GloboChrist: The Great Commission Takes a Postmodern Turn (The Church and Postmodern Culture) [Paperback]

Carl A. Raschke (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Church and Postmodern Culture | Publication Date: August 1, 2008

The information age has not only interconnected the world but has also shrunk it. This global dynamic impacts Christianity, especially the Great Commission. How do believers make disciples of all nations in this digital world of religious diversity? Carl Raschke, author of the acclaimed The Next Reformation, answers such questions in GloboChrist. He explores the impact of globalization, postmodernism, and information technology on missions and evangelism, as well as the role that Christianity plays in an increasingly pluralistic world. In short, he helps Christians respond to the tectonic shifts of the twenty-first century. This third volume in the well-received Church and Postmodern Culture series is relevant to students, pastors, and all who care about the future of the church.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The Great Commission Takes a Postmodern TurnThe rise of the Internet and the proliferation of digital technologies have profoundly affected the world; it is not only smaller but also more interconnected. What role does the church play in this multimedia-dominated globe?In GloboChrist, Carl Raschke tackles the subjects of globalization, postmodernism, and information technology and their impact on missions and evangelism. In addition, he addresses the role that Christianity plays in an increasingly pluralistic world, providing concrete strategies for confronting the challenges. In short, GloboChrist helps Christians respond to the tectonic shifts of the twenty-first century."GloboChrist is the unconventional title of an intriguing inquiry into postmodern patterns and ideas and the challenge to mission. The book is a confident statement for these uncertain times, a troubling of the waters that will stir complacent Christians in their assumption."--Lamin Sanneh, Yale University"For those who have tried to follow the intricacies (and vagaries) of postmodern thought to find out what it can tell us of the night, this vigorously discerning volume offers a glimpse of the global dawn. Drawing on many resources and a focused evangelical faith, Raschke lays out a case for a Christian perspective on globalization as a dynamic development that opens reconstructive (post-deconstructive) possibilities for pursuing the Great Commission. Globalization is not essentially an economic issue. The 'GloboChrist' is sweeping the world in a post-postmodern way in spite of militant Islamism, Christian fundamentalism, modernist liberalism, and secular economism. This is the best book on globalization I have read by an overtly Christian thinker. It complements and challenges my own efforts to discern theologically what is at stake in globalization."--Max L. Stackhouse, Princeton Theological Seminary; author, Globalization and Grace"I'd hoped to give GloboChrist a quick read, but after picking it up I simply couldn't put it down; it is elegant, clear, and provocative. Raschke not only helps us see Christ and mission afresh in our hi-tech, pluralistic, postmodern, and global context but also equips us with engagement strategies."--Dwight J. Friesen, Mars Hill Graduate School, Seattle

About the Author

Carl Raschke (PhD, Harvard University) is professor and chair of the department of religious studies at the University of Denver, where he has taught since 1984. In addition, he serves as an adjunct faculty member at Mars Hill Graduate School and is the author or editor of twenty books, including The Next Reformation.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Baker Academic (August 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080103261X
• ISBN-13: 978-0801032615
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #334,619 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For the Church, its Mission, and our Culture, October 26, 2008

By 

Joshua R. Ramos "Reynaldo" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: GloboChrist: The Great Commission Takes a Postmodern Turn (The Church and Postmodern Culture) (Paperback)

The central question to Raschke's missio-logical book is: "How is the task of the Great Commission, a missional task given by Christ to all his subsequent disciples, to be carried out in postmodern (=globalization) culture?" Raschke delineates the context of `globalization' that we are situated in, specifying several meanings to the slippery term, and ultimately identifies it as inherent to the definition of `postmodern', which is yet another term often disputed. He discusses the transformation of Christianity due to the effects of globalization, a transformation that is seen in the characteristics of decentralization, de-institutionalization, and indigenization. In discussing the structure, growth and manifestation of global-Christianity, Raschke draws the metaphor of `rhizomic growth', which in botanical terminology is that of a horizontal and subterranean structure and spread of a tuberic `mass of roots', and in the Deleuzian notion, of which Raschke makes important use of throughout his book, is how concepts are structured, birthed, manifested, understood and interpreted.

The challenges that Raschke believes are posed to Christianity in the globalization processes are consumerism, the mutation of Christianity into mass-market commodity, and radical Islamism. Rashcke believes that the clash between Christianity and radical Islamism should be not be seen as simply a battle between political libertarianism and totalitarianism, but is rather a clash of revelations, specifically on how the two interpret the promises to Abraham and how eschatology will play out, which will be either Mahdi or Messiah.

What Raschke offers as a responding strategy to the challenges for the global-Christian body, the `GloboChrist' as he calls it, is to emphasize radically the aspect of relation and incarnation in the ontology and development of the church-body and in its missional praxis. It is best to understand ourselves as primarily relational beings, in that the Trinity is primarily relation between Father, Son and Spirit, and we are made imago dei. In our interaction and missional experience with the Other in the era of the postmodern, we are to indigenize, contextualize, or `incarnate', as patterned after the incarnation of Jesus and his kingdom/mission toward us. Raschke gives working and personal examples of churches that exemplify his strategy, such as social justice undertakings in Uganda and contextual ministry in Vienna, Austria.

I recommend this book for those who want to understand what globalization spells out for the church, and particularly what it spell out for the church's mission. For those who know where I come from, I resound the blog comments of Andrew Jones, aka `Tall Skinny Kiwi', that "this book sums that this book sums up the postmodern European challenge and the church's response better than anything out there right now."

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Glocal Call to Rhizomic/Incarnational Life, October 7, 2008

By 

C. Gable (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: GloboChrist: The Great Commission Takes a Postmodern Turn (The Church and Postmodern Culture) (Paperback)

Dr. Carl Raschke (Harvard PhD) has written an outstanding book that reads like a personal manifesto of rhizomic encounters. Using the rhizomic philosophical concept of Gilles Deleuze, turning it on its head, and then applying it to Christian ministry, Raschke has challenged us all to think in a new way. His tracing of the global shift in Christian currents provide some of the most important work on this topic to date. This book is not as academic as "The Next Reformation," but makes up for it in readability and personalized narratives. I simply could not put it down, and read it in two sittings. This is the most important book on the Glocal (global/local) Christian movement written this year.