{"id":33309,"date":"2023-10-09T22:31:31","date_gmt":"2023-10-10T05:31:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=33309"},"modified":"2023-10-09T22:31:31","modified_gmt":"2023-10-10T05:31:31","slug":"minimal-common-culture-and-the-imago-dei","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/minimal-common-culture-and-the-imago-dei\/","title":{"rendered":"Minimal Common Culture and the Imago Dei"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

\u201cIf we do not agree on a minimal common culture, we cannot cooperate on shared tasks and will not regard the same institutions as legitimate; indeed, we will not even be able to communicate with one another absent a common language with mutually understood meanings.\u201d [1]\u00a0

In his book Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, Francis Fukuyama takes us on a fascinating journey through political history and philosophical thought. The journey is made all the more interesting because it is quite the reversal of Fukuyama\u2019s post Cold-War position on liberal democracy, as he wrote about in The End of History and the Last Man. [2]\u00a0 He previously held that liberal democracy had decisively won out over fascism. Nearly 30 years later, he admits the fragility of liberal democracy, and he ties that fragility to the innate human need for recognition. [3] His solution? A \u201cminimal common culture\u201d, in other words a set of shared values despite our ideological differences.

I grant that Fukuyama is writing from a totally secular perspective, but I honestly struggle to see how we arrive at the set of shared values. Who decides what those values should be? And where do Kingdom values come into play?

Our Citizenship is in Heaven<\/strong>

In Philippians 3 the apostle Paul outlines all the old characteristics he used to value, outward signs of religiosity. Those same values he left behind to take hold of life with Jesus. He uses this vivid phrase \u201cI consider them all garbage\u201d to indicate a radical value shift that happens when we follow Christ. Verse 20 has always been particularly meaningful to me because it tells us \u201cBut our citizenship is in heaven.\u201d None of us truly belongs in America or Indonesia or Canada or France, despite what our passport says or what our home address is. As products of our culture, we likely share some of the same values with those around us, but hopefully our values resemble the Kingdom of God even more.

The topic of citizenship is something I think about quite frequently, even more so in the past year or so as we have put in our application for French citizenship. We will eventually have an interview where we will have to prove that our values align with French values. Mostly the interviewer will want to see that we are well integrated into French society. He or she will want to know how we practice equality, fraternity and liberty and (probably most importantly) the fourth value that isn\u2019t stated in the national motto: la\u00efcit\u00e9 or secularism.

La\u00efcit\u00e9, in a nutshell, is the French government\u2019s way of embracing Fukuyama\u2019s \u201cminimal common culture.\u201d It means that there is freedom of religion as long as that religion is kept private and it does not go against French laws or values. Of course, this presents an interesting dilemma because, as Paul points out in Philippians 3, our faith in Christ is so transformative that it\u2019s not something we can keep private. It is meant to permeate every aspect of our being. It is meant to reorder our values completely.

In the midst of the internal conflict and anxiety I feel, I remind myself that I am ultimately a citizen of heaven. It is right and good and a cause for rejoicing when society\u2019s values conflict with Kingdom values because it affirms that Jesus is my true King. Fukuyama hints at this when he cites Mother Theresa as an example of extreme altruistic behavior. He acknowledges that motivation (which I would argue is synonymous with value) varies enormously among individuals. [4]\u00a0

Fukuyama argues that the solution to the divisive political atmosphere of the present day lies in an equal recognition of the groups that have previously been marginalized [5] and a larger definition of national identities that take account of the diversity present in a given nation. [6] He points to Alexis de Tocqueville\u2019s idea of successful democracy which \u201crequires citizens who are patriotic, informed, active, public spirited, and willing to participate in political matters.\u201d Fukuyama adds, \u201cIn this age of polarization, one might add that they should be open-minded, tolerant of other viewpoints, and ready to compromise their own views for the sake of democratic consensus.\u201d [7]\u00a0

With respect to Fukuyama, I would rather have an identity based on the recognition of the Imago Dei inherent in each person. The respect and a willingness to sacrifice for others is only possible when we recognize the worth of each person, a worth that ultimately comes from the fact that we have been created by God and in His image.\u00a0

____________________
1 Francis Fukuyama, <\/span>Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, (2018), 52<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

2 Francis Fukuyama. <\/span>The End of History and the Last Man,<\/span><\/i> (2012).<\/span><\/p>\r\n

3 Louis Menand, \u201cFrancis Fukuyama Postpones the End of History,\u201d <\/span>The New Yorker<\/span><\/i>, August 27, 2018,<\/span> https:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/magazine\/2018\/09\/03\/francis-fukuyama-postpones-the-end-of-history<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

4 Francis Fukuyama, <\/span>Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, (2018), <\/span><\/i>21.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

5 Ibid, 27.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

6 Ibid, 103. <\/span><\/p>\r\n

7 Ibid, 129.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf we do not agree on a minimal common culture, we cannot cooperate on shared tasks and will not regard the same institutions as legitimate; indeed, we will not even be able to communicate with one another absent a common language with mutually understood meanings.\u201d [1]\u00a0 In his book Identity: The Demand for Dignity and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":186,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2310],"tags":[2489,1839],"class_list":["post-33309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-leadership-3","tag-dlgp02","tag-fukuyama","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/186"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33309"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33316,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33309\/revisions\/33316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}