by D.A. Carson
What is the Christian’s
cultural task in this world? How should we respond to the
terrible reality of abortion in Australia? What should we be
doing with our Western prosperity to help the millions of people
throughout the world who are living below the poverty line? As
Christians, we ought to think through these questions, and
Carson’s book is therefore a necessary addition to your
bookshelf. Go and buy one (they are available at Pro-Ecclesia
Bookshop). Every Sunday you confess: “I believe in
God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and
earth.” You have to consider how to relate to
the world in which you live, for the only alternative is to imagine
that the Christian faith has nothing to do with created reality.
Donald Carson is a New Testament professor at a conservative
evangelical seminary in the United States, an author of many books on
biblical topics. The title of Carson’s book will probably
remind many readers of another book – Christ and Culture, written
by K. Schilder (Winnipeg: Premier Printing, 1977).
Although Carson is familiar with Schilder’s book and warmly
appreciative of it, the title of his own book Christ and Culture
Revisited is a reference to another book more familiar in the English
speaking world, Christ and Culture by H. R. Niebuhr (New York:
Harper & Row, 1951).
You do not need to have read Niebuhr’s book to benefit from
Carson – Carson helpfully summarises Niebuhr. Niebuhr
has identified five ways in which Christians have viewed their
relationship to culture – namely, Christ against culture, the
Christ of culture, Christ above culture, Christ and culture in paradox
and Christ the transformer of culture. While Niebuhr presents
these as alternatives, Carson argues that these different ways should
not be viewed as mutually exclusive. Different situations call
for the relationship between Christians and their cultural context to
be worked out in different ways – for example, Christians living
under persecution in a Muslim country will for the most part experience
that following Christ sets them at odds with the surrounding culture,
whereas in a free Western country, Christians can be quite a formative
influence on society – think of the positive work that the
Reformed Abraham Kuyper did as Prime Minister of Holland.
Carson gives tools by which to determine what is a Scriptural view of
the relationship between Christ and culture in a particular
setting. He argues that “that stance is most likely
to be deeply Christian which attempts to integrate all the major
biblically determined turning points in the history of redemption:
creation, fall, the call of Abraham, the exodus and the giving of the
law, ...” and so on, up to “the return of Christ and the
prospect of a new heaven and a new earth.” (p. 81) This is
exactly what Schilder has done in his book. He begins with
creation and moves through to the end of time. An evangelical
scholar like Carson shows the riches that we reformed people have in
our heritage.
One of the criticisms that I have heard about Schilder’s book is
that while it makes sense to write in a positive way about the
Christian’s task in the surrounding culture, when that culture is
at least nominally Christian, it seems harder to apply his message to
an African country where Christians suffer terrible persecution.
Although the criticism might be unjustified, it is true that Schilder
does not explicitly consider this question. Carson’s book does,
and so makes a useful companion to Schilder’s book.
On top of this, Carson deals with a number of topics that you need to
think about as you bring into practice the Christian’s calling to
serve God in this world. His discussion of the relationship
between Church and state is very helpful, as is his analysis of four
cultural forces – secularisation, democracy, the worship of
freedom and the lust for power.
A major difference between Carson and Schilder is that Carson defines
culture as a noun, something out there that Christians interact with,
whereas Schilder defines it as a verb – an activity that
Christians engage in. This allows Schilder’s definition to
be far more normative – this is what culture should be!
There is need for discernment in reading this book, but the discerning
reader will greatly profit from it. Carson gets you thinking very
concretely about what we can do: “Sometimes a disease can be
knocked out; sometimes sex traffic can be considerably reduced; ....
sometimes more equitable laws can foster justice and reduce corruption;
sometimes engagement in the arts can produce wonderful work that
inspires a new generation.” (p.218) This book does
not give all the answers, but the tools you need to come to those
answers.
We have freedom, we have good education opportunities, we have lived
through a time of unprecedented economic growth. How much are we
talking and writing about how to use our opportunities and wealth to
promote the well-being of the city in which we live (Jer. 29:7) and to
do good to all men (Gal. 6:10)? Has the CPSA been asphyxiated by
a poisonous lack of interest on our part in “cultural”,
political and social issues? Reading Christ and Culture Revisited
leaves you with the conviction that we have more work to do as
Christians. We are office-bearers, prophets, priests and kings,
with a task to do in home, church and world.
Review by Rev. C. Vermeulen
