This morning I just finished reading a book edited by Kevin Vanhoozer entitled, Everyday Theology: How to Read Cultural Texts and Interpret Trends. This book is a part of the Cultural Exegesis Series published by Baker Academic and it is a fine volume which I commend to you. The book's second opening paragraph reads,
"Everyday theology is the reflective and practical task of living each day as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. Theology is not for Sundays only. Disciples must walk the Christian way the whole weekend and throughout the workweek. Theology is an everyday affair: to live to the glory of God is a full-time privilege and pursuit. Everyday theology is the mandate of every Christian who is actively trying to walk the way of truth and life [7]."
The opening chapter begins with Vanhoozer addressing the the "how" & "why" believers of Jesus Christ should not only care about culture but engage & interpret it. He makes a clear distinction between "culture" and "society." The former he propounds is the "human world that persons create by doing things not by reflex but freely as expressions of desire, duty, and determination." The latter primarily denotes "the institutional forms of organization within which and the norms or conventions by which a group of people live." Such a distinction ultimately moves this discussion forward to a definition of culture - a "lived worldview" or the "meaning dimension of social life."
Launching from this foundational chapter various authors examine a sampling of cultural "texts" from the grocery store line, the hip-hop milieu of Eminem, human rights, the movie Gladiator, concept of busyness, transhumanism, to the cultural scope and text of weddings. The last chapter sounds so much like the SS class on Biblical Theology which Rob Hall & I had the privilege to teach at Cornerstone recently. It was as if I had read this book prior to teaching it. I conclude with several statements from the last chapter.
"Understanding the text or trend from an explicitly Christian point of view reflects our belief that the gospel is the true story of the world. It is the real context in which all text and trends live and move and have their being [238]." His section on "Seeing the World through Redemptive History - Colored Glasses" emphasizes the critical importance that interpretation must happen through the creation-fall-redemption-consummation motif (i.e. the Story of the Scriptures). He argues that all believers must view all of life under the rubric of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. "Cultural agents" understand the ultimate goal of cultural hermeneutics is "to live redemptively in response to the cultural work." He continues, "We find ourselves in a world of decay and yet the shadow and promise of glory, a world that God is reconciling to himself. Part of our ambassadorship for Christ is to imagine how he should shape our lives in light of the influences of the text and trends around us. Only if we practice cultural agency have we truly done cultural interpretation and fulfilled our responsibility to acquire wisdom. Theological analysis of cultural work should already have prepared us for how to respond. Identifying signs of creation and the fall, and imaginatively reconceiving the text or trend in redemption, should yield concrete possibilities for wise living... Our mandate to live wisely as Christians includes all of life. Our response, therefore, should be holistic, encompassing hands and the heart, the individual and the group [242-243]."
