DOCSLIB.ORG

A Theology of Culture 1 Introduction Main Idea: There Are Four Epochs Of

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Theology of Culture 1 Introduction Main Idea: There Are Four Epochs Of 1 Faith Faith and Culture 02: A Theology of Culture Introduction Main Idea: There are four epochs of Redemptive History that orient us in how to relate to culture. These four epochs help us understand where we have come from, what is corrupt and good in culture, how redemption began and how it will be completed. Where are We Going? Four epochs of Redemptive History: 1. Creation: God created everything good 2. Fall: creation lost its innocence and alienation resulted between it and God 3. Redemption: God begins to eliminate alienation 4. Restoration: God completely eliminates alienation Discussion Questions 1. What does alienation mean? Read Genesis 3 to begin conversation. 2. Think of and mention the various contexts where alienation is present in the world and in your own life. Where in your life do you feel most alienated? Lesson: A Theology of Culturei The epochs of Redemptive History tell us, in the most over-arching manner, the history of the world and its future. History, as we’ve come to study, is the recounting of narratives and those narratives’ significance for us in the present. Redemption History is God’s interaction with his creation and how it bears on our current situation. Let’s go over these epochs in Redemptive History. Creation. Read Genesis 1-2, how does God create? In what condition does he create? We see in the creation that God created everything and everything he created was good. The world is full of his order and his glory. The pinnacle of his creation was humanity, who was given special capacities. These capacities are endowed to it because it is an image bearer of God. The image bearing is evidenced in humanity’s ability to relate, know, and love God. Fall. Genesis 3 stands in stark contrast to the preceding two chapters. What was the result of the Fall? We see that creation becomes alienated from God, there is no longer an intimacy with creation as there once was. Alienation is on three levels: from God, others, and creation itself. This results in humanity worshipping creation as if it were the Creator (see Romans 1:18-32 and Colossians 3:5-11). Redemption. God reaches out to his fallen creation and begins to restore it. Note even the promise he gives to Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15 that hints at the gospel with the promise of the coming “serpent crusher.” In Christ Jesus, God alienates himself from his Son (Matthew 27:46) in order that his creation might be reconciled to him (2 Corinthians 5:21; Colossians 1:20). This reconciliation begins with humanity and extends through them to the world (John 3:16-21). Restoration. What begins with humanity will spread to the entire cosmos of all existence in a new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21:1). All creation will be restored to proper relation to God and in their God given function (Romans 8:21; 2 Peter 3:13). 2 Faith Faith and Culture 02: A Theology of Culture Interaction With the epochs of Redemptive History in mind, think about the following questions: 1. If God created everything good and it is now fallen, what does that say about the goodness of creation? Has it been eliminated or is it still here somehow? 2. How does the coming age of restoration affect your view of the present evils and fallenness of this world? Will the world go to Hell in a handbasket? 3. How do you typically understand Christ’s redemption? That is, what do you think that he redeems? Has anything in our discussion today altered your view? 4. Notice how God does not destroy creation and then re-create, but renews the present creation. Does this suggest that God thinks the world is full of trash or treasure, something not worth saving? Conclusion The residual goodness of creation is still woven through the fabric of the cosmos and the Fall has not destroyed those vestiges of goodness but only distorted them. It is the call and mandate to the believer to acknowledge where God’s light still shines in the wonderful and fair things in culture, even when that culture is not self-consciously redeemed. However, when we take the Fall seriously, we realize that there is abundant corruption in culture as well. As Christ has begun to renew our corrupted nature so we should seek to redeem aspects of a corrupted culture and give the world foretastes of what is to come. We will discuss in more detail what this evaluation and redemption of culture looks like in various cultural spheres as we progress in our study. i Phrase and epoch demarcation taken from Bruce Riley Ashford, Every Square Inch: An Introduction to Cultural Engagement for Christians (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015), chap. 2. .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Hermeneutics, Culture, and the Father of the Faithful
    Journal of the Adventist Theological Society, 13/1 (Spring 2002): 91Ð114. Article copyright © 2002 by Lael Caesar. Hermeneutics, Culture, and the Father of the Faithful Lael Caesar Andrews University Biblical hermeneutics and human socialization are a significantly uncom- fortable pair. Indeed, it is only natural for culture and hermeneutics to be in con- stant contention, and yet they are forever in each otherÕs company. They seem to claim the same level of authority for determining human behavior, so that while the believer may hold that God and His Word are everything, that very believer, as anthropologist or sociologist, knows that culture is everything. This is be- cause, despite our faith in the Holy Scriptures as authoritative, infallible, and prescriptive of conduct, no one has ever experienced Scripture outside of a hu- man social context. Nor do we here propose how that might be accomplished. Neither do we explore that ample specialty known as cultural hermeneutics.1 Rather, this paper examines the relationship between sound biblical hermeneu- tics and societal norms of conduct in the hope of demonstrating how salvific outcomes are possible from the interaction of the two. It attempts to show how a valid interpretation of GodÕs Word may be accessed and effectively transmitted across cultures. Defining Culture When we speak of biblical hermeneutics, we refer to the science, such as it is, of interpretation of Scripture. But what do we mean when we speak of Òcul- tureÓ? What does the idea of culture embrace? One may retort with a somewhat different question: What does the idea not embrace? For culture 1 ÒThe study of peopleÕs beliefs about the meaning of life and about what it means to be hu- man.Ó Kevin J.
