Christianity and Popular Culture Essay -- Religion God Jesus Papers

Christianity and Popular Culture In his classic work Christ and Culture, H. Richard Niebuhr asserts that the relationship between earnest followers of Jesus Christ and human culture has been an "enduring problem."1 How should believers who are "disciplining themselves for the purpose of godliness" (1 Tim. 4:7) relate to a world whose culture is dominated by "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life" (1 John 2: 16)? Culture is God's gift and task for human beings created in His image and likeness. At creation humanity received a "cultural mandate" from the sovereign Creator to have dominion over the earth and to cultivate and keep it (Gen. 1:26, 28; 2:15). But sin's effects are total, and culture—whether high, popular, or folk—has been corrupted thoroughly by rebellion, idolatry, and immorality. How, then, should Christians, who have been redeemed, "not with perishable things like gold or silver . . . but with precious blood, as of a lamb, unblemished and spotless , the blood of Christ" (1 Pet. 1:18-19) live in relation to culture? According to Jesus in His high priestly prayer, believers are to be in the world but not of it (John 17:11-16). But in what way? How do believers act in and interact with the "crooked and perverse generation" (Phil. 2:15) that surrounds them and of which they are a part? This is not an easy question, and yet the Church cannot avoid responding to it. Over the centuries, various Christian communities have developed alternative perspectives on this very influential Christ-culture connection. In the extreme, some believers have advocated a complete rejection of culture (Anabaptists, fundamentalists), while others at the opposite end of the ecclesiastical spectrum ... ...se two extremes. It serves as an alternative to both manipulation and meaninglessness. It is an agency of common grace. Since TV manufactures audiences to sell products to, they cannot be manipulated as machines. They cannot be told that life is nihilistic. Rather, they must be entertained. So Jacobson sees a redemptive role for popular culture as an antidote to the present cultural mess. His advice is unique: Turn your TV back on. You will find things worth watching and thinking about. He tells readers what to look for in a variety of programs, and even shows how expressions of grace can be found in Bufy the Vampire Slayer. Notes 1.H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture (New York: Harper and Row, Publishers, Harper Torchbooks, 1951), chap. 1. 2.Richard J. Mouw, He Shines in All That's Fair: Culture and Common Grace (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001), p. 9.