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We still believe in cultural engagement. That’s the Christian mission to share our faith in the real world, seeking to win souls to Jesus. These souls naturally seek biblical influences in stories, songs, and beyond. So why do some believers claim that they want “cultural engagement” but then, when angry or manipulative anti-Christian critics engage us right back, throw up their hands and call for pietistic separation?

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1. How ‘cultural engagement’ started

• Christians inherited a legacy of sheltering, e.g. “fundamentalism.”
• That term also gets associated with “separation from the world.”
• From there other Christians moved to broader “evangelicalism.”
• That newer term is more about living in (but not of) the world.
• Yet this “evangelicalism” had a particular missionary emphasis.
• We wanted to adapt what’s good about the world for ourselves.
• And we sought to make comfortable places for unbelievers.
• This also get associated with “Christian versions” of stories/songs.
• Now new generations want to reject the first, modify the second.
• First, they rightly see sin and harm in cultural fundamentalism.
• Second, they see greatness in many secular stories and songs.
• Third, they want to make great stories/songs that aren’t terrible.
• Results? Much content about genuinely bad church dysfunctions.
• Many reviews and articles praising secular stories and songs.
• And now, finally, Christian-made stories/songs that are great!

2. How ‘cultural engagement’ is going

• Now that we’ve identified the graces, let’s talk about the idols.
• (In this we follow two of the five engagement steps in TPCP.)
• You see, some “engagement” folks forget that third creative stage.
• Many got stuck in ranting (supposed) cultural fundamentalism.
• Yes, our old pal Church Back Home Syndrome reappears here.
• Others got stuck finding greatness in secular stories/songs.
• They forgot the part about finding idols in those “cultural artifacts.”
• They grew so positive that they failed to perceive the real world.
• For instance, some ignore real hatreds of Christians in the world.
• We’ve heard from big-name creators who encountered this.
• They were as “winsome” as could be, but got soft-persecuted.
• “Engagers” especially neglect finding ways to create new stuff.
• Perhaps they miss the purpose of “glorifying/enjoying God.”
• Without spilling tea, Stephen has seen this among some writers.
• They wanted to “engage” “for nonbelievers” their favorite stuff.
• So you got articles about Scorsese movies and art-house films.
• English majors had a particular like for engaging non-pop culture.
• But regarding actual pop culture, memes, politics, etc.? Ugh, no.
• A few “engagers” ended up bitter, confused, even deconstructed.
• Their view of culture is bad; their view of social issues is worse.
• It’s like they expected “engagement” would not involve conflict.
• But the very concept includes challenges—of worldview idols!
• Any creative work will involve creative differences, e.g. conflict.
• This may explain why some are reverting to cultural insularity.
• We see the return of pietistic slogans about culture, esp. politics.
• They speak much of their own discomfort, fear, “piety,” holiness.
• And they call for separation from implied-bad “worlds” like politics.
• More often than not, they create nothing new, only more critiques.
• This is “fundamentalism” all over again—anti-cultural engagement.

3. How we do actual ‘cultural engagement’

• Go back to the Bible’s best examples of this method by apostles.
• Find these in the book of Acts, especially Acts chapter 17.
• In this keystone text, Paul engages the culture of Athens.

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for

“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

as even some of your own poets have said,

“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Acts 17:22–31

• Paul isn’t bothered by those bad Christians somewhere else.
• He also doesn’t cite his “provoked” sense about idols (verse 16).
• He’s deeply human but also disciplined and rational to engage.
• Here in the public square, his ideas and challenges are welcome.
• He praises the Athenians, with a hint of backhanded compliment.
• Is there humor in his description of the “unknown god” altar?
• Paul “appropriates” the phrase plus the words of Greek poets.
• And he re-contextualizes them while assuming God’s word is true.
• His goal is the specific conversion of heathen nonbelievers.
• Paul does a lot of setup before later discussions continue.
• This is an overt pre-evangelistic (Other chats vary.)
• However, Paul isn’t in this cultural engagement “mode” all the time.
• Other times it’s better to defend one’s own rights or get tough!
• If even a top Gentile missionary does this, how much more do we?
• Perhaps the apostle (also tentmaker and citizen) knew wisdom.
• We’re not always pro missionaries or pastors. We have vocations.
• Application: we don’t need less cultural engagement, but more.
• We still believe in cultural engagement. These other guys do not!
• Some of them, perhaps, wanted “engagement” as more of a cope.
• Like their forebears, they find comfort in hating/loving “the world.”
• That’s simply not a sustainable motive, nor is it a biblical motive.
• It’ll send you right back to false pietism/bad “fundamentalism.”
• And it’ll send us back to assume “everything is about evangelism.”
• Remember again our chief end: not to defeat sin, and also not to impress the neighbors, but to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
• That’s why it’s so important to make new stories for that reason.
• Thus our purpose here: we occasionally do a cultural engagement.
• But more often we seek the stories under the secular stories.
• And more often still, we share fantastical Christian-made stories.

Com station

Talena Winters, author of The Rise of Grigori series, wrote this in response to Episode 284. How Would Any Real Aliens Actually Invade Earth?:

Just a note about your recent episode about aliens, and the theory one of you proposed about “supernatural tech”. I actually agree with this…Besides what you mentioned about Elijah being caught up in a “chariot of fire,” there are some excellent and interesting passages in the non-canonical Book of Enoch that talk about a Watcher (one of the angels, not necessarily a fallen one, usually described as Uriel) who takes Enoch on a “tour of heaven” in a craft that sounds a lot like a flying ship or craft he describes as a cloud or as being made of spirit…I have a whole lot more I could say about this, with my beliefs being informed, in part, by the work of Michael Heiser. The point is, do I think these demons (and fallen Watchers, though most of them are trapped in the Abyss until judgement) have physical technology, and can they appear in physical form as aliens? Absolutely. Do I think they may be “leaking” technology to humans for our detriment? It absolutely fits their M.O.

Top question for listeners

How do you culturally engage secular stories and songs?

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