Considering Culture (3)
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
Having made tentative steps towards recognising culture as something we should think about from a Christian perspective, we took a more detailed look. The approach was to track through the biblical narrative and see where culture fits in the overarching story.
Of course, by turning to the Bible at all we are making a statement about how God and culture relate — the Bible is a cultural object (albeit a unique one). It is not a dropped-from-the-sky set of writings, but uses, for example, poetic forms from a particular culture and time, references aspects and event of particular cultures, etc. etc.
But, leaving that aside, let’s look at the content and start of the story — creation. One of the key parts of the biblical account is that man is made in God’s image. Taking the approach of, e.g., Middleton & Walsh (in Truth Is Stranger Than It Used To Be), we can compare this to the action of ancient rulers who placed images of themselves in lands that they conquered; this reminded the inhabitants who was in charge. With this context in mind, man being God’s image implies a role as God’s representatives within creation. And it starts to introduce the theme of mankind as steward of creation on God’s behalf.
Of course, the command by God for man to ‘rule over’ and ‘fill the earth and subdue it’ pushes this theme further. Douglas Moo makes the point that
The Hebrew verbs behind ‘rule over’ and ‘subdue’ are strong ones and not only justify but mandate a significant degree of human intervention in the created world.
And what is culture? Surely it is the way that we interact with the created world and others around us? Kevin Vanhoozer suggests the following:
Culture refers to the expressive work of human freedom in and on nature.
So, perhaps we can say that culture is what we do with the freedom that God gives us in our role as stewards and divine representatives. Consequently, culture is intrinsic to what we do as God’s image.
If we take this approach then it is clear that culture in itself is good. In fact, it is part of the our role as humans within God’s creation. Whether all forms are good is, of course, the next question.
Perhaps we can start by describing things like this: a properly functioning creation is what brings glory to the Creator, God, and mankind has a significant role in that proper functioning. We routinely accept this on a personal level — I bring glory to God by living my life in accordance with His intentions; i.e. when I, as part of creation, function properly. But it also applies on corporate and cultural levels. We have a wider responsibility as God’s image.
So, the implication is that culture is good, but it needs to be culture that fosters or is part of a properly functioning creation.
All this is pulled together by Richard Middleton
While various psalms call upon all creatures (humans included) to worship or serve God in creation, the distinctive way humans worship or render service to the Creator is by the development of culture through interation with our earthly environment (in a manner that glorifies God).
Tags: culture, Culture Seminar, theology, worldview
A random walk over culture, art, christianity, etc. with occasional photographs...