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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12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You
by Tony Reinke
from Crossway Books
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5 Cities That Ruled the World
by Douglas Wilson
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Adorning the Dark
by Andrew Peterson
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All God's Children and Blue Suede Shoes
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American Way
by Allan C. Carlson
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Amusing Ourselves to Death
by Neil Postman
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Angels in the Architecture
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Art and Music
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Art and the Bible
by Francis A. Schaeffer
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Art for God's Sake
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Art of Making Wine
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Biography of Tea
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Calvinistic Concept of Culture
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Coaching the Artist Within
by Eric Maisel
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Crazy Busy
by Kevin DeYoung
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by Ed Catmull
1st edition from Random House Books for Young Readers
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Cultural Mind
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Culture Making
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Death by Living
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Desire of the Everlasting Hills
by Thomas Cahill
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by James K.A. Smith
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by Ann Douglas
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Social Commentary for Adult
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$34.50
First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy
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Food Anatomy
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Food Matters
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by Andrew Peterson
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Guide to Wine
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by Tom Standage
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2021 Edition from Crossway Books
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by Richard Louv
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Liberal Arts for the Christian Life
by Jeffry C. Davis & Philip Graham Ryken, eds.
from Crossway Books
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Made You Look
by Shari Graydon & Warren Clark
from Annick Press
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Made You Look
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2nd edition from Annick Press
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by H. R. Rookmaaker
from Crossway Books
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by Jon Bonne
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Revised and Updated from Oxford University
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from Chalcedon / Ross House Books
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from Thomas Nelson Publishers
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by Michael Pollan
from Dial Press
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from Vision Forum
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by Dale Savidge, Todd E. Johnson
from Baker Academics
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by David Hegeman
from Canon Press
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Plowing In Hope
by David Hegeman
2nd edition from Canon Press
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P.I.G. series
by Christopher C. Horner
from Regnery Publishing, Inc.
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from P&R Publishing
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Postmodern Times
by Gene Veith
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by Marcia Pankake, editor
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by Ann Clark Espuelas, Sherri Brooks Vinton
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Real History of the End of the World
by Sharan Newman
from Berkley Books
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by T. M. Moore
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from Baker Academics
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Right Questions
by Phillip E. Johnson
from InterVarsity Press
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by Michael Moss
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by Matt Rawle
from Abingdon Press
for 7th-Adult
in Art & Culture (Location: XCU-ART)
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by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield
2nd edition from Crown and Covenant
for Adult
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$12.00
Serrated Edge
by Doug Wilson
from Canon Press
in Preaching the Word (Location: XWO-PRE)
$12.00
State of the Arts
by Gene Veith
from Crossway Books
for Adult
in Art & Culture (Location: XCU-ART)
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Strange New World
by Carl Trueman, foreword by Ryan Anderson
from Crossway Books
for Adult
in Culture & Discernment (Location: XCU-DIS)
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by Robert Farrar Capon
from Modern Library
for 10th-Adult
in Culture of Food (Location: COOK-CUL)
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by Lynne Truss
1st edition from Gotham Books
for 10th-Adult
in Clearance: English & Language Arts (Location: ZCLE-LAN)
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by Anthony Esolen
2nd edition from Intercollegiate Studies Institute
for Adult
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The Creators
by Daniel J. Boorstin
First Edition from Vintage Classics
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Total Truth
by Nancy Pearcey
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for 11th-Adult
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by A. W. Tozer, compiled by James L. Snyder
from Wingspread Publishers
for Adult
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Treasuring God in Our Traditions
by Noël Piper
from Crossway Books
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$11.99
Treasuring God in Our Traditions
by Noel Piper
from Crossway Books
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$8.00 (1 in stock)
Truth Overruled
by Ryan T. Anderson
from Regnery Publishing, Inc.
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by Scott McCloud
from HarperCollins
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from Convergent Books
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What If Jesus Had Never Been Born
by D. James Kennedy, Jerry Newcombe
from Thomas Nelson Publishers
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$7.50 (1 in stock)
Who Was Jim Henson?
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by Joan Holub, Illustrated by Nancy Harrison
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