© Contra Mundum 1991-2022
About Contra Mundum, a study of the conditions of Christian culture.
About
Christianity lived is culture
Christianity and culture are not two different things. Christianity is religion—a pattern of living in
relation to ultimate loyalties and norms—and in living the acts done and things made take up an
orientation to that religion and according to it are judged to build up life or to be deviant. According
to T. S. Elliot: “The first important assertion is that no culture has appeared or developed except
together with a religion: according to the point of view of the observer the culture will appear to be
the product of the religion, or the religion the product of culture.” (Notes Toward the Definition of
Culture) As religions make claims about what is true and how people should act that are contrary to
those of other religions, cultural conflict is inevitable, and the fact of the relation of culture to
religion in no way exempts either from censure.
Because culture is life and life is lived in particular circumstances, culture is also molded by
geography with is implied local resources and the heritage of the past with its built up
achievements, attitudes and ingrained preferences; the list is endless. This gives a fascinating
variety to the study of culture and sometimes a frustrating opacity, not only to outsiders but
sometimes to the self-understanding of its members. Elliot gives three conditions for culture:
“organic … structure, such as will foster the hereditary transmission”, “that a culture should be
analysable, geographically, into local cultures” and “the balance of unity and diversity in religion.”
When I first became interested in the problem of Christianity and culture it was considered both an
eccentricity and a neglect of serious Christian concerns. But then the youth revolt of the 1960s was
upon us which scandalized and baffled the older generation in the churches who assumed that their
folkways were Christian culture as far as culture mattered, and who could not see what there was to
revolt against. Within a decade the inherited taboos were swept away and new patterns in dress,
speech and entertainment had taken over. Since then much of the standards of personal morality
have given way, not so much in the official church teaching but in common practice. But now a
concentrated assault on Christian culture is upon us in which the resources of all institutions (those
of the state, all media, universities, commercial enterprises, foundations and even the churches
themselves) are mobilized in the attack with an ever more open hatred. This attack also is rooted in
religion. Today everyone is forced to be concerned about Christianity and culture. This does not
mean that they know how to think about it. Their biggest problem is the first of Elliot’s conditions:
organic structure, such as will foster the hereditary transmission. This is amplified by the church
traditions that see their status as strangers and wayfarers in the world as a mandate to abstain from
the organic structures necessary for culture, or at least not think about them. But this option is
impossible if one wants to go on living; just look at the Amish; no one has created a more total
organic structure than they did in their effort to avoid life in the world. So herein look for analysis
of the three conditions of culture, but especially the first.
Contra Mundum is not related to any institution, foundation, church or commercial entity. Opinions
expressed by the writers are solely their own and may be and sometimes are contrary those of the
editors.
contramundum@contra-mundum.org
castellano@contra-mundum.org
The problem of the relation between Christ
and culture immediately concerns the
fundamental questions of Christian thought
and action. Therefore a Christian must
continually contend with it. The one who
does not touch it neglects his direct calling.
— Klaas Schilder
To say that culture is man's calling in the
covenant is only another way of saying that
culture is religiously determined. — Henry
R. Van Til