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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Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
by Barbara Kingsolver
from Harper Perennial
for 9th-Adult
in Culture of Food (Location: COOK-CUL)
Bless This Food
by Julia M. Pitkin, George & Karen Grant
from Cumberland House
Cookbooks for Adult
in Culture of Food (Location: COOK-CUL)
$19.51 $6.00 (1 in stock)
Case for Marriage
by Linda Waite, Maggie Gallagher
1st edition from Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
for Adult
in Covenant Marriage (Location: XFA-MAR)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Creativity, Inc.
by Ed Catmull
1st edition from Random House Books for Young Readers
for 11th-Adult
in Creating Culture (Location: XCU-CRE)
$19.00
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)
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Desire of the Everlasting Hills
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from Anchor Books
for 9th-Adult
in Art & Culture (Location: XCU-ART)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy
by E. D. Hirsch, Jr.
from Houghton Mifflin
for 1st-6th grade
in Core Knowledge (Location: HSR-CORE)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Food Matters
by Mark Bittman
from Simon and Schuster
for Adult
in Culture of Food (Location: COOK-CUL)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Foods of the Americas
from Ten Speed Press
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in Food & Farming Around the World (Location: HISMC-FOOD)
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Guide to Wine
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from Parragon Publishing
for Adult
in Drinking With Discernment (Location: XCU-WIN)
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In Defense of Food
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1st edition from Penguin Press
for Adult
in Culture of Food (Location: COOK-CUL)
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by Terrence Erdt
from University of Massachusetts
for Adult
in Culture & Discernment (Location: XCU-DIS)
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Let's Eat
by Beatrice Hollyer
1st edition from Henry Holt and Company
for 1st-3rd grade
in Culture of Food (Location: COOK-CUL)
Meltdown
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from Regnery Publishing, Inc.
for 11th-Adult
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Mere Christendom
by Douglas Wilson
from Canon Press
for Adult
in Christianity and the State (Location: XWV-STA)
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New Wine Rules
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from Ten Speed Press
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in Drinking With Discernment (Location: XCU-WIN)
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2nd Edition from Thomas Nelson Publishers
for 11th-Adult
in Culture & Discernment (Location: XCU-DIS)
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Omnivore's Dilemma
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from Dial Press
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in Culture of Food (Location: COOK-CUL)
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in Miscellaneous Cookbooks (Location: COOK-MIS)
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Right Questions
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from InterVarsity Press
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in Art & Culture (Location: XCU-ART)
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Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us
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in Culture of Food (Location: COOK-CUL)
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from Thomas Nelson Publishers
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in Drinking With Discernment (Location: XCU-WIN)
Talk to the Hand
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for 10th-Adult
in Clearance: English & Language Arts (Location: ZCLE-LAN)
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in Purposeful Homemaking (Location: SS-HOM)
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from Thomas Nelson Publishers
for Adult
in Art & Culture (Location: XCU-ART)
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from Tricycle Press
for 5th-8th grade
in Food & Farming Around the World (Location: HISMC-FOOD)
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from Crossway Books
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in Repentance & Avoiding Sin (Location: XCL-REP)
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