Check out this verse from Deuteronomy:

“And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this whole law that I am about to share with you today?”  Dt. 4:8

This is a fairly loaded statement about culture in a small space. We often read the Old Testament, the Torah no less, and are amazed by the laws listed.

There are all kinds of penalties that seem rather harsh to us. Some rules seem oppressive. But in its day, the Mosaic Law was radical. It revealed a merciful and just God.

Obedience to this law taught the nations around Israel about the God of these alien people who appeared out of the desert.

God is always revealing himself in a particular time and place because that is how we are made. He meets us, in many ways, on our own terms so that we can truly get to know him.

One of the latest books I’ve picked up is Island at the Center of the World. It’s the story of Manhatten Island and the founding of New York City from 1600 to roughly 1664 when the English took it over. Many modern histories mention the Dutch only briefly and quickly move on to the English period that followed, treating the story of Manhatten as if the Dutch had just swindled the Indians into selling them the land and then quickly losing it to the English. That, at least, is what I was taught in school.

Author Russell Shorto has a different perspective on this. After working documents that have recently been translated from the Dutch colonial period, the influence of the Dutch settlers on what was to become New York city was fairly substantial. In many ways, the English simply let the Dutch system continue to flourish, and this is what Shorto credits with creating the remarkable city of New York.

Why has this period of Dutch influence of America been overlooked for so long? Shorto asserts that English historians have drowned out any alternative histories. The English, who were at war with the Dutch off and on in the 1600’s often depicted the Dutch colony on Manhatten as bumbling, inefficient, and comical. While some accusations were true, the Dutch also had a lot going for them. It is the latter that Shorto hopes to highlight.

Though I am not sure if I will take the time to wade through all of the material in this book, it has once again brought up the importance of multiple voices and perspectives. Who knows what other parts of our history have been suppressed because diversity was not embraced. In addition, who knows what blind spots exist in Christian theology since it has been dominated by the West for so long.

Andrew Jones has put together one of the best blog posts ever about the emerging church and new media. It is filled with relevant links and playful interaction with the importance of the web and blogging today. In particular, he provides analysis of how society has changed since the time of Neil Postman’s book Amusing Ourselves to Death and the contours that currently exist with the web. A lively discussion is taking place in the comment section as well. Enjoy!

It’s kind of crazy to think that the first stop for one of the ancient dead sea scrolls is in Cleveland, OH, but alas truth is stranger than fiction. According to NPR:

For nearly 2,000 years the Dead Sea Scrolls sat undisturbed in tall, earthen jars hidden in a honeycomb of caves in the Judean desert. For the last 50 years, these ancient texts have been preserved in Jerusalem’s Israel Museum. Now one of the most important scrolls has left the Middle East and is making its first appearance in the United States, at a museum in Cleveland. The exhibit, which opens April 1 at the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, includes many ancient treasures, including bronze and silver coins dating back two millennia.

Read the rest of the article

In my own studies of the Dead Sea Scrolls (which I viewed while in Israel thank you Cleveland, I will not need you), I have been amazed at the interpretive methods employed by Essenes, or whoever may have composed them. The interpretations typically follow immediately after a portion of scripture and follow a very typical formula. The wicked are always associated with the corrupt Pharisees and Sadduccees in the city, those with smooth tongues, while the righteous always include an unnamed teacher of righteousness and the Essene community.

It is assumed that bad eschatology led up to their eventual downfall, as the Essenes most likely wrapped up their scrolls for safe keeping while they went off to fight the Romans around AD 70. Thinking that the Messiah would come to save them, they were subsequently slaughtered, leaving their scrolls for us to discover in the 20th century. That’s more theory than anything else, but based on their Biblical interpretations, it is likely.   

I am currently listening to a book on tape called, Sea of Glory, that details the US exploration of the South Pacific and Antarctica from 1838-1842. While the story is full of human conflict, fear, and peril, I have also noticed the clash of European Enlightenment ideals  with native cultures on the islands.

The explorers thought of themselves as questing for knowledge. They were seeking to understand their world. Curiously, they also ran into a large number of  natives who caused them to question the values of their own culture. Were the natives simply savages who needed to be tamed, or were the explorers the true savages who were ruined through society and needed to get back to the natural world in habited by the people on these islands. In fact, while some members of the expedition longed to stay on the islands, some did just that and were not heard from until years later!

What’s curious to me is that we see here the first chip into the European metanarrative. Until they arrived on the shores of these blissful islands, the explorers thought their world to be superior and their story to be adequate. Suddenly, they were in the midst of people with different stories and a different world. For years there would be a struggle to see who has the superior and/or true take on reality, but over time there has been a relaxing of the two sides and a new concept is introduced to Enlightenment philosophy: diversity.

