OF Culture (Church and Culture pt. 3)

In our last conversation on this topic we discussed the “Christ against Culture” relationship. This conversation will focus on what could be seen as the antithesis to the “Christ Against” model:

Christ OF Culture

- states that God is transcendent and can be found in all human endeavors.
- the Church and culture are not it conflict.
- the Church embraces the world.
- uses cultural symbols and tools (rock music, theater seating, etc.) to communicate with the culture.
- mimics culture.

Examples: 20th century Protestant Liberalism and the Seeker Sensitive movement.

Where else do you see examples of this posturing? What healthy/unhealthy when the Church is postured this way?

The Divine Hours

Most loving Father, whose will it is for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who cares for us: Preserve me from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from me the light of the love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

- Phyllis Tickle, The Divine Hours

Too Many Options For Significance

We are a culture that prides itself on having an endless array of choices ever before us. Choice gives us the space to be free; free from becoming pigeon-holed or defined to one particular way. Choice also embodies movement; a movement towards the significant.

To us the allure of choice begins with possibilities, possibilities become opportunities, and opportunities turn into hope. And what is the hope? That we might be able to move beyond our current situation and live a life of uniqueness and significance.

And so Significance drives our existence. From the time we are young and told that we are “special” to the moment we graduate assured that we were “created for something more” we desire to make choices that will lead us into a meaningful life.

Choice and Significance seem to be the perfect pair however is it possible that our over-indulgence with choice leaves us empty in our pursuit of meaning?

“As a society of consumers, we define choice “not as freedom to choose one course of action over another but as the freedom to choose everything at once. This is the ‘I-want-it-all’ mentality. ‘Freedom of choice’ means ‘keep your options open.’ However, in real life every choice of any consequence inevitably rules out a whole series of other options. It is literally impossible to ‘keep your options open’ and live a life of any significance.” (Truth Is Stranger Than It Used to Be)

Maybe, then, discovering our significance is found in making the difficult decisions that refine us into the people God has designed for us to become.

Bibles for Everyone?

The invention of the printing press in 1440 is arguably one of the greatest inventions of all time. It revolutionized the way in which we communicate and relate to one another. The printing press made it possible for the common person to have their own copy of the Scriptures to read and study.

We value greatly our individual personal Bibles, for they have made truth accessible and dare I say palatable, to our unique needs and lifestyles (just take a stroll through your local Christian bookstore at all of the different “kinds” of Bibles: for the environmentalist, the patriot, the pre-teen, etc).

Clearly the benefit of giving out Bibles to people of all cultures (and demographics) has been great however in the process of individualizing the Bible to such an extent has something been lost?

Christian theologian and ethicist Stanley Hauerwas writes, “No task is more important than for the Church to take the Bible out of the hand of individual Christians in North America.”

Hauerwas argues that full access to the Scriptures completely unguided by Church tradition or biblical training leads to a situation where any interpretation is viewed as “valid” an in effect the Bible becomes stripped from its true authority to speak into our lives and our culture.

Have we over-emphasized a “personal” approach to reading/studying the Scriptures?
What does a more “communal” approach look like?

How have our “niche” translations (the “Green” Bible”, Pre-Teen Bible, etc.) been helpful or harmful in our culture?

Against Culture (Church and Culture pt. 2)

As we explore the relationship between the Church and culture let’s look at the first posturing Richard Niebuhr outlines (see Niebuhr’s “Christ & Culture”).

Christ Against Culture

- this position finds its footing on the sole authority of Christianity over the Christian.
- It rejects the world and any of culture’s claim to authority.
- the world here is seen as bad, something that needs escaping, and in turn doesn’t deal with systems of the world.
- creates an “Us vs. Them” mentality; at times antagonistic.
- creates a Christian sub-culture.

Examples: 20th century Christian Fundamentalism

Where else do you see examples of this posturing? What healthy/unhealthy when the Church is postured this way?

"What It Means To Me"

There is a pervading sense (particularly in Evangelicalism) that all one needs to do to understand God’s word is study it in the morning hours (usually in solitude) and pray God reveals its meaning.

Further our individualistic culture has become skeptical of any kind of authority (ie: tradition, clergy, critical scholarship) that Biblical training seems to many as unnecessary. As a result many are shaped not by what the Scriptures have been saying throughout the centuries (through the community of faith) but rather by their own particular vantage point and perspective.

In the 18th Century Baptist Preacher turned Universalist Evangelist Elhanan Winchester writes about how he came to his position of Universalism: “I shut myself up chiefly in my chamber, read the Scriptures, and prayed to God to lead me into all truth, and not suffer me to embrace any error; and I think with an upright mind, I laid myself open to believe whatsoever the Lord had revealed. It would be too long to tell all the Teaching I had on this head; let it suffice, in short, to say, that I became so well persuaded of the truth of Universal Restoration, that I determined never to deny it.”

The critique here is not on a theological position but rather the method of Biblical interpretation used to arrive at such a position.

Here I find John Calvin worth quoting: “I acknowledge that Scripture is a most rich and inexhaustible fountain of all wisdom; but I deny that its fertility consists in the various meanings which any man, at his pleasure, may assign.”

Where is the balance between individual study, teach ability, trained clergy, and Biblical scholarship/criticism in the life of Biblical interpretation?

How have you seen individual interpretation practiced in harmful ways?

The Market of Religion

“…the religious tradition, which previously could be authoritatively imposed, now has to be marketed. It must be ‘sold’ to a clientele that is no longer constrained to ‘buy’. The pluralist situation is, above all, a market situation. In it, the religious institutions become marketing agencies and the religious traditions become consumer commodities.”

Peter Berger “The Sacred Canopy”