This indifference contrasts sharply with the flowering of interest in the Western missionary movement shown by departments of history, political science and anthropology. It's ironic that a divinity school can carry out its mission largely uninterested in Christianity's unprecedented expansion around the world. How do we understand this irony? Perhaps it's a measure of how much we have turned our back on the historical dimension of Christianity and on non-Western societies. Perhaps it also indicates how absorbed we are in our immediate context, which causes us to think in terms of decline and uncertainty rather than growth
Duke Divinity School is building, or rebuilding the European intellectual architecture of Christian faith. It is building a theological gothic architecture in a post-Christian world in a mistaken belief that the the beauty of theological aesthetic will draw people to the gospel. The effect of this enterprise will have same effect on the population as does beautiful old gothic cathedrals; a relic of the past.
However, my dear black professors, J-Will, see this but they are so busy critiquing this that they miss out on what God is actually doing. They haven't turned their attention to the powerful work of God around the globe. It is a theological reflection of the cross, which I obviously think is central to our faith; however, as the Risen Christ spoke to me once on Easter in 2005, "Why are you looking for me among the dead?"
