Abstract
Niebuhr’s classic work on the relation between Christ and Culture can be more specifically applied to Education and Science. Niebuhr’s work discusses different worldviews on the relationship between our Christian faith and the culture of society. Some relations that Niebuhr discusses are: against, of, dualism, and integration. Similar relationship can be found in more contemporary works discussing the relationship of our Christian faith with education and science. With respect to science, Ian Barbour has written a book on the relations between faith and science and speaks of the relations of conflict, independence, dialogue, and integration. Many aspects of Barbour’s discussions mirror those of Niebuhr’s. Both authors make the case for an integrated approach.
An integrated approach with respect to science may involve the construction of theological models and physical models using the same intuitions and systems of reason and analysis. These models should be developed independently, but because they share common intuition and reason and because they aim to find the same truth, they should also be coherent. Because the models will not be an absolute accurate representation of God’s truth with respect to our spiritual faith and with respect to the physical world, there will exist apparent conflicts.
Apparent conflicts
between our models of faith and our physical models are dealt with
constructively in several ways. First we
must realize that our models are only approximations and are not absolute
truth. We must always examine our models
using our best reason and the best sources of analysis and information. If questions remain, we can wait for father
clarification of the models in the hope that additional relevant resources come
forth that can address the issues. But
while we continue to work toward better models, we do not discard models that
have served us well. And finally, we
understand that what we understand now is but a small piece of what we will
understand later. And though we understand
little now, there is great joy in that understanding, and there is even greater
joy in understanding just a little more than a little of God’s truth.
Christ and Culture,
Christ and Education,
Christ and Science
While we were gone to
But it was the residual effects of this student occupancy
that was to the more pronounced affects. Upon our return to our home after the
summer we found that the students had left a few things behind. One of those things was a portable boom box
that my twelve year teenage daughter adopted most eagerly. “Shake your tail feather, , and
“Baby boy” was heard all day coming from the bathroom, the bedroom, the
living room, and she even took the boom box outside with her when she went to
jump on the trampoline.
As my irritation grew with this incessant stream of bebop,
gum smacking, baby, baby, uh huh, I confronted my daughter and asked her if she
might reduce the volume of her devil music.
I also suggested that she might consider selecting another genre of
music, say jazz, or classical or Christian contemporary.
My twelve year old teenager replied, “Dad, you just don’t
understand. This music reflects the
angst of my generation. It speaks to the
cries of our souls. You just can’t
understand what this music is saying to us.”
Well, having been chastised for my intellectual shallowness
by my teenage twelve year old, I thought I should try to reclaim the
intellectual high ground by thinking about this a bit more and providing my
daughter with a proper response to her music.
***
Because I haven’t had many original thoughts of my own
recently, I looked to some others for enlightenment. I recalled a little book I used as an
undergraduate student long, long ago at a college far, far away in a course on
the relationship between faith and culture.
This book by H. Richard Niebuhr appears to be a classic as it has been
published many times since the 1951 copyright of my book. You can buy the 50th anniversary edition from
amazon.com for $25.
Niebuhr discusses many of the common answers to the question of how our faith, Christ, relates to the world we live in, culture. The first answer that we will look at is that of Christ against culture.
***
This is view that comes from a straight forward reading of
the Bible. As Christians we fight
against the evils of the culture we live.
We are not of the world, but must set ourselves apart from the
world. This approach leads to conflict
and isolation. One way to isolate
ourselves from the world is to live in a monastery or convent.
***
One such monastery
is this one. The Armenian Christian
monastery of Khor Virap
with
***
If total isolation is not practical, we might at least
separate ourselves from the most frivolous and sinful aspects of culture. The Amish reject popular entertainment and
social culture and much of our technical culture as well. Yet they still interact with the world and
the culture of the world. Maybe the
Amish have the answer, if the answer of Christ against culture is the correct
one?
***
Perhaps some of you are saying, yes, the Amish have it right. What are we doing here at LeTourneau! Others of you may be saying. Come on DeBoer, those are extreme answers. Aren’t we instructed to be in the world but not of the world? These people can’t effectively witness. They can’t carry out the great commission. We need to be out there witnessing to people, bringing them to the realization of salvation and the rejection of worldly wisdom. This can only be done if we are in the world.
