I just read this chapter ,"Christianity and Culture : Defending our Fathers and Mothers" from the book , "Apologetics for a new generation" .
Certain ideas there just startled my otherwise peaceful and quiet evening.
"Why should Christians care about their culture?....Isn't the whole idea of Christendom passe or dangerous? Christians must care about the culture for four reasons." read the second part of the chapter subtitled
"Culture matters : No Christ without Christendom". Then the author gives four reasons that I have summarized below
1. Creating a culture that embodies the values of Christ's Kingdom on this earth is unavoidable for a Christian.
2. To create is part of human nature
3. Caring about our culture honors our spiritual fathers and mothers.
4. Great cultures become long term witness to the truth of the Gospel.
The moment I read the subheading , "Culture matters: No Christ without Christendom" , I was shocked. What caused the shock was the word "No Christ without Christendom" . I agree with "Culture matters". But I very strongly disagree with "No Christ without Christendom" .
Where does the bible say ," No Christ without Christendom" ? See the ministry of Jesus . He never said that or taught that . Look at the apostles ! They never said that!
Christendom is a word which is associated with all sorts of evils right from crusades to slavery , from schisms to corruption of truth which Christ gave us and which the apostles confirmed. Christendom is associated with inquisitions and imperialism and colonialism. Christians had to fight from within Christendom to abolish slavery in England. The are lots of good things too. But corruption and failures of Christendom are too big to revived. Though other systems were worse. We can certainly do better than what the word Christendom stands for.
There are lessons to be learned from Christendom , lessons which we must imitate and a lot which we must avoid too. The Christendom thing was a total failure in many ways. The bible does not talk in terms of Christendom. It talks in terms of Church , the body of Christ , loving the sinner , reaching the lost and serving the world and building the Church.
If there is any culture which the Church could have adopted it was the Jewish culture. Christian rose from Judaism and the Lord and the Apostles were Jews . But when they formed the Church and established it around the world , there is one thing they avoided and that is adding old testament biblical culture along with Christ and his salvation. They saw the danger . They saw that it would not serve the cause of Christ in the pluralistic roman empire. Neither would it serve the purpose in this pluralistic global culture we are living in today.
The word Christendom is associated with Europeans and white Americans. it is not the heritage of the African , East Indian or the Chinese Christian. Theses people were directly affected by Christendom more negatively than positively. It is not my heritage. How can Mr. John Mark Reynolds generalize it and promote under the topic , "Cultural Apologetics"? This is the worst chapter in all of apologetic literature. I am reading it as an Indian and find it irrelevant and repugant that I should promote and defend Christendom. How can I take pride in Christendom and defend it or promote it? Is the author writing only to white Christians or to everyone in the Church? How can he write it , even if he is writing only to american Christians? Are there not blacks , hispanics and chinese Chinese christians in USA who are going to be reading this? Why should they promote and defend Christendom and crusades and inquisitions and slavery , the heritage of the white people . In the church there are no more whites or blacks or brows or slaves or masters . Everybody is one in Christ. All in Christ are priests of the living God. Our heritage is not confined to white culture or jewish culture. Our spiritual heritage is trans-cultural. The churches ideology is trans-cultural. The gospel is trans-cultural. Christ and his Church should not be confined to Christendom. Christendom should not be associated with the Holy Church.
As a multicultural Church in multicultural world and global culture , the present day Church will do good to avoid identifying itself with Christendom and start witnessing in a more relevant way to this multicultural global culture.
Certain ideas there just startled my otherwise peaceful and quiet evening.
"Why should Christians care about their culture?....Isn't the whole idea of Christendom passe or dangerous? Christians must care about the culture for four reasons." read the second part of the chapter subtitled
"Culture matters : No Christ without Christendom". Then the author gives four reasons that I have summarized below
1. Creating a culture that embodies the values of Christ's Kingdom on this earth is unavoidable for a Christian.
2. To create is part of human nature
3. Caring about our culture honors our spiritual fathers and mothers.
4. Great cultures become long term witness to the truth of the Gospel.
The moment I read the subheading , "Culture matters: No Christ without Christendom" , I was shocked. What caused the shock was the word "No Christ without Christendom" . I agree with "Culture matters". But I very strongly disagree with "No Christ without Christendom" .
Where does the bible say ," No Christ without Christendom" ? See the ministry of Jesus . He never said that or taught that . Look at the apostles ! They never said that!
Christendom is a word which is associated with all sorts of evils right from crusades to slavery , from schisms to corruption of truth which Christ gave us and which the apostles confirmed. Christendom is associated with inquisitions and imperialism and colonialism. Christians had to fight from within Christendom to abolish slavery in England. The are lots of good things too. But corruption and failures of Christendom are too big to revived. Though other systems were worse. We can certainly do better than what the word Christendom stands for.
There are lessons to be learned from Christendom , lessons which we must imitate and a lot which we must avoid too. The Christendom thing was a total failure in many ways. The bible does not talk in terms of Christendom. It talks in terms of Church , the body of Christ , loving the sinner , reaching the lost and serving the world and building the Church.
If there is any culture which the Church could have adopted it was the Jewish culture. Christian rose from Judaism and the Lord and the Apostles were Jews . But when they formed the Church and established it around the world , there is one thing they avoided and that is adding old testament biblical culture along with Christ and his salvation. They saw the danger . They saw that it would not serve the cause of Christ in the pluralistic roman empire. Neither would it serve the purpose in this pluralistic global culture we are living in today.
The word Christendom is associated with Europeans and white Americans. it is not the heritage of the African , East Indian or the Chinese Christian. Theses people were directly affected by Christendom more negatively than positively. It is not my heritage. How can Mr. John Mark Reynolds generalize it and promote under the topic , "Cultural Apologetics"? This is the worst chapter in all of apologetic literature. I am reading it as an Indian and find it irrelevant and repugant that I should promote and defend Christendom. How can I take pride in Christendom and defend it or promote it? Is the author writing only to white Christians or to everyone in the Church? How can he write it , even if he is writing only to american Christians? Are there not blacks , hispanics and chinese Chinese christians in USA who are going to be reading this? Why should they promote and defend Christendom and crusades and inquisitions and slavery , the heritage of the white people . In the church there are no more whites or blacks or brows or slaves or masters . Everybody is one in Christ. All in Christ are priests of the living God. Our heritage is not confined to white culture or jewish culture. Our spiritual heritage is trans-cultural. The churches ideology is trans-cultural. The gospel is trans-cultural. Christ and his Church should not be confined to Christendom. Christendom should not be associated with the Holy Church.
As a multicultural Church in multicultural world and global culture , the present day Church will do good to avoid identifying itself with Christendom and start witnessing in a more relevant way to this multicultural global culture.
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