The following is another excerpt from a book edited by Kevin Vanhoozer, Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends (pgs. 31-32).

Dr. Vanhoozer believes that culture does four distinct things.  In his opinion, one aspect of culture is that it “cultivates” the lives of the people that swim within its water (For a definition of culture, see my post on What is Culture?).  In other words, the things that we read, the music that we listen to, to the shows and movies that we watch, all have ideas, beliefs, and values communicated through them that in term “cultivate” our own.  Basically, we become what consume.

Culture Cultivates

Bacteria, we may recall, can be grown or “cultivated” in a petri dish.  What exactly does culture cultivate?  The short answer is the human spirit…Given culture’s ability to orient us and reproduce itself, we must acknowledge culture itself as a means of spiritual formation, a process that shapes our spirits, or “hearts.”

My point in describing culture as a process of spiritual formation is not to say that we are helpless and hapless victims but rather to call our attention to the fact that spiritual formation is happening to us and to our children all the time.  Culture trains us in what philosophers call the transcendentals, honing our sense of what is true, good, and beautiful…

Take, for example, the spirit-forming cultural implement of television: “All television is educational television. The question is merely, ‘What is it teaching?’…Its teaching comes not in the form of explicit statements but rather through what it does, namely, through what philosophers of language call the illocutionary act (what is done with words)…

We need carefully and honestly to ask ourselves in what world of meaning do we dwell, at Christmastime or in ordinary time?  Where do we spend most of our time, in our bodies and, just as importantly, in our imaginations?  We need to guard what enters and inhabits our hearts.  We should be dwelling in the real world displayed in Scripture, not the counterfeit worlds projected by other, non-canonical texts.  Sleepwalkers of the world, awake!

 

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The following is from Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends, ed. by Kevin J. Vanhoozer (pgs. 59-60).  Following these 10 steps will help us from being to quick in writing off new cultural trends, popular T.V. Shows, Movies, Music, etc… by forcing us to delve deeper into their meaning and what people are seeing in them.  For a brief example of how this works, you can see my piece on Finding Community in “The Office”.   You may also be interested in my 3-Part Series in understanding the relatioship of Christianity with the world in Creation, Fall, and Redemption.

1. Try to comprehend a cultural text on its own terms (grasp its communicative intent) before you “interpret” it (explore its broader social, political, sexual, or religious significance).

2. Attend to what a cultural text is doing as well as saying by clarifying its illocutionary act (e.g., stating a belief, displaying a world).

3. Consider the world behind (e.g., medieval, modern), of (i.e., the world displayed by the cultural text), and in front of (i.e., its proposal for your world) the cultural text.

4. Determine what “powers” are served by particular cultural texts or trends by discovering whose material interests are served (e.g., follow the money)

5. Seek teh “world hypothesis” and/or “root metaphor” implied by a cultural text

6.Be comprehensive in your interpretation of a cultural text; find corroborative evidence that makes best sense of the whole as well as the parts.

7. Give “thick” descriptions of the cultural text that are nonreductive and sensitive to the various levels of communicative action.

8. Articulate the way of being human to which a cultural text directly or indirectly bears witness and gives commendation.

9. Discern what faith a cultural text directly or indirectly expresses.  To what convictions about God,. the world, and ourselves does a cultural text and/or trend commit us?

10.Locate the cultural text in the biblical creation-fall-redemption schema and make sure that biblical rather than cultural texts have teh lead role in shaping your imagination an dhence your interpretative framework for your experience (If you are unaware of this framework, you may want to take the time and read Creation, Fall, and Redemption: Understanding the Relationship of Christianity with the World).

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The following is a collection of three posts that I wrote over a period of four weeks.  These posts serve as a foundation in understanding the relatioship of Christianity with the world, particularly the role of Christianity with cultural activities. 

What is Culture?

If you were to scan the entirety of the Bible front-to-back you would not find a word or definition of culture.  With this being the case we need to begin with the English word “culture” and see if this concept matches anything the Bible teaches so that we can see what exactly the Bible says about culture. 

The English word culture is originally derived from the Latin word “colere.”  Colere is an agricultural word that means to “tend, guard, cultivate, and till.”  From this point culture evolved into different figurative meanings.  For instance, it is used in a figurative sense to refer to “cultivation through education,” the “collective customs and achievements of a people,” to the medical usage as “The act or process of growing living material.” 

