At the urging of a friend, I now have in my possession Willie James Jennings’ The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race (Yale, 2010). Jennings will be a holiday companion and guide beyond the boundaries of race, oppression, and citizenship; that is, once grading and graduation are done. Thank you Joe Bumbulis for the recommendation.
Posts Tagged ‘race’
The Christian Imagination
Monday, November 29th, 2010Stretching Every Nerve
Sunday, August 17th, 2008In 1792 William Carey wrote a short pamphlet entitled An Enquiry into the Obligation of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. In just a few pages, he highlights the state of the world, reasons with his Baptist brethren about their obligation to obey Christ’s commission, and issues a call for them to take radical steps in order to “spread the knowledge of [the Lord's] name.”
During this past week I was in a workshop on the training of church members to give cross-cultural witness to Christ. I noticed that the lady sitting next to me was reading Carey’s Enquiry. After some time of reading, she turned to me and pointed out a passage toward the end of the pamphlet. It reads …
We must not be contented however with praying, without exerting ourselves in the use of means for the obtaining of those things we pray for. Were the children of light but as wise in their generation as the children of this world they would stretch every nerve to gain so glorious a prize, nor ever imagine that it was to be obtained in any other way.