Or maybe some of you haven’t thought about it all. Maybe you are here, just because you aren’t somewhere else? Maybe you’re not thinking about it has made you who you are? Effective marketing can make unthinking people believe they have a crucial need for a product when just minutes before they had no idea that such a thing had even existed, so also our culture can make us think things are important, crucial, or not important, without our own personal evaluation.
***
Perhaps our faith is the same? Perhaps our faith is a product of our
culture, as our perceived needs are often a product of talented marketers. In the speech of contemporary science we as
if our faith is a product evolutionary psychology, a consequence of faith being
an advantageous characteristic for a society.
After all, a society of faith should be a more successful society, and
so also these successful societies produce even more faith. Maybe our faith is of culture? This is another of Niebuhr’s descriptors of
the relation between faith and culture, Christ of culture.
So there may be the ‘liberal’ Christian, who sees the teachings of Christ as a proper way to live, a satisfying and rewarding life, and thus forms Christ into all those things that he understands as good and fulfilling while ignoring teachings of Christ that contradict his understandings.
Yet, even among evangelic Christians who affirm the historic
resurrection, the deity of Christ, and gospel message of salvation by faith,
there are differences in how they view Christ.
Some may view Christ as a great peace advocate, others as a warrior of
justice, some as a lover of sinners, others as a condemner of the sinful. Even evangelicals see in the gospel stories
the Christ that fits what they understand as good from their own cultural
perspective.
So also, some Christians assume that Jesus was, or would be, a republican based on moral rejection of homosexuality, while other Christians assume that Jesus is a democrat based on the ethical distribution of economic resources to the poor.
***
The musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, is an example. An older generation found the movie to be sacrilegious while a younger generation found the portrayal of Jesus to be very moving. Surely the Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar did not act like a superstar, the title is ironic, but perhaps people thought that the savior should be a superstar, and when Jesus was not, perhaps they questioned whether he was the one that he and others said he was?
How do you see Jesus? A superstar or a humble servant who carried a terrible emotional, spiritual, and physical burden to the cross?
***
And there is a larger culture of Christians made up of many
subcultures. A culture sometimes named
the American civil religion. In this we
put all the good things of our national culture, freedom of the press, civil
rights, entrepreneurship, the American way, into our understanding of Christ
and religion. Since we think of all
these things as good, they most surely must also be part of a true religion
which by virtue of it being true must also be good. So if the
WWJD might better be expressed by, WIVIYC, what is valued in
your culture.
Have you asked how your own heritage and culture has
influenced how you see Jesus Christ and your spiritual condition and your role
in the world? If you are of the culture,
can you even ask that question? Are we
so blinded by culture that we cannot see?
Would you know if you are in the cultural matrix, unless you have the
opportunity to leave the matrix?
***
It was to my great enrichment that I was able to see a
Christian faith from a very different cultural perspective. I was able to leave the
Yet, despite this lack of western cultural development there
is a strong and thriving Christian church.
As a Peace Corps volunteer and a Christian it was a great opportunity to
explore the culture of the I-Kiribati people and see how their culture
influences how they see the Christian faith.
Spending a good amount of time immersed in another culture, you come by
slow osmosis to learn why the people value certain personal qualities and
disapprove of others.
It was very interesting to see the juxtaposition of western
Christianity brought to the islands by those of the London Missionary Society
and others, with the pacific culture of polytheism, ancestor worship, and
community dependence. It was great fun
to sit up long nights with the local priests, pastors, and other peace corps
volunteers to talk about appropriate theology as well as appropriate
technology. Jesus may be the bread of
life to westerners, but he is the coconut of life to the pacific islanders.
But of even greater impact is how I saw my own culture when
I returned home. As students, you return
home after your first semester at college and see home entirely different. Your younger brother still watches the same
TV shows that you watched with him before you went to college, but now, after
having had to do homework every night and not having seen this show for months,
you can’t believe how dumb this show is.
