Theology and the Disciplines of the Foreign Service: The World's Potential to Contribute to the Church

In the course of Theodore Lewis career in the US Foreign Service--spanning twenty-nine years and including tours of duty in Vietnam Pakistan the DRCongo and Korea--he came upon many significant links with theology. This book tells the story of his discovery of these links and their importance. It is also a story of God bringing good out of human tragedy. Lewis ends by drawing together the implications of these links for natural theology which deals with how theology ought to relate to the world--and thus is of prime importance for both theology and the world. The salient implication of these links is that the Holy Spirit operating as at Pentecost can bring together the secular with the theological the academic with the human. And by validating this possibility the book breaks decisive new ground. In particular it makes clear the vital contribution that Foreign Service and other craft disciplines can and should make to the restoration of the church and to the advent of a new Pentecost. A fascinating account of a remarkable theological voyage of discovery bearing a powerful witness to both the intellectual delight of theology as a discipline and to the perspicuity and perseverance of its author. --Alister E. McGrath Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion University of Oxford Oxford UK At the height of the Vietnam War exceptional demands were placed on the joint embassy/USAID economic staff to control what could easily have become runaway inflation leading to general destabilization. Not only did the staff have to work seven days a week and long hours each day but their skill and competence were tested to the utmost under difficult conditions. I worked closely with Ted Lewis and recall vividly his top-notch skills and service to his country. He describes these years well. Moreover his description of the craft of the Foreign Service is accurate and perceptive. --Roy Wehrle Economic Counselor of Embassy and USAID Associate Director for Program Saigon Vietnam 1964 -1968 As an attorney for nearly forty years at first I wondered whether a book embodying the life of a Foreign Service Officer and focusing on the link between this craft and theology would have much relevance to me or others outside the Foreign Service. Happily I found the core values underlying the role of the Foreign Service to align with my craft as a lawyer and I believe other professions too. Both at essence focus on service and commitment to a broader entity (government for the Foreign Service; the client and justice as defined by law for the attorney.) Both depend on strong analytical ability and intellectual discipline--applicable no less to Scripture and theology. I believe that these common attributes really do provide the essential link between theology and the disciplines of crafts of all kinds which this book seeks to illuminate. --Earle H. ODonnell Esq. Washington D.C. Theodore L. Lewis is an Anglican priest and a retired US Foreign Service Officer. After service in World War II he earned advanced degrees from Harvard University and later Virginia Theological Seminary his ordained vocation having come from exposure to churches of the Global South. Following his Foreign Service retirement Lewis turned to theological study and writing privileged by connections with Wycliffe Hall Oxford University and the Duke Divinity School. He presently engages in parish ministry.