Neibuhr’s definition of culture
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
Something I was reading recently pointed me towards Richard Neibuhr’s starting defintion of culture:
Culture is the “artificial, secondary environment” which man superimposes on the natural. It comprises language, habits, ideas, beliefs, customs, social organisation, inherited artifacts, technical processes, and values.
Now, I like the second — an relatively wide compass. But I’m worried about the first sentence. Maybe I’ve missed the point, but it seems to me that you are setting yourself up for a fall by using language like ‘artifical’ and ‘superimposes’. Already you are pulling culture away from the rest of creation as if it is something that man brought along outside God’s original intention. With a starting point like that no wonder you have to battle to get to ‘Christ the Transformer of Culture’
Better is the perspective exemplified by Richard Middleton in A New Heaven and A New Earth: The Case for a Holistic Reading of the Biblical Story of Redemption, where culture is an integral part of creation. Apart from being, I think, more accurate, it is clearer that God acts to transform and redeem this along with the rest of creation.
A random walk over culture, art, christianity, etc. with occasional photographs...