I love diving into worldviews and how they shape the way we live our lives and engage in culture. My academic journey has led me to spend a significant amount of time reflecting on how a Christian is to engage culture, and I\u2019ve often done so through the lens of comparing different worldview \u201cmaps.\u201d For instance, in the U.S., many Christians assume without question that playing drums for worship on a Sunday morning is perfectly acceptable. I recognize that there are exceptions but many modern churches will include drums. Yet when I lived in Kenya, I had to discern whether playing drums for worship was appropriate in our church community, since drums were traditionally used only in calling the spirits in animistic practices. It became necessary to overlay our worldview maps and discern a faithful path forward. We eventually chose to make our own drum\u2014one not tied to animism or witchcraft\u2014and worship God with it.<\/p>\n
When Christians consider how to engage culture, we often find ourselves falling into one of two primary camps: protection-oriented or engagement-focused.<\/p>\n
The protection-oriented camp emphasizes that this world is temporary, passing, and that we should set our minds on things above, not on earthly things (Col. 3:2). The instinct here is often a withdrawal from culture. Taken to the extreme, this leads to communities like the Amish near my city, who separate themselves from aspects of culture like electricity because they view it as cultural rather than spiritual.<\/p>\n
A prominent voice in this protection-oriented camp is A.W. Tozer. In his book Culture<\/em>, he likens the church to an ark\u2014saved from a devastating flood and attempting to remain separate.[1]<\/a> Christians, then, call others out of the floodwaters and into the ark to be saved. When culture is viewed this way, everything outside the church can seem threatening, and the impulse is to hide. Jeff Myers observes, \u201cA common temptation among Christians is to keep faith locked securely inside church.\u201d[2]<\/a> In my local context, I\u2019ve seen this perspective fueling the homeschool movement. While it is not wrong to want to educate our children well, many families I know are choosing to homeschool primarily as an attempt to withdraw completely from culture. Many of my friends in this protection-oriented camp do not know anyone outside their little Christian communities. They often describe how they do not know any non-Christian. Tozer\u2019s model of pulling people out of the flood waters seems challenging when immersed in the Christian community.<\/p>\n The other camp\u2014the one where I have pitched my tent\u2014is the camp of engagement. This does not mean uncritically embracing culture, but rather entering it with a kingdom-centered lens. As Andy Crouch writes, \u201cThe only way to change culture is to create more of it.\u201d[3]<\/a> Likewise, theologian Kevin Vanhoozer argues that the church is called to live out the expression of our faith within the culture we inhabit. He writes, \u201cThe church\u2019s mission is not to seek utopia, but to be a eutopia<\/em>: a good place in which the good news of reconciliation in Christ is exhibited in bodily form.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n This engagement-oriented posture does not mean passively absorbing culture; it means challenging and reshaping it through Christ-centered participation\u2014in art, science, politics, economics, and beyond. Over a century ago, Abraham Kuyper pushed back against the retreat of Christians from scientific inquiry. He encouraged believers to \u201ctake hold of science as an instrument for propagating our faith-conviction.\u201d[5]<\/a> Kuyper himself modeled this by entering the public sphere and eventually serving as the Prime Minister of the Netherlands.<\/p>\n Many modern theologians encourage Christians not to merely float along in the ark while the cultural waters rage but to actively cultivate and transform the world as we seek to make the kingdom of heaven visible on earth. David Hegeman writes, \u201cWe therefore have a great hope that we will be able now and in the future to fulfill the commandment that was set before us in the Garden of Eden to transform the earth.\u201d[6]<\/a> Richard Mouw, in his work on Isaiah 60, makes a similar case for the redemption of culture.[7]<\/a> His writing helped me choose to use a drum in our Kenyan village church\u2014not to embrace animism, but to redeem what had been misused. What had once been associated with calling spirits became an instrument of praise to our Father.<\/p>\n Another influential voice in this conversation is Miroslav Volf. Volf offers pathways for Christians to navigate the cultural world thoughtfully and faithfully. His words sum up much of how I seek to live publicly. He writes:<\/p>\n \u201cProperly understood, the Christian faith is neither coercive nor idle. As a prophetic religion, Christian faith will be an active faith, engaged in the world in a noncoercive way\u2014offering blessing to our endeavors, effective comfort in our failures, moral guidance in a complex world, and a framework of meaning for our lives and our activities.\u201d[8]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n This is the posture I seek to adopt: not withdrawal, not assimilation, but Christ-centered engagement\u2014redeeming, restoring, creating, and bearing witness to the kingdom here and now.<\/p>\n ________________________________________________<\/p>\n [1]<\/a> A. W. Tozer, Culture: Living as Citizens of Heaven on Earth–Collected Insights from A.W. Tozer<\/em> (Moody Publishers, 2016), 57.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Jeff Myers, Understanding the Culture: A Survey of Social Engagement<\/em> (David C. Cook, 2017), 55.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Andy Crouch, Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling<\/em> (Intervarsity Press, 2008), 67.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Faith Speaking Understanding<\/em> (Westminster John Knox Press, 2014), 178.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> Abraham Kuyper, Wisdom & Wonder: Common Grace in Science and Art<\/em>, English Ed (Christian Library Press, 2011), 94.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> David Bruce Hegeman, Plowing in Hope Toward a Biblical Theology of Culture<\/em> (Canon Press, 1999), 71.<\/p>\n\n