tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28988815.post3934846759116074621..comments2023-08-15T06:44:05.705-05:00Comments on Pure Church: Church and Culture, 2FellowElderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08590139703839397873noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28988815.post-79956933464170306902007-01-04T18:10:00.000-05:002007-01-04T18:10:00.000-05:00Matthew, I would say true religion produces a righ...Matthew, I would say true religion produces a righteous culture. But we must bear in mind our limitations at expression due to our fallen nature. There is a pound of flesh in all we do. Therefore inherent in our culture (and our religion) will be error. Yet, rightly understood, the culture we embrace is an outworking of our worship. <br /><br />Likewise, cultural holiness, subjected to the Word of God, is merely an outworking of individual personal holiness. Cultural change begins one person at a time. As we conform our lives to Christ and allow that to manifest itself, thought, word and deed, it necessarily impacts those around us. This influence, used by the Spirit, and rightly applied, can then begin to refelct change on a larger scale. A scale that will change the culture.<br /><br />What is truly sad is that Christians used to know and believe these things.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28988815.post-56727278510169276142007-01-04T17:42:00.000-05:002007-01-04T17:42:00.000-05:00Great post!Great post!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28988815.post-85163615764302383262007-01-04T11:02:00.000-05:002007-01-04T11:02:00.000-05:00Generally speaking a culture is derived from the c...<i>Generally speaking a culture is derived from the cultus of a people. Religious motivations, where ever they are grounded produce the given culture. In other words, a culture is merely the fruit of underlying principles and values that motivate people to action. Consider any time period or group of people and look to their arts, literature, architecture, etc. and you will find expressions of these religious and fundamental principles for life.</i><br />David would you say that good religion=good culture and vice versa? What you said sounds very much like T.S. Elliot's Christianity and Culture.Matthew LaPinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06443707548111194774noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28988815.post-19143552623543199082007-01-03T11:48:00.000-05:002007-01-03T11:48:00.000-05:00Joe,
Thanks for the Wells quote. Excellent defini...Joe,<br />Thanks for the Wells quote. Excellent definition.<br /><br />David, I appreciate your definition as well. Your second paragraph anticipates part of the crux of the issue. It'll be good to tease some of this out with you.<br /><br />ThabitiFellowElderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08590139703839397873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28988815.post-31433699803443537222007-01-03T11:40:00.000-05:002007-01-03T11:40:00.000-05:00Generally speaking a culture is derived from the c...Generally speaking a culture is derived from the <i>cultus</i> of a people. Religious motivations, where ever they are grounded produce the given culture. In other words, a culture is merely the fruit of underlying principles and values that motivate people to action. Consider any time period or group of people and look to their arts, literature, architecture, etc. and you will find expressions of these religious and fundamental principles for life. <br /><br />So for the Christian, the long term answer to the ungodly culture of today is to produce a completely Christian culture - a reformation of culture that provides a true alternative to institutionalized education, religion, etc. that promote ungodly conviction. Christians must renounce the prevailing philisophies of today grounded in postmodern secularism and begin to build a culture where everything is oriented around Jesus Christ and His Law/Word.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28988815.post-73433490453782490372007-01-03T09:41:00.000-05:002007-01-03T09:41:00.000-05:00Very good definition. It sets the discussion off ...Very good definition. It sets the discussion off in a good direction. It is very much like the definition I adopted for my own from David Wells' book <em>No Place for Truth</em>:<br />"..the set of values, the network of beliefs that are institutionalized in a people's collective life and that govern their behavior. Culture, then, is the outward disciplines in which inherited meanings and morality, beliefs and ways of behaving are preserved. It is the collectively assumed scheme of understanding that defines both what is normal and what meanings we should attach to public behavior." p. 167Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28988815.post-35557061910798352972007-01-03T01:33:00.000-05:002007-01-03T01:33:00.000-05:00Good. I like/agree with the definition you've got ...Good. I like/agree with the definition you've got going.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com