Christian Culture and Secularization
Secularization has been a topic of increasing discussion over the last few years. The political climate and the rise of fundamentalist Islam have brought discussions of public life and religion to the fore. I thought it would be an interesting point of discussion to look into developing a Biblical worldview and to examine whether such a worldview should allow for secularization.
As we seek to develop a Christian worldview, should we incorporate room for the secular? Should there be a mixture of church and state? Should all Christian musicians seek to write and perform worship music exclusively? These questions are all relevant to the believer as he/she interacts with the culture around him/her.
Definition of Terms
Dictionary.com defines secularization as “the activity of changing something (art or education or society or morality etc.) so it is no longer under the control or influence of religion” (who knows where the definition really came from). Others have described secularization as the pulling back of religion from the mainstream - a creation of separation or “gap making” between religion and the non-religious world. For our purposes, we will speak of secularization as the apparent divorce that occurs (in the mind of individual believers) between the sacred and the profane.
In its broadest [Christian] definition, culture includes the idea of subduing the earth or fulfilling our Biblical mandate given to us in Genesis 1:28. David Bruce Hegeman provides a thorough explanation of the term culture in his book Creation Regained: Toward a Biblical Theology of Culture:
The word culture is derived from the Latin cultura, which is the past participle of the verb colere, meaning to plow or till. Cultura was normally used in agronomic contexts to denote the cultivation - the active care or tending - of plants or animals. Hence we speak of agri-culture as the care of the soil to grow crops (agros = field, in Greek). The term could also be used in a religious context to mean worship. The idea here seems to be that in the same way the farmer actively fusses over his crops, so the worshiper gives rapt attention to the deity he serves. Thus the term is closely related to the Latin cultus meaning adoration or veneration. The English language retains this connection with such terms as cult, cultic, occult, etc.1
Examples of Insufficient Views
The following are three examples of what I personally believe to be insufficient perspectives of how the secular fits within the overall context of a Christian worldview. I am speaking solely from personal experience (both relationally and through my own reading). I present my apologies in advance to anyone who may be offended (although this is not my intention) by any apparent “stereotyping.”
Home Schooling
It has been my experience that many in the Christian (and especially Baptist) communities home school their children. I believe this is a very noble and (usually) wise thing to do although I would hasten to add that home schooling has a number of drawbacks that are joined with its upside. Occasionally the desire to home school is driven by an insufficient worldview and a misunderstanding of the Christian’s role in culture forming. This particular perspective, though intending to foster an environment for Christian growth and learning, actually ends up promoting secularization and proliferates a misunderstanding of the Christian’s responsibility to their children. Home schooled children are occasionally taught [albeit implicitly] a mindset that views everything outside the home or church as “worldly.” To them, “secular” things should be avoided if possible. Separation becomes a means to the end of raising children biblically. For better or worse, the home schooling parent has placed somewhat of a secularizing wall between his/her child and the child’s non-Christian peers. In certain cases this can severely hamper that child from developing a biblical worldview and from “working the soil” or fulfilling their biblically mandated culture forming responsibility amidst the non-believing world. It then becomes very difficult to “become all things to all people.” (1 Cor 9:19-21)
Popular Music
Steve Turner excellently addresses the issue of the Christian’s relation to the arts in his book Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts. Turner argues for a Christian involvement in the broader culture - a sort of de-secularization. In fact, Turner details how, to the Christian, there is only one sector or arena to be involved in. In my opinion, there is no other place in culture where the dangerous dichotomous view of “Christian” and “non-Christian” is more apparent than in popular music. Turner’s arguments are extremely helpful when examining this issue.
A number of today’s songs that are ostensibly categorized as “worship” music are (in reality) nothing more than empty songs that merely happen to make use of a distinctly Christian register. If I were to speak as a true left-leaning hippie rock critic, I might note that the corporate machine of Christian music accepts anything from a promotable group that simply make use of the requisite number of “approved” keywords (i.e. “holy”, “hallelujah”, “praise”, etc.). There really is nothing that distinguishes a number of these popular “Christian” songs from worldly love ballads save the keywords. A friend of mine (who is a worship minister) has even dubbed these kinds of songs “Jesus is my boyfriend” music. Conversely, a number of “secular” songs provide great redemptive narratives and uplifting, spiritual messages although they leave out explicit references to Christian themes.
