By: Philip O. Hopkins
[Editor’s Note: This series of posts deals with the global context in its historical, social, cultural, political, economic, demographic, and religious dimensions in particular. 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.]
About a year and a half has passed since … [Read More]
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]
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]
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]
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]
God’s Continent: Christianity, Islam and Europe’s Religious Crisis
Reviewed By: Bruce Riley Ashford
Entire forests have been chopped down in order to promulgate the literature that has been written on the religious crisis in Europe, including especially the secularization of Europeans and influx of Islamic immigrants. Bat Y’eor, in Eurabia (2005), argued that Europe is being subverted by Islamic hostility toward the very virtues, values, and vision of Europe herself. Bruce Bawer, in While Europe Slept (2007) … [Read More]
Global Context Series: A New Christendom with New Faces
By: Bruce Riley Ashford
Philip Jenkins believes that we are living in the midst of a monumental moment in religious history, and he has written two books to make his case. The first, The Next Christendom, contains the meat of his argument while the second, The New Faces of Christianity, follows up on certain strands of the argument. The following is a brief review of both books.
Jenkins was … [Read More]
Global Context (Russia): Stalin’s Children
By: Bruce Riley Ashford
It was my privilege to live in Russia from 1998-2000 and that is one reason that this book held me captive from the very first page. But that is not the only reason. Stalin’s Children is a masterful work of historical autobiography, telling the tale of three generations of love, war, and survival. It is told from the perspective of Owen Matthews, whose grandfather and father are the … [Read More]
Global Context (East Asia-China): Chinese Lessons
By: Bruce Riley Ashford
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.
Chinese Lessons is a lively, witty, and intimate portrait of five Chinese nationals who … [Read More]
Global Context (Afghanistan): A Thousand Splendid Suns
Reviewed by: Bruce Riley Ashford
This series of posts deals with the global context in its historical, social, cultural, political, economic, demographic, and religious dimensions in particular. 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.
Khaled Hosseini’s second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, is a … [Read More]
