Lamin Sanneh, originally from The Gambia, has a doctorate in Islamic History, and is professor of World Christianity at Yale University. I've been reading his autobiography, Summoned from the Margin. Here's a reflection on the nature of intercultural engagement.
By necessity, we have to decipher other cultures, either on the basis of a common humanity, or on the basis of difference. Yet deciphering assumes a capacity for mutual recognition, just as the words on the page leap to life as they are mediated through attentive understanding. We find our way by such mutual deciphering. It is the answer to alienation.
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