The interaction of theology and culture is near and dear to my heart. It’s one of the reasons why I have set out on this book project.  Scott, a friend over at theopraxis.net has been posting quite a bit on theology and culture. I have to confess that I am insanely jealous that he has his hands on a copy of Doing Local Theology. It’s on my "must read" list that always growns longer and longer over time. I have a list of recommended "contextual theology" books listed on this blog in the left margin. Click on them and give them a look. They may not be for everyone, but everyone should at least look them over.

If it’s anything like  Contextual Theology by Bevans, I’m sure that Sedmak has some incredibly relevant things to say to the church. If anything, these kinds of books help remind us about the complexity of our world and give us some tools to keep us honest in our theological ramblings.

Here are some thoughts from Scott and consequently, his quotes of Sedmak:

Sedmak proposes three criteria for "good theology" that I thought were just fascinating.  He writes this:

What
is "good theology" according to Jesus? As we have seen, theology is not
exclusively an academic endeavor. It is about personal and communal
transformation, based on a relationship with God….Jesus emphasizes
the practical consequences, the fruits. He emphasizes the spirit with
which theology is done. He emphasizes the need to care for the people
and to be with the people.

He goes on to discuss his three criteria for good theology:

• Realness
  - Realness means that the theology is true to life. Reality also serves
  as a check to our own thinking, to constructing systems that are
  intellectually coherent but practically unworkable.
• Fidelity to the founder – In his own words, this means being "faithful and honest to the mission and message and person of Jesus".
• Practical consequences
  - What is the fruit? What are the practices that naturally flow from
  the theology? Again, in Sedmak’s words, "Theology is a way of following
  Jesus."

Thanks for your summary Scott. I almost feel like the book is in my hands right now . . .

Technorati Tags: theology, local, praxis

Check out this spoof trailer of Sleepless in Seattle: link.

While such creations are rather humorous and amazing in their display of creativity and ingenuity, they also illustrate an important aspect of media in today’s culture. You can essentially take a picture, sound clip, or video clip and make any image/statement mean whatever you want. It’s all in how you arrange it.

It is far too easy for the West to think of the Middle East as a place of riots and constant violence, burning flags, and throwing rocks. At the same time, some folks in the Middle East think of America rampant with crime, murder, and immorality.  While we cannot point to any one thing as the cause of such impressions, it is worth noting the role of media and select pictures in creating this impression.

The inherent problem with a picture or a video is that you only have a small window into a multi-dimensional, 360 degree world. You receive one second of action from an ongoing sequence. While you can get an idea of what’s happening, you cannot make a one to one correspondence between reality and what you see in the picture or the film.

The Sleepless in Seattle trailer does a masterful job of splicing together scenes from a romantic comedy and making them appear to be a horror flick. That should make us cautious in how we read, view, and interpret.

This also brings up the issue of reading the Bible. The current Evangelical trend is to divide up chunks of scripture and further sub-divide them into their grammatical elements. The goal is to understand via dissection. The larger narrative is sometimes overlooked, even if we want to understand context because our method moves from large to small.

A more faithful approach to the overall story of scripture is locating passages within the larger scheme of scripture.  This is fairly mainstream within evangelical Christianity, with such an approach advocated by Bryan Chapell in Christ – Centered Preaching.  When we discover pieces of text, we would greatly benefit by finding out how they fit into the whole organism of scripture, rather than amputating them from one another. While his focus is on preaching, Chapell’s methods are worth a look. He has a firm grasp of the story of redemption and is a good starting point for further theological reflection and discussion.

Tony Jones has a great post related to a new book The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture: How Media Shapes Faith, the Gospel, and Church, by Shane Hipps.

This is a project worth reviewing and possibly buying. Here is the introduction from his site:

There is a hidden force at work in our culture shaping our
life of faith. Unfortunately most of us fail to perceive it. We have the ability to see what’s
happening. We see the way cell phones,
Internet blogs, and TV channels permeate our culture. But few of us can truly perceive what these
things have the capacity to do, and undo.  

Like the magician’s sleight-of-hand, we are distracted and
enamored by the entertainment and efficiency of our technologies. But most of us stand oblivious to trick
played on our mind. Despite our best
intentions, and regardless of what information our media convey, all media have
a hidden bias with the power to shape nearly every aspect of life without our
ever knowing it.

We fail to see the way in which Television and Internet
blogging make the writings of Paul nearly obsolete. We miss the way these same technologies
revive the gospel stories and the parables taught by Jesus.

