Lastly, relevance doesn't change the message; it reshapes its presentation. Let us not become like the Pharisees who were willing to crucify anyone who challenged their traditions and their stylistic inflexibility, confining people to a dead and dull religion. “God: The Villanelle” by Marvin Klotz is a perfect example of someone who sees religion confined to rules, rituals, and regulations. It is evident that Klotz views religion as a source of much human misery:
We burn, behead, ruin, rack, pursue jihad
Against the wretches who refuse to bend—
Reveal eternal horrors of our gods (God: The Villanelle. pp. 449).
However, this poem also reveals that relevance can help reshape how Christian’s relate to those who focus on all of the things that
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could be found wrong with their experience with religion. The time has come for all churches, ministers, and ministries to reassess their effective relevance if there is a sincere desire to declare God’s mighty acts to all who are to come. Literature and the creative arts are meant to be on display in the public square as they exemplify a God who is relentless in the reconciliation of humanity. They are a gift from the past and help steer people towards goals that are true to who they are as individuals and as a group. Discovering literature and the creative arts is a humbling experience and draws people more towards humility rather than pride. In conclusion, culture is contagious.
It is not something that you can explain in a class. Culture is caught, not taught. Culture develops and evolves on a daily basis and is a living breathing part of how society lives life. Culture is determined and defined by words, actions, and priorities. Whether people know it or not, God has put the seed in every person and when they come into an environment of literature and creative arts they are remind of who they really are. A truth we must embrace is that literature and the creative arts shape culture, which includes church and unchurched people alike. We are all a part of shaping culture. That is not to say that Christians must accept everything culture throws at us, but it does mean that we refuse to hide from it. Christians are called by God to be the salt and light of the earth. While we cultivate and embrace wholesome and God fearing lives, we must not ignore the fact that this same light needs to be shone within culture. When one reads the Book of Acts in the Bible, one will discover that the Gospel was meant to thrive in the public square. If the Gospel was meant to thrive in the public square, then Christians should not fear, but embrace the assortment of culture within society. In fact, this is our
mandate.
Our second poem displays the lost meaning of religion, confusion of love and how our misinterpretations on both lead us to think. Take for instance this line: “No way is [he] bringing me home. He wants someone to fix his religion.” Humans constantly want another human to give meaning to their lives in any kind of way. Some even go as far as interpreting sex and one night stands as actions of sincere love. Our secondary character is trying to find meaning in his religion once more, probably thinking if he finds someone to have sex with, eventually they’ll fall in love and it’ll give his life meaning again, ultimately “fixing” his religion. The character’s self-doubt about his religion and his actions to recuperate that meaning displays the lost meaning of religion. The line “Believe me I love religion, but he’s too quiet when praying” shows the lack of knowledge in America when talking about religion. Praying is a sacred time for people to talk to God and be thankful for them or to ask for guidance. Stating that “he’s too quiet when praying” shows a kind of lost in the meaning of religion, as it’s not a thing that’s enforced as much as it was decades
As society continues to change, it is important for Christians to realize that they must respond in new and different ways. The original publisher, Tindale House, published this essay as an informative measure while Baker Academic uses this essay as a way to teach how to evaluate a specific style of writing. This essay's purpose is to not only be a source of information, but also an essay that can be evaluated in order to learn about a specific style of writing.
Dominant social groups in a society often determine what counts as culture. In the first piece, the writer mentioned how novice teachers and students work. Teachers tend to disentangle race and culture instead of suture those two. They use “cultural” as a catchall phrase to describe cultural student’s misbehavior.
People, specifically in the U.S., have gone from viewing the bible as “The absolute, unchanging word of God,” to, “A collection of guidelines, allegories, myths, and stories useful for good living. Offensive versus must be igno...
What is culture? Culture is the idea of what is wrong or right, the concept of what is acceptable within our society. Culture serves us as a guide, taking us to the "right way" and helping us to make sense of things that surrounds us. There are many different cultures around the world. A lot of them are similar in specific ways and others are just completely different, this difference explains why we think that people from different backgrounds are "weird".
