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.

Reviewed by Charles Strohmer

(First published in The Christian Century; Mar. 22, 2005.)

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,” reviewed by Charles Strohmer

(This review first published in Sojourners, Oct., 2004.)

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.

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.

Lynn Green (conversation)

Charles Strohmer talks with Lynn Green about an Evangelical-led Christian reconciliation walk among Muslims in Europe and the Middle East.

This conversation was originally published in Openings #3, April June, 1999.

Michael Schluter (conversation)

Charles Strohmer talks with Michael Schluter, The R Man, about transforming inter-community and international relations.

This conversation was originally published in Openings #18, April-June, 2004

The Power of a Good Story

This story inside a story about part of my own story was inspired by what I still consider to be John LeCarré’s best work, The Little Drummer Girl, a novel that spoke to me in a way I did not expect.

Wisdom-based foreign relations

Seeing International Relations and Foreign Policy through Different Eyes
Five Norms of Wisdom for Thinking about More Cooperative Relations between the United States and the Muslim Middle East

This article was written to offer political and religious leaders, their advisors, and other specialists, such as at think tanks, some ideas to mull over about wisdom-based foreign policy decision making for U.S. – Middle East relations. I’ve drawn it together from some chapters of the book I’m writing, so the material has not been made very public until now. It is hoped that it will draw visitors and readers comments and perspectives. It’s a bit of a different way of reasoning about constructing international relations.