Reviews for Cristo de Los Milagros

The average rating for Cristo de Los Milagros based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-03-24 00:00:00 Jisang Kim Tim Keller on this book: Lamin Sanneh, who teaches at Yale, is an African, Gambian. He has written a book called Whose Religion is Christianity? And he tells something fascinating about the deep cultural diversity of Christianity. He would make an argument that Christianity is more open to cultural difference than any other religion'probably'but certainly more open to cultural difference than secularism, because he would say this, he says, "To be African is to believe that the world is filled with spirits." He says, "Africans have always believed the world is filled with good spirits and evil spirits. It's a supernatural place." He says, "And yet the problem has been superstition, the problem has been fear, what do we do about the evil spirits. How do we overcome them?" He says, "If I send an African off to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton, or Oxford or Cambridge, they are going to come back European because they are going to be told, 'Oh, everything has a scientific explanation.'" They are also going to be saying, "Oh, we love multi-culturalism. Wear your African dress and eat your African food, but we are going to destroy your Africanness, because we are going to tell you that everything has got a scientific explanation." And Lamin Sanneh says, "But Christianity comes along and says it respects my Africanness, it lets me stay African, because it says, yes, there are evil spirits and good spirits. But Jesus Christ has overcome the evil spirits, and through him you don't have to be afraid of them." "In the end," he says, "it renews my Africanness. Admittedly, as a Christian, I'm not the same as I was as an anamist, but," he says, "I'm closer to being an African." And he says, "Africans recognize that if I become a secularist, I will really be stepping away from being African. If I become a Christian, I am not." And then he makes the case that basically Christianity has made that move because Christianity does not give you a book of Leviticus or Sharia law. Why? Well, because we believe you are saved by grace, and, therefore, even though there are moral norms, there are actually a limited number of moral norms, and there is enormous cultural freedom. So, whereas, 96 percent of all Muslims are in this band right here, not in the Western, and 88 percent of Buddhists are right here, and 90 percent of Hindus are right here, like 22 percent of Christianity is in South America, 22 percent or something like that is in Africa, almost 20 percent is in Asia, 12 percent North America. So Lamin Sanneh's point is the idea is that now Christianity is really indigenous. It is really Africanized, Chinese-ified, every place. And so now if a person hears the gospel where they are they don't have the Western baggage.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-05-04 00:00:00 Jared Ryder Lamin Sanneh's book is a confusing mess, but with faint, gorgeous stabbings of light shining through the chaos. First of all I have to say that the "freestyle" approach Dr. Sanneh has chosen, structuring his book into an interview with an imaginary skeptic, is neither innovating nor clarifying. Nor is it facilitating to communication in any way. There are reasons why literary traditions exist, and one of them is to keep things like this from happening. My critique of the "freestyle" "interview" approach is twofold: that it is a bit pretentious, responding to questions posed by the writer's own self in another persona, as if there were really a spirited debate going on; and then, by far the more serious problem, that the alternate persona itself is extremely annoying. Every time Dr. Sanneh makes a legitimate and intelligent point, the squawking, inconsistent objector has something to say about it. His opinions are sometimes liberal and enlightened, and just as often bigoted, uneducated, and narrow-minded. Don't think that in this Dr. Sanneh is guilty of the straw man fallacy. If anything, it is the very opposite. In his formal cordiality (quite a jarring clash with the "freestyle" form he has adopted), Sanneh's exchange gives his skeptical questioner too much credit, affords him too much intelligence. For instance, the skeptic insists on approaching religion in Africa from an evolutionary/economic/anthropological viewpoint, one that is obviously and disastrously inadequate considering the facts on the ground. He insists, in one place, on opposing the idea that Africans might already have an idea of an uncreated God that is the source and cause of everything, despite the fact that monotheism came before polytheism and often lurks as an assumption behind Paganism. But instead of pointing out these facts, Sanneh gives his skeptical questioner too much credit and respect in questions like these. To my mind, nothing could be farther from the straw man fallacy. Despite this major problem, the book does carry some valuable, beautiful, and immensely helpful truths. Sanneh gives credit where credit is due, pointing out that Christianity's success in Africa is largely due to the works of Africans themselves, and not to the missionary or colonial efforts of Westerners. He discusses how Christianity helps Africans to become fulfilled and renewed Africans, rather than simply African versions of Europeans. Interestingly, he equates the current situation with the original circumstances of Christianity, as it took root in Greek communities, having spreading there from its Jewish sources. In his high points, which are unfortunately few and far between, Sanneh is capable of beautiful prose and keen insight. Secondly, the major flaw of the book is this. While I understand and actually champion with deep pleasure Dr. Sanneh's insistence that Christianity resonates with, and finds ways to express itself through, native ways of viewing the world, I do think he gives away too much when he devalues Christian doctrine as specifically Western or European doctrine. Though Europe has definitely shaped Christianity, it is far more true to say that Christianity has in the majority of cases shaped Europe. It is a mistake to give native cultures so high a privilege that they can override Christianity on the most central doctrinal issues; for then it ceases to be Christianity and becomes Paganism expressed in Christian language. Sanneh says in one place: "conversion is to God; I did not say it was to...other people's theories of God." The sentiment is admirable, but it misses a key truth: the Christian view of God is what makes Christianity unique among all other religions. It is what makes Christianity its self. A similar error is to read mainstream Christian doctrine as the interpretation of the West, or of Europe, or of conservatism. Rather, these things are based within Christianity. Europe may be in twilight, as Sanneh thinks, and so may be the West. But Christianity is not; it is eternally young, as his studies prove. Unfortunately, I would not recommend this book. While its subject is extremely interesting, and while Dr. Sanneh makes several interesting and insightful points, the extremely awkward interview format and the abstruse vocabulary make this book tedious and rather annoying. It's an important subject, but I'd advise interested readers to look elsewhere.