Culture Making quotes
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
I spent my (severely truncated) lunch-break today reading the introduction from Andy Crouch’s Culture Making (get the sample here.) Even with this little section, I’m impressed with the vision. Here are some choice quotes…
What does it mean to be not just culturally aware but culturally responsible? Not just culture consumers or even just culture critics, but culture makers? Our newly regained cultural awareness means that we are not satisfied, as earlier generations might have been, with separating our faith from our “worldly” activities. We want our lives—our whole lives—to matter for the gospel. But what exactly does that mean?
Absolutely. If there has been one theme in my thinking in, well, living memory, it is: how do we integrate what we believe into our whole lives? Really. Not just by being nice people, but in our day-to-day and its products.
What we most have to learn about being creators of culture is the very thing we human beings find hardest to learn: everything about our calling, from start to finish, is a gift. What is most needed in our time are Christians who are deeply serious about cultivating and creating but who wear that seriousness lightly—who are not desperately trying to change the world but who also wake up every morning eager to create.
I like this being serious and wearing it lightly. How to get the balance?! Or, for me, how to stop being desperately serious and actually act 
I’m keen to see what he does with this. My current hunch is to focus on the theme that God calls into being the new creation and we work to anticipate this. Consequently, we are not under pressure to change things ourselves, but we have the freedom to act appropriately.
I hope churches will read this book and take the risky path of celebrating their members who do not go into “full-time Christian service” but who serve Christ full time in their own arena of culture.I hope that those with evident cultural power will read this book and discover God’s purpose for their power; I hope that those who feel small and neglected in the world will discover that God has something great for them to do, that they are not forgotten but are at the very center of his plan, the heroes of his surprise ending.
The first bit here picks up on something that has been running around my mind a lot lately. We believe that God works in all jobs and callings, but we have a tendency in church to focus on the ones we class as ‘spiritual’. I want to understand how we can adjust our imaginations in this. To help us truly believe what we say we believe.
Tags: books, culture, Culture Making (Crouch)
Andy Crouch’s Culture Making
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
A quick reading suggestion…
Tags: books, culture, Culture Making (Crouch)
Considering Culture (resources)
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
OK, here, as best as I can remember, are the relevant references, etc. for seminar:
Two helpful articles available on-line are:
* Richard Middleton’s article “A New Heaven and A New Earth: The Case for a Holistic Reading of the Biblical Story of Redemption” does exactly what it says on the tin.
* Douglas Moo has a great paper on environmental issues in the context of the New Testament: “Nature in the New Creation: New Testament Eschatology and the Environment”. I also recently discovered the mp3 of an associated talk.
The combination of these two underpin a lot of the cuture-in-the-biblical-story section. Although Moo is limited to nature, Middleton provides the link that culture is part of creation, hence allowing Moo’s argument to be applied more widely.
–
Books that were in my mind, but not quoted much (if at all):
* Eat this Book by Eugene Peterson; this is very good on living in the biblical story
* The Mission of God by Christopher Wright; which has an impressive overview of the Old Testement from a missional hermeneutic point of view. It complements Moo’s paper in it’s discussion of responsibility for creation as part of the mission.
–
Books that are good on Worldview are
* The Transforming Vision by Middleton and Walsh. I dipped into this while preparing the talk and realised (again) what a classic it is. It’s a long time since I read it & I discovered that a lot of things I’ve learnt since are in this book, if only I had been awake enough at the time…
* The Outrageous Idea of Academic Faithfulness by Opitz and Melleby. I bought this to help the talk preparation, mainly because Byron Borger recommended it highly. A good book for students pitched at a nice introductory level. See also the associated website.
* Discipleship of the Mind by James Sire. Another classic. Again, aimed at students, but of wider interest. More depth than Opitz and Melleby. Probably a good next step if that convinces you to investigate futher.
* The Universe Next Door by James Sire. Sire’s worldview overview — looking at the main contenders around today.
* I’ve also dipped into Albert Wolters’ Creation Regained
–
Quotes from Jeremy Begbie come from:
* Resounding Truth, which I have just got, but have only read the introduction. That is impressive enough in itself.
Quotes from Kevin Vanhoozer come from:
* First Theology, normally the essay ‘The World Well Staged?’, but all the essays in the book are stimulating and thought-provoking
–
Books I have acquired recently, which would have helped:
* The Drama of Scripture by Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen
* Everyday Theology ed. Kevin Vanhoozer, Charles Anderson, Michael Sleasman
–
Books that I have become aware of, don’t actually own, but suspect would have been useful:
* When the Kings Come Marching In by Richard Mouw
* Plowing in Hope: Toward a Biblical Theology of Culture by David Hegeman
–
Please comment with other recommendations…
Tags: books, culture, Culture Seminar, worldview
Hearts and Minds blog
Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised
Byron Borger’s Hearts and Minds blog has just moved to www.heartsandmindsbooks.com. This is an excellent opportunity to point how great his blog is — always worth a look. Certainly the place to discover remarkable and unusual books that you wouldn’t have come across otherwise. And a big emphasis on developing the Christian mind/worldview in all areas of life, which I love.
