Culture

Last night I went to my Perspectives on the Christian World Movement, basically missions, class and we had this incredible speaker, David Shenk. This man was born in Africa to a Mennonite missionary family. He later married (in the U.S.) and returned to live in Somalia with his wife. He is extremely knowledgeable about African culture/world views and Islam. Definitely one of those speakers you could listen to all night!!

He will be at the University of Wisconsin next week for a conversation about Islam and Christianity hosted by a Christian/Muslim Reconciliation group on campus. It is going to be a comparison of religions, cultures and practices moderated by an atheist. Sounds intriguing! Wish I could be there!!

Shenk also wrote a book with an Iranian Sheik which is a conversation comparing Islam and Christianity. (I'll post the title later, as I bought it for Tony and he's run off with it already!) Each of them presents their religion broken down into about 13 chapters each, and after each chapter is the response from the other. This book is about to be translated into Farsee and used at universities in Iran and other Middle Eastern countries. Very interesting - I actually might read this one.

I have to say, I was completely intrigued by everything this man presented. I wish I could explain it all to you, but it would take pages!! He only ended his presentation with a short lesson on Islam and he was so knowledgeable and such a great teacher I wish he would have just gone on and on. This interest in Islam, combined with his study of culture lends itself to being some of the best teaching about understanding the gap between Christianity and Islam and how that translates into cultural miscommunication in most instances. Knowing the little bit that I know of Islam, I was amazed that they revere the Bible as being the Word of God. I hope he's right!!

OK - now back to my life! I'm off the Curves, the grocery store, housekeeping stuff... those all important, cultural "American" things! While it's a relief not to be in a "performance = salvation" religion, it is also important to remember to be in that relationship that provides that! It's too bad that our American "culture" doesn't have any evidence of that personal relationship...