Rambo on War; Wisdom on Peace
Rambo and Stallone on War
Wisdom on Peace
“Old men start wars. Young men fight them. And everyone in the middle gets killed. War is natural. Peace is accidental. We’re animals.” This piece plays Stallone’s Rambo off the quite different view of war held by Chris Hedges and Jonathan Schell, two authors who believe that that “wisdom is better than weapons of war.”
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Wisdom Actors, part 1
This article looks into the political careers of several prominent classes of domestic and international government advisors and officials in the royal courts old-world Middle East, with illustrations from several individuals who held high-level positions in those offices.
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Wisdom Actors, part 2
In the fascinatingly instructive Book of Daniel, we see many of the ideas and norms of the wisdom tradition applied by its main actor during his long and distinguished political career. There are more clues concentrated in this one book about a wisdom-based praxis in politics and government than in any other piece of ancient wisdom literature that I know about. And these can be surprising finds when considered through the lens of wisdom. The features covered in this article explore Daniel’s education in wisdom and his religion, as well as his politics, sticking points, and style of communication in his relationships with kings and top government officials.
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Snow (review)
Snow
a novel, by Orhan Pamuk
As the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk knows, a novel can take its readers into the play of religion and secularism in a way that nonfiction “issue” books cannot.
First published in The Christian Century; Mar. 22, 2005.
Click here to read this review
The Trouble with Islam (Review)
The Trouble with Islam: A Muslim’s Call for Reform in Her Faith, by Irshad Manji (St. Martin’s Press, 2003; 230 pp)
Why I Am a Muslim: An American Odyssey, by Asma Gull Hasan (Harper Collins/Element, 2004; 174 pp)
“Muslim Women on Islamic Reform,” a review by Charles Strohmer
First published in Sojourners, Oct., 2004.
Click here to read this review
Neoconservatism
This is the third in a series of articles at the International Relations 101 section of the website, on “understanding international relations and foreign policy decision making.” These articles seek to make this complex, multi-dimensional arena accessible to people outside the halls of power. The series also pulls duty as a necessary backdrop for understanding the wisdom-based alternative approaches to the field that are being developed by The Wisdom Project.
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Is There a Gospel in the Stars?
Although this article was originally published in 2000 (Christian Research Journal, vol. 22, no. 4), it remains a seminal piece about a controversial topic that still draws discussion on the Web. Unlike many public Christians, I have am critical of the theory. See what you think.
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Rami Khouri (interview)
Rami Khouri, a Palestinian-Jordanian, has some wise words for Americans who are trying to come to grips with life in the Middle East. Khouri is a prominent and well-respected journalist and internationally syndicated columnist. He was editor-in-chief of The Jordan Times and is now editor-at-large of the Beirut, Lebanon-based The Daily Star, the largest English language newspaper in the Middle East.
A shorter and differently emphasized version of this interview, “The Christian Message in Lebanon,” appeared in Christianity Today, August 2007.
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