Now and then I meet people who know how to reduce something really fun and enjoyable down to the barest, coldest definition, thus robbing it of all its warmth and pleasure. For example, they see the whirl and excitement of ice-skating as ‘people sliding around on frozen water’, and they reduce a magical, mysterious trip to the moon down to ‘humans in a metal cylinder propelled to another lump of rock’. The grandest event is reduced to the equations of physics or maths. While there is no doubt that what these people say is true, and reasonably accurate, there is always a lot more to the ‘thing’ than they say. Reduction is not always the best way to see things, even though it may be a true way of describing them.
The reductionist approach is like a miserly summary of a great book, or a mere recipe to describe a wonderful meal. A reductionist can sort out the bones from the meat, but by doing so he also destroys the flavour, the ambience and the wonder of the meal. A reductionist would probably identify accurately Miss Muffet’s spider and record her reaction in terms of the sciences. A reductionist can be like a plug hole – constantly draining things away in order to leave the last few drops, or essence – and thus missing the pleasure of the bath.
Not that I am against reductionism as it stands. It is very important. But to reduce everything to the barest definition is to miss other things which are also important.
What has this to do with Culture? A great deal. The thing is, every culture in the world can be reduced right down to its barest bones, and the result may be as dull as ditchwater, because while the definition is true, there is more to culture than a mere definition.
Culture is usually defined as:
1. A social and intellectual formation.
2. The totality of socially transmitted behaviour patterns.
These may consist of Arts
Beliefs
Institutions
Characteristic products of human thought
So, if we were to talk about a certain culture, we would take note of the paintings and carvings, the language, the costumes and dramas, the manners, the buildings, the style of their ceremonies, their attitudes to men, women, children, animals and the planet, the type of government, the religious beliefs and the literature. Taken all together we would say we had a distinctive culture, which though similar to all other cultures in some ways, would also be different to all other cultures.
The reductionist approach (please bear with me for a while) would deal with these things in various ways. As far as the Arts were concerned (the reductionist would say), all Arts depend on representations of other things. All art is derived from something else, and there is nothing made by Man which can be said to be totally original. Even non-representational art is derived from the colours, textures and so on of the materials from which it is made.
All the materials which people use to make pictures, or to carve sculptures, or to cast statues are made of metals and minerals already available. God of course has provided everything for Man to use, so God is the source of all Art materials, and Man is but the shaper and moulder of these materials. In which case the reductionist would say that all Man can do is present what God has already made in slightly different ways. In which case Arts in culture are neither new or eternal.
Visual arts rely on the frequency of light waves, the seven colours of the rainbow in their pure or mixed forms, and the ability of the retina to transfer the impact of photons to the brain via an electrical impulse. Music is also made of vibrations, transferred through air, coming from things rubbed, blown or struck. Dance relies on the 3dimensional swivelling of joints. Literature needs coded symbols translated into sound, received by receptors. All the Arts can be reduced to mere statements of function.
The belief systems of different cultures are also similar and different, but they all share the same derivative nature. There is not a single idea invented by Man today which has never been considered before, and its not just a case of “There is nothing new under the sun”. Nothing is new since Adam and Eve. And before that, God knew. All gods and goddesses are extensions and modifications of the One God. All Nature gods are reflections of Man’s imagination, which is itself a product of Creation. Biologically, the very imagination of Man can operate only on predetermined pathways constructed from neurons. Everything Man believes is therefore part of, or rearrangement of a previously created storehouse of truth, so no beliefs are original or eternal. Adam and Eve thought of it first, or their children did, but whoever, in those first years of human life, so since then nothing new has been added.
And even worse, all belief systems operate within the brains of humans. These brains are nourished by food which God gives to the humans. The bodies of the humans are supplied with air, and water from God. The life-spans of the humans are determined by God. In fact everything comes from God and returns to God.
On another basic level, when we speak to each other, we use the laws of physics which God has already built into His universe. Sound waves, vocal chords, ears, sound, taste and light receptors, all the millions of cells involved in speaking and hearing - “He that planted the ear shall He not hear?” There is not a word or a thought in all the human race which has not depended entirely on God for its energy.
