Christian attitudes toward philosophy and toward secular culture

Westminster Theological Centre

Assignment Cover Sheet2011-12

Levels

4-6

1

Your Student Number 1125866 Module

number TH6920

Assignment Title

Describe and evaluate different Christian attitudes toward philosophy and toward secular culture.

Submission deadline date

13/05/2013 Actual Submission date

13/05/2013

Word-‐count limit 2000

Your word count 2180

I confirm that this is all my own work, in accordance with the WTC and University of Chester malpractice & plagiarism statement I have signed. Submit two copies of the assignment each with a completed cover sheet. One copy is to be submitted electronically by the submission date. The other has to be submitted as a hard copy and must be either posted to the WTC Course Administrator (100-‐102 Winchcombe Street, Cheltenham, GL52 2NW) or handed in to your Hub Director on the Hub night on or immediately after the submission date. Your marked assignment will normally be sent to you within 3 working weeks of the submission deadline. All marks are provisional until the Awards/Progression Board when they are seen by an external examiner.

1125866 Essay 2 for TH6920 Spirituality in the Christian Tradition May 2013

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Describe and evaluate different Christian attitudes toward philosophy and toward secular culture.

Culture is humankind’s social creation superimposed into the surrounding natural environment. It comprises all social activity, organisation, communication and values.1 Christianity is unique in that it has spread around the globe crossing many varying cultural boundaries. The attitudes of Christians towards their surrounding secular cultures have contributed to the successes and failures of Christianity’s appeal.

Early Christians mostly lived in the Hellenised world of the Roman Empire, where the pagan religion and its sacrifices were engrained into the culture of social-‐political life. Christians saw these practices as incompatible with their beliefs and thus distanced themselves. However, one of the prominent disputes2 that divided the early church was to what extent Christians should interact with the classical cultural heritage of philosophy, poetry and literature.3 The two polemic attitudes towards these arts were: those who saw it as a useful way to intellectually expound Christianity, such as Clement of Alexandria;4 and those who saw them as diminishing to the fundamentals of the faith, such as Tertullian of Carthage.5

Tertullian

Tertullian was a highly educated lawyer, who after converting to Christianity turned his educated prowess to intellectually defending the church. In his writings he criticises particular philosophical thinking,6 and by adopting it,7 Christians ‘would do violent injury to the truth.’8 Tertullian saw the philosophers as split in thought9 and that their influence on Christians was the source of the heretical10 ideas that corrupted and caused division in the church. He believed in total scriptural authority, and that secular literature should not be used for the purposes of Christian theology and apologetics. 11 He makes this clear where he famously said, ‘what has Athens 12 to do with

1 See: H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture, (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1956), 32. 2 The appeal of the early Christians was their attitude to ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ (Mark 12:31), where their moral compasses completely contrasted the surrounding culture. However, the intellectuals of the time were the philosophers and poets. For Christianity to make headway as an intellectual option, early Christians debated on the merits and uses of these pagan arts. 3 See: Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology an Introduction, (Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, 1994), 16. 4 Before Clement, Justin Martyr also used philosophy, in particular Platonism, to communicate the gospel. He believed as McGrath writes, ‘the seeds of divine wisdom had been sown throughout the world, which meant that Christians could and should expect to find aspects of the gospel reflected outside the church.’ Martyr therefore justifies drawing upon this classical culture for the purposes of the gospel. However, he does acknowledge that because the philosophers did not know Christ, they often contradicted themselves. See: Ibid., 16. 5 See: Robert E. Van Voorst, Readings in Christianity, (Toronto: Wadsworth, 2001), 103. 6 For example see: Peter Holmes, trans., “Tertullian, De Anima, Chapter 33.” n.p. [Cited 8 May 2013]. Online: http://www.tertullian.org/anf/anf03/anf03-‐‑22.htm. 7 Gnostic Christianity sought to bring together the science and philosophy of their time with the gospel, yet still regarded themselves as fully Christian. However, Tertullian was a key member in them as Heretics. See: Craig A. Carter, Rethinking Christ and Culture: A Post-‐‑Christendom Perspective, (Ada, MI: Brazos Press, 2007), 43. 8 Peter Holmes, trans., “Tertullian, De Anima, Chapter 3.” 9 See: Peter Holmes, trans., “Tertullian, De Anima, Chapter 2.” 10 See: Peter Holmes, trans., “Tertullian, The Prescription Against Heretics, Chapter 7.” n.p. [Cited 8 May 2013]. Online: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0311.htm. 11 See: Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology an Introduction, 11. 12 Athens was the home to the philosophy Academy founded by Plato. See Ibid., 222.


