Christ & Culture
How should Christians live in the world? Various Christians answer this question differently. But to help us think through this issue, we are helped by authors like Dr. Richard Niebuhr, who wrote Christ and Culture. In it, he explained the five different ways of Christians throughout history engaged the world around them.
1. The Christ Against Culture Movement
This approach was very prominent in the first century because the world around them persecuted them for their faith. Instead of living within their culture, they decided to separate from it. Christians today justify such an approach through verses like 1 John 2:15, which says:
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
1 John 2:15
Christians groups like the Amish and the Mennonites still hold to this view. In history we think of monks who have secluded themselves from the world.
Another way this is expressed is called: “Bubble Christianity.” Because “Bubble Christianity” does not seek to engage the culture, but protects itself from it.
2. The Christ of Culture Movement
If the “Christ Against Culture Movement” separated themselves from the culture, the “Christ of Culture Movement” did the complete opposite. Instead of separating from the culture, they fully engaged it.
If the first approach is called “Bubble Christianity,” then this approach would be “Chameleon Christianity.” Because these Christians so engage the world's way of thinking and living—its hard to tell where the world ends and their Christianity begins, they are one in the same.
So these two ways are diametrically opposed to one another and are at complete odds on a spectrum. The first, fully disengages from the culture while the second fully embraces it.
But, in his book, Dr. Niebuhr describes three other movements which take a middle ground and seek to both be faithful to God and engaging in the community.
3. The Christ Above Culture Movement (Aka. the Catholic View)
These Christians believe that culture is ultimately from God and is therefore good. Instead of disengaging from the culture, we must seek to align it with God’s standards. Verses like Genesis 1:28 teaches us to be vice-regents over the world God made:
Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
Genesis 1:28
Many Christians hold to this view. It is a very common approach. It seeks to engage culture in such a way where Christ is about all spheres of life. Historically, we’ve seen kings gain their sovereignty through the Church. This is not as popular today with the rise of separation between church and state.
But the “Christ Above Culture Movement“ is seen in different ways today. In evangelical churches, we see it in Christian leaders like Pastor John MacArthur who has civilly disobeyed his Californian governor’s orders to disband all indoor worship. Pastor John MacArthur chooses to go against this directive by quoting verses like Acts 5:29 that “we ought to obey God, rather than man.”
4. The Christ in Paradox with Culture Movement (aka. the Lutheran View)
Unlike the Catholic View which says culture is a “good thing.” The Lutheran View sees culture as inherently tainted by sin. They would say that every culture is fallen. And therefore, as Christians, we will find ourselves living in the gray of life. But instead of disengaging from it, we must live in it, knowing that we are sinning in the process.
You can see this in the way that Martin Luther lived his life. He was known as a beer savant. He was also known for his hymns of the faith in which he used the melodies of bar tune. And he is very famously remembered for saying:
Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong (sin boldly), but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides.
5. The Christ Transforming Culture Movement (aka. the Reformed Position)
Unlike Luther, these Christians believed culture was originally good and must be redeemed back to the way things ought to be–like the good state in the Garden of Eden. As Christians, we must not disengage from the culture. Instead, we must seek to be good citizens of it.
So as you look at these different movements, where do you find yourself today?
As Christians, we must be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. And prayerfully take different approaches for different situations. There are times to go against the grain of culture. There are times when we should engage it, redeem it, or change it. Just as culture is complicated, our application of how to live in it is complicated as well. Instead of placing ourselves in just one camp, we must see the pros and cons of each movement and prayerfully apply them to the way we live in the world.
