27 March 2008

Culturally savvy Christians

I read today that Dick Staub has written an interesting book called The Culturally Savvy Christian (Jossey-Bass, 2008). With an extensive knowledge of American popular culture, Staub suggests we don't combat what is superficial, but should instead seek to understand and transform it.

Staub quotes from rock lyrics, movies, and other mainstream media, finding much that is superficial, therapeutic, and overly focused on celebrity and profit. I'm not surprised. Gen X and Y discovered that a long time ago, but there's not much alternative product. Unless you lift the lid on the church ... in which case you'll find much that is superficial, therapeutic, and overly focused on celebrity and profit.

One of the problems with transforming culture is that we refashion it in our own image, which is already fashioned in the image of our culture. To challenge the cultural hegemony, we need to subvert and renew not only its products and production base but its political base ... and that takes guts with little hope of glory.

Oh, and last time I looked, the prophets and artists who used to appear so fresh and hopeful had all become advocates of artful profiteering.

Ah, modernity....

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