You wonder how you could be so silly as to have had wasted time on it
before. You find that the discussion
around the table is all about things you have no idea of because you haven’t
been able to keep up on all the gossip about your cousins and local figures in
the community. And you think, all this
discussion is senseless, it is just filler, it is not really important. Why aren’t we discussing the important things
like valence bond theory and the application of differential equations to the
dampening of vibrational motion, you cry in your heart. These are the things, the LeTourneau culture;
these are things close to your experience, close to your heart.
***
So, yes, we acknowledge we must be conscious of how culture
affects our perception of faith. But
where are we at in our discussion? How
does this affect our view of culture?
Perhaps you haven’t been satisfied with either of the two perspectives,
the isolationist and the cultural Christians, and you are telling me that there
must be another, a middle path, perhaps?
For many Christians this middle path is what Niebuhr calls
Christ and culture in paradox. It
acknowledges that we are in the world, that we are physical beings, that we can
not separate ourselves from this, so isolation is not an option. We must therefore live out our lives, accept
the saving grace of Christ, and receive our eternal reward upon leaving this
world. While we are here, we must do our
best to spread the gospel of salvation to our fellow man. And the way we reach our fellow man is
through the activities of life, through the culture of life.
At the Baptist church that we attend, there is a sign that
you see when you leave the parking lot that says, “you are now entering your
mission field.” It is not the culture
of life that is important in itself; it is culture as a conduit to facilitate
the message of salvation. We are in the
world, but not of it. We are physical
beings, but that is only by necessity, as it is the spiritual that counts and
it is on this that we focus.
This is why we sometimes speak of people working in “full
time Christian service” if they are missionaries or pastors. While work of others is not directed toward
Kingdom work directly, but could include Kingdom work if they use their
vocation to witness.
***
You can envision the dualist model as two circles, one the
spiritual the other culture, or the world in general. These two worlds are distinct. Church stuff in the spiritual. Professional stuff in the world. That stuff in the world is the stuff we have
to do because we have to provide shelter and feed our physical bodies etc. Where these two spheres overlap is where we
witness to people at work, or do benevolence through our particular company to
provide for the poor in our community.
But for the most part, this overlap is small.
But Niebuhr presents another model.
***
This is the conversionist model. In the conversionist model, both spheres would
totally overlap; there would be no area outside of the spiritual. All of culture would be converted with
respect to our understanding of our spiritual condition and our relation to
God.
God created the world both spiritual and physical. He created us good, before the fall, as
physical beings. The world, the moon,
the sun and all the stars was created very good. We should accept all of this as God’s
intended creation. The evil in the world
is not in God’s created physical world, but in the consequences of man’s fall,
of man’s broken relationship with God.
We should not therefore think of this physical life as an
unavoidable pit stop on the way to heaven where we will have a spiritual non
physical existence, but as very much part of God’s intention for us. And along with that intended physical
existence, we can reason that God also intended for us to develop the culture
related to our physical existence, whether that culture be associated with
cooking, musical art, construction of buildings, exploration of physical
understanding through science, or the mere joy of living. If you doubt that God intended these elements
of culture to be, ask yourself, if Adam had not sinned, do you doubt that these
features of culture would still develop?
For example, politics is not something we are forced to bear
as a result of sin, but something to appreciate as a God given way for men to
live with one another in mutually constructive manners. Economics is a God given means to dispense
resources justly to all God created peoples.
These areas of culture are as much a part of God’s plan for
us as is His intent for us to worship Him in song and prayer.
***
Less you think that the conversionist model is so much philosophizing, you should note that this model is supportable scripturally….
For by him all things were created:
For God so loved the world …For God did not send his son
into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him. John 3: 16-17
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. He was with God in
the beginning. Through him all things
were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. John 1:1-3
For since the creation of the world god’s invisible
qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being
understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. Romans 1: 20
***
This table gives some basic differences between the dualist
and the conversionist perspective. In
the next few minutes we will want to see how a dualist and conversionist
perspective influence how see education and specifically, how we see science
and science education
***
So how does this discussion speak to the issue of my daughter’s
music?
***
One of my daughter’s favorite groups is Evanescence. Here is part of one of their songs. It speaks of our spirit being aroused, being
saved from the nothing of ourselves. My
daughter tells me this speaks to the human condition. The Christian model speaks to the human
condition in much the same way. The
first section of the
Is this an example of culture, based on human reason and experience,
producing insights that are consistent with the Christian faith? Even if one argues that Evanescence has some
sort of religious heritage that might explain the tone of their work, would
that also explain the popularity of this group with many who have rejected or
are unaware of the gospel message?