Everything we see, feel, hear, taste and smell is the product of God’s creation. Our very self-awareness is a God-given ability, so when any person claims to have ‘created something new’ they have not really done more than rearrange things which were already in existence.
So it is no wonder the reductionists are not good company. They can be the death of the party!
When we look at institutions we see that no matter which form of government (or lack of it) chosen by people, not one of them is original. Democracy, dictatorship, oligarchy, tyranny, no matter which one we pick we find the same thing: humans trying to govern other humans. Government in its broadest sense, begins with personal self-control and goes out through smaller groups until it encompasses all people in all countries. So we may speak of a style of government as being ‘cultural’ but all we are really saying is ‘this style of government operates here’.
Characteristics of human thought are simply the way certain groups of people do things. In Japan some women dress as geishas and perform tea ceremonies. In other countries the men rule the women with an iron fist. In some places the women rule, or the men have several wives. Customs are simply habitually repeated ways of doing things. Most “cultural” characteristics are simple habits. Of course it must be accepted that habits help to keep a society stable, and many customs or ceremonies are upheld by societies because without them they would collapse. Yearly festivals, commemorations, traditional meals and so on, help to hold the year together, like nails for hanging coats on. People love predictability and familiarity. The daily newspaper, the TV show, the cup of tea – cultures are built up on layers of regular habits.
But no culture is permanent.
If one thinks of his culture as a permanent, stable thing, one need only look back a short distance into the past to see how ephemeral a culture really is. Beginning with the handful of people who departed from the grounded Ark, we see that within a few generations the various groups of people were developing their own distinctive styles of speaking, dressing, building and entertaining. They also developed different spiritual beliefs and they formed governments with different structures.
The Babylonians produced a distinctive culture, as did the Egyptians, then the Greeks, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Russians, the Indonesians, the Romans, and each of the small European states. The Jews maintained their distinctive ways for more than 2000 years. Today many of the different cultures are almost caricaturing themselves in order to be different, but the fact remains – all cultures are relatively young, and none of them are older than a few thousand years.
So where does the Christian fit into all this?
Well it is obvious that no single culture has been set up by God. No style of dress, custom, painting, music and so on . . . not a single specific cultural characteristic is divinely inspired. All are the works of Man, and none have been around for much longer than a few thousand years. The ‘feeling’ that cultures are solidly established is an illusion. In a very young world all cultures are mere infants.
But should Christians turn their backs on their own cultures as evil things? Are all the works of Man so tainted with sin that Christians ought to have nothing to do with anything that is not ‘spiritual’? A few Purists try to do this, to their own misery. The Purist approach – to cut one’s self completely off from the world – has a rather ironic twist. When the Purist is alone, he realises that all the world is shut up with him. Besides, to toss out the entire culture because of the sin within it is flying in the face of the example set by the Lord Jesus, who spent his time ‘rubbing shoulders’ with the commoners, and it is also quite impractical, because in order to cut one’s self off from the world, one would need to literally leave it altogether. Of all men, Jesus was the most pure, yet he never isolated himself from the world.
So the question remains – what is good enough in a culture to keep?
In order to answer this question we have to work out what we as Christians need to live. By this we mean, what basic needs to Christians have which are not sinful, but which are provided through their cultural setting?
Food, clothes, a comfortable dwelling, perhaps a friend or wife, and other ‘good’ needs such as useful employment and money, perhaps entertainment. All these things are available in most cultures. None of these things are sinful as needs, but each is open to being either a source of sin or a source of goodness. Each Christian must decide for him or herself where the line between permissible and unacceptable is. There is no hard and fast rule about these things, and I am not trying to build up a set of rules.
The first thing which I see when I look at the example of Jesus and the Apostles, is the fact that they all worked. Jesus worked so hard he had to rest beside a well. He fell asleep in a boat during a storm. He sweated. He walked for hours every day, healing and teaching. He withdrew for prayer because he was feeling drained. Paul also worked, paying his own way by earning a little money as he preached. Work must therefore be a good thing, since neither Jesus nor the Apostles spurned it.
Work is also a theme running through the Bible. Adam and Eve were told to “dress and keep” the garden, fools are condemned as slothful in Proverbs, diligence is held up as a virtue, the Sabbath was a day of rest after six days of work, new Christians are told to work in order to raise the money to pay for their families, and gifts to the poor came from worker’s pockets. Jesus himself worked through his apprenticeship with his father, applying himself in the sun and workshop.
