History and Culture

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

Columbus did much to rationalise the dispossession of islanders, particularly appealing to their nomadis, their lack of grand houses and magnificent cities. Similarly, the way North American Indians moved from place to place depending on the season, was seen as precluding them from any claim to ownership of the land. The same applies, of course, [...]

In his book God’s Battalions, Rodney Stark (Professor of Social Sciences, Baylor University) makes it clear that it is ludicrous for Christians in dialogue with Muslims to apologise for the Crusades. Anti-Christian bigotry coupled with historical revisionism has produced a highly distorted popular understanding of the Crusades. For example, anti-Catholicism contributed to the shaping of a [...]

The Jews have not sacrificed in the Temple since Jerusalem was destroyed by Titus in AD 70. A few hundred years ago a ceremony was initiated which is still practised in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities each year called in Yiddish shlugging kapores. The rite involves a rabbi slinging a chicken over his head and declaring, “This [...]

The offensiveness of the cross is illustrated the way in the first century Christians were often referred to as asses, with graffiti in Rome often depicting Christians in this way. One of the buildings occupied by the emperor’s Praetorian guard bears a picture of a man with an ass’s head worshiping a cross. The caption [...]