Part 1: Introduction
Part 2: Christ Against Culture
Part 3: Christ of Culture
Part 4: Christ Above Culture
Niebuhr calls the people in this group synthesists because they desire to shape their ethics according to both Christ and culture. Culture is viewed as "both divine and human in its origin. both holy and sinful..." (p.121) Also, the synthesist claims that "there are other laws besides the laws of Jesus Christ; and they are also imperative, and also from God." (p.122)
In Galatians 3:24-25, the apostle Paul compares the Law to a paidagogos, a person who served as half teacher half babysitter in Greek and Roman society. The idea is that the Law pointed the way to Christ and is then superseded by Christ. The synthesist looks at culture in much the same way. Although culture is affected by sin, it still acts as a restrainer against sin. Christ, then, is above culture and enables us to rise above the basic demands that culture makes on us.
The divine law revealed by God through His prophets and above all through His Son is partly coincident with the natural law, and partly transcends it as the law of man's supernatural life. "Thou shalt not steal" is a commandment found boht by reason and in revelation; "Sell all that thou hast and give to the poor" is found in the divine law only. (p.135)
This type appeals to me because it is not too quick to reject either the biblical Christ or the possibility of God working through culture. Is there more to life, indeed more to ethics, than what is taught in the 66 books of the Bible? I think so. The problem is that when synthesists call people to follow a culturally based ethic they often don't realize just how culturally-based it is. The accusation, then, is that the synthesist inevitably "become[s] more concerned about the defense of the culture synthesized with the gospel than about the gospel itself...and thus becomes a cultural Christian." (p.146)
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