Okay, I only have a few minutes to do this before I have to leave for work, but I wanted to throw this out there so that my fellow bloggers could "have at". I just have a couple of thoughts from the incredible sermon Sunday night.
I was thinking about the paradigms of culture. I think a lot of times, culture creates a structured outline that Christianity then fills as it is expressed through culture. That begs the question of should culture influence the expression of Christianity, or should Christ influence the expression of culture, and what does that looks like? I tend to think of it as a "both and", but then what does that look like?
I don't know about you all, but the Western/modern expression of Christianity is what kept me from becoming a Christian for so many years! I saw it lived out both in my home and in my church, and it disgusted me. It seemed shallow to me, and empty. It wasn't until I got a glimpse of an Eastern/"minority" (my own terminology) expression of Christianity that the Lord became an option in my life. The Post-modern expression still amazes me, in one of those "can't quite wrap my brain around it" kind of ways. I guess I still embrace the Eastern expression the most in my daily living.
So, question for thought before I fly out of here. There are good things and truths in every cultural expression of Christianity. Considering the Christian Response collumn in the handout, how do we live out Christianity in the midst of a cultural collage? Referring to my above question, what does it look like to allow culture to structure the expression of Christianity, and what does it look like to do that in the midst of Christ restructuring culture? Thougths to chew on.
Blessing, Courtney
3 comments:
Courtney, for a "hasty" post, you have gotten right to the crisis of faith in the West. What many fail to realize is that American culture is becoming something not merely "agnostic" but "anti-Christ."
I should qualify what I am saying by using such "hotbutton" words: AGNOSTIC would suggest that as a culture (cultures, really), we haven't KNOWN Christ (which is false -- we have but mammon and autonomy are our new gods); inasmuch as we have embraced these false gods (and a host of minor deities to boot), we have fostered an anti-Christ culture.
Faith, when it is authentic, generates a culture. Two of my theological heroes have said this and I'm convinced it's true (Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete and Pope Benedict XVI -- back when he was Joseph Ratzinger). The culture that authentic faith engenders is expansive and need not be predictable, but it will be notable for charity and holiness of life (by these I don't mean ostentasious (sp?) displays of public piety). Rather, the culture changes for the good because of the influence of Christians living out the presence of Christ in their midst.
This is, perhaps, just "high-faluting" talk. But I'd like to think it's a possiblity. When our Christian faith FAILS to shape the culture, something is sure to rush in to fill the void. The result looks something like 21st America: words like God, freedom, democracy tossed around without any agreement on what these things mean.
I'd like to pick up on what you said about "Western/modern expression[s] of Christianity" at another time. Thanks again for the thought-provoking post.
-Matt
Hammer,
It is a fine line isn't it? I mean acknowledging or holding in tension, as Bernanos' protagonist in DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST that "everything is grace" on the one hand, and, "responding to that grace."
What is one believer compared to the enormity of "the world"? And yet "God so loved the world that he sent his only Son..." In the abstract, "changing" culture seems like so much nonsense. Yet in my daily encounters, am I not either "building up" or "tearing down"? I should like to be one whose "every gesture is a response to grace" (Luigi Giussani), yet I know that this aspiration has not (yet?) been reached. Perhaps even my failures speak of Christ's mercy. The fact that I haven't been "smited" speaks of the mercy of God in my life.
The question, "What do/can we do?" can, paradoxically, become an obstacle to mission or discipleship. Certainly not by design, but if our "works" (or love embodied) become merely another program (read: bureaucracy!) for doing this or that, we may begin to think "we" are doing great things "for" Christ -- when we are in fact only puffing ourselves up and engaging in some mutual admiration society.
This is precisely where the Eastern Christian tradition becomes helpful for Western Christians (Catholic and Protestant alike). I found an Eastern point-of-view in the French Existentialist (how he loathed the latter term!), Gabriel Marcel. He said, in effect, that in order to live an authentically human life, our priority must focus on BEING rather than HAVING.
What he means I haven't totally figured out, but it seems to me that the immediate consequence is to place value on PERSONS ahead of THINGS (talk about counter-cultural). It means living a contemplative existence DELIBERATELY (especially in the midst of chaos -- e.g., little screaming children running around like banshees). It means always questioning the values proposed by the dominant culture (secular, neo-pagan, agnostic, whatever). It must mean always being open to seeing the face of Christ in those least like him (the secularist, the neo-pagan, the agnostic...).
In an ancient Christian document called the DIDACHE (The Teaching of Twelve Apostles), there is a discussion of the Way of Life and the Way of Death (this is also present in the OT). Things haven't changed much since the first century AD. There is talk of building a "culture of life" by Christians and I think this is the right idea (even when this language gets coopted by politicians). This isn't a government program but a spiritual disposition to welcome those most despised by the world: the poor, those who "contribute" nothing to society, the unborn, the so-called illegal immigrant, our enemies. Well, I'm big on theory but lacking in praxis (as the Marxists might say).
Part of the answer to constant business (THE Western fetish) lies in retrieving what the theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar calls the "Marian dimension" of Christian existence: simply being with Christ and remaining with Him: "Let it be done to me according to your word."
Enough said.
Courtney, I'm curious what you meant by an "Eastern/minority expression of Christianity" -- would you care to elaborate?
-Matt
Courtney, I've been looking around for God blog related blogs, and I came across this entry (Paradigms) during my search so I thought I'd
write a quick note to let you know! I recently started a new "Christian" blog called Ugly Blog, so I'd be happy to trade links if you're
interested. Anyway take care and have a nice day! Eric
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