bombed. When Jobs…
By: Mario Hood on October 10, 2019
At one point in the not so distant past, there was one view of history. The dominant power largely determined that view. In his book The Silk Road, Peter Frankopan, a Senior research fellow at Worcester College and the director of the Centre for Byzantine Research from Oxford University, sets out to rewrite history or…
By: Mario Hood on June 20, 2019
I absolutely love reading Tom Camacho, Mining for Gold: Developing Kingdom Leaders Through Coaching. I spoke to me on many different levels, and while it was not the most prolific academic work we have read thus far, it is powerful, practical and I would even add prophetic for where leadership is going. Camacho self…
By: Mario Hood on June 6, 2019
In the book Reasonable Radical? Reading the writings of Martyn Percy, editors Ian Markham and Joshua Daniel present a collection of writings that introduce the reader to Martyn Percy as well as essays from Percy himself. The first half of the book is ‘substantial, critical introduction’ to Martyn Percy’s thought; the second half consists of…
By: Mario Hood on May 16, 2019
This week’s reading, The Coddling of The American Mind, written by Haidt (social psychologist and professor in New York University’s Stern School of Business plus Board Chair of the Heterodox Academy) and Lukianoff (president and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) deals with the well-being of the “iGen” generation. The book deals…
By: Mario Hood on April 4, 2019
In, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, Jonathan Haidt lays out a case for why moral judgments stem from emotional feelings rather than rational reasoning. In reviewing the book, Margery Lucas, a Professor of Psychology and Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences at Wellesley College, states, “this book remains an ingenious…
By: Mario Hood on March 7, 2019
In Simple Habits for Complex Times, Jennifer Garvey Berger and Keith Johnston set out to help leaders navigate through the rise of VUCA: volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.[1] The style of the book while packed with research and analytical data is written in an easy to digest format that both academics and non-academics will enjoy.…
By: Mario Hood on February 21, 2019
As a pastor and marketer, I find Vincent Miller’s, Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture, fascinating on many levels. From the marketing perspective, it challenges the ethics of said industry when it comes to the commodification of religious symbols. Daryl McKee in the journal of marketing writes, “He (Miller) goes…
By: Mario Hood on February 15, 2019
In the social sciences field, similar to Karl Polanyni’s, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, Max Weber’s, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, is considered a seminal work and “still remains one of the most influential and widely read works in social science”.[1] Weber using both empirical research and…
By: Mario Hood on February 7, 2019
Dennis Tourish in his work, The Dark Side of Transformational Leadership: A Critical Perspective, provides a sharp rebuke against the effectiveness of transformational leadership. Villiers in his review states, “Tourish parallels transformational leadership with cults; and argues that the noticeable overlaps should caution against the potential of moving organizations further along the dysfunctional cult continuum than is…
By: Mario Hood on January 31, 2019
The common thought is, we live a big world that has become small, through the progression of humanity on the tidal wave technology. Polanyi walks us through the history and progression towards a “free market” world that in turn connects humanity via the financial aspect.[1] Bebbington in his work, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain[2], shows not…
By: Mario Hood on January 24, 2019
Karl Polanyni’s, The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, is considered a seminal work in the field of political economics[1] as well as a classic in other fields such as sociology, political science, and anthropology.[2] While tracing the historical roots of the modern day economic system known as the free market,…
By: Mario Hood on January 17, 2019
David Bebbington in his work, Evangelicalism in Modern Britain, while covering a historical board period, provides rich insights into the rise and spread of this movement throughout Britain. In order to track the movement Bebbington’s central thesis is that Evangelicalism can be identified on the basis of four core characteristics: conversionism, activism, biblicism, and crucicentrism.[1]…
By: Kyle Chalko on November 30, 2018
I was more excited to read this book than any other book on our reading list. But I became a little frightened though when I took a step back for self-reflection. I got even more scared when I realized how inundated I was in these companies. Take for example how I came about physically acquiring…
By: Shawn Hart on November 8, 2018
As I worked my way through Edwin Friedman’s book, “A Failure of Nerve,” I kept finding myself conflicted by its content; which apparently, based on some of the reviews I found, I was not the only one. On one hand, Greg Wiens found the work to be, “especially relevant today as leader after respected leader…
By: Jenn Burnett on November 8, 2018
Remembrance Day is just a few days off. The melancholy that permeates this day is usually undergirded by the dark and growing bareness of Canadian mid-November weather in a predictable, almost divinely scripted, pathetic fallacy. As a youngster, I often stood in the cold and rain, in my girl guide uniform, thinking about my grandparents…
By: Mario Hood on November 7, 2018
In reading Anthony Elliott’s Contemporary Social Theory: An Introduction, one gains perspective on the landscape of contemporary social theories and global ideas. Anthony covers issues on the local, national, and global level and points out their influence in many aspects of life. From the outset, Elliot states the book will cover the five themes, in this…
By: Harry Fritzenschaft on September 13, 2018
I was visiting with my mother on the phone the other day and trying to describe the LGP track of our DMin program. Typically, most people are interested and amazed at our international advance locations. When I told my mother that Gloria (my wife) and I would be leaving for Hong Kong on September…
By: Harry Edwards on September 13, 2018
The announcement came over Facebook, “Are you excited for the Hong Kong Advance? We are!” That declaration came from one our administrators at the seminary encouraging our cohort to get ready for our upcoming trip. Don’t get me wrong, of course I’m excited but right now I can’t get past the thought of having to…
By: Wallace Kamau on September 12, 2018
I could not Help but unravel the spiritual mapping of Hong Kong and specifically ‘The walled City’ that Pullinger refers to in her book, Chasing the Dragon as I read the book, Modern History of Hong Kong by Tsang, Steve. All the challenges that were faced by the families living in the squalid conditions of…
