Emerging From The Dark Age Ahead

In this fascinating presentation of faith, Charles Fensham argues cogently and passionately for a church that embraces hope in spite of the dark and destructive pressures all around it. Although a metaphoric dark time awaits Christianity, Fensham assures his readers that this darkness merely conceals the light for the future. "Emerging from the Dark Age Ahead " offers a prophetic and challenging call for contemporary Christians to ask where we have come from, where we are, and where we are going. "Professor Fensham borrows from Jane Jacobs the metaphor of 'the Dark Age ahead, ' bringing social and cultural analysis to bear upon a fresh theology of church and mission for our time and place. Drawing from deep roots in the trinitarian tradition, and borrowing insight from historic monasticism, he calls for a pilgrim, steward church that will speak and act constructively in the coming time of troubles. This is a creative, original work that will stimulate theological students and lay folk as well."-Harold Wells, Professor Emeritus, Emmanuel College, University of Toronto "Insightful, provocative, instructive-words that describe how this book helps the church navigate the deep cultural challenge it now faces of massive technique organized through digitalization. Grounding the church's life in a missional hermeneutic of reading Scripture and the church's identity in the social Trinity, Fensham boldly, yet carefully, charts a course for engaging the dark age ahead."- Craig Van Gelder, Ph.D., Professor of Congregational Mission, Luther Seminary Charles Fensham has a unique perspective on the emergent church. Born in apartheid South Africa and raised within the apartheid-tainted Reformed church, he is an immigrant to Canada with experiences of the church in France, Switzerland, the South Pacific and Africa. He teaches at Knox College at the University of Toronto.

A dark age is a culture's dead end. In North America, for example, we live in a virtual graveyard of lost and destroyed aboriginal cultures. In this powerful and provocative book, renowned author Jane Jacobs argues convincingly that we face the coming of our own dark age. Throughout history, there have been many more dark ages than the one that occurred between the fall of the Roman Empire and the dawn of the Renaissance. Ten thousand years ago, our ancestors went from hunter-gatherers to farmers and, along the way, lost almost all memory of what existed before. Now we stand at another monumental crossroads, as agrarianism gives way to a technology-based future. How do we make this shift without losing the culture we hold dear--and without falling behind other nations that successfully master the transition? First we must concede that things are awry. Jacobs identifies five central pillars of our society that show serious signs of decay: community and family; higher education; science and technology; governmental representation; and self-regulation of the learned professions. These are the elements we depend on to stand firm--but Jacobs maintains that they are in the process of becoming irrelevant. If that happens, we will no longer recognize ourselves. The good news is that the downward movement can be reversed. Japan avoided cultural defeat by retaining a strong hold on history and preservation during war, besiegement, and occupation. Ireland nearly lost all native language during the devastations of famine and colonialism, but managed to renew its culture through the steadfast determination of its citizens. Jacobs assures us that the same can happen here--if only werecognize the signs of decline in time. Dark Age Ahead is not only the crowning achievement of Jane Jacobs's career, but one of the most important works of our time. It is a warning that, if heeded, could save our very way of life.

Visionary thinker Jane Jacobs uses her authoritative work on urban life and economies to show us how we can protect and strengthen our culture and communities. In Dark Age Ahead, Jane Jacobs identifies five pillars of our culture that we depend on but which are in serious decline: community and family; higher education; the effective practice of science; taxation and government; and self-policing by learned professions. The decay of these pillars, Jacobs contends, is behind such ills as environmental crisis, racism and the growing gulf between rich and poor; their continued degradation could lead us into a new Dark Age, a period of cultural collapse in which all that keeps a society alive and vibrant is forgotten. But this is a hopeful book as well as a warning. Jacobs draws on her vast frame of reference -- from fifteenth-century Chinese shipbuilding to zoning regulations in Brampton, Ontario -- and in highly readable, invigorating prose offers proposals that could arrest the cycles of decay and turn them into beneficent ones. Wise, worldly, full of real-life examples and accessible concepts, this book is an essential read for perilous times.

In June of 1910, delegates gathered in Edinburgh for the first World Missionary Conference. One hundred years later, the 2010 Church and Mission in a Multireligious Third Millennium conference sought to reconcile a century of seismic shifts in the worldwide landscape of the church with its ongoing mandate to make disciples of all nations. Arising out of that recent conference, Walk Humbly with the Lord presents a broad, multinational spectrum of contemporary approaches to both theology and missiology. Recognizing that the old Western notion of Christendom which formed the cultural backdrop of Edinburgh 1910 is now long obsolete, the book s twenty-seven forward-thinking contributors respond to globalization and the enormous growth of religious pluralism worldwide, offering reflections on the future of missiology and the relationship of church and mission. Together they speculate about the possible shape of Christianity in a multireligious age, as God works out new and unforeseen schemes in the reconciliation of the world. I wish I could have been at the conference from which this book comes! Viggo Mortensen and Andreas Nielsen have assembled a marvelous collection of reflections on mission that will be especially helpful to Christians committed to living faithfully and missionally in today s pluralistic world. If a new postsecular reality is emerging, as some are saying, these essays will help the church be a sign of hope and stability in such a new age. Stephen Bevans, SVD Catholic Theological Union, Chicago

