Christianity has been a diverse and cross-cultural religion without a single dominant expression. History presents Christians living in particular contexts of culture, having embraced or precluded them to varying degrees. Irrespective of a negative or a positive attitude toward an immediate culture, Christians are compelled to react to such surrounding context (Flett, Picard, & Habets, n.d). Thus, the relationship between Christianity and culture has been a recurrent challenge. According to Niebuhr (1951), Christ represents the New Testament figure, crucified and raised from the dead and one whom Christians regard as their ultimate authority.
On the other hand, culture is humanity’s social life, the environment they create in ideas, habits, social organization, values, language, and beliefs. In his book, Richard Niebuhr examines different ways Christians have pursued to live devotedly under Christ’s authority in close relation to the immediate culture. One of these ways is the opposition to culture, as discussed by Niebuhr in chapter two. Therefore, this paper summarizes and reviews Chapter Two, Christ Against Culture, of Richard Niebuhr’s book, Christ and Culture.
Niebuhr exemplifies the position of Christ against Culture by highlighting that Tertullian, the Mennonites, Leo Tolstoy, and other voices from the monastic tradition are fused by a common theme. This theme entails having a devoted loyalty to Christ and the church and a complete rejection of society and its culture. Niebuhr (1951) describes this position as, “Whatever may be the customs of the society in which the Christian lives… Christ is seen as opposed to them.” He notes that Christ challenges men to settle on an “either-or” resolution (Niebuhr, 1951,p. 40). This approach may imply that one chooses either Christ or culture. One of the compelling references Niebuhr mentions in this chapter is the first epistle of John that notes that “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him” (Niebuhr, 1951, p. 48). The lines between the world and the church are high-pitched because the church, as a community, exists to judge the world.
The author gives another basis for rationalizing this idea, like the Tertullian that claims the original sin is transferred via culture and strongly purports to avoid military service, business or trade, theatre, music, games, and social pagan religion. He proceeds to provide the view that, in addition to Gentiles and Jews, the church makes up a new third race. Thus, anything that does not fit into the commonwealth of Christ is under evil’s rule (Niebuhr, 1951, p. 50). Niebuhr acclaims the notable sincerity of this position’s adherents; however, he precludes it as inadequate for failing to detach itself from the cultures it denounces (Carson III, 2016). This is one of the weaknesses of this position- self-defeating renunciation of culture. Niebuhr (1951) puts it like, “it affirms in words what it denies in action… radicle Christians are always making use of the culture… which they ostensibly reject” (Niebuhr, 195, p. 69).
Personal Reflection
Chapter two, Christ against Culture, highlights the position that Christianity is opposed to culture. The book Christ and Culture is an attempt by Niebuhr to address social theorists that regarded Christianity as an immediate threat to a forbearing civilization, who reproached Christianity of failing to contribute to the Western Culture positively. Therefore, Christ against culture is one approach that demonstrates the complexity surrounding the comprehension of the relationship between culture and Christianity. This approach mainly emphasizes the opposition to a culture that results in complete withdrawal from society. As such, here, the world outside the church is regarded to be miserably corrupted by sin.
When Christianity is considered a substitute for an existing culture, people wishing to join it are obligated to choose to either remain in paganism, evil world, or follow Christ. This view is still present, and some preachers worldwide always present the tyrannical perspective of Christ, making Christianity viewed as a sectarian and apocalyptic movement. Most missionaries, in times past, to different regions such as Africa and North Atlantic assumed this understanding without proper acknowledgment or consideration of Christianity as religious and cultural heritage. Christianity cannot exist in a cultural vacuum, and pure pretense is to claim to proclaim the pure gospel (Carson III, 2016). Thus, professed Christians are usually products of their mother cultures. Therefore, it becomes undeniable that Christianity cannot be entirely in opposition to culture.
When Christians seek more converts, they engage in this undertaking from their cultural backgrounds, utilizing cultural tools and languages gained via education and socialization. Therefore, Niebuhr realizes a significant weakness in this view, Christ against culture,. He points out that radical Christians borrow rules and ideas of culture to guide Christian conduct toward the world outside and manage the withdrawn Christian community (Niebuhr, 1951). Therefore, presenting Christ as against culture generates conflicts in preachers’ culture with the culture of prospective converts’ and may incur a severe social predicament. The ultimate irony that may exist is that extremists of this position fail to realize their doing in speaking as if separated from the world and its culture when they are in unison.
References
Carson III, J. (2016). Christ and Culture Valued: Test Cases on Fairness.
Flett, E., Picard, A., & Habets, M. Christ and Culture.
Richard Niebuhr, H. (1951). Christ and culture (p. 197). New York: Harper and Row.
