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October 09, 2005

Comments

Deborah

Humans are created as social beings. We crave group contact with others like us. I believe that culture is a result of those social groupings. As we are created in God's image, our original desire for social groupings and culture is God given. Because of the fall, everything people are involved in is tainted by our sin. Culture is not inherently sinful, but as a reflection of ourselves, it can be. The early church in Acts is an example of a culture that was not focused on their own well-being, and I belive, directed by God.

Bill

#3 isn't necessarily talking about the well-being of the individual. As the early church took up the practice of sharing everything, they did so for the well-being of their community, right?

I agree that culture is a God-given thing. Here's a quote from Niebuhr:

"...culture is itself a divine requirement. As created and ordered by God, man must achieve what has not been given him; in obedience to God he must seek many values." (p.118)

tony

Neibuhr set up a false dichotomy...

Bill

Care to elaborate? Do you mean that we can't talk about an interaction between Christ (or Christianity) and culture at all? Are you saying that Niebuhr's typology is completely useless?

Kyle

Bill, Mark Lau Branson said in class yesterday "Christ is ahead of Culture, we just have to discover what is going on" I like that.

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