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Anna Redsand
| born |
May 30, 1948
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| gender |
female |
| place of birth |
Grand Rapids, MI, The United States |
| website |
http://www.annaredsand.com |
| genre |
Memoir/Multicultural Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, Young Adult
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| influences |
Viktor Frankl, Alice Walker, Ursula Hegi, Marcus Borg, Ruth Tucker |
about this author
Anna Redsand writes about people and ideas that have had a significant impact on society. Her first book, Viktor Frankl: A Life Worth Living (Clarion, 2006), received awards from the Society of School Librarians International, the National Council for the Social Studies, the Children's Book Council, Bank Street Best Children's Books, and the New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age. The book has been translated into Korean. Anna has used Viktor Frankl's logotherapy in counseling high-risk youth.
Anna is currently working on a book for adults about missionaries and their influence, for better or worse, throughout the world. The book, entitled Demons, Saints or Mortals: Exploring the Many Worlds of Missionaries views the topic through the lens of her early life as the daughter of missionaries in Navajo Country,as well as through interviews and other research.
Demons, Saints or Mortals examines aspects missionaries and their impact on the world that are, first of all of interest to the author, with the hope that they will also inspire reflection on the part of readers. The book shows how missionaries have played crucial, multi-dimensional roles in intercultural relations for millenia. There are missionaries whose motives range from personal aggrandizement, to straightforward conversion of souls, to social justice. Missionaries have both consciously and unwittingly forwarded the colonizing efforts of their home governments. Their methods have extended from attempts to completely eradicate indigenous cultures to the integration of those cultures into the practice of the new religion. Some missionaries have engaged in scholarly, though not always accurate, studies of the cultures and languages of their intended converts. There are missionaries who have “gone native” or been more influenced by the religion of the people they had hoped to convert, rather than the other way around. There are native converts turned missionary who often experience conflict, denial and/or loss over their choices. There are what the author calls reverse missionaries and missionaries of unbelief (for this latter term, the author is indebted to missiologist, Ruth A. Tucker). For a preview of the book, read the first chapter, "Artifacts," at "Writings" here at Goodreads or on my website.
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