History and Culture

The following is an excerpt from Carl Trueman’s video lecture on Athanasius: Carl Trueman remembers an occasion when he was teaching on the Trinity. An ordained minister put up his hand and said, “I think this Trinity stuff is all nonsense. It’s just speculation. So I just tell my people on Sunday that God the [...]

1. Biblical Perspectives 2. Hot Issue: Multi-Ethnic Congregations/Church Communities OR HUP (Homogeneous Unit Principle) Churches? 3. General 4. Videos 5. Websites ____ 1. Biblical Perspectives The Bible as Authority as an Antidote to Cultural Imperialism Bible Translation in Historical Context. The Changing Role of Cross-Cultural Workers (International Journal of Frontier Missiology) A Brief Investigation of [...]

In his book Separate No More Norman Peart points out that in early Colonial society (the 1600s) English law, which then governed Virginia, required any slave, African or white, to be freed upon conversion to Christianity on the rationale that “infidels could be enslaved as a means of communicating the gospel to them.” This disgraceful [...]

In his book Christianity Alongside Islam (Acorn Press, 2o10) John Wilson finds it necessary to deal with the outlandish view of some “new atheists” that Jesus never lived at all. This position is so absurd as to be not worthy of consideration were it not for the fact that others are repeating this view as [...]

In the 16th century Montaigne observed the ethnocentrism of his compatriots: Once out of their villages, they feel like fish out of water. Wherever they go they cling to their ways and curse foreign ones. If they come across a fellow-countryman… they celebrate the event… With a morose and taciturn prudence they travel about wrapped [...]

On July 23, 1433 the Bohemian Paul Crawar (Kravar) was burnt at the stake for heresy. Crawar was a physician, but also a follower of John Hus. The citizens of Prague had previously adopted John Wycliffe’s teachings and it was they who sent Crawar to Scotland to make contact with Lollards, followers of John Wycliffe, [...]

Welcome to one of the classics in missiology. This book extends to 445 pages and is so dense that my summary runs for 65 pages. Although this book was first written in 1938 it is not dated. Even Kraemer’s portrait of where the Church currently stands is very much “on the money.” Speaking from an [...]

The Book of Acts observes that persecution against the early church was mainly incited by hostile Jews. This is not anti-Semitic because the early church itself was Jewish in the first instance so that we are speaking of Jews opposed to Jews. The Book of Acts also observes that in general Roman authorities and Roman [...]

In Conquest David Day describes one of the key ways in which the Roman Emperor, Constantine, soght to create Constantinople as a rival city to Rome. He did it by making Constantinople a centre of sacred relics. In the forum Constantine erected a 37-metre-tall column, topped by a bronze statue that evidently represented Constantine himself, with [...]

Here is my summary of Lewis’ book. Lewis Cultures in Conflict