Engaging Globalization

"Engaging Globalization delves into the complex forces of globalization that shape our contemporary world. At the heart of the book is a long-standing concern for God's shalom, continuing the important work Myers helped inform with his earlier volume, Walking with the Poor. What is more, Myers does so as a missiologist, which perhaps more than anything else makes this book so critical, as he flips globalization on its head and asks us to think about how we should witness to such forces with the gospel of Jesus Christ. As we have come to expect, Myers delivers a book that is as astute as it is compelling."

"Unfortunately, false information and lack of education has resulted in significant confusion and fear around the topic of globalization. Christian leaders, teachers, and ministers have a responsibility to provide accurate historical, biblical, and theological reflections on globalization rather than regurgitating uninformed, biased media reports. In this essential text, Bryant Myers offers a vision of human flourishing that emerges from careful study and thoughtful pastoral reflection. Myers presents a balanced work that should be read by any who seek to guide the church in key areas of Christian thought and life."

"God wants our hearts and heads, our hands and feet, to partner in transforming a messy and complex world. Loving God and loving neighbor in our age of globalization requires new dimensions of discipleship, attentive discernment, and intentional spiritual formation. Myers shares a compelling vision for how ordinary laity, church leaders, and people of goodwill are called to partake in God's work of restoration and redemption. Engaging Globalization is a must-read for anyone who desires to be transformed and to change the world."

"After more than half a century of usage, the term globalization is experiencing a crisis of meaning and significance. Yet, its pervasive use in public discourse and the incessant debate about its benefits and detriments point to the centrality of the concept for making sense of the most transformative changes taking place in our world. For people of faith, the concept poses daunting questions; perhaps especially for the global Christian family, since the Christian movement is both impacted by and deeply implicated in the processes of globalization. But Christian perspectives or responses tend to narrowly focus on one dimension or the other. In Engaging Globalization, Bryant Myers provides a comprehensive and astute appraisal of globalization that combines wide-ranging scholarly analysis with unabashed theological scrutiny and a deeply pastoral outlook. The complexities of globalization (understood as 'a deeply embedded historical process') are carefully navigated; entrenched myths regarding its value, promise, and outcome are interrogated; and the ambiguities, not to mention unresolved dilemmas, of its myriad processes are laid bare. A sharp focus on how globalization shapes the human story also allows Myers to probe issues of great import for the church and its mission, including ecological change, migration, human flourishing, economic justice, faith and development, global compassion, and the use of power. This engaging exploration of what it means to be the church in a new global age is both timely and instructive."

"For Christians desiring to engage the joys and trials of globalization with inspired, faith-centered, and effective responses, Myers marks the path. Insisting on the essential connection between a deep spiritual relationship with God and commitment to justice in the world, Engaging Globalization calls Christians everywhere to the redemptive task of appreciating the good of secular theories and practices of globalization, while at the same time revising and reforming these theories and practices with our deep awareness of God, our image-bearing humanity, and the purpose God has given us. For a world that is both in thrall to and threatened by the secularizing forces of globalization, this is a message we desperately need."