Hard work is usually the key to wealth, and with wealth comes a house, perhaps marriage, good food, entertainment and nice clothes. All good things.
But God wants Christians to go further than these basics. He has called us as sons and daughters, not as mere tenants in a dreary housing estate. So the following must be said:
Self-expression is encouraged. The Church is encouraged to work together as a body sharing gifts and ministries, “every one of you has a hymn, or a psalm, or a word of knowledge”. The saints are told to “make melody in their hearts”. The last few psalms are full of singing, shouting, musical Christians – all creative in a certain way. As for architecture, Solomon’s Temple is a display of creativity through architecture, and so is the wilderness tabernacle with its beautiful parts and high priest’s clothing. As for fashion, when God dresses the harlot Israel in the most beautiful clothes and jewellery, He is telling us something about creative adornment. The great city which descends, in Revelation, is also a picture of creativity – streets of gold, crystal rivers, gates with huge jewels . . . obviously God does not intend humans to walk slowly through botanical gardens, wearing black hassocks, and pray all the time. Nature – a vast expression of God’s creative powers and imagination – teaches us how to recombine things in novel ways, and to be beautiful.
But all cultures contain elements which are definitely non-Christian. How do we define these elements? One sure way is by holding up the 10 commandments like a measuring stick and seeing where the culture falls short. If the culture strays from the guidlenes in the Big Ten, then Christians ought to avoid it. If it does not, then Christians may thoroughly enjoy themselves.
It is not my intention to meticulously pick my way through every aspect of my own culture, as that would be too tedious, and besides, you (Reader) may come from a different culture. What is applicable to the Western culture may not be at all applicable to your own. The principleshowever should be the same for any culture.
The body.
In every culture there are certain practices which abuse the body. Christians are commanded to care for their bodies, so obviously, they must try to avoid body-abuse. Body-abuse may come in the form of drugs, excessive exercise, sleep-deprivation, toxic substances and ‘attitude’ changes, through philosophy, or some other negative input. Wrong-thinking can affect the health, so Christians ought to work towards right-thinking at all times. What affects the mind also affects the body and the spirit. A healthy Christian should have a healthy mind, and a healthy body, and a healthy spirit. The three work together. Whatever the prevailing culture does which goeas against this ‘best plan’ should be avoided.
Some Christians see coffee, alcohol and tea as harmful to the body, other saints include a wider range of foods. It is not for me to judge, but whatever is perceived as harmful should be omitted.
Christians ought to make every effort to keep their body well fed and fit. Why? Because the healthier the body is, the more able it is to function at its maximum for the Lord.
Housing.
The usual rule in most things Christian is ‘modesty’. Housing should therefore be practical, sensible, and non-ostentatious. A Christian’s house may be attractive and even beautiful, because beauty is godly. Hygiene and usefulness are also important, since a Christian is expected to be “given to hospitality” and ‘welcoming strangers’, s the odd spare room would be in order.
Fashion.
Modesty dictates a certain style, whatever the culture. Clothes are not meant to distract or allure, but they may be attractive and well made. Some cultures wear clothes which have a religious or spiritual tone, so Christians ought to be aware of this. Some fashions, such as wooden plugs in ear-lobes, or metal rings around necks, or foot-binding, are disfiguring to the body, though ‘culturally accepted’. Body-piercing is also questionable, but each individual must decide for themselves whether it is honouring God to have it done.
Music.
The human voice is a gift from God, and part of the body. (See 1) When it comes to songs, Christians ought to be careful they sing true lyrics, not false or blasphemous lyrics. True lyrics can be about anything in life which is true – not just “Praise the Lord!” songs, but other criteria are also involved. Relevance, suitability, positive or negative message, edifying? Instruments are also an individual choice. Solomon’s Temple used to resound with voices, strings and percussion. Today’s Christians use strings, voice, electronics, wind and percussion.
Every major culture seems to have had its own distinct type of music, Christians ought to be careful they are not sucked into the culture through its music.
Employment.
