David A. Livermore is president and partner at the Cultural Intelligence Center and also a visiting research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He gained a Ph.D in International Education from Michigan State University and previously served as the executive director of the Global Learning Center at Grand Rapids Theological Seminary. His book, Eyes Wide Open, won the Outreach Resource of the Year Award in global outreach from Outreach magazine.
Livermore has penned Cultural Intelligence: Improving your CQ to Engage our Multicultural World. In stepping into a new year of ministry with college students who are a decade or more apart from me, I thought it best to brush up on understanding cultural differences and how the Gospel can be hindered by cultural differences. There is a lot in this book, and 500 words on the book cannot give it justice. He intends the reader to be transformed as they seek to cross the chasm of cultural difference in order to show love and respect to “the other,” those of a different culture, as a means to being faithful to our calling as Christians.
The book is divided into four main parts. The first part is “Love: CQ Overview.” In it Livermore talks about the overriding goal of crossing cultures finding its basis in Jesus command to love our neighbors, which makes us uncomfortable. The second part is “Understand: Knowledge CQ” where he examines our own (American) culture and defines culture in order help us understand how we see the world and how we see others. The third part is “Go Deep: Interpretive CQ” In this section, Livermore shows the reader how to become mindful and aware of culture. The fourth and final part is “Express: Perseverance and Behavioral” where he pushes us to rightfully understand our capacity and desire to love others. At the end of the book, Livermore includes a four-part appendix that contains a glossary, self-assessment exam of CQ, a section about his research context and creating CQ ministry space, notes and an index.
The first part of our journey is venturing into the dynamics of a foundation for Cultural Intelligence or “CQ”. Livermore starts by laying out our foundation for love as Christians, then moves on to the realities of our twenty first century. According to Livermore, culture is no longer the diplomats or missionaries focus but everyone’s because of the advancement of our technological and changing world. He follows this up with looking at God breaking into the first century culture through the incarnation of Jesus. In this chapter he highlights the theology concept of the “already but not yet” and continues on with the example of crossing cultures (here God to man) in Jesus understanding and engaging the culture of the Israelites through the matrix of Temple, Land, Torah and Race.
Continuing on this journey, Livermore takes us to knowledge CQ. The first chapter in the section asks us to consider and recognize that Americans have a culture. He points to our individualism and our refusal to follow norms as one of the hallmarks of being an American. After shaking up our presumptions of what it means to be an American, Livermore challenges us to ask, “What is culture?” and “How do we understand it?” by admonishing us to go below the surface and engage with all the assumptions we take for granted. He lays out an understanding of culture as the differing ways people view and interact with time, language, organizational structure and thusly creates a vast web of complexity and engagement for culture.
Getting deeper into this unknown world of culture, Part Three looks at Interpretive CQ. He starts this lesson off with a frank discussion about awareness and empathy by encouraging us to try to see the invisible layers that go on in cross cultural settings. One of the new words he introduces is “liminality…which describes an inner crisis that occurs to bring about adjustment to a new set of circumstances.” This word helps us to understand how we deal with interacting with a cross culture experience that disorients us but brings us to a new understanding.
Finally, Livermore dives into CQ: perseverance and behavioral, where he asks us to consider the actual cost of interacting with a different culture in a loving and respectful way and if we have the fortitude to do so. The following chapter is about flexing and not flexing. Which asks the reader to consider what positions and desires will they “flex” on and which others that they will hold fast to.
Cultural Intelligence was a challenging read, in a good way. Livermore states in the beginning, “…cultural intelligence is the pathway for moving us along in the journey from the desire to love the Other to the ability to express that love in ways that are meaningful and respectful.” He rightly recognizes that we are to see the Other as a fellow image bearer whom intrinsically has worth and dignity. When Livermore’s words pushed and challenged me, I regularly went back to that statement to remember that truth and why I was reading the book.
Livermore has done an admiral job with giving us a framework and the tools to work through understanding culture. However, I do have some critiques. First, while his heart is in the correct place in desiring for people to come to know the risen savior; his cavalier style towards inerrancy with the scriptures hurts gaining the trust of his readership and made me uncomfortable at points. Second, Livermore’s book is bloated with jargon. I consistently had to go back to the glossary because I could not balance all the new definitions he gives us. The average layman might feel bewildered by so many new terms, I know I did.
Overall I highly recommend this book to anyone who is working, living, or ministering in an area where they are interacting with or trying to understand another culture. This is not a book we read once, but one we consistently go back through to understand our culture and the “other.” This book will stretch you in multiple ways and I pray you gain confidence from Jesus Christ, who left his own culture of Heaven for us, the “other.”