I suspect the Hearts and Minds bookshop would be very high on my list of favourite shops if only it wasn’t half way ’round the world…
The Heavenly Good of Earthly Work (aftermath 1)
Posted by Paul | Filed under work
OK, let’s try a few posts on thoughts inspired by Darrell Cosden’s The Heavenly Good of Earth Work….
First, it is great that this book works to add a eschatological component to our discussions of how Christian belief applies to all of life.
For a number of years, the application of our beliefs to all of life has been a big theme for me. That is, developing a comprehensive Christian worldview. But, there is a slight niggle — a sort of missing link. After reading this, I think part of the niggle has been the feeling that not every thing quite joins up. We have, on one side, the push for all of our thinking to be based on our beliefs about the world and for what we believe to influence all we do. But, on the other, the necessity does not always feel as strong as it ‘should’.
I think a lot of this comes down to eschatology — I can try to apply what I believe to my studies/work/etc., but if all of the things I study/make/etc are headed for the dustbin, then where is the real motivation? Why not expend the mental energy in something more worthwhile?
Cosden’s arguments make an important step in the right direction. (I’m not implying that he has doen somthing other haven’t here, but perhaps he spells it out in a particularly clear way.) If we have the view that things we do at work/study/etc have the potential for ‘heavenly good’ then the dots start to link up better. Now we have a clear motivation for applying what we believe across the board — where the things we do don’t match up with God’s future they become valueless, but where they do… So, if I want them to have significance, I really need to work on how my beliefs impact my day-to-day activities and developing an all-emcompassing worldview.
Tags: books, eschatology, The Heavenly Good of Earthly Work, theology, work, worldview
The Heavenly Good of Earth Work (4)
Posted by Paul | Filed under work
The final chapter of Darrell Cosden’s The Heavenly Good of Earthly Work looks at the impact of the preceding discussion on our view of missions. He starts by looking at the ‘crisis’ in missions. In particular, at his own experiences in Russia. In his experience there was an implicit denigration of ‘everyday work’ as those visiting on missions implied that they had been called from meaningless work to something more important. The general message being that everyday work is cut off from God’s mission.
This can be implied in any church when
… our practice of church, our spiritual heroes, and our beliefs about spiritual/eternal things have spoken louder than our words and have undermined what we intended… our words ring hollow when we only regularly and publicly pray for those missionaries on ‘faith support’. And it is hard to believe we really are full-time ‘salt and light’ when only visiting missionaries are asked to come up front in church and visit small groups to talk about the ups and downs of their ministries.
Obviously, a theology based on the ‘heavenly good’ of everyday work takes us to a more inclusive perspective. If all our work can be part of God’s new creation and involves us partnering with God, then we have the potential to be part of God’s mission in every area of our lives.
…when done in a way that images God and co-operates with him, human work in itself images God and thus co-operates with him, human work in itself is Christian missionary activity. Why? Because it is largely (though not exclusively) through our work that we reflect God’s image and co-operate with him in bringing people and the whole of creation to humanity’s and nature’s ultimate maturity and future.
This is, of course, incredibly liberating. Suddenly, I can become part of God’s mission in everything. Not just when preaching, but also when I carry out my everyday work in ways that line up with God’s kingdom.
Of course, we need to find a way to counteract the negative message that has been sent out. How do we do this?
Mostly we need to proactive. Slow and steady will win the race. When we are together in our various Christian gatherings and meetings, small or large, formal or informal, we have to be intentional about devising ways to help us see each person in their daily work as a missionary … [we] need to consciously practice naming ourselves and our work as missionary.
Finally Cosden looks at the way this interacts with evangelism. If we are all made in the image of God and our work is important, then all of us, non-believers and believers, are to larger or smaller extent working with God’s mission:
All people were created to image God, and thus all people by virtue of their humanity are included in God’s purposes for creation. Not all people image God in fellowship with him, but we do nevertheless corporately carry out his mission to work in one way or another.
Importantly, our new mission enterprise based on the heavenly good of earthly work treats people differently from our old approach to mission. God still includes in his purposes those who haven’t yet, haven’t fully, or even won’t ever, come to faith.
Previously, it was simple to catagorize people sharply as either ‘them’ or ‘us’. In this way of thinking, the tendency was always to dehumanize others by treating ‘them’ ultimately as projects.
This is a really fascinating line of thought. I’m particularly interested in the consequence of not treating others as projects. It something that I’ve noticed for a long time: sometimes we seem to be more worried about ‘contacts’ than friends. As Cosden implies, unless we are careful this is a frequent tendency.
Finally Cosden links this into the ‘belonging-before-believing’ debate:
…this new understanding of mission is actually not all that new. In fact, it dovetails nicely with what many of us have been discovering for a long time about mission. That is, people need to be included. They need to belong before they can believe.
In many ways, this final chapter shows the motivation that Cosden has had all along — the expansion to a fuller understanding of mission. And, as I said, it is a great vision that makes a lot of sense and enlarges our view of God’s new creation to one that really encompasses the whole world.
Hopefully, I will find time to write some other reactions to the book n the near future…
Tags: books, eschatology, The Heavenly Good of Earthly Work, theology, work, worldview
A random walk over culture, art, christianity, etc. with occasional photographs...