Preparing At-Risk Foster Adolescents for Independent Living: Preparing to Age Out of the Foster Care System
Typically when children are removed from their home by the child welfare authorities, by law, they become wards of their prospective state under the guise of parens patriae (Anderson, 2001). Although many of these young people return home within one year of their stay in the system, a significant number of them, after remaining in […]
Learning to Spear Hunt Among Ethiopian Chabu Adolescent Hunter-Gatherers
Research indicates that children in small-scale cultures acquire many subsistence skills and knowledge relatively easily and quickly at an early age. However, the precise age and the developmental sequence of acquiring skills and knowledge are seldom described. Considerable debate also exists as to the importance of particular modes (e.g., vertical, horizontal, and oblique) and processes (e.g., role of teaching) […]
Morality and spirituality: The missing link for economic development in the 21st century
Whilst religion may have been of relevance in the quest for material prosperity and economic advancement in the 16th century, it seems not to have such importance today. The declining rate of organised religion and the growth of secularism around the world progressively lead many to believe that if there is any truth particularly relevant […]
The Multilingual Jesus and the Sociolinguistic World of the New Testament
Was Jesus multilingual? Which languages did he speak? What does the linguistic composition and sociolinguistic situation of first-century Palestine look like? On what occasions were Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin spoken in that ancient community? These questions have biblical scholars searching for answers since the sixteenth century, proposing different opinions on the issues related to […]
Conversion in Missionary Christianity, Northwest Tanzania: A Critical Assessment of Methods & Their Impact on Haya Christian Life
Dr. Josephat Rweyemamu focused his interdisciplinary missiological dissertation on the post-conversion impact of pre-conversion methods among the Hay peoples of Africa. It engages the sociological theory of structuration to critically explore the missionary Christianity approach and methods of conversion in the Lutheran Church, Northwest Tanzania, and their impact on the Haya Christian life. To this end, […]
A Climate of Justice: Loving Your Neighbour in a Warming World
What does it mean to love our neighbours in a world that is warming? That is just one of the questions dealt with in A Climate of Justice. Justice, we are reminded, is important to Christians because justice reflects God’s character. There are many issues of justice that currently concern Christians: the refugee crises and the treatment […]
A Relationship-based Spiritual Formation Model for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities
Recently Dr. Wes Cohoon successfully defended his doctoral project on “A Relationship-based Spiritual Formation Model for Adults with Intellectual Disabilities.” The project came about from his work as a chaplain with adults who have intellectual disabilities. He summarizes the issues: Church leaders in a recent Barna Research Group Survey overwhelmingly linked spiritual disciplines with the following intellectual approaches: […]
Urban Hinterlands: Planting the Gospel in Uncool Places
Dr. Sean Benesh recently published Urban Hinterlands: Planting the Gospel in Uncool Places (White Blackbird Books, 2017). Urban Hinterlands delves into not simply planting the Gospel and new churches in uncool places, but wrestles with our perceptions of what makes cities truly livable. Wrapped up into this are frank conversations and confessions about motives in church planting, […]
Japanese in Latin America: Perspectives on Diaspora, Hybridity & the Missio Dei
Dr. Gary Fujino will be giving a presentation at the Hybridity, Diaspora, and Missio Dei: Exploring New Horizons Consultation sponsored by the Global Disaspora Network of the Lausanne Movement in Manila, Philippines in June of 2018. The presentation will discuss the missional implications of the Japanese migration to Brazil which begin in 1908. Today it is estimated that […]
Pleasant places in the gospel according to St. John
Recently Dr. Fergus King published a journal article entitled, “Pleasant places in the gospel according to John: A classical motif as introit to theological awareness” in Pacifica: Australasian Theological Studies. This piece notes that the locus amoenus motif, common in both Graeco-Roman literature and art, may have provided a literary entry point through which non-Judaic readers might […]