Irrespective of its usage throughout time, the term culture carries within it a sense of growing and making – both tangible and intangible things.  From growing corn to building buildings, to growing living material in a Petri dish to developing complex mathematical equations, culture encompasses all of these facets.

Culture After the Fall

After understanding culture from a Biblical perspective, it is important to understand the implications of the Fall upon the originally good cultural activities commanded by God of mankind.  In his book – Creation Regained – Albert Wolters shares why it is vitally important for us to understand the relationship between sin and creation and culture:

The central point to make is that, biblically speaking, sin neither abolishes nor becomes identified with creation.  Creation and sin remain distinct, however closely they may be intertwined in our experience.  Prostitution does not eliminate the goodness of human sexuality; political tyranny cannot wipe out the divinely ordained character of the state…In short, evil does not have the power of bringing to naught God’s steadfast faithfulness to the works of his hands (pg. 57).

It is with this in mind that we now consider the Fall of mankind into sin, the scope of its effects upon humanity, creation, and culture, and how we – as Christians – are to distinguish between the “good” and “bad” of culture. 

The Reconciliation of Culture: Living as a Cultural Creator and Reconciler

With this post we observe that God not only reconciled His chosen back to Himself, but the redemptive work of Jesus Christ restores all of creation, including cultural activities.

From Colossians 1.20 we clearly see that Christ’ redemptive work on the cross is not only applicable to mankind, but to all of creation.  “The ‘all things’ of verse 20 occurs five other times in the context,” begins Douglas Moo, “and in each case the referent is the created universe.”

He goes on to say, “And, of course, in this context, Paul goes on to specify that the scope of ‘all things’ includes things on earth or things in heaven.  The neuter form (Greek ta…ta) and the parallelism with verse 16 make clear that all created things are included” (The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon, pgs. 134-135). 

The scope of redemption is as great as the scope of the Fall and the effects of sin: it embraces humanity, creation, and cultural activities (Albert Wolters, Creation Regained, pg. 72). 

This means that our involvement within cultural activities is not to be shunned, minimized as unimportant, or lived apart from Christ’ rule over them (Unless these activities are in direct violation to God’s Law).  Your role within cultural activities is as vital as a Pastors role in the local church. 

This is why Wolters went on to say that the distortion created by sin in creation and culture needs to be opposed everywhere:

In the kitchen and the bedroom, in city councils and corporate boardrooms, on the stage and on the air, in the classroom and in the workshop (ibid., 73).

As Christians we play a pivotal role – right here and right now – in directing every cultural activity in submission and obedience to God.     

 

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If you were to scan the entirety of the Bible front-to-back you would not find a word or definition of culture.  With this being the case we need to begin with the English word “culture” and see if this concept matches anything the Bible teaches so that we can see what exactly the Bible says about culture. 

Culture Defined

The English word culture is originally derived from the Latin word “colere.”  Colere is an agricultural word that means to “tend, guard, cultivate, and till.”  From this point culture evolved into different figurative meanings.  For instance, it is used in a figurative sense to refer to “cultivation through education,” the “collective customs and achievements of a people,” to the medical usage as “The act or process of growing living material.” 

Irrespective of its usage throughout time, the term culture carries within it a sense of growing and making – both tangible and intangible things.  From growing corn to building buildings, to growing living material in a Petri dish to developing complex mathematical equations, culture encompasses all of these facets.

Now that we have an idea of what exactly culture is, let’s take a look in the Bible to see if there is any concept    

Culture by the Book

After creating mankind in His image and after His likeness, the act of culture begins with God’s blessing of humanity:

“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1.28).  

In addition to the tasks encapsulated within this mandate we observe further responsibilities in Genesis 2.15, which says,

“The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” 

There is a lot to be said at this point, but I would like to draw our attention to two observations

Creation vs. Culture

The first thing we observe from these passages is the difference between creation and culture.  Simply put, creation is what God makes and culture is what we make.  During his lectures at Pensacola Theological Seminary on Christ and Culture, John Frame said,

Now of course God is sovereign, so everything we make is also his in one sense. Or, somewhat better: creation is what God makes by himself, and culture is what he makes through us. The sun, moon and stars are not culture. The light and darkness are not culture. The basic chemistry of the earth, and the original genetic structure of life forms are not culture; they are God’s creation.

