Can Theology and Culture Speak to Each Other?
I've been forced to do lots of thinking about theology and culture. A couple major reasons necessitate this. First, I've made a major move. California is new to me. Sure, I've been here on multiple visits, but you never really know a place until you live there. As one of my elders, Lynn Button, puts it well, I'm in the information gathering phase. I'm having to guard against reading my new environment through lenses developed in other settings. Sure, I've learned good processes for asking questions and gathering information, but I can't use past conclusions to shape what I think about the world of California and the Central Valley. I want to be effective in my ministry here in Fresno, so I'm looking at this culture and wondering how theology can interact with it.
Second, I'm in the middle of my doctoral studies. This doesn't mean I'm smart. Just means that I'm a little crazy. At any rate, this program is forcing me to ask questions about my ministry and about how I do theology. It is asking me to bring culture and theology into conversation with one another.
One way of explaining this is to think of the incarnation. Think of Jesus as theology. He didn't just stay up in heaven, calling out to us to look up there and understand him. We all know that. He came down here to earth and became enmeshed in our culture. Yet in the midst of all that, he still fully kept his identity as God's Son. Jesus was the perfect embodiment of the intersection between theology and culture. He brought God into everyday life. And everyday life was part of God's world -- not that it wasn't already, but it was real and obvious.
Churches can tend to live in their own worlds. Doing church. Coming to church. Inviting people to church. And they can view the world as something bad, something to be avoided. So church draws a line between itself and the world, as if they could be separated.
The result, however, is not good. I can think of two options, and neither one is a happy place for church to be. One is that we live as a commune, completely cut off from the surrounding world. I don't know many churches that would even contemplate that. The other option is to live segmented, compartmentalized lives. People come and do church, act churchish here in this place, talk church talk, promote church agendas. But then they go out into the world where they worship the gods of the world named NFL, shopping, food, their children, their cars, recreation, their vacation time, etc. Churches in this second category live as salt without saltiness, light bulbs without a filament.
The church (not just individual, lone-wolf Christians) has to learn to converse with our world. Conversation requires a willingness to both speak and listen. And it involves a willingness to form a relationship. And relationships end up changing both parties, but the change happens through intentional choices, not in the hidden ways that culture has changed the church in recent decades -- while we act as if we haven't changed.
Take poor Miss California as an example. She is speaking her mind, and has had her chance to shine on the TV talk shows and now in church building after church building. She's doing a lot of talking. But not much listening. Lots of people (conservative Christians) are applauding her "bravery" for taking a stand. So let me get this straight, we hold up as an example of Christian witness this young woman whose goal in life was to be a Victoria's Secret model? This is the depth of Christian interaction with our world?
So what would a real conversation between theology and culture look like?
Second, I'm in the middle of my doctoral studies. This doesn't mean I'm smart. Just means that I'm a little crazy. At any rate, this program is forcing me to ask questions about my ministry and about how I do theology. It is asking me to bring culture and theology into conversation with one another.
One way of explaining this is to think of the incarnation. Think of Jesus as theology. He didn't just stay up in heaven, calling out to us to look up there and understand him. We all know that. He came down here to earth and became enmeshed in our culture. Yet in the midst of all that, he still fully kept his identity as God's Son. Jesus was the perfect embodiment of the intersection between theology and culture. He brought God into everyday life. And everyday life was part of God's world -- not that it wasn't already, but it was real and obvious.
Churches can tend to live in their own worlds. Doing church. Coming to church. Inviting people to church. And they can view the world as something bad, something to be avoided. So church draws a line between itself and the world, as if they could be separated.
The result, however, is not good. I can think of two options, and neither one is a happy place for church to be. One is that we live as a commune, completely cut off from the surrounding world. I don't know many churches that would even contemplate that. The other option is to live segmented, compartmentalized lives. People come and do church, act churchish here in this place, talk church talk, promote church agendas. But then they go out into the world where they worship the gods of the world named NFL, shopping, food, their children, their cars, recreation, their vacation time, etc. Churches in this second category live as salt without saltiness, light bulbs without a filament.
The church (not just individual, lone-wolf Christians) has to learn to converse with our world. Conversation requires a willingness to both speak and listen. And it involves a willingness to form a relationship. And relationships end up changing both parties, but the change happens through intentional choices, not in the hidden ways that culture has changed the church in recent decades -- while we act as if we haven't changed.
Take poor Miss California as an example. She is speaking her mind, and has had her chance to shine on the TV talk shows and now in church building after church building. She's doing a lot of talking. But not much listening. Lots of people (conservative Christians) are applauding her "bravery" for taking a stand. So let me get this straight, we hold up as an example of Christian witness this young woman whose goal in life was to be a Victoria's Secret model? This is the depth of Christian interaction with our world?
So what would a real conversation between theology and culture look like?
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