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.

 

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Active Filters: 12th grade (Ages 17-18)
12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You
by Tony Reinke
from Crossway Books
for 11th-Adult
in Culture & Discernment (Location: XCU-DIS)
$14.44
Amusing Ourselves to Death
by Neil Postman
from Penguin Putnam
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in Culture & Discernment (Location: XCU-DIS)
$15.30
Angels in the Architecture
by Doug Wilson & Doug Jones
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Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
by Barbara Kingsolver
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Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
by Barbara Kingsolver
from Harper Perennial
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in Culture of Food (Location: COOK-CUL)
Art and Music
by Joshua Farris Drake, Paul Munson
from Crossway Books
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$10.19
Art and the Bible
by Francis A. Schaeffer
from InterVarsity Press
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in Creating Culture (Location: XCU-CRE)
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Art for God's Sake
by Philip Graham Ryken
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Bringing Heaven Down to Earth
by Nathan L. K. Bierma
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Calvinistic Concept of Culture
by Henry R. Van Til
2nd edition from Baker Academics
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Christianity & Culture
by T. S. Eliot
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Creativity, Inc.
by Ed Catmull
1st edition from Random House Books for Young Readers
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$19.00
Culture Making
by Andy Crouch
from InterVarsity Press
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$18.70
Death by Living
by N. D. Wilson
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Death by Living
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$27.99
Desire of the Everlasting Hills
by Thomas Cahill
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Desire of the Everlasting Hills
by Thomas Cahill
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$4.80 (1 in stock)
Desiring the Kingdom
Cultural Liturgies Volume 1
by James K.A. Smith
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$17.50
Echoes of Eden
by Jerram Barrs
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$16.14
Food Anatomy
by Julia Rothman
from Storey Publishing
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$18.99
Food for Thought
by Francis Foucachon, foreword by Douglas Wilson
2nd edition from Roman Roads Media
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$22.00
Foolishness to the Greeks
by Lesslie Newbigin
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God Gave Wine
by Kenneth Gentry
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God of the Garden
by Andrew Peterson
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$15.29
History of the World in 6 Glasses
by Tom Standage
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$18.00
Hollywood Worldviews
by Brian Godawa
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Home: A Short History of an Idea
by Witold Rybczynski
from Penguin Putnam
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$12.80
How Christianity Changed the World
by Alvin J. Schmidt
from Zondervan
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How Should We Then Live?
by Francis A. Schaeffer
2021 Edition from Crossway Books
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$21.24
How Should We Then Live? - DVD
by Francis A. Schaeffer
from Apologetics Group
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Ironies of Faith
by Anthony Esolen
from Intercollegiate Studies Institute
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$22.91
It Was Good
by Ned Bustard, editor
2nd edition from Square Halo Books
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in Creating Culture (Location: XCU-CRE)
$21.24
Liberal Arts for the Christian Life
by Jeffry C. Davis & Philip Graham Ryken, eds.
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$12.00
Liberated Imagination
by Leland Ryken
from Shaw Books
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Meltdown
by Thomas E. Woods
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Modern Art and the Death of a Culture
by H. R. Rookmaaker
from Crossway Books
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$20.40
Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl
by N. D. Wilson
from Thomas Nelson Publishers
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$18.99
Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl
by N. D. Wilson
2nd Edition from Thomas Nelson Publishers
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$27.99
Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl - DVD
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$10.00 (1 in stock)
Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism
P.I.G. series
by Christopher C. Horner
from Regnery Publishing, Inc.
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Popologetics
by Ted Turnau
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Postmodern Times
by Gene Veith
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Real History of the End of the World
by Sharan Newman
from Berkley Books
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$9.99
Salvation of Dr. Who - Group Study pack
Pop in Culture
by Matt Rawle
from Abingdon Press
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$18.00 (1 in stock)
Scribbling in the Sand
by Michael Card
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Search for God and Guinness
by Stephen Mansfield
from Thomas Nelson Publishers
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Supper of the Lamb
by Robert Farrar Capon
from Modern Library
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$20.00
Talk to the Hand
by Lynne Truss
1st edition from Gotham Books
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The Creators
by Daniel J. Boorstin
First Edition from Vintage Classics
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Total Truth
by Nancy Pearcey
Study Guide Edition from Crossway Books
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$25.49
Understanding Comics
by Scott McCloud
from HarperCollins
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in Advanced Drawing Instruction (Location: ELE-ARTDRAD)
$24.99 $15.00 (1 in stock)
Walking on Water
by Madeleine L'Engle
from Convergent Books
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in Creating Culture (Location: XCU-CRE)
$13.60
World Our Home
by Dr. C. van der Waal
from Inheritance Publications
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Worldliness
by C. J. Mahaney
from Crossway Books
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$11.04 $4.80 (1 in stock)