So, from Genesis 1.1 to 1.28 – including humanity – we read of all that God created, which was created by God and is not considered culture.  Now, beginning with Genesis 1.28 cultural activities begin and are further clarified in Genesis 2.15.

Cultural Activities

From these two passages we see that cultural activities are comprised of four facets: filling, subduing, working, and keeping. 

First, culture includes the act of being fruitful, multiplying, and filling the earth.  This act was and is to be brought about through the birth of children in marriages comprised of just one man and one woman (Genesis 1.27; 2.14). 

Second, culture includes the act of subduing the entirety of all the earth and every living thing (also see 1 Peter 2.9; Revelation 1.6; 5.10; 22.5).  This facet of culture carries within it the implication that mankind is to develop the earth’s resources for useful purposes.  Thus, this facet of culture lays the foundation for scientific research and technological advancement (ESV Study Bible). 

In addition to this, this thought carries with it the notion that mankind is to subdue all things both tangible and intangible in a way that glorifies God.  This means that science, philosophy, politics, universities, families, art, music, etc…, are to serve the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10.31; Romans 11.36; Colossians 1.20).

This act of subduing is NOT to be mistaken for tyrannical rule or the exploitation of the earth and living creatures.  The act of subduing is done so as God’s vice-regents.  In other words, we are to subdue the earth and every living thing on behalf of God.  This holds to be true for two reasons.

One, for mankind to be created in the image and likeness of God is the same as being created as God’s representative likeness (Stanley Grenz, Theology for the Community of God, pgs. 174-175).  Consequently, this means that we are to represent God in all cultural acts. 

Two, God’s command implies that mankind is not to fulfill these cultural acts for him or herself, but rather for God.  For the acts of culture are derived from God’s creation and command of man.  It is for this reason that all acts of culture are to be subjected to “God’s commands, God’s desires, God’s norms, [and] God’s values” (Frame, pg. 4). 

Back to the four cultural activities.

Third, cultural acts include work.  Since the idea of work preceded sin it is not to be considered a negative or sinful thing that needs to be avoided.  Work was and is a part of God’s good created order (also see Ephesians 4.28; 1 Thessalonians 4.10-12; 2 Thessalonians 4.6-12). 

Fourth, culture not only includes the act of filling, subduing, and working, but also keeping.  The act of keeping is the same as exercising great care over.  David Hegeman, from Plowing in Hope, says, “In the context of Gen. 2.15, the term carries with it the idea of taking care of or guarding something of value either from damage or from an outside intruder or enemy” (pg. 46).  As we fulfill cultural activities we are not to do so in a way that exploits people or resources. 

Culture and the Gospel

Even though the English word culture is not found in the Scriptures, it is evident that the idea of culture is rooted in the creation and command of mankind by God.  What we learned is that all cultural activities undertaken by mankind is to be done as God’s representative and subjected to His commands, desires, norms, and values. 

These cultural activities have not been done away with by the entrance and presence of sin.  These acts were repeated to Noah and his family in Genesis 9.1-7 and restored in the life and message of Jesus Christ. 

We observe this in the final words of Christ in Matthew 28.19-20:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. 

This command encompasses all of life, for we are to make disciples of all the nations by not only baptizing them, but by teaching them to observe all that Christ has commanded us.  Commenting upon this passage John Frame said,

The Gospel creates new people, people radically committed to Christ in every area of their lives.  People like these will change the world.  They will fill and rule the earth to the glory of Jesus.  They will plant churches, establish godly families, and will also plant godly hospitals, schools, arts, and sciences (pg. 9).

Even though cultural activities have been tainted by the entrance and presence of sin, they are now being renewed through the redemptive work of Christ, for Christ is redeeming all things to Himself (Colossians 1.20) which will be culminated in His return.

Sometime in the next couple of weeks I plan on following-up this post with the implications of the Fall on culture as well as redemption.  Be sure to sign-up for the free subscription to RSS and/or e-mail.

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