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Jerusalem,’13 questioning what use Greek learning has for Christian readings. Tertullian later wrote of his displeasure at what he saw as a compromising secular attitude merging into the church, where it was becoming founded on Bishops with power, rather than individuals filled with the Holy Spirit.14

Tertullian also spoke out against the secular entertainments of the time, the circus, theatre and amphitheatre.15 He reminds his readers of the pagan ritual origins of these entertainments,16 and that they are proponents for potential idolatry.17 He depicts how attending these events can further stir up passionate arousals and excitements, which ‘leads to spiritual agitation.’18

Tertullian understood Christianity to be a counter-‐cultural movement, and that to keep its unique identity it must avoid being contaminated by the secular culture that it took root amongst.19 Whilst his approach to reject all of pagan culture20 in the pursuit of a purer Christian faith is good in theory, it however limits a Christian’s ability to intellectually relate to secular culture, and is perhaps ignorant of the positives that can be taken from it.21

Clement

Clemet was also a highly educated Christian convert, who was extremely familiar with classical Greek literature and philosophy. He attributed God to the goodness in secular culture, and utilised these positive pagan elements to expound his faith to the Hellenised world.22 He spoke out against those like Tertullian, saying that they were wrong to be ‘afraid lest it lead them astray,’23 questioning their faith if it should.24Clement also suggested that the philosophers indirectly worshiped the same God as Christians, although in a different way, writing,

13 Peter Holmes, trans., “Tertullian, The Prescription Against Heretics, Chapter 7.” 14 See: Gösta, Claesson, trans., “Tertullian, De Pudicitia, Chapter 1.” n.p. [Cited 8 May 2013]. Online: http://www.tertullian.org/articles/claesson_pudicitia_translation.htm. 15 Whilst Tertullian states that God is not offended by human enjoyment, he points out that these secular entertainments in particular are not in accord with Christianity, that although ‘the world is of God,’ these ‘things of the world are of the Devil.’ See: C. Dodgson, trans., “Tertullian, De Spectaculis, Chapter 1 and 15.” n.p. [Cited 8 May 2013]. Online: http://www.tertullian.org/lfc/LFC10-‐‑13_de_spectaculis.htm. 16 See: C. Dodgson, trans., “Tertullian, De Spectaculis, Chapter 5, 8 and 10.” 17 See: C. Dodgson, trans., “Tertullian, De Spectaculis, Chapter 7 and 8.” 18 See: C. Dodgson, trans., “Tertullian, De Spectaculis, Chapter 15.” 19 See: Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology an Introduction, 17. 20 The negativity Tertullian and many other Christians felt towards classic Roman culture perhaps stemmed from the persecutions they encountered from this oppressing culture. See: Ibid., 18. 21 See: Ibid., 17. 22 Following on from Clement, Augustine also appropriated the use of philosophy. He likened the process, as McGrath describes, ‘to plundering Egypt of its riches at the time of the Exodus under Moses’. Augustine said that if philosophers have said anything that is ‘true and consistent with our faith, we must not must not reject it, but claim it for our own use…Pagan learning is not entirely made up of false teachings and superstitions…It contains also some excellent teachings, well suited to be used by truth, and excellent moral values. Indeed, some truths are even found among them, which relate to the worship of the one God.’ His approach helped further pave the way for the gospel to commandeer whatever was deemed good from secular culture. See: Ibid., 222, 18 and 19. 23 William Wilson, trans., “Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, Book 6, Chapter 10.” n.p [Cited 8 May 2013]. Online: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0210.htm. 24 Clement further suggests that one cannot condemn arts such as philosophy without knowing its merits first. See: William Wilson, trans., “Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, Book 6, Chapter 18.”