Christians have a single rule – work hard and be diligent. Honest hard work is its own reward. The ‘sleep of a labouring man is sweet’ because he has done his best. But Christians ought to consider whether the product of their work is beneficial to others or harmful, sensible or wasteful, useful or useless, and so on.
I recall the Christian sign-writer who refused to paint a sign advertising cigarettes. Another Christian graphic-designer turned down a job for promotion of Roman Catholic recruitment. Christians in business have to be on guard all the time lest they work for causes which are opposed to Christianity – otherwise they are like the man sitting on the branch and sawing through it from the trunk side.
Religion.
Every culture promotes many ‘spiritual’ ideas. Cults and pseudo churches are everywhere. Philosophies are being invented every day. Non-Christian cultures are a seething pot full of anti-Christian thinking.
So Christians must keep within the Bible guidelines, no more no less.
Because spiritual things are so permeated into every culture, Christians have to be on guard all the time. Films, videos, TV programs, music, conversations and the whole Media circus constantly dishes out material for non-Christians, hence the lack of Christianity in it, hence the blasphemies, hence the immorality. Evolution is a religion just as much as some of the New Age teachings, and every non-Christian you meet has many ideas which are diametrically opposed to the Bible.
Entertainment.
There are many good things in every culture. Good drama, good music, good art . . . but as C.S.Lewis put it “any road out of Jerusalem must also be a road into Jerusalem”. In other words, what good things the world produces as entertainment are always short of the best which Christian culture would require, but at least there is something good in it. Christians must glean out what is good from what is bad. They must sort out the wheat from the chaff. At the same time, they must beware the road leading out of Jerusalem, because all worldly entertainment can take you away from God’s City just as readily as it can take you into God’s City.
Celtic music can lead (out of the City) into Celtic mysticism, Indian dance can lead (out) to Hinduism, Martial Arts can lead (out) to spiritism.
Military Service.
Christians may wear a uniform to defend their country. The armed forces are not ‘unchristian’ – even Christians are called “soldiers” in the Bible, and given a range of weapons. The State is also called the “wielder of the sword” i.e. the death penalty. So Christians may join the army, air force or navy. The only thing they must beware of is an unjust war. It is always better to obey God rather than men, so military service may involve a Christian in a difficult choice.
Sport.
There is nothing evil or wrong with Sport (except perhaps boxing and other attacking forms in which the body is abused, see 1) But neither is there much to say for it, because all Sport is based on competition, and competition is not acceptable for Christians. The Christian alternative to competition is co-operation, help, consideration and encouragement. Rather than demolishing other people, Christians are called to come alongside them and support them. The weak are to lifted up, not beaten and triumphed over.
Take Monopoly for example. This game is geared so that the winner is the player who causes everyone else to go bankrupt. Greed and accumulation are the rule. If the winner shared his money with the other players, the game would never end.
Sport however is good for the body, provided it does not become an obsession. Sport can bring people together in friendly groups. It can enhance life in merry comradeships. It can prolong life by promoting health through good food and exercise.
The last mark of a “culture” is “Characteristic products of human thought”, which means the philosophies behind people’s thinking. Here in the Western world, the culture is influenced heavily by Materialism. As well as this we have adopted the destructive assumptions of Evolution. Science has been deified, and the white-coated technician is a sort of icon, representing authority and permanence.
Our whole Western education system is saturated in evolutionary thinking, which has led most Westerners to believe that : the Earth is very old, Man is descended from apes, the solar system formed from a cloud of gas, life is an accident, and there is nothing after death.
Thankfully though, no culture has ever made love illegal. Christians therefore have at least one thing which they can practise without being arrested. Love in action expresses itself in kindness, generosity, thoughtfulness, help, encouragement and so on. Love is something which all humans appreciate, though Christians alone can accurately identify its Source.
So we have come full circle, from the reductionist approach to culture, to the Christian response to their own particular culture. Now we might tread carefully into an unknown area . . . and guess at what a Christian culture might be like.
What if Christians were in the majority?
