In a previous post on the movie Inglourious Basterds, the question was raised: how could a Christian watch a movie like that. Philippians 4:8 was quoted and for this person, the book closed – the issue settled.
I think that what this point of view wrongly assumes is that the culture around us, specifically art produced or created by non-Christians, is evil.
“Well brother, I don’t have to drink out of the toilet to know it’s full of crap.” Meaning – I know my culture and it’s all bad.
Culture is simply the collective output or corporate expression of the minds and hearts of human beings. Because of this, art and culture are not completely a-moral like calories, alcohol, or sex, which being morally neutral were designed by God to be used for his glory but can be twisted to be used in sinful and destructive ways.
Every artistic cultural product carries inherent within it two aspects. Because every human being is made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27) art and culture, regardless of whether or not it is produced by a Christian, can reflect the image of God (the Imago Dei).
The Bible also tells us that every human being, and as a result human culture, has been marred by sin (Gen. 3:14-19). Because of this, culture will also always bear the mark of depravity.
As you interact with culture, which do you see more clearly: the image of God or human depravity?
As Paul comes in contact with the Athenians in Acts 17, he is acutely aware of both. He looks at a people group – he looks at their cultural output – and despite the fact that they were not aware of the Messiah that Paul was preaching, he sees and recognizes in them a deep spirituality (v. 22 – 28).
Simultaneously Paul saw the idolatry of that culture and he was “provoked” or disturbed to his core.
Depending what side of the fence you fall on – you’ll tend to only see one or the other.
If you always only see depravity when you look at the artistic output of the culture around – you will simply condemn – cutting yourself off from a world that is “charged with the grandeur of God” and cutting yourself off from the cultural creatives that produce such work.
Of course, if you always only see the Imago Dei, if you are never provoked by your culture’s idols – then you will simply consume – often being thoughtlessly shaped by the culture around you.
What about you? What do you see?
Tags: culture
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