Considering Culture (12)

Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised

OK, the penultimate post on my culture seminar…

We’ve started looking at how our understanding of culture within the biblical story affects how we act and how we think. We have to begin by realising we always live and think within a story. As Christians, we should consciously think within the Biblical story; to let the Bible interpret the world.

But there is another side. We must also keep in mind that not everyone shares that story/worldview. This can be corresponds to John Stott’s assertion that we must learn to listen to the world around us. This is vital to keep in mind so that we can be wise in our influence of culture, to have the necessary understanding to allow us to act and to communicate with those around. What are the keys for understanding the stories around us? Middleton and Walsh do a simply breakdown into three components: stage setting, problem/conflict and solution. So, as an example, for Cinderella the scene setting is the ball, the problem is her lack of carriage and ball-dress, the solution is the fairy godmother. (In fact, there are two applications of this formula in Cinderella — the other is the overarching story with the problem of her oppressed life and meeting the prince/going to the ball as the solution.)

In The Outrageous Idea of Academic Faithfulness, Opitz & Melleby give examples of how modernism and post-modernism can be characterised with this pattern:

Modernity has been the culture-shaping story of our time. It is not a story of creation, but of matter. It is not the story of the fall (of sin); it is the story of ignorance. It is not a story of redemption, but one of human progress. the story-frame of modernity (matter-ignorance-progress) is so compelling that most of us, even though we espouse the Christian story, live the tale of modernity.
…
The post-modern story begins not with creation or matter, but with culture. Rather than creation-fall-redemption (biblical) or matter-ignorance-progress (modernity), the story-frame of postmodernity is culture-oppression-expression.

We can also learn something about the stories that others live by, by looking at the particular stories that they tell, whether books, film, TV, etc. I gave examples of this in an earlier post.

We could take listening to the stories of others in many directions, but let’s just try one here: By taking this approach, we begin to understand the clashes and misunderstandings that occur between people. Often there is mis-communication in our discussions that can lead both sides to see a mis-representation of the others position. I’ve heard Michael Ramsden make this point well. Often when discussing moral issues we have in mind, for example, God’s justice or plan for authentic human life, so we happily point out the constraints He places on us. Those we are talking to see choice as the highest goal, so any constraints get interpreted as due to a kill-joy God. Through misunderstanding we have communicated almost the opposite of what we want to say. So, we listen, amongst other things to ensure that what we say is heard as intended.

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Permalink | March 23rd, 2008

One Response to “Considering Culture (12)”

  1. jonnyjpg Says:
    jonnyjpg April 1st, 2008 at 12:26 pm

    thanks paul
    the pulling out of the stories [matter-ignorance-progress] and [culture-oppression-expression] – is really helpful – and that call to listen again. thanks

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