Breaking calabashes: becoming an intercultural community

by Rosemary Dewerse

This book challenges the essential ethnocentrism of every culture. The author's experience as a New Zealand woman in community with Maori people provides a challenging perspective on how we see people who are 'other', how the language of our conversations reinforces difference and how we can change these products of our own culture to genuinely engage with people of other cultures. It is written from a Christian viewpoint and challenges Christians to consider whether some of our 'givens' in practice are actually obstacles to the promise in Christ of genuine intercultural community.

148 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2013

Reviews

[Claire Belberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book enormously challenging. Rosemary is incredibly sensitive and respectful of people from cultures other than her own, and gives some valuable insights into relating to them. But I felt it was more than I could process, with so many 'givens' of my ethnocentric viewpoint challenged that I didn't know how to begin to act on what she shows. I haven't actually finished reading the book but I hope I'll have the courage to go back and finish it and find ways to enact it.