    [Show full text]
  • Theories of Culture: a New Agenda for Theology, Ministry, and Faith Formation by Nate Frambach, Wartburg Seminary, Dubuque, IA
    Theories of Culture: A New Agenda for Theology, Ministry, and Faith Formation By Nate Frambach, Wartburg Seminary, Dubuque, IA Workshop Description: Theories of Culture: A New Agenda for Theology, Ministry, and Faith Formation Culture: a familiar word that rolls off the tongue rather easily, perhaps casually, as though it needs no explication. How do we move beyond popular definitions to a deeper understanding of the notion of culture for today? Three assertions: • The Christian gospel and culture(s) cannot be separated; • We live within a pluriverse of cultures; • Congregations are one of those cultures. This workshop will help participants better understand the reality of culture(s) today for the sake of faithful, truthful, and effective ministry in a missional age. Beginning: Preface/Notes for the Leader: You know this, but creating a trustworthy and hospitable space to learn together is important so use your best practices to establish the learning environment. Throughout the script that follows I will provide you with occasional prompts (e.g., “Say…”). Although this might be a bit pedantic, the point is not to insult you, but rather to indicate what is teaching or presenting material for the audience as opposed to commentary for you as the leader. By all means, feel free to modify, edit, or otherwise make it your own. Getting Started: Obviously, you will want to introduce yourself, welcome the participants to the workshop setting, and remind people about the focus for the session (workshop topic/description). If you’re funny, tell a joke; if not, tell someone else’s joke. Depending on the size of the gathering/workshop, you may want to have participants introduce themselves to one another.
    [Show full text]
  • KP Aleaz, "Gospel and Culture: Some Indian Reflections,"
    Gospel and Culture: Some Indian Reflections KP. ALEAZ* In this paper we present some of the findings of a commissioned study of the World Council of Churches on Gospel and Culture which we had the privilege to undertake. The Study is an elucidation of a double gospel emerging out of the Indian culture: on the one hand we have the. gospel of inter-religious interaction and the consequent composite culture of India and on the other, there is the gospel of God in Jesus arising out of the Indian hermeneutical context, which only mutually ratify one another. Culture denotes all the capabilities and habits acquired by human person as a member of a particular society, such as knowledge, belief, art, law, customs ek It is the whole way of life, material, intellectual and spiritual. It describes the way human beings think, feel, believe ·and behave. Culture is a comprehensive term and includes the following: (i) patterns and modes of external behaviour; (ii) the productive level of agriculture, industry, services and information, (iii) the social level of political economy or power ,. relations among human beings; and (iv) basic postures, values, beliefs, world views, which form the foundations of a culture and which find expression in art, music, literature, philosophy and religion. 1. The Research Problem . Historically, India has been one of the greatest confluences of different cultural strands. The composite culture of India is a product of borrowing, sharing and fusing through processes of interaction between two or more streams and such cultural symbiosis has given birth to greater vitality and larger acceptability.
