Scan barcode
cass_10e's review against another edition
3.0
I’ll start by saying I’m a lay woman and not a religious academic, like my husband. So perhaps there was much I wasn’t understanding about all this. I really enjoyed reading the first part of the book, even though the interview format seemed a bit odd. Soon, it felt like the “interviewer” was quite abrasive, colonialist and racist...until I remembered that both the questions and answers were written by the author, Lamin Sanneh, a native of Gambia. Ha. So he’s posing these questions as objections that people have to the movement of Christianity happening in Africa...*after* its decolonization and without the “help” of white Christian missionaries.
The book was intensely interesting in the beginning and generally devolved as it went on, in my opinion. He begins to focus on bible translation and a defense of it and that wasn’t what I was looking for in this particular title.
I had a few great (and big!) takeaways and I’m glad I read it, in the end. Good bibliography to mine for further reading. Cumbersome format, but still plenty to be gained in wading through it.
The book was intensely interesting in the beginning and generally devolved as it went on, in my opinion. He begins to focus on bible translation and a defense of it and that wasn’t what I was looking for in this particular title.
I had a few great (and big!) takeaways and I’m glad I read it, in the end. Good bibliography to mine for further reading. Cumbersome format, but still plenty to be gained in wading through it.
banandrew's review against another edition
3.0
Summary: discussion on "world Christianity" by a professor at Yale Divinity.
Sanneh writes about "world Christianity" from a few perspectives: the location (aka probably where you'd describe "world music") and surrounding cultures, the interplay of Christianity spreading in Africa during the same recent period as continuing western colonialism, differences in how Christianity is absorbed by said cultures from "Christendom" (aka Christianity as insistent western evangelicals might describe it), and how translation and local adaptation are hallmarks of Christianity's adoption across Africa.
The content is great. Sanneh describes colonialism blocking the spread of Christianity by communicating it too authoritatively and insistently. He writes about Christianity's troubled history as a translated religion, highlighting a rich tradition of protesting new translations for other cultures or more common tongues. He spends even more time discussing how Christianity is at its best when accessible to a culture, whether that's via an accessible language or by being adapted to local customs. It's a bit repetitive at times, but he gets his points across and you come away having genuinely learned something.
The form, however. Wow.
Sanneh writes this book as a "dialogue", which means it reads much like a transcribed interview---questions and corresponding answers. Early in the book, he claims it makes the content easier to understand and the content he wanted to convey easier to structure (okay) and then invites the reader to jump in and participate in the dialogue at any point. (huh?)
On the surface level, the form is most awkward when complimenting himself---phrases like "what a great question!" and "I hadn't thought about it like that" sprinkle the writing (yup). The easy complaint to pinpoint, highlighted by the self-congratulatory writing is that the questions play into what he wants to convey, and the dialogue isn't as meaningful as a real critical interview. The more subversive issue is that the arguments feel more persuasive by reading a discussion between "two people" come to agree on his ideas.
Sanneh writes about "world Christianity" from a few perspectives: the location (aka probably where you'd describe "world music") and surrounding cultures, the interplay of Christianity spreading in Africa during the same recent period as continuing western colonialism, differences in how Christianity is absorbed by said cultures from "Christendom" (aka Christianity as insistent western evangelicals might describe it), and how translation and local adaptation are hallmarks of Christianity's adoption across Africa.
The content is great. Sanneh describes colonialism blocking the spread of Christianity by communicating it too authoritatively and insistently. He writes about Christianity's troubled history as a translated religion, highlighting a rich tradition of protesting new translations for other cultures or more common tongues. He spends even more time discussing how Christianity is at its best when accessible to a culture, whether that's via an accessible language or by being adapted to local customs. It's a bit repetitive at times, but he gets his points across and you come away having genuinely learned something.
The form, however. Wow.
Sanneh writes this book as a "dialogue", which means it reads much like a transcribed interview---questions and corresponding answers. Early in the book, he claims it makes the content easier to understand and the content he wanted to convey easier to structure (okay) and then invites the reader to jump in and participate in the dialogue at any point. (huh?)
On the surface level, the form is most awkward when complimenting himself---phrases like "what a great question!" and "I hadn't thought about it like that" sprinkle the writing (yup). The easy complaint to pinpoint, highlighted by the self-congratulatory writing is that the questions play into what he wants to convey, and the dialogue isn't as meaningful as a real critical interview. The more subversive issue is that the arguments feel more persuasive by reading a discussion between "two people" come to agree on his ideas.
revbeckett's review against another edition
3.0
Utilising the form of essay and question & answer, Lamin Sanneh's answer to the question presented in the title seems to insinuate that Christianity is the people's. Perhaps it is best to quote him on the final page, "...the theological insight that the God we celebrate in the Christmas and Easter stories is available without hesitation or qualification in a language that is the people's own" (130). I concede that from a purely cultural perspective, Christianity truly belongs to the people rather than to any singular culture or "race" of people. However, Sanneh overlooks one vital fact: Christianity belongs to Christ, as the very etymology of the word inherently suggests.
nate_s's review against another edition
4.0
That one came out of the blue.
I bought this on a whim when I saw the Kindle version marked down, and now that I’ve read it I think I’ll buy a hard copy too.
I need to think more and quite a passage or two from the book before writing a full review.
I bought this on a whim when I saw the Kindle version marked down, and now that I’ve read it I think I’ll buy a hard copy too.
I need to think more and quite a passage or two from the book before writing a full review.
More...