In this indispensable book, urban visionary Jane Jacobs argues that as agrarianism gives way to a technology-based future, we’re at risk of cultural collapse. Jacobs—renowned author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities and The Economy of Cities—pinpoints five pillars of our culture that are in serious decay: community and family; higher education; the effective practice of science; taxation, and government; and the self-regulation of the learned professions. The corrosion of these pillars, Jacobs argues, is linked to societal ills such as environmental crisis, racism, and the growing gulf between rich and poor. But this is a hopeful book as well as a warning. Drawing on a vast frame of reference—from fifteenth-century Chinese shipbuilding to Ireland’s cultural rebirth—Jacobs suggests how the cycles of decay can be arrested and our way of life renewed. Invigorating and accessible, Dark Age Ahead is not only the crowning achievement of Jane Jacobs’ career, but one of the most important works of our time.

“New Dark Age is among the most unsettling and illuminating books I’ve read about the Internet, which is to say that it is among the most unsettling and illuminating books I’ve read about contemporary life.” – New Yorker As the world around us increases in technological complexity, our understanding of it diminishes. Underlying this trend is a single idea: the belief that our existence is understandable through computation, and more data is enough to help us build a better world. In reality, we are lost in a sea of information, increasingly divided by fundamentalism, simplistic narratives, conspiracy theories, and post-factual politics. Meanwhile, those in power use our lack of understanding to further their own interests. Despite the apparent accessibility of information, we’re living in a new Dark Age. From rogue financial systems to shopping algorithms, from artificial intelligence to state secrecy, we no longer understand how our world is governed or presented to us. The media is filled with unverifiable speculation, much of it generated by anonymous software, while companies dominate their employees through surveillance and the threat of automation. In his brilliant new work, leading artist and writer James Bridle surveys the history of art, technology, and information systems, and reveals the dark clouds that gather over our dreams of the digital sublime.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The bestselling author of Morning Star returns to the Red Rising universe with the thrilling sequel to Iron Gold. “Brown’s plots are like a depth charge of nitromethane dropped in a bucket of gasoline. His pacing is 100% him standing over it all with a lit match and a smile, waiting for us to dare him to drop it.”—NPR (Best Books of the Year) He broke the chains. Then he broke the world…. A decade ago Darrow led a revolution, and laid the foundations for a new world. Now he’s an outlaw. Cast out of the very Republic he founded, with half his fleet destroyed, he wages a rogue war on Mercury. Outnumbered and outgunned, is he still the hero who broke the chains? Or will he become the very evil he fought to destroy? In his darkening shadow, a new hero rises. Lysander au Lune, the displaced heir to the old empire, has returned to bridge the divide between the Golds of the Rim and Core. If united, their combined might may prove fatal to the fledgling Republic. On Luna, the embattled Sovereign of the Republic, Virginia au Augustus, fights to preserve her precious demokracy and her exiled husband. But one may cost her the other, and her son is not yet returned. Abducted by enemy agents, Pax au Augustus must trust in a Gray thief, Ephraim, for his salvation. Far across the void, Lyria, a Red refugee accused of treason, makes a desperate bid for freedom with the help of two unlikely new allies. Fear dims the hopes of the Rising, and as power is seized, lost, and reclaimed, the worlds spin on and on toward a new Dark Age. Don’t miss any of Pierce Brown’s Red Rising Saga: RED RISING • GOLDEN SON • MORNING STAR • IRON GOLD • DARK AGE • LIGHT BRINGER

Mission as Penance explores the posture of Christian mission in Canada, while also uncovering the theological roots that gave birth to the sense of cultural and religious superiority that led to profound harm to others and to God's creation. The story begins by an examination of Johan Bavinck's famous 1954 claim that "mission is thus the penance of the church which is ashamed before God and man." By drawing on his work through forty years in theological education and pastoral ministry, Fensham prescribes a pathway that liberates the church from power games, numerical growth, and preoccupation with programs and technology, to focus instead on genuine listening, solidarity, and love in action. True penance is never satisfied with passivity, nor should it result in a state of paralysis. For a posture of humble penance to be fruitful, it must lead toward concerted action toward change, advocacy for justice, compassion for the marginalized, and care for creation. If mission in Canada is engaged in this way, the Christian faith might cease to do harm and build a new life-giving community of healing.