During my confused, impulsive, and erring youth, I believed, with the arrogance of ignorance, that I knew the answers to all of life’s most important questions. may also be economically viable. All that was needed was the right policies and the right government to implement them. It was very simple. It’s very easy. The biggest problem was convincing the old man how simple everything was. It was such a thoughtless youthful thought.
And as for culture, who cared about culture anyway? At best, it was as fun as listening to the latest rock band or watching your favorite soccer team. At worst, it was an unnecessary distraction from real political and economic issues. And religion? What a waste of time. Religion was completely irrelevant. It had nothing to do with the real world or real problems.
how wrong i was How wrong and how lost.
When I was younger, there was one older person I took seriously. In fact, he wasn’t all that old. he was in his thirties. But teenage “old” starts when he’s 25. He was like a mentor, and I remember often starting discussions with his claim to “define the terms.” When discussing capitalism, communism, free trade, free markets, or private property, he always asked me to define what I meant by these things. He also asks probing questions, such as whether private enterprise and free enterprise are the same thing. At times he was frustrated by his formal arguments, but I realized that he was teaching me how to think. Slowly but surely he took me from mere offshoots such as politics and economics to an understanding of such important things as philosophy and eventually theology. So, intellectually speaking, I am very dependent on his debt.
I would like to bring my former mentor’s approach to our discussion of culture.what teeth culture?what is not culture? As a word it is used too lightly and abused too often. As a creature it is too often taken for granted and not fully understood for what it is. So, now is the time to look at culture with the clarity of vision that is so often lacking. In short, it’s time to define our terms.
First, what is culture? human (and ultimately divine). It does not belong to or come from another living being. No dog culture. There is no chimpanzee civilization. Not Planet of the Apes. Only humans make music, write poetry, build cathedrals, and paint.Second, culture creativeis the art of makeFor Christians, the fact that something is peculiarly human marks it as a sign that humans are made in God’s image in a way that is decidedly different from other animals. , culture is a sign of the image of God within us.
But what kind of mark is it?
that is creative mark. It is an image of the Creator’s creativity. Our imagination is an image of God’s imagination within us. So there is something human and sacred about the creativity that creates culture. It is the gift of a giver who finds creative expression in the gifted humanity. On a mystical level, images of both the Trinity and the Incarnation can be seen in the primordial truths of this culture. The Trinity is the eternal expression of the divine vitality that is the source of all creativity, and the Incarnation is the eternal and temporary endowment of this divine vitality, this primordial gift, in Christ’s created humanity to mankind. is. At the deepest level, the Trinity and Incarnation are the archetypes of all cultures. They are the source of all cultures and the purpose served by all well-ordered cultures.
This is so intrinsically true that it has been tacitly accepted by ancient pagans and modern atheists, those who believed in many gods, and even those who believed in no god at all. Homer and Virgil began their epic by offering prayers to the Muse, the goddess of creativity, and infused them with her gifts so that their stories could be told with truth and beauty.Even Shelly, a self-proclaimed atheist, is forced to speak in mystical terms about her creative talents. defense of poetry he writes:
Poetry, unlike reasoning, is a force exercised according to the decision of will. Even the greatest of poets, he cannot say that. The mind in creation is like a fading coal whose unseen influences, like the unsteady wind, awaken a temporary luminosity. This power comes from within, like the color of a flower that fades and changes as it grows. It is impossible to predict the greatness of the result, whether this influence will last in its original purity and power. But once the composition begins, the inspiration is already fading, and perhaps the most brilliant poem ever passed on to the world is a weak shadow of the poet’s original conception.
An atheist and contemplative of his muse, Shelley’s remarkable take on these words is in the last sentence quoted above, when T.S. I agree with the fact. And its existence falls into the shadows. ” For Eliot, a Christian, the shadow itself is the shadow of depravity. However, even Shelley, who did not seem to believe in the Fall and sympathized with Milton’s demons, the Shadow still exists. There is a surprising and ironically hilarious consensus over The gift itself is pure and spiritual, not only for pagans and Christians, but also for atheists. Shelley refers to the creative muse or gift as the “spirit of goodness” for whom the poet is merely a pastor.
At this point, we can see the emergence of obvious objections that create thorny questions.If creativity is a gift from God, why would God allow an atheist like Shelley to abuse that gift? Permitting low-culture egregious representations such as madness, the obscenity and blasphemy of much of contemporary art, or all other representations of our pornocratic zeitgeist? Can this effluent from public sewage be called “culture”? itself Do they have meaningful values? In response, it should be pointed out that God does not remove a gift the moment it is abused. For example, consider the gift of life. If He had removed the gift of life the moment we sinned, none of us would have reached puberty! Love as well as life. The gift of love is not taken away just because many of us abuse it selfishly or lasciviously. In fact, if the gift of love had been taken away the moment it was abused, our first love would have been our last love! As with life and love, so is freedom. God gave us freedom. He even lets us go to hell at will if we want to. As with life, love and freedom, so is creativity. He gives us the talent, the freedom to use it, abuse it, and bury it. He gives us creative pearls and allows us to keep them or cast them before pigs.
But what does culture mean? Is bad art still culture? If so, what makes the culture so special? These are good questions and best answered with other questions. What does mean? Is the sinner still a man? If so, what is so special about humans? Humans are special because they are made in the image of God. A villain is still made in God’s image, even if that image is broken. Similarly, creativity is special because it is the mark of God’s image in man, culture is the mark of God’s creative image in human society, and at best God’s creative image in Christian civilization. It’s special because it’s a signature image. A bad culture is an image that has been distorted and broken by abuse and sin, but that still bears the imprint of God’s image. A good culture, like a good human being, must truly reflect the goodness of its Creator. Men are called saints, cultures are called saints. Cultures need to be converted, just as humans need to be converted. Culture must repent just like humans. You have to turn around. It must be turned again to its source, the giver of light and life, and the source of all beauty.
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