Archive for September 2008
nothing new under the sun
i’m in the thick of reading and writing to complete my dissertation. recently, i stumbled across a great resource that addresses the issue of race relations from the perspective of the Church and Christ. what makes the book unique is when it was written (1954), where it was written (published in France), who wrote it (a Dutch pastor and theologian) and who published it (the U.N. yep, under UNESCO, this work was produced a number of years ago).
what fascinates me is that the discussion on and problem of race is nothing new and there was progress being made by the Church (how it got off the rails is another issue).
the author, W.A. Visser t’ Hooft, asserts that the only solution to racism is Christ.
Visser t’ Hooft begins the book noting, “Racial conflict is not essentially different from other forms of human conflict. All of them are symptoms of that sense of insecurity and egotism which characterize the human situation. All of them need to be overcome by the faith that in Christ men receive-the offer of a security which enables them to treat their fellow-men as brothers.”
he concludes with, “Obsessional fear of unknown, foreign, and therefore apparently dangerous forces represented by other races can only be cured by the discovery of that deep security which is the gift of faith in God’s sovereign rule.”
can you believe it? published by the U.N…. in 1954… i love it!
