EMQ » April–June 2018 » Volume 54 Issue 2
[memberonly folder=”Members, EMQ2YearFolder, EMQ1YearFolder”]Book Review
The Capacity to be Displaced: Resilience, Mission, and Inner Strength
Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands, 2017
ISBN: 978-9004341838
253 pages
USD $64.00
Reviewed by Tim Baldwin, PhD, Intercultural Educator & Consultant.
Clemens Sedmak takes readers on a tour which spans the globe and plums the depths of the human spirit. Along the way, he introduces a diverse cast of novelists, philosophers, clerics, missionaries, and prisoners—from Chinua Achebe and Saint Augustine, Vaclav Havel and Isaiah the Solitary to Corrie Ten Boom and Cardinal Francis Xavier Van Thuen—and explores how they found the inner strength to endure in the “desert of displacement.” The result is a far-reaching, reflection on “sources of resilience derived from within (2).”
Sedmak first makes the case that all humans—and especially those involved in “the missionary experience”—need to cultivate the capacity to be displaced through the development of epistemic (inner) resilience. In Chapter 2, he reviews seminal social science literature on resilience. Then, in Chapter 3, Sedmak provides fascinating case studies of persons who illustrate the capacity to be displaced in the most extreme circumstances. In Chapter 4, he surveys Biblical and Early Christian understandings of personhood and the inner life. Chapter 5 offers three more case studies culled from the Eastern Orthodox tradition, highlighting practices that promote resilience. The book’s final three chapters examine a broad range of resources—with special emphasis on faith, hope and love—that contribute to the development of one’s “spiritual infrastructure.”
One of the author’s aims is to present readers with “an array of examples to do with the very idea of strength from within, resilience from within” (4) and this book meets that goal admirably. As indicated above, Sedmak recounts stories about resilient individuals from different historical contexts, church traditions, and over thirty nations. Amid the better-known narratives, readers will discover new stories and glean insight and inspiration from both. The longer case studies, in Chapter 3, which chronicle the experiences of a political hostage, a terminally-ill journalist, and an imprisoned priest are particularly rich. The author also adeptly employs an inter-disciplinary lens to foster reflection upon The Capacity to Be Displaced. His exploration of the lives and writing of numerous philosophers and writers is particularly refreshing and generative.
This book, however, is not without weaknesses. One of the most glaring is the absence of examples of resilience of Christians from the Global South and Far East. It is unfortunate that a volume in a series entitled “Theology and Mission in World Christianity” should be so Eurocentric. The author’s review of the social science literature is also disappointing as it lacks precision and rigorous analysis. Additionally, the book’s central argument is obscured by too many examples, metaphors, tangents, and unfamiliar usages of common nomenclature (i.e., “the missionary experience). Finally, Sedmak’s choice to discuss numerous texts and stories from outside the Christian tradition distracts from the book’s stated focus upon Christian resources for strengthening resilience.
In the end, The Capacity to be Displaced is both a fascinating and frustrating read, offering ample opportunity to reflect on the complex relationships between displacement, spirituality and resilience as well as to lose sight of the book’s central subject.
For Further Reading
Burns, Bob, Tasha D. Chapman, and Donald C. Guthrie. Resilient Ministry: What Pastors Told Us about Surviving and Thriving. Downers Grove: IVP, 2013.
Hallie, Philip. Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of the Village of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There. New York: Harper, 1979.
Ilibagiza, Immaculee. Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, 2006.
