Every day half a million passengers, 1.5 million e-mails and 1.5 trillion dollars cross international borders. In his Jihad versus McWorld — How the planet is both falling apart and coming together Benjamin Barber2 argues vividly that our modern world is torn apart by two opposite tendencies: On one hand is the globalization into enormous economic structures with one global marketplace for gigantic ‘global players’ like McDonald’s and Microsoft, accompanied by a shallow, universal, mass culture and the consumerist and materialistic (...) life-style of pop idols, video clips, soap series and popular brand names. And on the other hand is a flourishing fanatic nationalism claiming splintering independence of small ethnic communities and resulting in numerous bloody local wars: Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo, Timor. The refugees, that as a consequence of these conflicts flood the West, create there a multi-cultural, pluralistic society and consequently societal tension. (shrink)

“What should we do then?” This was the urgent question of the people after hearing the penetrative message of the prophet John the Baptist . The same question was inevitable after hearing all the preceding papers and discussions that treated our situation as Christians in our time from different angles. A final plenary session with the 160 participants out of 25 different nations was held to address, summarize and connect the most important issues brought up during the conference. A panel (...) prepared and presented an outline for this final session. Panel members were: conference chairman Henk Geertsema , Bob Goudzwaard , Elsa de Powell and Bong Ho Son . Their outline consisted of two main points: 1. Analysis and understanding, and 2. Calling and perspective. Both points were subdivided in three aspects. Henk Geertsema chaired this final session. Not a full transcription but an impression is provided here of the presentation of the six points by the panel as well as the subsequent discussion. (shrink)