Abandoning or Transforming Culture: Do we have a choice? Notes from Jerram Barrs

7 days ago Jerram Barrs came to speak here at the Grove. I sat down and enjoyed a lovely conversation with him over lunch. I greatly appreciated the time he took to answer every question deliberately. He spoke on three occasions; I made it to two of them. The most invigorating lecture/talk however was entitled Abandoning or Transforming Culture: Do we have a choice?

After outlining the various ideas of Christ and Culture, he laid down an argument for culture transformation. Three Principles and three "how to" guidelines for each.

1.) Affirmation - activities of culture is to respond to the Creation Mandate (reaffirmed in the Noahic Covenant) and the fact that mankind is made in the image of God (Psalm 8)

• Appreciation - delight what is good in culture (Philippians 4:8). John Calvin, "It is not blasphmey of the Holy Spirit that Pagans speak good and give good gifts."
• Incarnation - incarnate the gospel in every culture, adopt whatever you can from, and of, every culture. This is to live as fully human as you can. Love the culture and love the people of that culture.
• Bridges into Culture [Common Grace] - recognize all kinds of truth, justice, and beauty to communicate the gospel of Christ.

2.) Sober Realism of Reality

• Nonidentification - there is no such things as a Christian culture. What grows from transformed hearts are the firstfruits of what is yet to come.
• Christian Identity - in relationship to Christ and place in the kingdom of God
• called to humility and to challenge the culture we live in and within ourselves - transformation occurs by bringing Scripture to bear on reality and life. To do this read scripture and whenever you find a passage you do not like or want to reinterpret, you are dealing with sin, or you have given in too much to the culture you live in

3.) Solemn Warning - culture expresses the religious elements of the human heart. In the words of TS Eliot, "Culture is the incarnation of her religion."

• count the cost - there are things that are off limits
• cultural embodiment - encourage new believers to put on and live in the cutlure
• the transformation of Culture - salt and light in every aspect you can and your work

---- [Robbie's thoughts] ----

A lot of what Barrs said would throw Christendom in an uproar. Which is sad. How can I incarnate the Gospel? By admiring the creation around me to start. Look and enjoy the arts, music and movies. Incorporate the creativity of the community in which I live into my life. (I am drawing the line at The Scream.) Hang outs such as coffee houses, java cafes, internet cafes, some small restaurants, and many others are excellent examples to start. At the Crazy Mocha this summer the art on display was by those who lived in the community. Why can't the church do that? Why can't I do that?

My Night at a (reformed) Synagogue

Tonight 11 folks from my world religions class ventured to Sharon, PA in order to visit a Jewish Synagogue. A few things about the area of Sharon and Hermitage. It is the place of 5 major roads and the biggest interstate in Pennsylvania, making it a place for shopping malls and other things.

In the Judaic tradition there are three major camps: Orthodox, Conservative and lastly Reformed. Orthodox Jews are traditionalists, they are the ones who follow the Mosaic law to a T, Conservative Jews are the moderates theologically and politically, finally Reformed Jews are the United Church of Christ of Judaism. (So says my professor.) There are two common elements to all of these traditions - veneration of the Torah as the word of God (the five books of Moses), and the cultural identity factor.

Our guide led us through a worship service, what one would pray, chant, etc. and took us around the Synagogue, and elaborated on the Jewish calender (a trait of a cultural religion).

Our guide gave a very informal session of Q and A, and he found out that I knew Hebrew and allowed me to read a few words from the Torah. He chose the words, and I did the unforgivable sin, I spoke the name of God. He corrected me and moved on, not stoning me. (*whew)

Apparently the focus for Reformed Judaism is redemption here and now, not for eternity. It is to be a better person, to apply the Mosaic law to today. This results in a very moralistic, proud piety. Which was exactly what Christ preached against, as the pharisees embodied such lies. One student asked, what do you mean by redemption? Our guide politely answered that we are to reconcile and forgive our neighbors. We are not to ask for such things from God, as we did not offend him, but our fellow man.

The same student asked him about the messianic passages, to which our guide quickly replied I am not equipped to handle such questions. It is sad to see those who are of the nation of Israel, not seeing the truths in their Scriptures that point to the redeemer of Israel, making them true Israelites.

The reason that postmoderns end up with a purely individualized sense of truth is, "that the fascination with what is changing is proving more compelling than considerations about what is not changing, and what is in flux seems to offer a more immediate access to the postmodern soul than what is stable. The problem, of course, is that so many in the postmodern world have become addicts to change and their appetite for it is no panacea for the gospel. It is in the soil of our bored lives that fads and fashions sprout, each one suggesting something new, something different , something that is riding the crest of a wave of what is "in," or some new potential for us just coming into sight. This is true, not only of cars and clothes, music and hangouts, but of belief and behavior too. The adaptions which so many evangelicals are willing to make to this mood, I believe, are adaptions, not to what is innocent and inevitable, but to what is sick and deformed. These postmoderns proclivities should be challenges, not weakly accepted."


- David Wells in Only One Way?