I’ve been in Princeton, New Jersey the last few days, giving a lecture at a conference on the history of World Christianity. Yesterday as I walked to the site of the meetings, I came across a yard sign that stopped me in my tracks. It so expressed what I have tried to live by in… Read More No matter where you are from, we’re glad you’re our neighbor!!
One of the greatest pains in life is the isolation caused by personal or family struggles that we feel can’t be shared. It is just too shameful, too jarring perhaps from the personal narrative we have carefully constructed and maintained. Then something happens, and the whole edifice begins to collapse, sometimes slowly but often rapidly… Read More Mental Illness and the Courage to be Real
As the world gets caught sleeping again during a horrible developing genocide, courage is again in short supply on the part of world leaders. The Armenians and Syrian Christians in Turkey in the early 20th century, the Jews in the Holocaust, Cambodia at the end of the 1970’s, Rwanda in 1994, Bosnia in the 1990’s.… Read More “The Presence of God is also called Rohingya”
Yesterday here in the US was Thanksgiving holiday, a day to gather with family and friends. Along with my family, I’m grateful this year for those that stand with the “heroes” in their lives. Those that are faithful daily to the tasks that enable them to serve others, often not in the public eye. The… Read More Thankful for the people around the “Heroes”
The news from Northern California in the United States keeps getting worse. As I write this from Switzerland, wildfires that have already devastated areas of cities like Santa Rosa continue to spread. Over 5,000 houses and other structures have been destroyed, over 40 lives lost with many more still missing. The winds have picked up… Read More A Historian is a Missionary to the Past
How do we respond when so much suffering surrounds us? This past week alone has seen a continuing potential genocide of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar (Burma). The United Nations estimates that over 290,000 have fled to the border district of Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh in the past two weeks, to join the 100,000 already… Read More Silence as ‘Negative Space’
This quote, shared by a speaker I was listening to this week, created vulnerable space for reflection: “If you live as a hermit (or alone), whose feet will you wash?” It is reportedly from St. Basil of Caesarea (329-379), or St. Basil the Great, one of the Fathers of the first four centuries of the Christian… Read More “If you live as a hermit, whose feet will you wash?”
Recently I wrote about my trip to the very well-preserved ruins of ancient Nalanda University in the modern Northern Indian state of Bihar. (See post The Thrill of Visiting the Ruins of 7th century University of Nalanda). Nalanda thrived as an international center for education for almost 700 years, with students from over 35 nations. Primarily… Read More Were there Christians in 7th century Nalanda University?
Have you ever watched a movie on an airplane and forgot at times where you are? It happened to me last week, as I finally saw the movie Silence. I had blogged twice about the Martin Scorsese directed film in the months leading up to its release in late January this year. (See Silence: The End of… Read More Reflections on finally seeing the movie ‘Silence’
Last night here in Singapore I had the privilege to speak at the graduation of a six-week seminar called School of Transforming Business. Singapore is an epicenter helping fuel the present and future dynamism of Asia’s economies. (See my last post, in part on Singapore Treat the Stranger With Tender, Loving Care-For You Were One… Read More The Bugis and the Sogdians: Two Merchant Peoples in Asia with a Mission
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