Instead of being or becoming passive consumers of culture (particularly in the areas of entertainment, art, music, photography, and film) as if it possesses a neutral, non-influencing capacity.  Let us instead be Christians who are discerning consumers of culture, filtering all things through the Scriptures (Romans 12.2; 2 Timothy 3.16) and submitting every thought, word, action, and image to the pre-em-i-nence of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 10.5)

Read some enlightening thoughts from Henry Van Til on the Concept of Culture.

The Calvinistic Concept of Culture:

Culture, then, is any and all human effort and labor expended upon the cosmos, to unearth its treasures and its riches and bring them into the service of man for the enrichment of human existence unto the glory of God (pgs. 29-30).

Since man is a moral being, his culture cannot be a-moral.  Because man is a religious being, his culture too, must be religiously orietned.  There is no pure culture in the sense of being neutral religiously, or without positive or negative value ethically.

Culture, however, does not include religion (pg. 27)…Cultures are irreducibly value-oriented (pg. 35).

The reason religion cannot be subsumed under culture is the fact that whereas man as a religious being transcends all his activities under the sun, culture is but one aspect of the sum total of these activities and their results in forming history.

The meaning of life does not lie in culture as such, but culture derives its meaning from man’s faith in God; it is never an end in itself but always a means of expressing one’s religious faith (pg. 28).

Now it ought to be clear that the biblical answer is the only one that explains this urge and this sense of calling in modern man.  For culture is the fulfillment of purposive moulding of nature in execution of the creative will of God (pg. 34).

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Tags: Calvinistic Concept of Culture, Christianity and Culture, Henry Van Til