Christ and Culture Revisited

by D. A. Carson

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2008

Overview

Called to live in the world, but not to be of it, Christians must maintain a balancing act that becomes more precarious the further our culture departs from its Judeo-Christian roots. How should members of the church interact with such a culture, especially as deeply enmeshed as most of us have become?

D.A. Carson applies his masterful touch to this problem. He begins by exploring the classic typology of H. Richard Niebuhr with its five Christ-culture options. Carson proposes that these disparate options are in reality one still larger vision. Using the Bible’s own story line and the categories of biblical theology, he clearly lays out that unifying vision. Carson acknowledges the helpfulness of Niebuhr’s grid and similar matrices but warns against giving them canonical force.

More than just theoretical, Christ and Culture Revisited is also designed practically to help Christians untangle current messy debates on living in the world. Carson emphasizes that the relation between Christ and culture is not limited to an either/or cultural paradigm—Christ against culture or Christ transforming culture. Instead Carson offers his own paradigm in which all the categories of biblical theology must be kept in mind simultaneously to inform the Christian worldview.

Key Features

• Explores the classic typology of H. Richard Niebuhr with its five Christ-culture options
• Uses the Bible’s own story line to clearly lay out a unifying vision
• Helps Christians untangle current messy debates on living in the world

Contents

• How to Think about Culture: Reminding Ourselves of Niebuhr
• Niebuhr Revised: The Impact of Biblical Theology
• Refining Culture and Redefining Postmodernism
• Secularism, Democracy, Freedom, and Power
• Church and State
• On Disputed Agendas, Frustrated Utopias, and Ongoing Tensions

Top Highlights

“What is becoming obvious is that Niebuhr is not so much talking about the relationship between Christ and culture, as between two sources of authority as they compete within culture, namely Christ (however he is understood within the various paradigms of mainstream Christendom) and every other source of authority divested of Christ (though Niebuhr is thinking primarily of secular or civil authority rather than the authority claimed by competing religions).” (Page 12)

“In much of the Western world, despite the fact that Christianity was one of the forces that shaped what the West became (along with the Enlightenment, and a host of less dominant powers), culture is not only moving away from Christianity, it is frequently openly hostile toward it. Christianity can be tolerated, provided it is entirely private: Christian belief that intrudes itself into the public square, especially if it is trying to influence public policy, is most often taken, without examination, as prima facie evidence for bigotry and intolerance.” (Page 6)

“The first answer to the question of Christ and culture we shall consider is the one that uncompromisingly affirms the sole authority of Christ over the Christian and resolutely rejects the culture’s claims to loyalty’” (Page 13)

“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.” (Page 227)

“Christ above culture,’ Niebuhr understands to be the majority position in the history of the church” (Page 20)

Praise for the Print Edition

Don Carson here writes clearly, carefully, and helpfully about the timely topic of how Christians should engage culture. Well-suited to write such a volume, Carson exposes and explodes ‘egregious reductionisms’ which he says too often afflict Christians. We can’t reduce the relationship of Christ and culture to one model (Niebuhrian or otherwise). Reading this book has sharpened my own understanding. So buy the book you’re holding. Read it. Pass it along to folks in your congregation. And reduce ‘egregious reductionisms’!

—Mark Dever, senior pastor, Capitol Hill Baptist Church

There is no more crucial issue facing us today than the relationship of the church and the Gospel to contemporary culture. Don Carson’s treatment of this issue is the most balanced one out there. Rather than grinding an axe or pushing his own paradigm, he listens carefully to the Scripture and brings us in the end to a sophisticated simplicity about these matters. I highly recommend this book.

—Tim Keller, pastor, Redeemer Presbyterian Church

Make room on the shelf for this penetrating book by Carson . . . Carson engages with a stunning range of writers and texts.

—Christianity Today

Product Details

• Title: Christ and Culture Revisited
• Editors: D.A. Carson
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Publication Date: 2008
• Pages: 255
• Christian Group: Evangelicals
• Resource Type: Topical
• Topic: Worldview

About D. A. Carson

D.A. Carson (b. 1946) is one of the most respected New Testament scholars in the world. A respected teacher, author, and speaker, he is currently research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and the president of The Gospel Coalition. He has served as pastor of Richmond Baptist Church and as the first dean of the seminary of Northwest Baptist Theological College, now known as Northwest Baptist Seminary. Logos has collected his sermons—including audio—in the D.A. Carson Sermon Archive.

Carson lectures in academic and church settings around the world, and is the author of more than 50 books, including Exegetical Fallacies, Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel According to John, The Gagging of God, Showing the Spirit: A Theological Exposition of 1 Corinthians 12–14 and the Intolerance of Tolerance. He is the editor of the Pillar New Testament Commentary series, and coedited of the Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament with G.K. Beale, and the Studies in New Testament Greek series with Stanley Porter. You can find more of Carson’s work in the Baker D.A. Carson Collection (15 vols.).