I think my daughter has a point. From a conversionist perspective, this music
speaks of man’s struggle to find his relation with God, and that is what God
may have intended our culture to do.
Of course there are also songs that express the desire of self
gratification, that song, It is hot in here, take off all your clothes, for
example. And you may say that these
popular works are of lesser quality because of their short lifetimes than are
the ‘classic’ works. But these points
are not defeaters to the point that man’s search for understanding and meaning
can be expressed through culture, even the most popular trendy culture.
Let’s move on to Christian education at the college level.
***
Here are two books that speak to the issue of Christian
education. The book by Holmes was used
during my faculty orientation at LeTourneau, so I assume it is in basic
agreement with University thinking. The
second has been recommended by President Austin on several occasions and has
apparently been used within the president’s cabinet as a discussion point.
Both of these books profess a conversionist perspective on
culture. We might say they speak of the
integration of faith and learning. And
so I am inferring that our college leadership holds to a conversionist vision
for LeTourneau.
So, are we integrated?
Are we conversionist? Or are we
still dualists? Is our five minute devo
the spiritual sphere crossing into the culture of education while the remaining
50 minutes of lecture is the ‘secular knowledge’ we need to know to go out into
the world in order achieve professional goals and to be effective evangelists
among those in that profession?
Do we in those 50 minutes as faculty and students express the idea that this subject is of God, created by God? And if we do profess that accounting, psychology, and fields and waves, are things of God, given to us in the creation to be discovered and used by us to live in a manner glorifying to God, how do we teach these subjects so as to reflect how God had intended us to use them?
Well, I can’t speak for all the disciplines, but I might try
to start exploring some of these questions with respect to the sciences.
***
A classic in the field of science and religion is Ian
Barbour’s book, When Science Meets Religion.
This book is organized around four commonly given answers given by
Christians and other theists to the relation between science and religion. Does this seem familiar? Yes, it is very similar to the Niebuhr book, Christ
and Culture.
Let’s take a look at the different views that Barbour
presents through some examples.
***
Dinosaurs are of interest to everyone.
But what of the science of dinosaurs and religion?
***
Science seems to say that dinosaurs lived and died millions of years before humans, before Adam could have lived and sinned. How is it that dinosaurs could have died before sin entered the world?
***
There appears to be a conflict between what science says
about dinosaurs and what we understand about how sin and death came into the
world.
***
Maybe we can just separate these two, science and
religion. Science seems to talk about
how, and religion why. Maybe that is the
main point. Maybe Genesis just tells us
why God created, but not how? Conflict
would then go away. Famous philosophers
like Emmanuel Kant thought like this, so it must not be totally unreasonable.
Carl Sagan is infamous amongst theist for not seeing this
independence, ‘The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.’ (Cosmos,
1980) Clearly an understanding of the Cosmos
can not allow one to give a definitive question as to why it exists.
It is important to separate philosophy and theology from
scientific theory. Evolutionism,
vs. evolution is an example. The ism
speaks of a philosophy, while the theory describes how physical changes in
species may occur. Even if may find the
philosophy erroneous, that doesn’t necessarily mean parallel physical model is
also erroneous.
As Christians we must be careful of what we speak. We must respect the independent voices of physical
science and philosophy and recognize their source so as to allow each to say
what they mean to say.
A good book that discusses this concept of independence constructively
is God Did it But How, by Robert B. Fischer.
***
Lack of independence is evident when a philosophy/theology is thought to necessarily follow from a scientific theory. For example, some may say that the scientific theory of evolution of species by descent is necessarily related to a philosophy of scientism, that everything can be explained by science and that there are only naturalistic causes for everything. Those who explore the scientific theory of evolution by descent are associated with naturalism or atheism.
On the other hand, a scientific theory of instantaneous origins is associated with divine creation by fiat.
***
Those who explore theories of a 6000 year old earth, or a
universe created mature, are therefore associated with theism.
