CROSS CULTURAL MINISTRY CM 3303 CHRIST AND CULTURE

Christ Above Culture

Christ and Culture in Paradox The dualist believes that in the presence of the crucified Lord of glory, men see that all their works are pitifully inadequate

Christ and Culture in Paradox The dualist differs from the synthesist in their understanding of both the extent and the thoroughness of human depravity

Christ and Culture in Paradox The dualist believes that all human culture is corrupt including all human work both in and out of church The dualist differs from the synthesist also in his conception of the nature of corruption in culture

Christ and Culture in Paradox The whole edifice of culture is cracked and madly askew God and man stand in paradox – Law and Grace – Divine Wrath and Mercy

Christ and Culture in Paradox Three figures in Church History stand out as advocates of dualism: – Paul – Marcion – Luther

Christ and Culture in Paradox According to Paul, the issue of life lies between the righteousness of God and the righteousness of man

Christ and Culture in Paradox Christ defines the issue through his action of revelation, reconciliation and inspiration In a sense, the encounter with God in Christ had revitalized for Paul al cultural institutions and distinctions, all the works of man

Christ and Culture in Paradox Through the cross and resurrection Christ redeemed men from their prison of self- centeredness, the fear of death, hoplessness and godlessness

Christ and Culture in Paradox Paul could not take the way of the radical Christian with his new Christian law by attempting to remove himself and other disciples out of the cultural world into an isolated community of the saved

Christ and Culture in Paradox Paul added to his proclamation of the gospel of a new life in Christ and a cultural Christian ethics It had to be lived in the midst of societies evidently subject to the dark powers

Christ and Culture in Paradox Paul, then, seems to move in direction of a synthetic answer to the Christ and Culture problem and yet the manner in which he relates the ethics of Christian culture to the ethics of the spirit of Christ is markedly different than the synthesist

Christ and Culture in Paradox For Paul, culture has a kind of negative function His two ethics are not contradictory, but neither do they form parts of one closely knit system

Christ and Culture in Paradox Pauls dualism is connected not only with this view of Christian life as being lived in the time of the final struggle and of the new birth, but also with his belief that the whole cultural life together with its natural foundations is so subject to sin and to wrath that the triumph of Christ must involve the temporal end of the whole temporal creation as well as of temporal culture

Christ and Culture in Paradox In the second century dualism was embraced by Marcion He was counted with the heretical group, the Gnostics

Christ and Culture in Paradox Marcion had trouble with two gospel truths: – The Old Testament presentation of God as the wrathful guardian of justice – The actual life of man in this physical world with the demands and heartaches

Christ and Culture in Paradox Marcion found his answer in the belief that men were dealing with two gods: – The just but bungling and limited deity who had created the world out of evil matter – The good God, the Father, who through Christ rescued men from their desperate plight in the mixed world of justice and matter

Christ and Culture in Paradox Marcions answer was not truly dualistic but more like that of an exclusive Christian The true dualist lives in tension between two magnetic poles

Christ and Culture in Paradox Martin Luther is the next historical figure to embrace dualism

Christ and Culture in Paradox This is apparent when we place alongside each other his two most widely known works, Treatise on Christian Liberty and Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants

Christ and Culture in Paradox Luther had responsibility for a total national society in a time of turmoil Luther seems to have divided life into compartments He makes sharp distinctions between the temporal and spiritual life

Christ and Culture in Paradox There are two kingdoms, one the kingdom of God, the other the kingdom of the world. Gods kingdom is a kingdom of grace and mercy, but the kingdom of the world is a kingdom of wrath and severity. Now he who would confuse these two kingdoms would put wrath into Gods kingdom and mercy into the worlds kingdom; and that is the same as putting the devil in heaven and God in hell.

Christ and Culture in Paradox Luther does not divide what he distinguishes – these lives are closely related Luther maintains the unity of God and the unity of the Christian life in culture

Christ and Culture in Paradox Luther understood that the self could not conquer self-love, but that it was conquered when the self found its security in God

Christ and Culture in Paradox Christ deals with the fundamental problems of moral life Luther affirmed the life in culture as the sphere in which Christ could and ought to be followed

Christ and Culture in Paradox Luther ruled that the monastic life was irreconcilable with faith in God and love of neighbor From Christ we receive the knowledge and the freedom to do faithfully and lovingly what culture teaches or requires us to do

Christ and Culture in Paradox Soren Kierkegaard sets forth in his writings the dual character of the Christian life

Christ and Culture in Paradox For Kierkegaard, the Christian life has for him the double aspect of an intense inward relation to the eternal, and a wholly non- spectacular external relation to other men and to things Kierkegaard is protesting as a Christian in nineteenth century culture against the cultural Christianity of Europe

Theological Problems There is vitality and strength to the dualist position The dualist sets forth the ethic of personal action in faith

Theological Problems There are two chief problems with the dualist position: – Dualism tends to lead Christians into antinomianism – Dualism tends to lead Christians into cultural conservatism

Theological Problems The problem with cultural conservatism is that it seeks to promote cultural reform into only one cultural institution – the religious