Christians and Cultural Difference
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Encountering cultural differences in the classroom, in the workplace, in the church, and in the public square is an everyday part of contemporary life. The chances that we will live our lives interacting only with those who share our cultural identity and ways of thinking are shrinking. Understanding culture and how cultural difference affects h
David I. Smith
David I. Smith is director of the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning, coordinator of the de Vries Institute for Global Faculty Development, and professor of education at Calvin University. In 2024, he won Calvin University’s Presidential Award for Exemplary Teaching. He has published extensively on Christian education and the relationship between faith and pedagogy; his books include On Christian Teaching: Practicing Faith in the Classroom, Learning from the Stranger: Christian Faith and Cultural Diversity, and Everyday Christian Teaching: A Guide to Practicing Faith in the Classroom.
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Christians and Cultural Difference - David I. Smith
CALVIN SHORTS
A series published by the Calvin College Press
Titles in the Calvin Shorts Series:
Emerging Adulthood and Faith
The Church and Religious Persecution
Christians and Cultural Difference
American Roots
When Helping Heals
Copyright © 2016 David I. Smith and Pennylyn Dykstra-Pruim
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published 2016 by the Calvin College Press
3201 Burton St. SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49546
Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data
Names: Smith, David I., author | Dykstra-Pruim, Pennylyn, author.
Title: Christians and cultural difference / David I. Smith ; Pennylyn Dykstra-Pruim.
Description: Grand Rapids [Michigan] : The Calvin College Press, 2016 | Includes bibliographical references.
Series: Calvin Shorts.
Identifiers: ISBN 978-1-937555-15-3 | ISBN 978-1-937555-16-0 (ebook) LCCN 2015945268
Subjects: LCSH Multiculturalism--Religious aspects--Christianity. | Race relations--Religious aspects--Christianity. | Ethnicity--Religious aspects--Christianity. | BISAC RELIGION / Christian Church / General | CULTURAL HERITAGE / Multicultural.
Classification: LCC BV10.2 .S65 2016 | DDC 264--dc23
Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, TODAY’S NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. TNIV®. Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.
Cover design: Robert Alderink
Interior design and typeset: Katherine Lloyd, The DESK
Calvin College Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
Series Editor’s Foreword
Additional Resources
1. What is Culture?
2. Culture and Who We Are
3. Wisdom at the Well
4. Culture and Reaching Out
5. More than Good Intentions
6. A Bigger Hospitality
7. Engaging with Grace
8. Encouragement
Notes
Series Editor’s Foreword
Midway along the journey of our life
I woke to find myself in some dark woods,
For I had wandered off from the straight path.
So begins The Divine Comedy , a classic meditation on the Christian life, written by Dante Alighieri in the fourteenth century.
Dante’s three images—a journey, a dark forest, and a perplexed pilgrim—still feel familiar today, don’t they?
We can readily imagine our own lives as a series of journeys, not just the big journey from birth to death, but also all the little trips from home to school, from school to job, from place to place, from old friends to new. In fact, we often feel we are simultaneously on multiple journeys that tug us in diverse and sometimes opposing directions. We recognize those dark woods from fairy tales and nightmares and the all-too-real conundrums that crowd our everyday lives. No wonder we frequently feel perplexed. We wake up shaking our heads, unsure if we know how to live wisely today or tomorrow or next week.
This series has in mind just such perplexed pilgrims.Each book invites you, the reader, to walk alongside experienced guides who will help you understand the contours of the road as well as the surrounding landscape. They will cut back the underbrush, untangle myths and misconceptions, and suggest ways to move forward.
And they will do it in books intended to be read in an evening or during a flight. Calvin Shorts are designed not just for perplexed pilgrims, but also for busy ones. We live in a complex and changing world. We need nimble ways to acquire knowledge, skills, and wisdom. These books are one way to meet those needs.
John Calvin, after whom this series is named, recognized our pilgrim condition. "We are always on the road, he said, and although this road, this life, is full of perplexities, it is also
a gift of divine kindness which is not to be refused." Calvin Shorts takes as its starting point this claim that we are called to live well in a world that is both gift and challenge.
In The Divine Comedy, Dante’s guide is Virgil, a wise but not omniscient mentor. So too, the authors in the Calvin Shorts series don’t pretend to know it all. They, like you and me, are pilgrims. And they invite us to walk with them as together we seek to live more faithfully in this world that belongs to God.
Susan M. Felch
Executive Editor
The Calvin College Press
Additional Resources
Additional online resources for Christians and Cultural Difference may be available at http://calvincollegepress.com/.
Additional information, references, and citations are included in the notes at the end of this book. Rather than using footnote numbers, these comments are keyed to phrases and page numbers.