Christians have never been the majority, in the sense that they have formed the government and the people of a whole country or nation. NonChristians have always held sway in every culture, since Adam and Eve produced the first family. Their first son was a murderer and before long almost all their children were condemned to burial under the waters of a Flood. The post-Flood generations were equally wicked, first building a tower in defiance of God and then forming secular city-states all round the planet. One by one God has had to destroy them – Babylonians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Hittites, Aztecs, Mayans, Olmecs, Greeks, Romans, Elamites, Medians, Persians and all the hundreds of small cities. Even today the process of judging the nations continues, as God brings one against the other, just as He did when he brought Israel against the Canaanite nations. Since the end of the second world war dozens of Christ-rejecting nations have fallen, yet, sadly, the nations that remain never learn.
But if a whole nation were totally Christian, what would it be like? Many fanciful ideas spring to mind, but I think it might actually be surprisingly dull. The streets would be quiet, and the neon lights, casinos, gambling dens, striptease joints, sleazy bars and so on would be gone. People would be busy and not idle, and each citizen would care well for own his property and all it touched. Private ownership would be present, but there would be no high-interest mortgages, or huge insurance policies, because people with more would give to those with less, helping each other with their finances. Instead of people ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ they would make sure the Joneses kept up with them.
Children could wander safely into any part of the city without fear or danger from strangers or bullying. Every door would be unlocked, every home a place of welcome and hospitality. Security vans would be gone, and probably most of the Banks. The padlock industry would cease, along with all the chains, security gadgets and alarms common to this world. Nobody would hate their neighbour or shun them because of disputes. Trade and commerce would continue, but on different lines. Products would tend to be sensible and practical, with little ornamentation.
All the problems which beset our present world (usually the result of personal choice) would be gone.
The Arts would flourish as creative people reflected the beauties of Nature, and the trend in abstract work would be towards beauty rather than ugliness, harmony rather than nihilism. All the gossip magazines, gaudy signs, derelict buildings, titillating chat shows and so on would be gone, and in their place would be literature and entertainment of the highest calibre, edifying and intelligent, funny and informative. No longer would Christians need to ‘come alongside’ the world to reach the lost, so pseudo Christian entertainment would also be gone.
There would be no crime, no domestic violence, no abortions, no unwanted children, no credit cards, no bigotry, no racism, no corrupt business practises, no defaulting on promises, no prisons, and no shifty politics. The country would be governed by a group of elders whose aim would be to make sure all the public amenities were available to all. Taxes and Rates would be based on what was needed.
Hospitals would treat the usual round of sicknesses and accidents. Parents would teach, nurture and raise their own children. Higher education (for teaching in areas most parents would not be specifically trained for) would still operate in universities or polytechs. The supply infrastructure would be scaled down but it would still be there, only on a much smaller scale. (People would still need power, water, rubbish-removal and so on)
If this Christian culture ever came about, I am sure there would need to be what I like to call the “Cult Police” . These people would be employed hunting down (if that is the right expression) those people who veered off from the sensible and general understanding of the Scriptures. The false teachers would need to be reasoned with, corrected, and re-instated in the community, otherwise they would be asked to leave the country. This would prevent the growth of heresies and cults and encourage people to study the Bible rather than follow specious arguments.
But such a society will never arise because Jesus called the Church a “little flock” in the midst of “wolves”. Until the end of this present age, Christians will remain as salt in the meal, and candles on the shelf.
But it is nice to dream.
Nature and culture.
Nature tells us that there is a Creator. It cannot tell us much more than that, so there is not much point in trying to find God in Nature. God is so much greater than what He has made, so any attempt to find Him in His handiwork will always fail.
But Nature can tell us many things which help us understand God a little better. For example, when the Bible tells us that God is “glorious”, and we see a sunrise over snowy mountains, we understand better what “glorious” means. We also understand “mighty” a little better when we see ocean waves crashing onto rocks during a storm. We understand the “gentleness’ of God better when we see a thistledown floating by, or feel the fur of a newborn kitten. Likewise we understand “intelligence” when we learn biology, and “wisdom” when we see the Table of Elements. We understand “grace” better when we watch a swan gliding over a lake, and we understand “power” when he stand near to a huge cataract thundering into a ravine.
All the useful meanings of words come to life when we see them working in Nature. Majesty, Patience, Tenderness, Obedience, Sadness, Starvation, Anger, Brutality, and so on. Every expression which humans use to describe things is found in Nature, illustrated there in some living creature, or physical effect. There must be some good reason for this.
