tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319172106392132510.post5635900910129001113..comments2023-09-24T08:05:04.868-04:00Comments on The Pilgrim Underground: The Church in Central Asia: Caught in the Middle of Islamic StruggleProtoprotestanthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18217567607160768261noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319172106392132510.post-16766020429737469352017-01-02T13:50:06.473-05:002017-01-02T13:50:06.473-05:00In regards to your post on the other blog about En...In regards to your post on the other blog about Enlightenment and Fundamentalism:<br /><br />Are you familiar with Ephraim Radner? One of his projects is to recover reading Scripture as the Scripture describes and how this process was accepted by most Christians over the centuries. He explains this most forthrightly in his new book "Time and the Word". I'd be curious to see how you interact with him. Contextually, he's following the post-liberalism of Lindbeck and Frei, but trying to move beyond them and their malaise, typical of most linguistic-turn post-modernisms, that lacks grounds in any sense of Real. His books are kind of expensive, but there's some stuff online you can find for free. Anyway, I'd be curious to see your take on him.<br /><br />calCal of Chelcicehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04274276191242967318noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2319172106392132510.post-18514488474226342812017-01-01T12:43:47.244-05:002017-01-01T12:43:47.244-05:00The initial foray of the Gospel into Central Asia ...The initial foray of the Gospel into Central Asia was those brave Syrians who, now being detached from Byzantium, spread through Arabia, Persia, the Central Asian steppes, even into Chang'An, the heart of China. They had fruitful lives and growing communities, even though they are not as obscenely visible as the forced conversion of the Franks in Europe. It's sad to see the so-called Christian America end up destroying many of these ancient churches, sometimes accidentally other times intentionally. I think it's for a reason that the American media seems to void the presence of Christians in Syria, Iraq, Egypt, and among Palestinian Arabs. It makes it easy to make them into the Other of a wild and uncouth people, needing American benevolence and missionaries to tame them. It's similar to how the British had a weird imperial strategy with missionaries in Africa and Asia. On the one hand, the government was an active proponent of missionaries, and on the other, it was rather timid and reserved about mission progress. On the one hand you want people to submit to the missionary as an imperial emissary, but on the other, you don't want them to take it too seriously and begin the social process of replication. You want an English church, but not an indigenous church. Perhaps, this is the dialectical origin of the Strategy of Tension.<br /><br />calCal of Chelcicehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04274276191242967318noreply@blogger.com