Customer Reviews

The Wolf Shall Dwell with the Lamb: A Spirituality for Leadership in a Multicultural Community

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I am the leader of a parachurch organization on a university that works with three different student groups - one that is predominately Caucasian, one that is Asian American and another that is African American. Law's book gave a lot of words and definition to what has been our experience in working through multi-ethnicity and the beginnings of racial reconciliation. Especially helpful has been the explanation of perceived power and how that effects dynamics within a multi-ethnic setting. I was also glad to see a chapter on how power redistribution can happen on a practical level (chapter 7). I have read a number of books on Biblical multi-ethnicity and this has been one of the most helpful. ("Divided by Faith" is the second best.)

After having worked for 7 years in a foreign country and culture, I experienced a lot of frustration as I met the culture. Law's book is one of the best I've found in helping me see (albeit in hindsight) what was going on. His distinctions were helpful. I recommend this book for people working (or about to work) in a multi-cultural setting. He gives practical suggestions and some helpful theoretical frameworks to assist those who are bewildered (or about to be bewildered!) with an encounter with those of different cultural mindsets. It was just the book I needed to reflect upon my overseas experience.

This book has been used in a bibliography for those who would seek to end or dismantle racism, including institutional and systemic racism. Eric Law broadens the reader's understanding of social and organizational norms -- what they aren't necessarily as well as what they could be. Easy read. Easily understood. Clear.

I have been part of a North American church-related organization which was searching for a way to be more inclusive, both in its leadership and membership. Our governing cabinet used Eric Law's book as a model for discussion and discernment among a predominately Caucasian group and four multi-cultural groups. We reached consensus on so many things after an honest and open discussion, following his approach of "mutual invitation" rather than leader-controlled agenda.

Eric Law provides some important insights concerning power distribution and empowerment strategies, especially germane in cross-cultural or multi-cultural settings. His unique Sitz-im-leben as a person not of the dominant culture, yet often one viewed as holding power, gives him important insight and perspective which he freely shares. Especially helpful was his concentration on the exercise of the theology of the cross as a corrective for the power-holders, and the exercise of the theology of the resurrection (empty tomb) for those from whom power has been withheld. Useful strategies accompanied theory in putting his thoughts into action.

Dismantling Racism: The Continuing Challenge to White America
Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in AmericaThe Future Is Mestizo: Life Where Cultures Meet
Reading the Bible from the Margins
United by Faith: The Multiracial Congregation As an Answer to the Problem of Race
"Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?": A Psychologist Explains the Development of Racial Identity

The Wolf Shall Dwell With The Lamb: A Spirituality for Leadership in a Multicultural Community, by Eric H.F. Law.

Eric Law delivers a passionate plea for Isaiah's vision of the peaceable realm to be lived out in multicultural community. He writes, "If cultures are analogous to animals then Isaiah 11 becomes a vision of cultures living together in harmony and peace."


Law does an exceptional job unpacking ideas of internal and external culture. External cultural differences are easy to change or coexist with, however, internal differences are like the iceberg under water--daunting, mysterious, and seemingly impossible to challenge. Using a colorblind test as an example of internal culture, Law illustrates how people see things differently. To successfully take our faith across culture, he argues, we must empower, franchise, and equally value the different perceptions. The beginning of the journey across cultures is about listening and paying attention to both answers!

Law gets to the heart of the spirituality required for multicultural leadership by approaching inequality as "power distance." Power distance is the extent to which the less powerful will accept that power is distributed unequally. This becomes a fascinating discussion, complete with graphics and tables of power distances by country. When whites as well as people of color recognize that this power distance exists, the first step towards justice occurs!

Law goes on to teach a new reading on Acts 2, challenging leaders to learn "power analysis"--examining who has the power and who doesn't. Pentecost then becomes not just a miracle of the tongue but also a miracle of the ear. The Holy Spirit gave away power by moving the powerful to a state of listening, though the powerful usually do the talking. And the powerless--those who heard in their native tongues--were enfranchised as they received power through the miracle of tongues. Law purposes that this is the bridge-building normative work of the Holy Spirit. Nonetheless Law warns that if the church truly wants to have that Pentecostal moment, it must value monocultural gatherings, not as a return to segregation but rather because cultures (the powered and the powerless) need to "do their homework before a true Pentecostal encounter can occur."

These three discussions on internal culture, power, and the rethinking of Acts 2 show the reader what is necessary to begin a multicultural church--the Pentecost moment where the wolf lays down with the lamb. This book holds the reader's attention and gives practical insights that are immediately applicable to ministry and leadership development.

A must read for anyone ministering in a multi-cultural context. Law provides a rationale for tensions between differing cultural groups and techniques to provide a means for greater understanding and communication between groups.

Eric Law does an injustice, IMO, to the idea of multicultural community by making it sound very unappealing for whites (who are equated with wolves) as opposed to people of color (lambs). Law, who is an Episcopal priest, tells us at length that whites are supposed to "bear the cross" (give up their presumed power) in order to welcome people of color who are presumed to be "on the cross." Class, gender, age and other systems of inequality are all brushed off; only race appears to count. And all people of color are presumed by Law to behave the same: remarkably like the stereotype of meek Chinese (Law is Chinese). I really had to wonder if Law has any significant experience with African-Americans.

On the plus side, Law offers a very helpful original suggestion with his idea of Mutual Invitation as a way of organizing multiracial discussions.

this is a nice book, I enjoy it!
Good conditions, arrived very well.
Thank you!

This book (an oldie but a goodie) carefully looks at the dynamics of power that exist in cross-cultural situations, particularly between white people and people of colour. It usefully explores differences and the reasons for the them as well as the kinds of spirituality that need to be practised by the powerful and the powerless in any given situation. Most significantly it doesn't just rest with the theory but provides very practical suggestions as to what to do in group settings to encourage the participation of all, suggestions that have been tried, tested and refined by the author over a number of years. And it turns out that in the years since the author has founded an institute that seeks to equip others in these skills (Kaleidescope Institute). I highly recommend this book and other titles by Eric H. F. Law.