Oct 21, 2008
Amy Spiegel on Coffeehouse Theology
Amy Spiegel, wife of theologian and author Jim Spiegel, has been doing an incredible job blogging at their relatively new site called Wisdom and Folly. I’ve really enjoyed reading Amy’s posts, and when it came time for the Coffeehouse Theology blog tour, she was at the top of my list.
Here’s a little sample of her reflections on my book:
As we neared the village, our faithful leader came thundering down the path to stop us. We had unintentionally offended our Ukrainian friends by shunning the prepared food and showing off our ability to buy an alternative. With great embarrassment and not a little righteous indignation, we returned to eat lunch with the rest of the group. (I believe humble pie was on the menu that day.) It was then that I began to reflect on just how ingrained certain values were to me as an American: independence, individualism and consumerism, to name a few. Not all bad in the proper context, but they nonetheless placed me in a certain context both culturally and economically. If I wanted to minister to these students I had traveled so far to meet, I was going to have to check some of these values like luggage at the gate, knowing I might never see them again.
This is the challenge that Ed Cyzewski gently but forcefully issues in Coffehouse Theology. If we are to attempt to understand God and his inspired word, the Bible, we must understand ourselves and the context in which we live, because our biases and cultural beliefs form a lens through which we see the world and the scriptures.