Turner argues that everything the Christian artist produces should be God-honoring and “Christian” regardless of the words and themes used (assuming the words and themes themselves are God-honoring). Can a Christian man write and perform a song about a girl he is romantically interested in? Absolutely - in fact, it should not only be permissible, but encouraged. How are we to reach the world if we do not provide the Biblical point of view with regard to situations such as these? In this view, all ground is holy ground. The Christian should not seek to construct walls between the secular and non-secular, but should seek to develop and communicate a Biblical understanding of these situations in light of our culture-forming responsibilities.
(Extreme) Theonomy
Many proponents of theonomy push the envelope the other way. Oftentimes it is the theonomist who seeks to tear down the dividing walls that separate the church from the surrounding culture. Theonomists often seek to influence the culture to the point where Christians would be legislating morality (I realize that I am just setting myself up for a host of comments here). This seems to be the case especially with postmillennial theonomists. To them, God’s Spirit will move and direct the Church to influence culture in such a way as to bring forth a future earthly millennial kingdom marked by peace and prosperity and a widespread belief in Jesus Christ.
I admire the theonomist’s desire to influence culture, especially politically. But at some point, we must examine whether we should attempt to influence the government to the point of establishing a Christian theocractic State. State-appointed religion is not necessarily a good thing (especially if you happen to be on the wrong side of the fence). It lends to affording a safe haven for superficial professions of faith and frustrates true evangelism. Since everyone must be a state-appointed follower of the official religion, it becomes difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.
My Suggestion
As Christians, we should seek to influence our surrounding culture. This influence should come as a natural result of the fulfillment of our biblical mandate. In order to influence our culture, we must seek to have God-honoring relationships with unbelievers and participate in organizations and activities (both recreational and work-related) that afford the opportunity to evangelize and demonstrate the Christian response to the issues that arise in everyday life.
Art in all its forms should be created to the glory of God. For the painter, this does not necessarily mean painting depictions of the atonement or the resurrection, but painting any theme in a way that honors the Creator. For the musician it means creating music that develops a Christian worldview and expresses a biblical understanding of the world.
Likewise, the factory worker should develop friendships and seek to demonstrate Christ-likeness in the workplace - showing his or her co-workers how a Christian worldview shapes his or her actions while illustrating Christ’s redeeming power to the unbelieving world.
I am not suggesting a conformance to the world’s culture or an elimination of any distinctions between believers and unbelievers [in fact, I would like to invite someone to comment on how the emerging church may be encouraging this behavior], but I am suggesting an intentional attempt to influence the surrounding culture through a God-honoring de-secularization.
Further Study
A number of books that present interesting reading on [de]secularization and/or Christian worldview thinking include:
- The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics edited by Peter L. Berger
- Losing Our Virtue: Why the Church Must Recover Its Moral Vision by David F. Wells
- Plowing in Hope: Toward a Biblical Theology of Culture by David Hegeman
- Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview by Albert M. Wolters
- Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts by Steve Turner
- Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity by Nancy Pearcey
Additionally, David Wells had some interesting comments regarding the differences between American and European secularization in an interview with Mark Dever.
- David Bruce Hegeman, Plowing in Hope: Toward a Biblical Theology of Culture (Moscow: Canon Press, 1999), 13-14.↩
Camden,
I think you may have some more work ahead of you with regard to backing-up some of the assertions made on both home-schooling and theonomy.
Comment on November 23, 2005 @ 12:14 pm
Thank you for your article. I appreciate the intent behind the article. However, I too think that the arguments need some tightening.
For example, the “home schooling” section is unfairly narrow. Home schoolers are not the only ones who can be caricatured as those to whome “[s]eparation becomes a means to the end of raising children biblically.”
In the fundamentalist Baptist world, almost the whole movement operates in this separation = holiness manner. Whole churches and schools (i.e. Bob Jones University, Pensacola Christian College, Ambassador Bible College, etc.) teach this radical dichotomy, not just a few home schoolers.
Also, it seems unfair to claim that home schooling “proliferates a misunderstanding of the Christian’s responsibility to their children,” and then to not provide what you think is a proper understanding of how a Christian should raise children. Are we to assume that you think all Christians should force their children to attend government schools, private Christian schools, Catholic schools, magnet schools. . . ?
