In my post a little while ago about Driscoll’s New Calvinism, I noted that I had some more things to say about the current catchphrase ‘cultural engagement’. Given that the spur to write about cultural engagement came from Driscoll’s post, it might be reasonable to assume that my beef is with him. So I guess I want to say at the start that my comments about this aren’t directed particularly at Driscoll at all; it was just that he happened to use a phrase that, I admit, I find a little unhelpful. It’s a line that everyone everywhere seems to be using. And apparently it’s good if you do it and bad if you don’t, but what I want to know is what on earth does it mean? (more…)
Category Archives: Culture
Censorship, art and pornography
In May 2008, a Sydney art gallery featured some nude photographs of 12 and 13-year-olds by artist Bill Henson. The papers were flooded with unflattering images of police action against the artist. The intelligentsia rushed to the barricades, all chanting the same mantra. The politicians and other community leaders were caught expressing popular, but indefensible sound bites. As usual, the question of censorship arose. How should we think about it as Christians? (more…)
The image of Jesus?
Thought
At first glance, most Christians would dismiss this as blasphemous. The idea that Jesus was controlled by the unjust prejudices of his culture, that he did not understand God’s compassionate love and that he needed a Canaanite woman to teach him God’s ways is an attack on the incarnate Son of God. (more…)
We need more shack time
Review
The Shack
William P Young
Windblown Media, Newbury Park, 256pp. (more…)
Christ and culture re-thought
For the last 50 years or so, H Richard Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture has dominated most Christian thinking on the relationship between Christ and culture. Scott Newling examines two books which seek to break away from this paradigm.
Culture Matters: A Call for Consensus on Christian Cultural Engagement (more…)
Carson on culture
All authors dream of writing the book that is not only popular and valuable, but which becomes the reference point—the standard work—the book that sets the terms of the discussion, such that all subsequent books have to take account of it. H Richard Niebuhr managed to do that with his 1951 book Christ and Culture.
In it, he put forward a five-fold framework or typology for how Christians in history have interacted with culture. Niebuhr’s typology has framed the options ever since. His five models for Christians relating to culture were (very briefly):
1. Christ against culture—in which the demands of Christ are so opposed to the norms of culture that the two must be fundamentally opposed. In the Bible, we see this in the powerful imagery of Revelation (where the world is an evil opposing force to God’s kingdom), or in passages that urge us not to “love the world or the things in the world” (1 John 2:15).
2. The Christ of culture—in which Christ represents, exemplifies and perfects all that is best in human culture. This is the vision of Enlightenment-style Liberalism, where there is no opposition between Christ and culture, but where Christian doctrine is molded to reflect and endorse what we already regard as the best and highest aspects of our civilization.
3. Christ above culture—in which the demands of Christ and culture are in some tension, but a tension that can be resolved by putting the two together (with Christ in the higher place). This approach is typified by Thomas Aquinas, who argued that the church stands over the world and helps the world achieve peace, stability and fulfillment.
4. Christ and culture in paradox—which also sees Christ and culture in tension (neither entirely separating, nor accom¬modating), but says that this tension will never be resolved in this age. This approach is exemplified in Luther’s doctrine of the ‘two kingdoms’, in which the Christian belongs at the same time to Christ’s eternal kingdom, and to the temporal kingdoms of this world. There is a high degree of pessimism in this option about improving or transforming the culture: it will remain sinful and flawed until it is redeemed in the new creation.
5. Christ transforming culture—which accepts the tension of option 4, but is more optimistic about the effect that Christ’s gospel will have in renovating the world now. Niebuhr anchors this in Augustine and Calvin (although with some difficulty), but is a little vague about how much transformation is possible. (more…)
The last refuge of irony
Up front, Sola Panel
They say that sarcasm is the lowest form of wit. Or is it satire?
Whichever it is, I know it’s not irony. Irony has a much better reputation. It’s the Honda Accord Euro of wit: classy, effective, understated. Things ‘drip’ with irony, like honey from the comb, or blood from a wound. But the strangest and most delicious aspect of irony is that it is usually invisible to the very person speaking the words. When Caiaphas says that it would be better that one man should die for the people, rather than the whole nation perish, he does not realize the bittersweet truth he is uttering, although we readers do. (more…)
The Facebook of truth
In our churches and in our outreach, questions of ‘truth’ don’t seem so important any more. Is this is a loss, an irrelevance or an opportunity? Tony Payne reviews two significant books on this subject by David F Wells.
Above All Earthly Pow’rs: Christ in a Postmodern World, David F Wells, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 2006, 339pp (more…)
Entering a fool’s paradise: How to respond to atheists
We atheists
Show yourself a man: Some reflections on ministering to men
Life
There’s a general consensus these days that churches aren’t as effective as they could be in reaching men. Is it because men are less ‘spiritual’ than women? Or do we need to rethink our approach? Former Army chaplain Tim Booker reports from the front lines.
A spotter’s guide to atheists
History’s judgement
Couldn't Help Noticing, Sola Panel
The porn problem
Life
It’s official: smoking in films influences teens. Newspapers around the nation on 11 June 2003 reported a new study—published online that day in The Lancet—that surveyed 3500 adolescents who had never smoked, and assessed their exposure to smoking in movies. A follow-up survey some time later found that those who had watched ‘hard-smoking’ movies were up to three times more likely to take up the habit themselves. Health groups have called for an ‘R’ rating on all films with frequent smoking scenes.