This book teaches you about the attributes of God and how to live a life that reflects God's will. Therefore, if you're looking for well-written theological literature, this book fits into your cart because its authors are contemporary missionaries from various backgrounds and cultures who took their subjects seriously and offered theological ideas in a way that was more applicable to real-world situations.
In order to provide the reader with solid evangelical theology, a number of intricate theological themes are interwoven, including The Nature of God, The Communicable Attributes of God, Biblical Inspiration, The Doctrine of Angels, The Doctrine of the Trinity, The Doctrine of Salvation, and The Work of the Holy Spirit in a Believer's Life. This book is a component of a brand-new series that captures the changing face of evangelical Christianity. The contributing writers are academicians with a focus on subjects relevant to Evangelical students.
Dr. Venkat Potana holds a Ph.D. from the University of Mysore through South Asia Institute of Advanced Christian Studies (SAIACS), Bangalore, with international exposure at Yale Divinity School, CT & Fuller Theological Seminary, LA, in the USA. He graduated in English literature from Acharya Nagarjuna University and earned a master's in social work from the same university. He also has another master's degree in Religion & Philosophy from Madurai Kamaraj University. He received his Master of Divinity from GFA Seminary. He also received a Master of Theology (Th.M.) degree at Union Biblical Seminary.
Dr. Potana is a professor of Missiology/Theology, a writer, a Social Worker, and a scholar, among many other things. He has authored several Missiology textbooks and published plentiful scholarly articles in international journals. At present, he teaches at EUCON International University and lives with his spouse and kids on campus.
It is the honor and privilege of this writer to write the foreword of Dr. Potana Venkateswara Rao's booklet, ""Christian Missions Historiography: An Indian Perspective."" Dr. Potana's attempt is to view historical writings from a different perspective, namely, an Indian Perspective since most of the historical writings of Christian Missions have been written by Western historians or missionaries with Western perspectives.
One must admit that no matter how much he would like to be objective in facing historical events, he still will be influenced by his own background, including one's cultural, economic, political, religious, and social background. Thus, it is imperative to show different perspectives to show the facts of the truth.
When the first time that Western civilizations met Oriental civilizations, the West was filled with amazing feelings about the mysteries of Oriental cultures. But when the colonial period arrived in human history, the Westerners came with the role of the conquers to destroy the colonials' cultures. Most of the non-Christian world became barbarians and needed to be rescued from their evil cultures. Thus, White Supremacy was inevitable, and tragedy happened in the mission fields when imperialism used Christianity as their excuse to gain wealth, riches, and power. While one should not deny the contributions of many godly missionaries, the facts of the truth need to be discovered from different perspectives than only the Western perspective of history.
Therefore, Dr. Potana's book becomes significant in showing the different angles of history. God used four gospels to describe the life of His Son. The four gospel writers wrote from different perspectives to present the truth. They had some parts exactly identical, the other parts were extremely different, and even some had their own perspectives, which were unique from others. The purpose is to present the truth.
It is, therefore, this writer's belief that Dr. Potana's desire is to present the truth so that many will be able to view it from different angles in order to see the truth. Nothing is more important than to present the truth to the generations to come.
The Greek word for History is ἱστορία (istoria), which means ""inquiry"" or ""knowledge obtained as a result of inquiry."" History is related to the significant actions of men of the past, which need to be remembered. History focuses only on great men and significant past actions from the early days of historical writings. Only those who have the power and influence come to the limelight of history, and they will be exaggerated in historical writing. Often, this is true in our present-day historical writings. The weak and marginalized are naturally neglected in world history.
Historiography is the study of the ""writing of history."" It studies how history has been written in the past ages. Historiography is meta-history, history beyond history. It deals with the methodology of the study of history. Furay and Salevouris defined historiography as ""the study of how history has been and is written the history of historical writing... When you study 'historiography,' you do not study the events of the past directly, but the changing interpretations of those events in the works of individual historians."" Historiography is quite a rational and philosophical subject that evaluates the writing of history with a scientific approach. The early writings of historians need to be studied with a critical mind to derive the principles for the present realities. It also studies the strategies and methodologies of historians and the rationale behind selecting the sources for their writings. In another sense, ""A Historian studies historical events, but a historiographer studies the historian's product."" Historiography is a detective of written history that examines the historian's methodology, attitude, and interpretation of the incidents. The perspective of historians toward history will be studied with a critical examination to understand the influences behind their selection of sources. Naturally, historians will have biased feelings and perceptions toward history. The historiographer takes steps to detect those loopholes in the creation of history. The Christian contribution to Historiography is remarkable. Eusebius, St. Augustine, Sevres of Gaul, Orosius of Spain, Venerable Bede, and Joachin of Floris made a noteworthy contribution. These Christian historians looked at history in the light of eternity. For instance, St. Augustine's historical studies interpreted history in the light of eternity. The Roman fall in A. D. 410 into the pagan hands raised questions and threatened the Christian faith. In this context, Augustine wrote The City of God, a philosophic perception of good and evil. Historiography of Christianity in India is one of the needs of the hour because Christianity in India was primarily interpreted by Western Christians whose perspective on Indian Christianity needs to be evaluated.
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