Asking the Right
Questions

Not all is dire however. There is great promise as well as peril in our technological
society. But we will never make our way
through the maelstrom of our media if we don’t stop and ask the right questions
before moving forward. 

The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture asks the right
questions, and provides some important answers. It reveals the subtle secrets of electronic
culture and the hidden ways it is shaping culture, faith, and the church.

This is not a book about “technology;” it is ultimately a
book about faith, community, worship, and the future of the church. Providing both history and prophecy, The
Hidden Power of Electronic Culture invites us to engage new cultural realities
while staying connected to our spiritual heritage.

Christianity Today has an interesting article relating to the approach of missionaries when sharing the Gospel in another culture and its implications for us in our own context today.

Excerpt:

Assuming they survive the initial contact (which no
one takes for granted anymore) the missionaries spend a great deal of
effort to learn the tribal language and culture. They work at building
relationships so that when it comes time to share the Good News, people
listen instead of chasing after them with machetes. Apparently food and
medicine help a lot with this, at least according to the movie.

Okay, so once they understand the language and
culture and have built relational bridges with the people, they begin
to share the message of salvation. Now comes the interesting
part—during this process, behavioral issues are very low in priority.
Rather than being "sin police" the missionaries view themselves as
ambassadors of Christ (2 Cor. 5:20). If they focus on behavioral problems, such as idolatry or sexual sin, it can be very counterproductive.

Ron recounted instances where the missionaries got
the tribal people to do all the right things. You know, little things
like wearing clothes, not murdering their neighbor, stuff like that.
But for all their success in making the natives civilized, the gospel
never took hold. The people did what the missionaries wanted, because
they saw the benefits of cooperating. Frankly, it really amazes me what
a well-timed gift of a cast-iron pot can do. But the people they were
trying to reach never internalized the gospel and the result was
tragic. Why did these efforts at evangelism fail? Because instead of
looking with compassion on tribal people those particular missionaries
viewed them as inferior or even "evil" and needing to be "fixed."

I introduced my thoughts on culture by making my case that we are in fact embedded in culture and are severely limited when we try to break free of these limitations. Below are some thoughts on what we can do in the face of context complexities.

A recent interview with Miroslav Volf is worth a look along the same lines.

We are embedded in culture. Now
what?

At bare minimum
it is essential that we seek to understand our own culture and come to terms
with its advantages and limitations. A helpful tool in such a task is to
examine different cultures. For example, my interaction with Korean culture has
revealed to me that Koreans place a high priority on respect for elders, which
reveals the more laid back approach that Americans take. What I consider the
highest of honors for an elder is a mere pittance in Korean eyes. While I may
not hesitate to call an older man by his first name if I know him well, Koreans
will always use the person’s last name, such as Mr. Beasley. It should be noted
that each culture presents opportunities for sin, as in some extreme cases the
Korean approach could be used to oppress younger generations while the American
manner could be very degrading to elders. In addition, how each group obeys the
fourth commandment to honor your father and mother will look very different.
Whatever the case may be, such interaction has revealed to me that my views of
elders are not the norm for all to follow.

Including outside
perspectives and understanding our own limits will only serve to enhance our
ability to know God and to make him known. Though some Christians may opt to
avoid direct interaction with culture and take an isolationist stance, they are
never truly free from the influences of culture. In fact, I would say that this
is dangerous. To choose isolation from cultural interaction is the equivalent
of shutting one’s eyes, leading one to believe that his/her limited views are
somehow pure and culture-free.

As we delve into
the possibility of interacting with culture, it is important to be wary of plundering
from culture as if it was the enemy in a black and white sense. God reveals
himself in culture. What else can the incarnation be? Yet, sin corrupts
culture, and that is what God wars against. Certain aspects of culture will be
of greater import and use to us as we seek to know God and reveal him, but we
must always remain critical in our evaluation of culture, forever vigilant in
the face of norms incompatible with Christianity. We understand and preach the
Gospel as members of a culture, carefully challenging all that is opposed to
Christ. In other words, we affirm what is good and challenge all that is
tainted by sin, bringing redemption to the culture. We cannot stand outside
of culture and pick and choose what we will include and what we will push to
the side, we are intertwined.

Yet, even if we
desire to interact with culture, there are a variety of methods to choose from.
Stephan Bevan has provided an excellent survey of the possibilities within his
work Models of Contextual Theology. In cutting to the chase, Bevan and
other evangelical theologians assert that no one model is the one-size fits all
solution to contextual concerns. The application of these models in many cases
will depend on the context![1]
“No one model can account for all the data of a particular area, or of the
complexity of a theological doctrine or position.”[2]