    [Show full text]
  • Theology Facing Religious Diversity: the Perspective of Latin American Pluralist Theology
    Article Theology Facing Religious Diversity: The Perspective of Latin American Pluralist Theology Paulo A. N. Baptista Departamento de Ciências da Religião—Programa de Pós-graduação em Ciências da Religião, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais—PUC Minas, Av. Dom José Gaspar, 500, Belo Horizonte MG 30.535-901, Brasil; [email protected] or [email protected] Received: 27 September 2017; Accepted: 7 October 2017; Published: 24 October 2017 Abstract: Life is plural and diverse, biodiverse. This reality has always provoked philosophy, the sciences, and also theology. But how does theological thinking reflect on this eco-human diversity? What about religious diversity? Are diversity and pluralism the same phenomenon? These questions express the aim of this article: to reflect on theology in the face of diversity and pluralism. With the methodology of bibliographic analysis, the article begins by discussing the challenges of this reality. Then it deals with how theology confronts diversity and pluralism. In the end, it reflects on the possibility of Latin American Liberation Theology being conceived as pluralist, articulating itself with the Theology of Religious Pluralism—especially from the 1990s. One of the exponents of the Latin American Liberation Theology that justifies such a paradigm shift is the theologian Leonardo Boff. With his outputs, Latin American theology starts to realize, from the ecological paradigm, the articulation between liberation and dialogue, then being called pluralistic liberation theology. The conclusions of the article point out that cultural change, the ecological paradigm and, recently, the questions of decolonial theology, have led theological thinking to transform more, facing the socio- environmental challenges of diversity, conflicts, and interreligious dialogue, accepting even more the awareness of pluralism.
    [Show full text]
  • S41599-018-0129-1.Pdf
    ARTICLE DOI: 10.1057/s41599-018-0129-1 OPEN The future of the philosophy of religion is the philosophy of culture—and vice versa Mike Grimshaw 1 ABSTRACT This paper reads the future of the Philosophy of Religion via a critical engagement with the thought of Paul Tillich and diversions into other thinkers to support the main thrust of the argument. It takes as a starting point Tillich’s discussion of the relationship “ 1234567890():,; between religion and culture in On the Boundary (1967), in particular his statement As religion is the substance of culture, culture is the form of religion” (69–70). With (unlikely) diversions via TS Eliot and Karl Barth, the argument is developed through a re-reading of Tillich’s work on a theology of culture and in particular the statement from Systematic Theology III (1964b) that “…religion cannot express itself even in a meaningful silence without culture, from which it takes all forms of meaningful expression. And we must restate that culture loses its depth and inexhaustibility without the ultimacy of the ultimate” (264). Central to the rethinking of this paper is then the reworking of Tillich’s statement in On the Boundary that “My philosophy of religion …consciously remains on the boundary between theology and philosophy, taking care not to lose the one in the other. It attempts to express the experience of the abyss in philosophical concepts and the idea of justification as the limitation of philosophy” (52). While this can be seen as expressing the basis of continental philosophy and its creative tension between theology and philosophy, this paper inserts culture as the meeting point that holds theology and philosophy in tension and not opposi- tion.
    [Show full text]
  • Culture in the Magisterium of Pope John Paul II
    incomplete if it is not lived out in a culture, and a culture opposed to the faith creates obstacles to the living out of that faith. Second, culture provides a medium for dialogue between believers and nonbelievers. Art also serves as such a medium. Third, the goal of the engagement Culture in the Magisterium1 of Pope John of culture in the New Evangelization is the building of a civiliza- tion of love, one that enables the human person to live freely in the Paul II: Evangelization through Dialogue truth. Finally, this transformation of culture will begin when holiness and the Renewal of Society and culture are brought together. A transformed culture that is more informed by Christianity is one of the key goals of John Paul’s call for R. Jared Staudt a New Evangelization. This transformed culture would also be more Augustine Institute genuinely human, would offer more freedom, in that it centers on true dignity of the human person. This vision is also fundamentally rooted in the call of Vatican II to reawaken the laity to their particular mis- George Weigel, in his Cube and the Cathedral, argues that the Slavic sion in working for the good of the world. view of history, which is centered on the role of culture, provides a true understanding of what moves peoples and societies at the deepest level. This explains the power of John Paul II to reawaken the con- ope John Paul II called the church to devote its efforts to a sciousness of his fellow countrymen and women in one of the greatest New Evangelization aimed primarily toward those Chris- peaceful achievements of freedom in history.
