David I. Smith is Director of Graduate Studies in Education and Director of the Kuyers Institute for Christian Teaching and Learning at Calvin College. He also serves as Senior Editor of the International Journal of Christianity and Education. His recent publications include Teaching and Christian Imagination (with Susan M. Felch), Learning from the Stranger: Christian Faith and Cultural Diversity, and Teaching and Christian Practices: Reshaping Faith and Learning (with James K. A. Smith).

Series Editor's Foreword
Additional Resources
1. What is Culture?
2. Culture and Who We Are
3. Wisdom at the Well
4. Culture and Reaching Out
5. More than Good Intentions
6. A Bigger Hospitality
7. Engaging with Grace
8. Encouragement
Notes

Encountering cultural differences in the classroom, in the workplace, in the church, and in the public square is an everyday part of contemporary life. The chances that we will live our lives interacting only with those who share our cultural identity and ways of thinking are shrinking. Understanding culture and how cultural difference affects how we understand one another and live well together is no longer just for travelers. It has become a basic life skill.

Past Christian ways of thinking about cultural difference as most important for missions to far away places do not harmonize with today's realities. This book offers a brief, critical overview of how Christians have been rethinking their relationship to cultural difference. Creation and fall, the image of God, the body/temple that is the church, neighbor ethics, the trinity, the incarnation and cross of Christ, and the call to welcome strangers - each of these offers distinct challenges to think in Christian ways about how we deal with differences.

Exploring the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches, this book provides a concise guide to current Christian discussions of otherness. It points to rich ways in which Christians can responsibly and graciously embrace cultural difference.