I’m really enjoying my latest read, GloboChrist, though I’ve had a bit of a slow start. So far, I’ve enjoyed it more than the last book in the “Church and Postmodern Culture” series (What Would Jesus Deconstruct?).
I’m often fascinated by the connections between books that I read consecutively. The last book I read was “Intuitive Leadership,” by Tim Keel and it was probably the clearest case I’ve read for the postmodern shift and why churches must change.
In chapter five, Keel discusses the fact that our modern ways of thinking are dominated by the left side of our brain where “linear, sequential, analytical ways of knowing are processed.” (p. 130) He goes on to quote Daniel Pink, “The left hemisphere of our brain handles sequence, literalness, and analysis. The right hemisphere, meanwhile, takes care of context, emotional expression, and synthesis. . . . Until recently, the abilities that led to success in school, work, and business [and I would add here church] were characteristic of the left hemisphere.” As Keel argues later, even the way we read (left to right) engages the left hemisphere, whereas in eastern cultures (including Hebrew culture, from which Christianity was birthed) reading involves moving the head and eyes from right to left, “thus engaging the part of the brain responsible for understanding context, metaphor, and synthesis.”