This is not an easy question, and yet the Church cannot avoid responding to it. Over the centuries, various Christian communities have developed alternative perspectives on this very influential Christ-culture connection. In the extreme, some believers have advocated a complete rejection of culture (Anabaptists, fundamentalists), while others at the opposite end of the ecclesiastical spectrum ...
I want to start by defining what culture is, “Culture is the way of life of a people, specifically the shared and human-created strategies for adapting and responding to the social and physical environment. pg 518” I learned that culture isn’t only about what one thing is acceptable or about one way or life. Culture is about a lot of things. I learned that it includes material things that different cultures have in common for example material culture is something like a lawn mower, a car, or an ipod. These are things that other cultures other than the american culture have or consider part of their norm. The book states that this is a way for people to understand others and relate to them. Non-Material culture includes things like peoples values, values are what people think is important to them. For some cultures praying everyday at a set time is a value to them. It is something that they find important to them. Beliefs are a non-material culture. These are what people believe in, it can range anywhere from believing in a god to believing in things like santa. These beliefs help define a culture and why it is the way it is. Symbols are type of a non-material culture, they are words that are dif...
Culture is a factor that shapes our everyday lives, along with being exposed to new and unique cultural aspects everyday. Being changed and having your thoughts on events differ than originally isn’t a bad thing. Culture does change the way people are informed and the way they view the world through language, social interactions, and religion.
A culture can easily be metered by its nonmaterial values. America was originally founded on solid values that today are all but abandoned. Self-discipline and hard work have been replaced by instant gratification and laziness. Also, the American material culture is shown though the products sought after in our materialistic society. The iPod, sports, car, boats and other luxury items are what are considered America’s material icons. It is becoming harder and harder to live a Christian testimony given the negative cultural shift in our society. G...
This excerpt conforms to my worldview that the essence of Christianity is based on how an individual responds to others who are in need of both physical and spiritual help. As I continue to develop and grow in Christ, I will apply this principle throughout my lifelong journey of helping others and teaching the Gospel.
The American culture is diverse and constantly evolving due to many various aspects of society, including, but not limited to, religion. It cannot be said that there is one American culture because there is no national language in America. Also, the lack of a single culture is displayed by the strong need for political correctness in America. Finally, it is evident that the culture in America has changed through the years due to changes in American religion.
Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch is a book addressing culture. To begin it is helpful to establish what exactly culture is, Crouch defines it as “Culture is, first of all, the name for our relentless, restless human effort to take the world as it’s given to us and make something else.” (pg. 22), he also says “Culture is not just what human beings make of the world; it is not just the way human beings make sense of the world; it is, in fact, part of the world that every new human being has to make something of.” (pg. 25). There are three parts to this book: Culture, Gospel, and Calling.
Though there are many things that we can understand and learn from, we are reminded yet again to point it back to Jesus. This claim discusses the importance of knowing that in what we do Christ is integrated in our actions, behaviors, values, etc.
Culture is defined as a configuration of learned behaviors and results of behavior whose component elements are shared and transmitted by the members of a particular society(Linton, R. 1945). American culture is obviously typical culture model widely transmitted internationally in the contemporary era. Thanks to aborigines in American Continent and the large number of migrants from worldwide, American culture presents the characteristics of diversity and tolerance which deeply affected and shaped by native American culture, European culture and African culture. Culture itself is an abstract concept embodied by language, architecture, poems, rituals, music, arts and religions. In this
To examine the impact of culture upon identity, we must first define what identity is. There is the age-old trend to view identity as the classical question of “who am I?”, when in reality, the common definition of identity is “...[the] individual's perception of self in relation to others” rather than the personality of the individual in question (Woodward). While personality is a way that we characterize ourselves by the traits that we posses, the identities that we claim are inherently a part of the groups that we assign ourselves. When I was young and in Sunday school, I was taught that the answer to the question of “who are you” is that I am a child of God, and I belong to the group of Christians. Now, some would reject that response almost immediately on the basis of that this answer does not define them, and in doing that, we have already segregated our identity based upon a group that we are a part of. Our identity is necessarily a product of our society and our relationships and the groups assignments that we give ourselves...