Interviewed about the Maclean’s Surveys over at http://www.canadianchristianity.com.
No big deal.
Article here.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on February 20, 2009 at 4:40 pm, filed under School and tagged Canada, Culture, Maclean's, School, Tyndale. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
How do you see culture?
Do you see it as the zeitgeist of a community? How about a worldview, outside of a local community? or is culture merely collective civilization?
How do you make culture?
Is it based on ideas? Thoughts (there is a difference)? Images?
As Gideon Strauss says, culture is probably the most liminal and confusing word after nature. I’ve found, like Strauss, someone who has given a rather unique and hopeful view of culture. And, even better, he put it in a fairly easy-to-read book. Andy Crouch’s book, Culture Making: Recovering our Creative Calling, is simply stunning. I think, in the interest of space, I’m going to chop this talk into several posts, each dwelling on something different about Crouch’s work, but for now I’d like to define culture to you the way I’ll be defining culture from now until someone better comes along (not likely).
Crouch defines culture not as a set of ideas, a worldview, or anything so ethereal; culture is the amalgamation of stuff. Everything made by human hands are cultural artifacts, the building blocks of culture. Now, held within those products are ideas about worldviews, how the world should work, etc., but what’s most important is that culture is made not through pushing ideas and thoughts through to form, but by making the stuff I see on my table: iPods, candles, phones, and wallets.
Here’s a great exercise to get you thinking in this mindset. Crouch says that cultural artifacts answer 5 important questions:
In his book, Crouch answers these questions using omelets and highways, but I encourage you to start thinking about household items in this way, to get your head around the ideas Crouch presents in his book.
Next time, we’ll talk responses to culture.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on January 13, 2009 at 11:19 pm, filed under Culture and tagged books, Culture, Ideas. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
In an ongoing effort to avoid work that would actually go towards, say, a B.A. in Religious Studies, I’m going to start my Advent 08 talks with one that comes up amongst the newly married, like myself – The need for compromise and the joining of two traditions into a new tradition.
As Andy Crouch puts it, the family is the primary cultural unit. Why did I add that? It’s because (almost) everything you will attribute to Christmas, how you’ll do Christmas, who you’ll spend Christmas with, and when you start celebrating Christmas comes from (or comes as a reaction to) your family. Now that I am happily and newly married, this means that two cultures are coming together with differing views of how to do Christmas/Advent.
This leads right into a little confession: I started Christmas celebrations a week early. Christine decided that last week was really the best time to set up the tree, and since I didn’t want to leave her to do it herself/not take part in what I think is integral to the season (setting up), I broke my own ‘Not-until-Advent’ rule. These things happen, and I’m sure I’ll have to give on other things as well.
Luckily, we argued about Christmas last year. Instead of trying to synthesize our entire two traditions into a composite tradition interval, like many of my friends have done over the years, we will be attempting to create our own traditions for Christmas. This is both exciting and scary, since it is a big departure for both Christine and I, though I did spend Christmas in her tradition and with her family last year, so I may be slightly more prepared for the culture-change.
Most of all, I’m trying to keep everything in perspective. Throughout this season, I’ll be dropping lots of song lyrics, since song is integral to this season. The song that has, and will always, help keep me in perspective, is First Christmas, by Stan Rogers:
This day a year ago, he was rolling in the snow
With a younger brother in his father’s yard
Christmas break, a time for touching home,
the heart of all he’d known
And leaving was so hard
Three thousand miles away,
now he’s working Christmas Day
Making double time for the minding of the store
Well he always said, he’d make it on his own
He’s spending Christmas Eve alone
First Christmas away from home
She’s standing by the train station,
pan-handling for change
Four more dollars buys a decent meal and a room
Looks like the Sally Ann place after all,
in a crowded sleeping hall
That echoes like a tomb
But it’s warm and clean and free,
and there are worse places to be
At least it means no beating from her Dad
And if she cries because it’s Christmas Day
She hopes that it won’t show
First Christmas away from home
In the apartment stands a tree,
and it looks so small and bare
Not like it was meant to be,
Golden angel on the top
It’s not that same old silver star,
you wanted for your own
First Christmas away from home
In the morning, they get prayers,
then it’s crafts and tea downstairs
Then another meal back in his little room
Hoping maybe that “the boys”
will think to phone before the day is gone
Well, it’s best they do it soon
When the “old girl” passed away,
he fell apart more every day
Each had always kept the other pretty well
But the kids all said the nursing home was best
Cause he couldn’t live alone
First Christmas away from home
In the common room they’ve got the biggest tree
And it’s huge and cold and lifeless
Not like it ought to be,
and the lit-up flashing Santa Claus on top
It’s not that same old silver star,
you once made for your own
First Christmas away from home
If it is your first Christmas away from home, I pray you find peace in your new traditions.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on December 2, 2008 at 12:47 am, filed under Culture and tagged Advent, Christmas, Culture, Family. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
For awhile, I have been thinking about what exactly evangecalism is, and the other day I was directed to David Bebbington’s Quadrilateral definition:
Those are great ideals to strive for, and they make sense, at a macro-level, within Protestant Christianity (I say Protestant Christianity, because I just don’t know about Roman Catholicism or Orthodox Streams to speak into them.) Sadly, I think North-American Evangelicalism has narrowed these ideals into the following:
As our culture changes (and seriously, people, it is changing), Evangelicals need to re-assess the quadrilateral and expand it from being 4 points for person-centered judgement to 4 points for spirit-led love. To help people think about these, I think I’m going to break this up and talk about each one of these points in a pattern of origin, fall, and redemption. This means some research on my part, so they’ll show up eventually. Until then, think about the 4 points and what you think about my subversion of the definition.
WK
This entry was written by , posted on October 26, 2008 at 12:33 pm, filed under Christianity, Church and tagged Bebbington, Christianity, Culture, definition, Evangelical. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.