“The glory of God is a human being fully alive.”  Ireneus

Because I have been speaking in so many different cultures and trying to understand what I’m seeing, it inevitably leads me to reflect on my own American culture and identity. This summer I read David McCullough’s book John Adams and George Marsden’s biography Jonathon Edwards. It has been a fascinating glimpse into American culture before, during and after the Revolution.

When Edwards wrote the biography, The Life of David Brainard, about the selfless and passionate missionary to Native Americans, it became one of the most popular American literary works in the 18th century. Edwards hoped it would be received as a basis for understanding what human identity was truly meant to be, from God’s perspective. More...