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"Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord" -- 2 Corinthians 6:17
How should Christians view the surrounding culture? Do we go to war with it? Do we insist that it be "christianized"? Do we live in an uneasy truce with it?
In 1951 Yale professor Richard Niebuhr outlined five positions Christians have historically taken on the issue. Thirty years later, Fuller Theological Seminary missiologist Charles Kraft said that the religion vs culture debate was not unique to Christianity. He reduced Niebuhr's positions to four, combining two of the categories. Here's a listing of the Christ and culture positions presented by Niebuhr and Kraft.Richard Niebuhr's 1951 book - Christ and Culture
- Christ against culture
- The Christ of culture
- Christ above culture
- Christ and culture in paradox
- Christ, the transformer of culture
Charles Kraft's 1981 book: Christianity in Culture
- God against culture
- God in culture
- God (or Christ) as merely a culture hero
- God as contained within, or at least endorsing, one particular culture
- God above culture
- Deism and many African cultures
- Follow the requirements of both Christ and culture, but each in its own place.
- Dualism -- only real solution to paradox lies in the future. The Christian is like an amphibian living in two realms.
- Culture is corrupted but convertible.
- God above-but-through culture
"Niebuhr's Christ and Culture Re-examined" [ read article ]
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Howard Culbertson, Southern Nazarene University, 6729 NW 39th, Bethany, OK 73008 | Phone: 405-491-6693 - Fax: 405-491-6658
Copyright © 2000, 2001 - Last Updated: September 18, 2012 | URL: http://home.snu.edu/~hculbert/versus.htm