This past week, I traveled to Monrovia, Liberia and was reminded of a profound truth while sitting at the feet of a septuagenarian Liberian pastor named Walter Richards. The occasion was the graduation ceremonies of Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary (LBTS), where I was delivering the graduation address. After the ceremonies, I had the opportunity to spend time with Richards, who is currently the chairman of the Board of Trustees for LBTS. From him, I learned … [Read More]
What Hath Jerusalem to Do with Mecca? Evangelicals Respond to “A Common Word”
This year the Evangelical Theological Society holds its annual meeting in New Orleans on Nov. 18-20, and one session warrants special attention. On Wednesday, Nov.18, 8 - 11 am, J P Moreland will chair a panel discussion of A Common Word, with John Piper and Al Mohler among the participants (a schedule of the program can be found here).
What is A Common Word? In October 11, 2007, 138 Islamic clerics and scholars from 43 nations issued a joint statement called A … [Read More]
Global Context (NAME): The Arabs in History
This series of posts deals with the global context in its many dimensions-historical, social, cultural, political, economic, and religious. We will provide book notices, book reviews, and brief essays on these topics. We hope that you will find this series helpful as you live and bear witness in a complex and increasingly hyper-connected world.
Bernard Lewis’ The Arabs in History is was first published in 1958, revised in 1993, and is still fruitful for the beginning … [Read More]
Global Context (Europe): The Penguin History of Europe
This series of posts deals with the global context in its many dimensions-historical, social, cultural, political, economic, and religious. We will provide book notices, book reviews, and brief essays on these topics. We hope that you will find this series helpful as you live and bear witness in a complex and increasingly hyper-connected world.
J. M. Roberts’ The Penguin History of Europe is the best one-stop history of Europe available. (Norman Davies’ Europe: A History is … [Read More]
The Church Planter’s Library (4): Global and Cultural Context
A good missiologist (whether North American or International) is first and foremost a theologian, but also a student of other disciplines such as world religions, cultural anthropology, history, current affairs, and anything else he can get his hands on in order to understand his context. By studying world religions, the missiologist learns to understand the core beliefs and religious practices of those to whom he will minister. From cultural anthropology, he learns to pay careful … [Read More]
Global Context: On India, Calvinists, and cow-dung shampoo
In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India
Should you read In Spite of the Gods? That depends. If you’ve never heard a man compare militant Hindus to Calvinists, then yes. This will be amusing. If you are looking for a book that gives a riveting narrative of the rise of modern India, the answer is yes. If you want a book that is well researched and interspersed with colorful and humorous vignettes observed first … [Read More]
Global Context Series (Central Asia): Ghost Wars
Ghost Wars
A wise man would refuse to lug even the paperback version of Steve Coll’s Ghost Wars to bed, for fear of being crushed to death if he dozes off in mid-sentence. However, despite being 712 pages long Coll’s volume is well worth the read for anyone interested in U. S. involvement in Afghanistan beginning in 1979 and spanning more than two decades.
Coll’s book is not a history of Afghanistan, per se, but rather a … [Read More]
Hot, Flat, and Crowded?
Is Al Gore right that climate change might really bring about the end of the species as we know it? Or is Rush Limbaugh right that climate change is a hoax devised by pony-tailed tree-huggers, seeking to lead our country toward a utopia of yoga mats, Birkenstocks, and tofu wraps? Who can adjudicate the conflicting claims? On climate change issues these days, it seems that the fringe positions are as crowded as the exit doors … [Read More]
How Conflicts within Islam Will Shape the Future of the Globe
I sit corrected. In years past, I have viewed the conflicts in the Middle East as centering primarily on Muslim frustration with economic matters, globalization and modernity, and Christianity. But now Vali Nasr has come along and reminded us of the significance of the historic Sunni-Shia divide.
Nasr is a keen observer of the Muslim world. Any reader interested in Islam in general, and the Middle East in particular, would be well served to read Nasr’s … [Read More]
An Obsession with Power and Control
Mugabe: Power, Plunder, and the Struggle for Zimbabwe
Reviewed By: Bruce Riley Ashford
Martin Meredith’s Mugabe: Power, Plunder, and the Struggle for Zimbabwe is not a book for the faint of heart. It is an account of Zimbabwe’s struggle for independence, the (culturally Christian) Mugabe’s rise to power, and his metamorphosis from responsible revolutionary into brutal dictator willing to slaughter his own people, including friends and associates.
Mugabe was born the son of a village carpenter. He was … [Read More]