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That the one and only God was known by the Greeks in a Gentile way, by the Jews Judaically, and in a new and spiritual way by us.25

He saw philosophy as God’s gift to the Greeks, to enable them to act morally,26 and prepare them for Christ.27 He, also like John,28 parallels Christ with the divine logos from Middle Platonism,29 as mediator between God and the world.30 Whilst Clement accepted philosophical wisdom, he does stress how it is an incomplete picture31 for greater understanding in comparison with Christianity.32

Clement’s approach to pagan culture makes the transition to Christianity an easier affair. However, whilst he himself never sought to re-‐interpret Christ,33 the secular philosophical thinking that crept into the church did instigate this eventuality. This divided the Church on many issues, leading to the Arian controversy and the eventual split between the Eastern and the Western Church powers.

Paul

Both Tertullian and Clement quote Paul to add weight to there opinions. For example, Clement quotes Paul’s speech to the people of Athens in Acts 17:22-‐33 to display how Paul utilised ‘poetic examples;’ approved ‘of what had been well spoken by the Greeks;’ and acknowledged that they too, ‘in a roundabout way’ worshipped the same God.34 In contrast, Tertullian quotes Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 1:20-‐22 to demonstrate how true wisdom is not found in philosophy but in God, and furthermore quotes 1 Timothy 4 to depict philosophers as followers of ‘deceiving spirits and things taught by demons’35 (1 Timothy 4:1).

Luke-‐Acts depicts Paul debating with the Greek philosophers about God, and presents Paul, as Van Voorst writes, ‘an early Christian philosopher’36 in the mould of a new Socrates.37 He utilises philosophy and secular arts to communicate Christ to the pagan world, and quotes philosophers38 many times to connect to his gentile audience. Whilst he did have an accepting understanding of

25 William Wilson, trans., “Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, Book 6, Chapter 5.” 26 See: William Wilson, trans., “Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, Book 1, Chapters 1 and 2.” 27 See: William Wilson, trans., “Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, Book 1, Chapter 5.” 28 See: John 1:1-‐‑4. 29 McGrath writes how ‘Plato ascribed particular importance to the Form of the good, and to the notion of the logos (Greek: “word”) through which the rationality of the world is communicated and conceptualized.’ Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology an Introduction, 224. 30 See: Ibid., 224. 31 See: William Wilson, trans., “Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, Book 5, Chapter 3.” 32 For example, Clement demonstrates the positives and negatives for Plato’s ‘importance in seeing the truth,’ yet demonstrates how Plato had no answer for the truth, that this can only be found in Christ. See: Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology an Introduction, 225. 33 See: H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture, 128. 34 William Wilson, trans., “Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata, Book 2, Chapter 19.” 35 See: Peter Holmes, trans., “Tertullian, The Prescription Against Heretics, Chapter 7.” 36 Robert E. Van Voorst, Readings in Christianity, 53. 37 See: G. Walter Hansen, The Preaching and Defense of Paul in Witness to the Gospel, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 310. 38 See: Acts 17:23, 28 and Titus 1:12 where Paul quotes Epimenides, Acts 17:29 where he quotes the Stoic poet Aratus, Acts 26:13 where he quotes Aeschylus, and 1 Corinthians 15:33 where he quotes Menander.


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pagan customs,39 he was very aware of the dangers they possessed. In Colossians 2:8 he speaks to the Greek converts, informing them to avoid the temptation to engage in philosophy, as it could entice them back to their old ways. Paul40 displays a perfect balance between Clement’s and Tertullian’s views on pagan culture, he understands the importance to use cultural arts to build relations with his secular audience, yet warns of the detractions from the truth that engaging with them may cause.

Assimilation

After the conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine, the once persecuted Christians became accepted into mainstream culture. Christians benefited from new social-‐political and financial benefits lavished on them from the new Emperor.41 This led to Christianity gaining a fashionable status, attracting many pagan converts. However, this pagan influx caused Christianity to absorb many previously avoided secular customs and cultural festivities42 into its own practices.43

The church was also married with the Empire state, where it gained immense power and influence, and thus formed the basis for the West’s Christendom44 upbringing.45 This assimilation of pagan culture and Christianity led to the church’s inability to be a counter-‐cultural46 witness, as it was now

