Author Archives: Alan Roxburgh
Review of two books with the same title and a marked difference: Twilight of the Elites
These two books were written almost a decade apart, one in the USA, the other in France. Each addresses the role of elites in the unfolding (now unraveling) of Western societies. By the term ‘elites’, each is describing what evolved in the early part of the twentieth century with the formation of a middle-class meritocracy...
Book Review: ‘The Church and its Vocation: Lesslie Newbigin’s Missionary Ecclesiology’ by Michael Goheen
In truth, from the first page on I was gripped by the crispness of Goheen’s writing and the breadth of scholarship that he has brought to this important and excellent book. Newbigin was, and remains, one of the most important missiological minds of the late twentieth century who, for all of us, raised the critical questions of what it means for the people of God to address the still unaddressed challenge of the modern West.
Book Review: Undomesticated Dissent by Curtis Freeman.
The theme of Freeman’s book is dissent and its critical place in both the formation and thriving of democracy. He focuses on three of the early pioneers of this dissent in 17th and 18th century British social life, that period of time when England was thrust into social upheaval...
A Christian Counter-Movement to Neoliberalism?
Recently I was sitting with friends on the back-deck when the topic of neo-liberalism came up. The conversation caused me reflect again about the Christian response to this massive social and cultural unravelling too many of us are experiencing. Why isn’t there a Christian counter movement for the protection of society from neo-liberalism?
Extending the Conversation
A Christian Counter Movement to Neoliberalism: A Rapid Response by Sally Mann
Further Thoughts on Christian Resistance by Alan Roxburgh
Further Thoughts on Christian Resistance
These reflections follow Alan Roxburgh’s initial article: ‘Why not a Christian counter movement to neoliberalism?’ and Sally Mann’s Rapid Response (Journal of Missional Practice, Issue 11, Winter 2019) In a recent article I raised the question: ‘Why not a Christian...
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Looking for Hope … all over the place
Anniversaries are moments of pause looking back at the expectations with which one began a journey and checking out the realities of the present. This month is the anniversary of the 1968 May workers and student uprisings in Paris that spread across Europe and the Atlantic, creating for some governments the fear of revolution. These events were driven by a faith that...
The End of Liberalism? What the Euro-tribal churches are missing.
The books mentioned propose that the modern, liberal Western imagination is at the root of our current crises and malaise. Liberalism isn’t something that needs to be fixed or adjusted; it is the problem. The challenge isn’t fixing but the construction of a fundamentally different imagination rooted in the Christian and Classic understandings of virtue and the Good. Liberalism is an ideology...
Editorial: Questions of Place
We are witnessing a resurgence of interest in questions of place. This is quite a significant shift in which many of us are trying to sort out what it means to have our lives shaped by the notion of neighborhood. It’s a tricky question because since the early 60s modern western life has been characterized by mobility and an expectation of progress. All of this is changing... What, therefore, is the meaning of place for Christian life in the modern West? I’m discovering this is not as easy a question...
Editorial: Place, Time and Identity
This issue of JMP has focused on the meaning of place in contemporary societies and its implications for the life and witness of Christian communities. Each of us, as we read this, are situated in some place – our home, work place, local coffee shop, etc., that locates and gives shape to our everyday lives. We have learned through this issue that the places where we dwell are complicated geographies that in our late modern contexts, raise complex questions...
Books in conversation: The Crisis of Liberal Democracy and the book of Acts
It's a serendipitous experience to read books across different genres and make connections that stretch you. Two books by Edward Luce have done this for me recently: Time to Start Thinking: America in the Age of Descent (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2012) and The Retreat of Western Liberalism (Little, Brown Book Group, 2017). These books articulate a concern about the crisis of Western democracy apparent in many books and articles. While reading these I was also reading C Kavin Rowe’s’ The World Upside Down: Reading Acts in the Graeco-Roman Age (OUP, 2009) which made some connections which go beyond the familiar frameworks of the twentieth century.