I assume that God has surrounded Man with these living, moving, operating illustrations in order to supply a sort of ‘teaching aid’ to tell us about Himself. Like the simple diagrams which lecturers like to show to their classes, God has given us many ‘diagrams’ of Himself to lead us to a better understanding of Himself. This is why so many sermons work successfully when they use illustrations from Nature. The mother bird sacrifices herself to feed her chicks, the wolf pack catches the prey because each member obeys the leader, ducks fly in a ‘V’ shape because this gives every duck except the leader an easier flight. Diagrams serve a small but useful purpose, because they are always limited, but once the meaning has been seized, the illustration becomes redundant.
Unfortunately there are people who make gods of the diagrams. These misguided Nature-worshippers treat God’s diagrams as if they were the ultimate truth. There are some who call the planet by a name, and reverence the ‘Earth Mother’. Some people regard trees with too high regard, others try to communicate with dolphins. Nature has become, for many, the ultimate reality, and the God who made it has been rejected.
But Christians can draw a great lesson from the way God has set up Creation, because there is a parallel working here. God is greater than Creation, so it is foolish to gaze adoringly at Creation and miss the God who made it. In the same way God has allowed for different cultures to arise, but it is foolish to gaze at any culture and miss the God who created humans. Christians may enjoy their culture, even revel in its good points, dance, sing, write, act, teach, lead, govern and so on, but they must never see their culture as much more than a diagram. The greater must rise above the lesser.
If we took the reductionist view and emptied culture to its dregs, we would not have much to admire. Science, the great reductionist force in our modern world, has been emptying the universe for many years now, and the best it can say about the whole universe is “We are energy”, or, “All is random”. In a sense this is true, but as I said, reductionists empty the hole bath and forget about the pleasure of the hot water.
Greater and Lesser.
There is a pattern in the Bible, of greater and lesser. The Great God creates life, and life, in a small way, brings to birth. The Father speaks, and Jesus speaks. The Father does the works, and Jesus does the works. The adult is always larger than the offspring. The whole of Creation comes from an invisible word, and life begins at the microscopic level. Whatever God does on the grand scale, is found in smaller scales.
God has so ordered things that they are formed from ever decreasing levels of simplicity. Take the beautiful cat on the couch. It is an animal, a bioelectrical lifeform. Analyse it further and you find strings of molecules. Dissect them and you find atoms. Further down you find sub-atomic particles, and so on, until the cat has disappeared utterly. But embrace the whole cat and you have a lot more than a few simple equations.
A large culture is made out of thousands or millions of people, yet each person in that culture is just one person. At the beginning Adam and Eve represented the whole world’s culture. As soon as they had children the different cultures began to develop. Today we see some of the fruits of those original divergences.
Christians ought to use the reductionist method to dissect their culture, but having done that, they ought to also look at the good in it, and thefullness of it. If we abandoned our whole culture as too evil to be a part of, or too abstract to relate to, we would be of no use to it. Jesus never abandoned his village, (although he created all its substance) and the only culture he ever left to itself was the Jewish one, ( but only until after his crucifixion). Knowing all he knew about his culture, Jesus worked within in it with his mind, body and spirit. He embraced all that was good and loved the people (though he was their creator). His example is astonishing, considering who he was.
So the problem of living in a culture is two-fold. On the one hand we are in danger if abandoning it altogether, because of our reductionist views, (or because we think we are “too pure”), while on the other hand we are in danger of embracing everything, and becoming so immersed in the culture that we can be of no use at all to it. As always Jesus struck the perfect balance. He spoke like a Jew, dressed like a Jew, associated with Jews, ate like a Jew, and attended Jewish festivals and so on, yet he maintained his Sonship throughout, and lifted people up and out of the Jewish culture. Paul did a similar thing, being “all things to all men” in his attempt to “save some”.
The principles of the Kingdom of God are always superior to those of the world, and Christians must sort out for themselves (individually) where they stand in regard to every aspect of their own culture. This is an on-going daily challenge but it is worth the effort, because the more aware we are of our place in our culture, the more able we are to reach the lost around us and draw them upwards into God’s Kingdom.