Further, not all behind what these Baptist-types are doing and saying is wrong. Much of the separationist movement is motivated by a genuine desire to be holy (which is certainly a valid biblical mandate). I think to give a fair argument you need to do some more work evaluating both sides of the coin. I’m not sure that quoting 1 Cor 9:19-21 is enough support. Texts especially like Romans 14 need to be wrestled with deeply before making such claims regarding separation.
Also, your conclusion seems to reflect Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount exhortation for Christians to be salt and light. This is a good thing. But maybe you could clarify what you mean by your specific examples.
In Christian painting, what does it mean to paint “in a way that honors the Creator.” Isn’t all truth and beauty God’s in that He is the source of both and the ultimate interpretator of both? If so, then wouldn’t any painting that follows God-ordained principles of natural law in aesthetics (i.e. proper shape, proportion, angles, coloring, etc.) honor God just as much as a painting that directly reveals a biblical theme, such as a portrait of Moses? If you don’t clarify this point, you may end up sounding like the very separationist dichotomists on this point.
For music, what is “a Biblical understanding of these situations in light of our culture-forming responsibilities”?
Comment on November 24, 2005 @ 9:26 am
For the purpose of this post, I chose three examples of what I view as insufficient biblical worldviews. These examples were in no way to be definitive or exhaustive, but simple, brief examples. The first two (home schooling and Christian music) were designed to illustrate a focus on a Christian “separationist†mindset or over-secularization. The [terribly simplistic] theonomy example was intended to show the other side of secularization – instead of separating from the world, you move to influence the world [primarily through government] in an attempt to assimilate the world.
My intention was not to claim that all home schooling proliferates a misunderstanding of the Christian’s responsibility to their children, but that those who already have the “separationist†mindset proliferate the misunderstanding. I repeatedly used words such as “occasionally†to limit these statements to a small subset of [in this example] home schooling people. Certainly there are other groups of Christians that can fall prey to a separatist worldview.
As far as what the proper understanding of raising children should be, I would [briefly] say the parent’s responsibility is to teach their children God’s precepts and to help apply Biblical truth [primarily] in the child’s life situations. For example, if a child is caught shoplifting a pack of gum, the parent’s responsibility would be to [along with punish] show the child how shoplifting dishonors God and to offer the child God’s love and forgiveness in order to help him/her understand his/her sin and the possibility of redemption through Jesus Christ. Parents should teach their children how to be salt and light in the world, not just to teach them to stay away from the world. I believe a Christian parent has a certain amount of freedom deciding how they want to do this – whether that involves home schooling or not is up to the parent.
You wrote:
I appreciate this point and will develop an exegetical case for a potential future post. There is something to be learned by the separationist movement. Many of us need to seek to live as a “holy nation, a royal priesthood.†(1 Pet. 2:9) This involves consecration. Perhaps we should strive to be “consecrationists†instead of “separationists.†As Christians seeking to be salt and light, we need to be in the world, but not of the world. Separationists do well at not being of the world, but [perhaps] fall short on the being in the world part. As Christ’s Church I suggest we be set apart for a purpose [consecrated], but not separated from the world thereby defeating that very purpose [evangelization].
And continuing:
I absolutely agree with you on this point. I had written: “art in all its forms should be created to the glory of God. For the painter, this does not necessarily mean painting depictions of the atonement or the resurrection, but painting any theme in a way that honors the Creatorâ€. The point here was to encourage Christians to not limit themselves to explicitly religious themes.
There can be significant pressure on Christian painters and musicians to produce explicitly Christian art. Artists should not feel they have to work with explicitly religious themes, but should understand “any painting that follows God-ordained principles of natural law in aesthetics†honors God. Christians should understand that whatever art they produce is “Christian†[but not perfect or sinless] because it came from a Christian. Part of being salt and light in the world involves demonstrating to unbelievers how a Christian should respond in different situations. I explained:
Art can be used to communicate the Christian worldview to unbelievers. The world must know that Christians do experience romantic love, but that romantic love is not the ultimate love. We must demonstrate the love of Christ and show how the love [and lust] the world offers falls short. Art not only glorifies God, but can be used for evangelism and teaching.
Comment on November 24, 2005 @ 5:48 pm
Middleton & Walsh on the issue:1
The Transforming Vision: Shaping a Christian Worldview (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1984), 95-96.
Comment on November 27, 2005 @ 6:04 pm
this was very helpful, thank you.
Comment on December 6, 2005 @ 6:34 am