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I was reading the interestingly-titled and well-written "Why Are There Never Enough Parking Spaces at the Prostate Clinic" by Carl Trueman at Reformation 21 and a sentence in his last paragraph had an important conviction/reminder for me as a Christian who somewhat of a cultural commentator.
Trueman says, "Alternatively, I could try to move out of my own little world, start thinking less in cultural and more in biblical terms. I could become less obsessed with particularities and more concerned with universals. I could engage less with the accidents of culture and more with the substance of nature." [emphasis mine]
That is something I wanted to bring up, especially among all of the cultural conversation on this site. We can get so busy scanning our culture like iTunes' "cover view" feature or flippantly analyzing every cultural flash in the pan and completely miss the point as Christians. As Christians our lives are lived in view of eternity, in view of the one and only God who creates and sustains and who has revealed Himself to us in the Bible and continues to do so every day. These facts carry with it some fundamental truths that we, in all of our contextualizing bluster, can skim right over: God has a nature and we have a nature. That is exactly where the greatest Christian missiologist/apologist/evangelist started his Gospel presentation in the last half of the first chapter of Romans.
As we look at our culture, are our spirits provoked (ESV), distressed (NIV), or troubled (HCSB) as Paul's was (Acts 17:16) when we look at the idols that are created, bred, and worshipped all around us? When we offer insights or diagnosis, are they done so through the lens that Paul uses in Acts 17 and Romans 1 where he begins his analysis with a view of who God is and how we've looked to other gods, other saviors? I think that having that Biblical view of the world is our true north and keeps us looking to, thinking in light of, and living faithfully in the eternal framework we believe that we are in. More so, it keeps us directing the gaze of those who hear us upwards and outwards, instead of downwards and within as our Western culture demands.
If we miss that, we're just contributing to the noise. If we miss that, we won't understand our need for Jesus - and therefore others won't either - and our cultural analysis will be a dire misdiagnosis. If we miss that, all of our talk of culture and contextualization is about as consequential as Wayne's World.
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Comments
There is some tension between our desire to interact with and influence our culture, interpret it in light of who God is and who we are, and the realization that God's nature is transcendant and we are sinners who need a savior. I agree that we often get caught up in the minutia of interpretation of culture. I know that you have made your living in the music industry and have some perspective there that I don't have, but does what kind of music (to name just one aspect of our culture) people (even Christian people) are listening to really matter very much, other than to the people who are making their living performing it or selling it. I mean does it have any effect on the transcendant God, helpless sinner interaction? Now the answer may be a qualified "yes." More than is readily apparent to me. But it may be a lot more like "no," than many people using conversantlife.com seem to appreciate.
doc
Doc, I always look forward to your comments. Thank you for them.
I feel like I didn't totally understand the last part of your comment but I'll do my best to address your question. You asked "does what kind of music people are listening to really matter very much, other than to the people who are making their living performing it or selling it". I wouldn't say that it matters "very much", but if you look at art as both a reflection and fountainhead of culture then analyzing it can help identify values (where do people find their identity, what is being spoken into the listeners/viewers), idols (what do people worship, hunger for, sacrifice for, etc), and false saviors (where do people run for comfort or find their hope). That's a pretty crude breakdown but those are what I try to look for when I listen to music, watch a movie or TV show, read a magazine, or look at anything culturally.
I think what matters "very much" is what we, as Christians, offer as responses to our observations.
(If you're looking for a few guys who do this sort of thing exceedingly well, check out David Wells, Tim Keller, and Mark Driscoll.)
Thanks for your follow-up reply. I understand better where you're coming from, analyzying "non-Christian" culture.
Where I'm coming from emotionally is that Christianity is very literally a life and death matter, both here on earth and for eternity. Having worked in the Middle East and seen people who have been tortured for their faith until they have lost their minds. Knowing of people who have died for their faith. Having two next door neighbors gunned down and killed for being Christian missionaries and another next door neighbor from seminary killed in a terrorist bombing in the Philippines. Have national friends who were afraid to talk to me more than five minutes at a time because someone was watching and would report that we had spent too much time together. Having a friend who is a believer weep because he is afraid for the safety of his children. Knowing a young man who was banished from his family, arrested, tortured and imprisoned, then escaped from the country, now living as a refugee, never to see his family again, suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome, people trying to kill him even as a refugee, his mother telling him not to call anymore beause it causes problems for the family--then that young man's younger brother, after watching what it cost to have this faith, is irresistably drawn to it and accepts Christ. And in this milieu, house churches are starting, the number of believers is multiplyng, because of "the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus (our) Lord."
Living and breathing this atmosphere makes it hard to take choice of music very seriously.
I think I understand your comments regarding needing to know what idols people are worshipping, and I respect that. From the New Testament the pattern seems to be more heavily on the positive presentation of the good news than on what idols to turn from. I do remember preaching to some Indians in the Yucatan Peninsula was some years back, though. When I mentioned the old Mayan gods by name, as having no power, in contrast to the Lord Almighty, there did seem to be an increased interest in the listeners.
doc
Ah, Doc, totally totally totally there with you. I haven't seen the extreme circumstances that you have but living over here has definitely opened my eyes to the simplicity and eternal urgency of The Gospel and to the fact that us even having this conversation, on this website, with all of the circumstances and conditions around it, is a luxury as equally incomprehensible to Christians in many parts of the world as it is to us - incomprehensible to them because of the severity of their situations and incomprehensible to us because that luxury is in the air we breathe. That is what I was hoping this post would help illuminate.
Either my next post or the one after it will hopefully continue on this path.
You should write about those experiences on this site!