39 For example see: 1 Corinthians 8:4-‐‑6 where Paul informs Christians to avoid pagan worship, yet acknowledges that it is acceptable to eat with them in good conscience, even if the food has been sacrificed to their gods. See: Robert E. Van Voorst, Readings in Christianity, 53. 40 It could be said that Paul’s approach to secular culture is actually quite like that of Christ’s. Jesus regularly related to pagan culture to communicate his message; yet also spoke out against the things of the world that countered it. 41 See: H.A. Drake, Constantine and the Bishop, The Politics of Intolerance, (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2000), 424. 42 For instance: the creation of Sunday as a day of rest to celebrate Jesus and the sun; the merging of the winter solstice celebration for the birth of the sun and of Christ’s birth; and the celebration for Christ’s resurrection being fixed to Sunday, with the removal of any Jewish Passover practices. Also imported was the use of incense, candles and garlands during ceremonies and worship. Furthermore the worship of the Virgin Mary and the veneration of the saints perhaps also stemmed from the worship of pagan gods. See: H.A. Drake, Constantine and the Bishops, 206. 43 See: Richard A. Todd, A history of Christianity, Constantine and the Roman Empire, (Lion Publishing, Bristol, Great Britain, 1977), 145. 44 Carter writes how ‘the gospel of Jesus Christ is not Christendom Christianity.’ That it should be ‘countercultural, nonviolent, and subversive of empire…the gospel works by persuasion, tolerates rejection, and respects even those who do not listen. The gospel creates genuine community out of those, who humanly speaking have little in common. The gospel is of no use to most political rulers because it outlaws violence and renounces greed.’ Craig A. Carter, Rethinking Christ and Culture, 20. 45 Whilst this merger had many negative effects upon Christianity, it did however stop the persecutions of the Christians, enabling Christianity to reach further around the world, and enable the church to positively affect state laws and legislations. 46 In 1 Peter 1:1, 17 and 2:11, the word the Peter uses for ‘strangers’ also insinuates a person, or people ‘without a home or family.’ This is directly opposite of the word Peter uses in 1 Peter 2:5 to describe how Christians now have their own ‘spiritual house.’ Peter’s language depicts how Christians had ‘moved outside’ the Jewish and Roman families and were now outsiders, yet have a new family under a new spiritual house in Christ. In this respect Peter shows Christians are to be counter-‐‑cultural, to not be ‘housed’ under the pagan way of living, yet this is what happened after the Christianising of the Roman Empire. See: Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Everyday Church: Mission by Being Good Neighbours. (IVP, 2001), 64.


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associated with the dominant culture.47 The attitude of Christians towards non-‐Christians became tied to the Empire’s attitude. This direction the church took, was precisely what Tertullian warned against, as it too easily accepted pagan aspects that were counter-‐gospel, which led it away from being counter-‐cultural.48

The Clement approach to secular culture had prevailed, where Philosophy became completely acceptable in Christian practice.49 However, once the church was in power, it took a more Tertullian approach to the new secular arts such as natural science.50 The church-‐state treated extra-‐scriptural sources such as this, whether they turned out to be truth or not, as a challenge to its authority, and thus condemned them as heresy. This denial of goodness and truth in the secular arts has distanced the church from scientific thought. Had the approach been more like Clement’s, the church would perhaps have been able to better use intellectual scientific explanations to explain the gospel to secular culture. Fortunately, in today’s post-‐Christendom West, Christian-‐science relations are vitally improved, where most Christians now seek for ways in which scientific theories can work alongside scripture, rather than admonish it.51