    [Show full text]
  • ABSTRACT Contextual Preaching
    ABSTRACT Contextual Preaching: a model for effective impact on the socio-cultural living of Christians in the Anglican Diocese of Ijebu South-West, Nigeria. by Babatunde Fadefoluwa Rotimi Ogunbanwo The purpose of this project was to measure the changes in knowledge, attitude and behavior among clergy and lay pastors from the Anglican Diocese of Ijebu South West, Nigeria who participated in a twelve – week training event on contextual preaching. The problem addressed by the research was the contradiction between faith commitment and lived experiences among Christians in the Anglican diocese of Ijebu South-West, Nigeria. The Diocese of Ijebu South-West is a Diocese within the Anglican Church in Nigeria, domiciled in the Ijebu cultural context of Yorubaland of South-West, Nigeria. The Diocese is to proclaim the gospel of Christ within the Ijebu cultural context which is very different from Christianity in their world-view, theology and spirituality. Thus, it is important in this context for preachers to plan and prepare their sermons in a way that the Bible and its core doctrines will be taught in a contextual way and systematically. Hence for the Clergy and lay pastors in the Diocese of Ijebu South West to be relevant in the context of the Diocese, there is a need for a preacher in the local context of the people to be trained in contextual preaching. This project thus seeks to make a contribution toward a contextualized approach to preaching among the Yoruba of Nigeria with particular reference to the Ijebu Christians in the Diocese of Ijebu South- West. The purpose of this project was to measure the change in knowledge, attitude and behavior among Clergy and lay pastor form the Anglican Diocese of Ijebu South-West, Nigeria who participated in twelve-week training event on contextual preaching.
    [Show full text]
  • Agnon's Shaking Bridge and the Theology of Culture
    5 Agnon’s Shaking Bridge and the Theology of Culture Jeffrey Saks Rabbeinu HaGadol, Rabbi Avraham yitzhak HaKo- hen Kook z″l . How close he drew me in! in his humility he was kind enough to read my story “Va- Hayah HeAkov LeMishor,” which was then still in manuscript. When he returned it to me, he said in these exact words: “this is a true Hebrew/Jewish sto- ry, flowing through the divine channels without any זהו סיפור עברי באמת נובע מן הצינורות בלא שום] ”barrier 1.[מחיצה “today’s reader is no longer content with reading for pleasure. He expects to find a new message in every work.” Hemdat replied: i didn’t come to answer the question “Where are you going?” though i do some- times answer the question “Where did you come from?” 2 1 Orthodox Forum 6.24.13.indb 143 6/24/13 4:49 PM 1 Jeffrey Saks in discussing the consumption of literature from an Orthodox Jewish perspective, and the writings of the greatest modern Hebrew author, Nobel laureate S. y. Agnon, as an exercise in examining the “theology of culture,” i assume tillich’s notion of “the religious dimension in many special spheres of man’s cultural activity . [which] is never absent in cultural creations even if they show no relation to religion in the narrower sense of the word.”3 the writings of S. y. Agnon (born as Shmuel yosef Czaczkes in buczacz, Galicia, 1887; died in israel, 1970),4 executed in a remarkably wide variety of genres, spanning an active career of over sixty years (with more volumes published posthumously than in his own life- time), are exemplars of the religious dimension embodied in literary creation.
    [Show full text]
  • Crossing Cultures: Readings for Composition Pdf, Epub, Ebook
    CROSSING CULTURES: READINGS FOR COMPOSITION PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Myrna Knepler, Annie Knepler, Ellie Knepler | 416 pages | 23 Feb 2007 | Cengage Learning, Inc | 9780618918065 | English | Belmont, CA, United States Crossing Cultures: Readings for Composition PDF Book I can see myself picking up this book to read for pleasure. The flapping flag in the painting features a circle of stars on a blue field and red and white stripes. But they are generalizations and stereotypes that have been proven to be statistically valid when applied to large populations of people over time, but to which nonetheless there are always exceptions and variations in individual and collective behavior. Sophie marked it as to- read May 22, Comparative literature Cosmopolitanism Cross-cultural leadership Cross-cultural narcissism Cross-cultural psychiatry Emotions and culture Globalism Hybridity Interculturalism Interculturality Negotiation Third culture kid Transculturation Transnationalism. Papacharissi, Zizi, ed. He created an inspirational vision of brave and upright men from a variety of backgrounds standing up and fighting together against incredible odds for the common cause of liberty. Students study select court transcripts and other primary source material from the second Scottsboro Boys Trial of , a continuation of the first trial in which two young white women wrongfully accused nine African American youths of rape. Published in , The Sound and the Fury is often referred to as William Faulkner's first work of genius. Turkle, Sherry, ed. This is the notion of distributed intelligence. Timur Sattybayev marked it as to-read Jan 17, To Kill a Mockingbird and the Scottsboro Boys Trial of Profiles in Courage Students study select court transcripts and other primary source material from the second Scottsboro Boys Trial of , a continuation of the first trial in which two young white women wrongfully accused nine African American youths of rape.
