Answering Jihad: A Better Way Forward, Nabeel Qureshi. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2016. Summary: Contends that there is a basis in the foundations of Islam for violent, and not merely defensive, jihad, which neither can be ignored, nor assumed of all Muslims, but calls for a proactive response, particularly of Christians, of love and friendship with the hope of breaking the cycle of violence. … [Read more...] about Book Review: Answering Jihad by Nabeel Qureshi
violence
Moving Beyond Indifference and Inactivism: Lessons for Christians from #BlackLivesMatter
What role have Christians played in the #BlackLivesMatter movement in St. Louis, and what lessons have they learned? This panel discussion at the Urbana Missions Conference brought together black and white faith leaders to reflect on these movements and gave an opportunity to a packed theater of attendees to ask questions. From Dec 27 - Jan 1, volunteers with our network of early career Christian academics are liveblogging seminars at the Urbana conference, a mission-focused student gathering of 16,000 … [Read more...] about Moving Beyond Indifference and Inactivism: Lessons for Christians from #BlackLivesMatter
Book Review: The Cross and Gendercide
The Cross and Gendercide: A Theological Response to Global Violence Against Women and Girls By Elizabeth Gerhardt My rating: 4 of 5 stars There is a war going on that knows no national borders or physical territories. It is a war that occurs in clinics, ritual ceremonies, sweatshops and brothels, college campuses and religious homes. It is a war against half of the planet's population. It is the war against women. One manifestation of this war is that there is not a woman I know who feels safe walking alone … [Read more...] about Book Review: The Cross and Gendercide
Book Review: A Public Faith
Miroslav Volf (Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology / Founding Director, Yale Center for Faith & Culture)* believes it is possible to be unapologetically Christian, or otherwise religious, in a pluralistic world without resorting to violence or, alternatively, isolating yourself into a cultural ghetto. In A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good (Baker, 2011), he argues that Christians can choose a third way of seeking the public good while remaining faithful to the core … [Read more...] about Book Review: A Public Faith
Public and Personal Encounters with Evil
By any account, media coverage this week has been saturated in violence. We have been inundated by graphic and raw descriptions of the Boston bombings, a live-birth abortionist, and even the Senate's rejection of expanded firearm background checking. These are public tragedies: public displays that evoke charged words like evil, hellish, terror, moral failure. They are also riveting, partly because their scale is rare, but also because they have taken such personal forms. Each of these were made more horrific because … [Read more...] about Public and Personal Encounters with Evil