***
But these associations do not logically follow. For example, someone accepting a model of
evolution by descent may still be a theist, but a theist who thinks that God
may have used evolution by descent as part of the process of His creation
work.
***
Likewise, a model of instantaneous origins does not have to
lead to a theistic perspective. The
instantaneous origins may have a very naturalistic cause, life planted by
extraterrestrial space travelers for example.
Clearly, we must distinguish between scientific theories or
models and philosophical and theological views.
We must know the limits of science and the limits of theology.
Now, it is good to understand the independence of science
and religion, to know what each can say and what they can’t say. But, we also want to go beyond this to see
not only where they are independent, but where they are coherent, where they
overlap, and build consistency between the two.
This goal will move us beyond the idea of independence.
***
Dialogue makes use of science for analogy or enhancement of
the religious message.
***
David used dialogue in the psalms to express his wonderment
of why God concerns himself with us.
With the Hubble telescope this wonderment can only be increased. After all, we are but a speck of dust in this
solar system, and there are billions of solar systems in our galaxy, and even
more galaxies in the universe….
A nice book that uses dialogue is Who is God? also by
Robert Fischer. It uses many analogies
from science to describe some of God’s characteristics as listed in the
***
Integration may include dialogue, but it is also beyond
dialogue. It is a meshing of a faith and
subject. But be clear, it should not be
a force fit as that would lead to conflict!
Rather, it should be a natural meshing as a result of recognized
independent voices from both areas.
What do we learn from science, what have we developed as a
theological model based on God’s revelation in scripture? If we accept the value of both while not
imposing one onto the other, there should not be a conflict. And if they do seem to conflict, what tools
do we use to evaluate each contribution if they appear to conflict?
It appears that to evaluate our models, we must depend to
some extent upon our reason. If you are
a dualist, you may say your reason is corrupt and you cannot depend on it. But saying that implies that you thought
about your thinking, which the dualist says he cannot trust. So how can we trust the dualist to think
properly that we can not trust our thinking?
If you are a conversionist, you respect that God has given
us means to reason, to see Him in the world.
Surely, these reasoning skills are affected by our sin, and so we must
work to overcome sinful tendencies so that we can reason as well as we can. This is why we have philosophy class, to
discuss methods of logic, means to make proper arguments. For example, ad hominid attacks are
not only sinful, but they are also poor logic.
The methods for making good, reasonable arguments in
philosophy and theology are very similar to the methods that good scientists
use to make arguments with respect to scientific observations.
In both fields, the models that we use to explain our
observations, must explain those observations satisfactorily, else our models
fail. Our models aren’t always perfect,
they are mostly approximations. Yet
these approximations can be helpful in understanding and explaining the world
around us. The way to make our models
better is through systematic, logical evaluation. This is done both in the physical sciences
and in theology/philosophy.
So what is the model which meshes both science and
theology? Are there more than one? How do you come up with the models? Can you give an example of the evaluation of
the model?
Well people in a given field are best able to know the
models in their fields. So the people in
business need a model of business that is consistent with their theological
model. Those in psychology
likewise. Every inch of the world
belongs to God, as Abraham Kuyper said.
***
For those in the sciences, here are some examples of attempts at meshing theology with science. Hugh Ross is a physicist and a Christian evangelical. Many people have enjoyed reading his personal testimony and his ideas as to how science is consistent with scripture. Gerald Schroeder is in many ways similar to Ross, and is of Jewish tradition. Barbour, we have mentioned before, and this is a book in which he speaks of the human condition and the science of genetics, as well as much more.
Also, we will have later in this semester, a talk on plate
tectonics from our own Dr. Ball. That
will be another opportunity for you to hear and interact with a Christian
physicist as he attempts to integrate faith with science.
***
Is all such discussion within the mission of the University? From our previous discussion of education and the college catalog, I think so.
***
Of course all of this idealism will not work out practically
if we don’t allow faculty and students to explore models, to propose models for
evaluation and analysis. This process
requires academic freedom within the definition of the University and is also
supported in the faculty handbook.
Now, I will be happy to entertain your questions and
comments.
(unidentified voice from
audience shouts) Amen
If there are no further
questions, let us end on that vote of affirmation.