    [Show full text]
  • Art Theology of Culture
    VU Research Portal Theology of Culture,Secularity, and Plurality Stoker, W. published in Crossroad Discourses between Christianity and Culture 2010 Link to publication in VU Research Portal citation for published version (APA) Stoker, W. (2010). Theology of Culture,Secularity, and Plurality. In J. D. H. W. Gort, Jansen and Stoker (Ed.), Crossroad Discourses between Christianity and Culture (pp. 1-15). Rodopi. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. E-mail address: [email protected] Download date: 29. Sep. 2021 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY THEOLOGY OF CULTURE, SECULARITY, AND PLURALITY Wessel Stoker Crossroad Discourses between Christianity and Culture explores the place of the Christian faith in contemporary (post)modern culture and looks at its dialogue with secular culture, the world religions, and new forms of religiosity, and at the internal dialogue between different Christian confessions. Contemporary Western culture is secular and pluralistic with respect to worldviews, and a tendency toward globalization can also be noted.
    [Show full text]
  • 465 Mennonite Ethics and the Ways of the World
    Mennonite Ethics and the Ways of the World: Rethinking Culture for Renewed Witness LUKE BECK KREIDER* Abstract: Many Mennonites desire the church to be a visible body marked off from “the world” by distinctive practices of Christ-like love and service. However, in light of their increasing accommodation to wider Western culture, acculturated Mennonites like those within Mennonite Church USA face the challenge of cultivating such a witness. This essay argues that Mennonites should not seek new patterns of “concrete separation” from culture, nor attempt to define and drive Mennonite ethics through systematic theology or other normative statements of faith. Drawing on both theoretical and theological analyses of culture it suggests instead that the church develops its visible and distinctive witness not by separating from wider culture, but by making innovative uses and subversive transformations of common cultural elements. The church is more apt to develop and sustain faithful witness when it focuses its energies on enacting and reflecting upon concrete historical experiments in Christian service and community, or when proposals for practical social action drive debates about the nature and tasks of discipleship. The quest to understand and orient Christianity’s relationship to culture is an important but vexing undertaking. Although Christians of all stripes and generations face the question, the religious sects spawned from the Radical Reformation, notably the Mennonites, have figured prominently in the popular and ecumenical imagination for their alleged consistent, rigorous, and identity-defining approach to the problem of ‚Christianity and culture.‛ Yet while celebrated texts of Christian ethics identify Anabaptists as starkly ‚against culture‛—and while Mennonites themselves have sometimes reinforced this view through their self- descriptions and theological expressions—Mennonite relations to culture have never been easily classified.1 *Luke Beck Kreider recently completed a master’s degree in religion at Yale Divinity School.
    [Show full text]
  • Theology & Popular Culture
    Theology & Popular Culture REL 375 / Topics in Theology / 4 Credits / Northwestern College / Fall 2006 Instructor: Dr. Michael Andres, [email protected] Office/Hours: VPH115; Mon, Tue, Fri 3:30-5:00pm; Wed 9:00-12:00; ext. 7079 Class Time: Tu-Th 9:25-10:55 am Class Location: VPH215 Course Description: This course is a theological, biblical, and historical study of the relationship between Christian theology and popular culture, from a classical as well as a contemporary perspective. This course will explore various theological and religious meanings that are carried in popular culture. Through reading several "theologians of culture," we will examine contemporary American culture, films, music, television, and marketplace with the intent of developing ways to discern images of God, human nature, good and evil, salvation, and the final state that often operate below the surface of our common cultural life in America. Course Objectives: Survey key theological concepts that are useful in interpreting culture. Consider the revelatory and the iconographic powers of popular culture from a theological perspective. Explore several current theories about the role of popular culture in a society and Christian faith. Engage in theological reflection on several specific areas of popular culture (e.g. shopping, film, music, TV, sports, etc.). Develop habits of analysis with which one might read cultural events and phenomena theologically. Primary Texts: Bible (modern translation, e.g. NASB, NIV, NRSV, etc. [not paraphrase, e.g. New Living]; bring to every class period). Kelton Cobb, The Blackwell Guide to Theology and Popular Culture (Blackwell, 2005). David Dark, The Gospel According to America: A Meditation on a God-blessed, Christ- haunted Idea (Westminster John-Knox, 2005) Christian Scharen, One Step Closer: Why U2 Matters to Those Seeking God (Brazos, 2006) Sam Van Eman, On Earth As It Is In Advertising? Moving From Commercial Hype to Gospel Hope (Brazos, 2005) Course Requirements: Class attendance/participation: Participation highly encouraged.
    [Show full text]