In the beginning, God created. It is here that the study of Christ and culture must find its root. For the Christian is one who finds his or her identity in a creative God who has imparted with humanity a mandate to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it”. As human beings created in the image of God, the question is not whether or not we were given a mandate to create, but rather how we choose to be creative. With that in mind, one cannot avoid that which is the inevitable result of creative work on behalf of humanity, that is, culture. This is not simply a socio-scientific study for how we might come to understand the meaning of culture. Rather, it is deeply theological and is the means by which Christians come to understand their relationship to the world(s) in which they find themselves a part.
The word culture is derived from the Latin cultura, which means to cultivate. Its etymology is linked to an emphasis on growth and maturity of that which is planted in soil. In that sense, culture is a process of understanding the growth patterns of human interaction. And although these human growth patterns are not subject to the meaning we attribute them, it is precisely the meaning human beings superimpose upon them that creates culture.
In light of this view of culture, the cultural mandate in Genesis addresses the way in which human beings were intended to fill the earth by superimposing meaning on the raw nature God originally created. However, Genesis 3 tells of a fracture that occurred in the created order which sent all of creation into disarray. From this point forward, humanity’s work of creating culture would no longer serve God’s intended order for the world he created. This is the point in the story where the issue of the Christian’s relationship to the culture(s) becomes of theological significance and relevance. How do we now see ourselves as people created in the image of God, having been given a mandate to create culture, in light of the events in Genesis 3 and the work of Jesus on the cross?
This is a question Christians must always be wrestling with as we explore our role in the worlds of art, entertainment, science, business, politics, etc. For this reason, I will be writing a series of posts discussing the predominate issues within the Christ and Culture debate using works from H. Richard Niebuhr, Richard Mouw, Stanley Hauerwas, Abraham Kuyper, and others.
With that said, I invite you into the conversation as we press into some of the ways Christians have positioned themselves in relation to the culture(s) in the past and consider how we might in turn view our roles in the culture(s) we find ourselves in.
