Art & Culture

Reach into the mixed bag of culture and you could pull out almost anything: food, theology, cars, physician-assisted suicide, tradition, furniture, music, plastic trinkets from Taiwan, talk radio, dog breeds, hairstyle, theories of evolution, historic battles, the impossibly long first chapter of Ben-Hur, clay pots, even politicians. Culture is the intersection of nearly every aspect of human existence, and as such it is impossible to escape.

Not that we need to escape it. The Preacher said,

“There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God” (Ecclesiastes 2:24, ESV).

The first response in the Westminster Catechism is similar: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” There is a consistent theme within Christianity of the importance of enjoying life on earth, not only through sacred avenues, but also through culture and the humanities.

In fact, Christians are better equipped than anybody to enjoy the world around them. A lot of people tend to think Christians are long-faced pietists who never have fun—and many do live up to this description—but when God created the world He proclaimed it good and never revoked that judgment, even after the Fall. Taking delight in God’s creation (and Christians believe He is the author of all things) is not just an enjoyment in the thing itself, but also in God Himself.

Equating culture and the humanities is a poignant identification because it illuminates the relationship between human nature and mankind’s creative and intellectual impulses. Culture is perhaps the one universal language among societies, since everyone is impacted by the one in which they live. If we follow this thinking to its logical conclusion, we could say that culture reveals what it means to be truly human. If humans are made in the image of God, and Christ is the pinnacle of humanity, then as His followers Christians have not only the right but the duty to take delight in the good that is found in and among the human race.

Art & culture is central to what Exodus is about. Not only is it important for Christians to enjoy art and culture and to analyze it according to biblical standards, they should create it and influence society in the name of Christ. This is the major impetus behind Christian education: to raise our children, not just to sit idly by, but to engage and transform culture through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he is a husband and father, teaches adult Sunday school in his Presbyterian congregation, and likes weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.

 

Did you find this review helpful?
31 Items found Print
Active Filters: 10th grade (Ages 15-16)
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
by Barbara Kingsolver
from Harper Perennial
for 9th-Adult
in Culture of Food (Location: COOK-CUL)
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
by Barbara Kingsolver
from Harper Perennial
for 9th-Adult
in Culture of Food (Location: COOK-CUL)
Art and Music
by Joshua Farris Drake, Paul Munson
from Crossway Books
for 9th-Adult
in Art & Culture (Location: XCU-ART)
$10.19
Art for God's Sake
by Philip Graham Ryken
from P&R Publishing
for 10th-Adult
in Creating Culture (Location: XCU-CRE)
$5.94
Christianity & Culture
by T. S. Eliot
from Harvest Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.00
Culture Making
by Andy Crouch
from InterVarsity Press
in Creating Culture (Location: XCU-CRE)
$18.70
Death by Living
by N. D. Wilson
from Thomas Nelson Publishers
for 9th-Adult
in Art & Culture (Location: XCU-ART)
$19.99
Death by Living
by N. D. Wilson
2nd Edition from Thomas Nelson Publishers
for 9th-Adult
in Art & Culture (Location: XCU-ART)
$27.99
Desire of the Everlasting Hills
by Thomas Cahill
from Anchor Books
for 9th-Adult
in Art & Culture (Location: XCU-ART)
$3.90 (2 in stock)
Desire of the Everlasting Hills
by Thomas Cahill
from Anchor Books
for 9th-Adult
in Art & Culture (Location: XCU-ART)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Echoes of Eden
by Jerram Barrs
from Crossway Books
for 10th-Adult
in Creating Culture (Location: XCU-CRE)
$16.14
Food Anatomy
by Julia Rothman
from Storey Publishing
for 6th-Adult
in Culture of Food (Location: COOK-CUL)
$18.99
Food for Thought
by Francis Foucachon, foreword by Douglas Wilson
2nd edition from Roman Roads Media
for 10th-Adult
in Culture of Food (Location: COOK-CUL)
$22.00
Foolishness to the Greeks
by Lesslie Newbigin
from Eerdmans
for 9th-Adult
in Art & Culture (Location: XCU-ART)
$14.45
God of the Garden
by Andrew Peterson
from B&H Books
for 10th-Adult
in Creating Culture (Location: XCU-CRE)
$15.29
History of the World in 6 Glasses
by Tom Standage
from Bloomsbury Publishing
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$18.00
Home: A Short History of an Idea
by Witold Rybczynski
from Penguin Putnam
for 10th-Adult
in Purposeful Homemaking (Location: SS-HOM)
$12.80
How Christianity Changed the World
by Alvin J. Schmidt
from Zondervan
for 10th-Adult
in Church History Overviews (Location: XCH-OVE)
How Should We Then Live?
by Francis A. Schaeffer
2021 Edition from Crossway Books
for 10th-Adult
in Philosophy (Location: XWV-PHI)
$21.24
It Was Good
by Ned Bustard, editor
2nd edition from Square Halo Books
for 10th-Adult
in Creating Culture (Location: XCU-CRE)
$21.24
Liberal Arts for the Christian Life
by Jeffry C. Davis & Philip Graham Ryken, eds.
from Crossway Books
for 10th-Adult
in Art & Culture (Location: XCU-ART)
$12.00
Liberated Imagination
by Leland Ryken
from Shaw Books
for 10th-Adult
in Creating Culture (Location: XCU-CRE)
Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism
P.I.G. series
by Christopher C. Horner
from Regnery Publishing, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in Environment & Conservation (Location: SCI-ENV)
$13.00 (1 in stock)
Salvation of Dr. Who - Group Study pack
Pop in Culture
by Matt Rawle
from Abingdon Press
for 7th-Adult
in Art & Culture (Location: XCU-ART)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Scribbling in the Sand
by Michael Card
from InterVarsity Press
for 10th-Adult
in Creating Culture (Location: XCU-CRE)
Search for God and Guinness
by Stephen Mansfield
from Thomas Nelson Publishers
for 10th-Adult
in Drinking With Discernment (Location: XCU-WIN)
Supper of the Lamb
by Robert Farrar Capon
from Modern Library
for 10th-Adult
in Culture of Food (Location: COOK-CUL)
$20.00
Talk to the Hand
by Lynne Truss
1st edition from Gotham Books
for 10th-Adult
in Clearance: English & Language Arts (Location: ZCLE-LAN)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Understanding Comics
by Scott McCloud
from HarperCollins
for 10th-Adult
in Advanced Drawing Instruction (Location: ELE-ARTDRAD)
$24.99 $15.00 (1 in stock)
World Our Home
by Dr. C. van der Waal
from Inheritance Publications
for 10th-Adult
in Art & Culture (Location: XCU-ART)
Worldliness
by C. J. Mahaney
from Crossway Books
for 10th-Adult
in Repentance & Avoiding Sin (Location: XCL-REP)
$11.04 $4.80 (1 in stock)