NATAS LABAR

By Stanislaus, Lazar T. and Ueffing, Martin (Eds.). 1st Ed. 2015, Dr. Ashish Amos of the Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (ISPCK) and Steyler Missionswissenchaftliches Institut, 362 pages T his book reflects convincingly on Intercultural Life, which is closely associated with various aspects of a missionary's life and mission endeavor.  The book comprises various authors’ writings, which come from diverse cultural backgrounds and is edited by Stanislaus and Ueffing. The book aims to provide a comprehensive discussion along with multiple perspectives and understandings of intercultural living.  The book comprises five main sections, namely, Spirituality, Community, Leadership, Finance, and Formation. The editors and writers invite readers to engage and tackle some provoking thoughts and new concepts of interculturality.  The various concepts of intercultural living will nurture the readers of this book. It will help one comprehend the differences and cre...

By Lee Chua, Queena N, Dionisio, Ma. Isabel Sison, Fernandez, Nerisa C, Alignay, Michele S. (Eds.). 2013, Anvil Publishing, Mandaluyong City, Philippines, 362 pages. I. Introduction T he specific purpose of the book is to provide a guideline of how parents, who are called, digital migrants assist their children, who are called, digital natives, in this digital era. The authors, who themselves are mothers, are concerned about the life of the children in this unstoppable era of this digital world. Their concern is eloquently demonstrated in the introductory portion of the book when it says, “Given our hurly-hurly tech world, we can not let our kids roam unfettered in the digital world without the guidance of any sort. Without proper care and caution, our kids may very likely use technologies in ways that are not healthy for them in the long run. Once these bad habits are formed, they are difficult to erase” (p. xiii). Intending to grapple with this concern, the book, theref...

The biblical underpinning of Christian communication is Trinitarian Communication. The Trinitarian communion shows a going-permanent communication between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father continually communicates to the Son and the Son, in total obedience, communicates everything of what he has heard from His Father to the world. The Logos (Son) communicated flawlessly and successfully the message of the Father to the world and the people, and, therefore, Jesus was known as the perfect communicator of God. This reflection aims to scrutinize Jesus’ title as the ideal communicator of God. As far as this reflection is concerned, the following points will be taken into consideration; namely, Jesus is the revealer of the Father and the people’s life, situation, context, cultures were the point of departure of His communication. Jesus is the Revealer of the Father Jesus’ fundamental mission to the world is to reveal the face of the Father, to reveal to us His love. The fourth Gos...

The SVD ASPAC of four Characteristic Dimensions held their triennial assembly from September 3-9, 2017 in Atma Darshan, Mumbai, India. The fundamental purpose of the meeting was to address the following points:  Firstly, every characteristic dimension coordinator reported on the implementation of the action plan for the last three years. The reports answered the following questions: how it was implemented, what were the challenges in implementing the action plan, how these challenges were resolved, and what would be the suggestions for future improvements.  Secondly, the meeting was meant to be a learning opportunity from the other PRMs’ ministries whose action plan was successfully implemented in their respective PRMs. Thirdly, it was an opportunity to discuss and develop the action plan for the upcoming three years. The assembly was officially commenced with a hearty welcome from Fr. Sebastian M. Michaela, a Zonal Coordinator and Fr. Richard Mathias, member of Execom...

O ne of the most essential problems in intercultural communication is the problem of ethnocentrism. The concept of ethnocentrism is defined as judging other people with his/her own criteria and customs (Bennett, 1998). With this understanding of ethnocentrism, people tend to view other’s cultures from their own cultural vantage point (Eilers, 2012).  In a similar line of thought, Martin and Nakayama (2008) define ethnocentrism as a cultural belief that considers its culture as far superior to other cultures. This problem of ethnocentrism has caused the chilling episodes of killing, brutality, and alike, which have happened and colored our lives caused by disputes in the name of cultural differences. Ethnocentric people are indifferent or uninterested in cultural differences. They have avoided all the cultural differences to be encountered in their lives. Kisala (2015) underlines that people in the ethnocentrism stage normally see the movement of immigration in society as a huge...

The term culture shock was first introduced in 1960 by Kalvero Oberg to describe the anxiety produced when a person moves to a completely new environment (Eilers, 2012; Neuliep, 2006; Oberg, 1960). The term emphasizes specifically on a lack of direction and uncertainty over what to do or how to do things in that new environment. The emergence of culture shock normally begins in the first few weeks after relocating to a new location, be it a city, state, or country. Culture shock is precisely characterized when someone suffers from emotional and physical discomforts. The emotional misery of culture shock is signified profoundly by these symptoms: a feeling of homesickness, helplessness, the ease at getting angry over something, experiencing frustration over small issues (Oberg, 2006) and “A sense of loss and feelings of deprivation in regard to friends, status, profession, and possessions” (Eilers as cited in Furnham & Bochner, 1992, in Eilers, 2012). The symptoms of the phys...