Christ and Culture Revisited (D.A. Carson)

How should Christians interact with (and within) the various cultures in which we live?  Jesus says "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." (Matthew 22:21). And it's clear that the world (since the fall) is opposed to God, and yet Jesus reigns over all and is putting all things under His feet- and at His name, every knee shall bow. So Christians live in tension- we serve God who will one day transform all, but much brokenness and evil remains. So what do we do? Do we try to transform culture into what God says it will be? Do we separate from culture because there's so much evil in the world? Is the truth somewhere in between? It's a question we've grappled with for ages; the Bible has much to say, and D.A. Carson looks at this against the backdrop of preceding influential works in Christ & Culture Revisited.

Summary
Carson starts by discussing the meaning of culture- something that has been much debated.  He aligns with Clifford Geertz's thoughts (summarized here). He then summarizes the foundational and influential fivefold typology of H. Richard Niebuhr concerning the options Christians have as they think on how to live in the world:

• Christ against culture
• Christ of culture
• Christ above culture
• Christ and culture in paradox
• Christ the transformer of culture

These are described more here.  Carson then offers a critique of Niebuhr's categories, claiming that the second has no biblical warrant. But for the others, he argues that "Christians do not have the right to choose one of the options . . . as if it were the whole." Taking the whole of Scripture- all of the "great turning points in biblical theology" (including creation, fall, Jesus and redemption, the future new heaven and earth)- means our approach must be flexible. Not because the Bible is unclear, but because it, too, is flexible in this matter.

If such massive biblical and theological structures control our thinking on these matters, and such revelatory categories are worked out in our lives in adoration and action, then various ways of thinking about the relationship between Christ and Caesar may prove heuristically helpful but will not assume canonical force. We will be much better able to be as flexible in this regard as are the New Testament documents, without undermining such absolutes as "Jesus is Lord!" The same fundamental structure of biblical theology will speak as powerfully to Christians under persecution who cry for release and for the dawning of the consummated kingdom as to Christians whose love for their neighbors drives them toward heroic efforts on behalf of AIDS sufferers. It will embrace the exclusive claims of Christ and the uniqueness of the church as the locus of redeeming grace, and yet it will demand of believers that they recognize their creaturely existence in this old, fallen creation and reflect on the ubiquitous commands not only to love God but also to love their neighbors as themselves. Instead of imagining that Christ against culture and Christ transforming culture are two mutually exclusive stances, the rich complexity of biblical norms, worked out in the Bible's story line, tells us that these two often operate simultaneously.

Indeed,

To pursue with a passion the robust and nourishing wholeness of biblical theology as the controlling matrix for our reflection on the relations between Christ and culture will, ironically, help us to be far more flexible than the inflexible grids that are often made to stand in the Bible's place. Scripture will mandate that we think holistically and subtly, wisely and penetratingly, under the Lordship of Christ . . .  the complexity will mandate our service, without insisting that things turn out a certain way: we learn to trust and obey and leave the results to God . . .

He also discusses common related topics like "pressures that force thoughtful Christians to wrestle with how we ought to relate to the broader culture of which we are a part . . . [like] secularism, democracy, freedom, and power."  And also the relationship between church and state, where he claims "the New Testament documents regularly distinguish between what Christians are doing in the outworking of their faith and what the church as church is mandated to do."

Review
Carson's book is excellent and a worthy read, if a bit heady at times. I came away with an appreciation of the nuance and complexity in pretty much every aspect of this topic: the difficulties in forming common definitions, reductionisms inherent in most debates or demands for a 'one size fits all' approach, the nuances between the role the "church as church" vs. individual Christians play in relationship to the state, and more.

Carson is as professor and at times assumes a familiarity with certain scholarship, historical events, and terminology that I didn't always share.  And it felt like much of the book was more about looking at the nuances and complexities involved rather than drawing conclusions.  In fact, if you want a prescriptive conclusion, this book is not for you. Indeed, Carson's conclusion is almost the opposite: that there are a range of ways Christians should expect to interact with culture, highly dependent upon situation because of the nuances and complexities involved. As I quoted above, we have a responsibility to think critically, in light of the entire Bible and under the Lordship of Christ, about how to act within and respond to the culture around us.  It's easy for Christians (and humans) to reduce life to a series of rules to follow at all times, but we can't do so and remain consistently faithful to the Scriptures.  The Lord's great commandment to love God and neighbor cannot be reduced to a one-size-fits-all guide. It's complicated, messy at times, and humbling always.

Rating: A