Week 3, Cobb Chapter 3

I was really intrigued by this chapter. The historical basis of culture as it relates to the gladiators killing Christians in the Roman coliseum and the early theater. The causal relationship and the historical influence that these events had on Western Christianity and it's views on entertainment and culture is fascinating. It was interesting in that Cobb draws distinction between Tertullian and Augustine and their two different views on theology and culture. Tertullian saw them as "discrete realities". Augustine saw them as "intertwined cities". This idea of intertwined cities resurfaced centuries later by Martin Luther when he saw the roll of God in culture as dependent on both God's will and the reception of the viewer. I think that there are certainly quite a few different viewpoints out there in the role of theology in culture. However, it is easy for me to see how a church father such as Tertullian would have been strongly opposed to culture and entertainment given that Christians were being killed as sport as popular entertainment.

Week 3, Bevans Chapter 3

In this reading we learned about six various models of contextual theology. Anthropological is the most radical and countercultural is the most conservative. I understand that each of these models is distinct and can be used in conjunction with each other. I found it interesting that Darrell Whiteman pointed out in the chapter that, "when the Gospel is presented...along appropriate cultural patterns, then people will more likely be confronted with the offense of the Gospel, exposing their own sinfulness and the tendency toward evil, oppressive structures and behavior patterns within their culture" (Bevans, p. 33). I think this is an important idea worth holding onto as we attempt to understand how the Gospel might be received in context with their culture.

Week 3, Barker Chapter 6

In this chapter I keyed into the idea that "Globalization is not constituted by a monolithic one-way flow from the west-to-the-rest" (Barker, p.173). Instead, we need to realize that our increased consumer culture and our newfound means of globalization has created an environment in which we consume all sorts of new products. I found it particularly interesting how this plays out with religion. Not only do our churches swim against the tide of catering services/programs to the church members. But we're quickly becoming less and less of a Christian nation. Islam and Hinduism, and other world religions are quickly becoming more and more popular. I think this important to realize and evaluate as we move forward in stepping out into the world. I think the task in a large part becomes understanding the other religions and realizing how Christianity differentiates itself in a positive way from these other religions.

Week 3, Barker Chapter 5

"In 1994, about 51 million Americans aged eighteen years and older were diagnosed with some form of mental illness" (Barker, p. 145). This stems from "family trauma" and "a loss of social and cultural connection". This idea jumped out to me as I read this chapter as the larger implications from our perspective seems to be how do we as a body respond to these staggering numbers? Barker suggests that "drugs and talk" are one of the ways we need to change brain biochemistry. But I responded to perhaps the less quantifiable idea that is presented in this chapter. The idea of how changes in our patterns of personal experience and changes in our thinking can alter our brain chemistry. I think that a large part of our mission is to discover where and how our Christian culture and secular culture intersect to create a cohesive and connecting culture.

Week 3 Monday

I thought that the discussion today about the emerging church was interesting in that we outlined the difference between the "attractional" model of the 80s/90s with the "missional" model that Bolger and Gibbs tapped into in 2004. I think where I'm at right now is trying to figure out how the best of these two models can be blended together in a way that will engage the church community. I don't believe that there's only one right way in how to do church. However, I'm inspired by the missional and emerging church and I do believe that "traditional" congregations need to come alongside the missional and emerging churches and tap into the idea that they're not just there to cater or market to the church body.

Reponse to Randy's Blog Harmony - Bevans Chp 1 - Week 1

The main line from your post that I would have to take issue with is when you state, "culture just distorts what we hear He's saying to us." The use of the word distorts implies that culture is negative and blocks us from hearing God.

I would like to suggest that while this certainly can be true some of the time, it is not true all of the time. I believe that God has the potential to work in and through anyone and anything, including culture, as a way of leading us to discover the greater truth found in scripture. I think when we start saying that culture only blocks us from hearing God then we're underestimating the ability of God.

Response to Jim's response of Harmony on Week 2 Wednesday

To me, this all seems like a question of avoidance and that's a very tricky proposition...especially with youth. I think you're dead on in stating that kids do have a blind spot...not that we don't as adults...but there is a different level of innocence there that can be manipulated. I hear you on the millstone reference but at the same time I was thinking about how Bolger talked about how Christ didn't invent parables. Bolger made the point that Christ took the parables of the day and twisted the endings to give them his own meanings.

So my question is what if we shift from strictly telling kids, young adults, that this media is good and this media is bad (not saying that this isn't important and part of it) and we figure out how we can engage them through the mass media that they're consuming by developing a theological twist on that media. Not putting added importance of media over scripture...but figuring out how we can use media to ask questions and lead youth to engage scripture. Obviously, I'm not suggesting that we use the profane to accomplish this task but what I'm saying is that we have to relate to their culture if we're going to break into their culture.