Western Christianity

Western contemporary culture has been shaped by Christianity’s merge with pagan-‐state, where most European countries have a Christian culture engrained into their nature. Marriage, funerals, and national holidays such as Christmas and Easter, are all mandates of the Christianised culture. This has led to Christianity being identified, as Jenkins observes, a ‘White or Western ideology.’52 It is under this Christendom that all Western arts, laws, education and literature have grown, where an individual may not accept Christianity, yet all they say and do has sprung out of its heritage.53 Eliot writes how it is only a Christian culture that ‘could have produced a Voltaire or a Nietzsche.’54 However, it was philosophers of the Enlightenment era such as Voltaire that provided a counter-‐Christian-‐cultural movement. This has led in most cases to the separation of church and state, forming today’s post-‐Christendom West, where Christians once again live in an increasingly 47 See: Gregory A. Boyd, The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church, (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2005), 5. 48 Some remnants of Christianity do remain untouched by the Roman Empire. Ethiopian Christianity largely kept its distance from the Roman Christian authority, and instead of taking influence from the Greco-‐‑Roman culture, has many aspects that stem from the nearby ancient Egyptians. They also keep many Jewish practices, showing high regard for many Old Testament models. This is in complete contrast to the European Christians, who under the Roman Empire had mostly eliminated the Jewish cultural aspects of their faith. The new pagan converts, would have harboured anti-‐‑Semitic views, and having no understanding of the Old Testament, instead imported their philosophical Greco-‐‑Roman culture into their new Christian faith. See: Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, (New York: Oxford Press, 2003), 19. 49 It is these cultural influences absorbed into Christianity that paved the way, as Carter writes, for the ‘thinkers of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and modern secularism.’ All are movements that have wrongly or rightly challenged the church’s authority. See: Craig A. Carter, Rethinking Christ and Culture, 19. 50 Van Voorst describes the many clashes between science and the church where he writes, ‘in the seventeenth century, the two clashed over astronomy; in the eighteenth, geology; then biology and psychology. Probably the greatest conflict between science and Christianity has been over evolution.’ Robert E. Van Voorst, Readings in Christianity, 263. 51 For Example see: Ibid., 264. 52 Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom, 15. 53 See:T.S. Eliot, Christianity and Culture. (Boston: Mariner Books, 1960), 200. 54 Ibid., 200.


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secularised culture.55 Whilst philosophy is no longer a questionable secular art, the challenge now, is for how Christians should approach and interact with today’s media orientated culture of films, television, music, computer games, sex and art. Christ and Culture Niebuhr suggests in his book Christ and Culture,56 five different Christian attitudes concerning secular culture.57 The first, Christ against culture58 sees Christians in conflict with pagan culture, calling them to be separate from the secular sinful; The second, Christ of culture59 merges Christians into culture to be a model for what is best; The third, Christ above culture60 believes that the good in human culture is a gift from God, yet needs Christ for it to be fully realised; The forth, Christ and culture in paradox61 sees Christians in tension with culture, living at peace with cultural laws, whilst attempting to obey God’s kingdom values; and the fifth, Christ transforming culture62 sees Christians as guides for secular culture to follow in a better direction.63 Niebuhr’s categories provide a good basis for relating to secular culture, yet are too constricting when limiting oneself to a singular model. For example, for Christ to be against culture one must reject all of secular culture, and whilst the church does need to reject certain elements,64 as Chester and Timmis write, like ‘pornography, tyranny and cultic idolatry,’ it however needs to accept others such as ‘commerce, the graphic arts and paying taxes.’65 Chester and Timmis write how contemporary Christians should not be aiming to use secular products to appeal to the surrounding secular culture. That the church would be naïve to think that it can compete with secular entertainments.66 That to do so would create a ‘consumer-‐mentality among churchgoers,’ creating a ‘generation of Christians who move from church to church’67 searching for a variety of cultural experiences. They instead suggest how it is vital for contemporary Christians to embody the actions of the early Christians and live a ‘love your neighbour’ (Mark 12:31) mandate, creating loving and caring communities in contrast to the cultural normalities of Western societies today. Every action towards secular culture should be of love and acceptance, and not of judgement and condemnation. Doing so would give the church, as Chester and Timmis describe, a ‘missional

55 For a description of the decline in European Christianity, see: Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom, 96. 56 See: H. Richard Niebuhr, Christ and Culture. 57 See: Craig A. Carter, Rethinking Christ and Culture, 15. 58 Niebuhr attributes this approach to Tertullian. 59 Niebuhr shows this method as prominent in nineteenth-‐‑century liberal Protestantism, such as Thomas Jefferson. 60 This approach Niebuhr associates with Thomas Aquinas, but could also be where Clement may stand. 61 Niebuhr associates this model with the likes of Martin Luther. 62 This approach Niebuhr shows as a Calvinistic method, and is the very much a part of Christendom thinking, that a few compromises must be made for the sake of secular society. See: Craig A. Carter, Rethinking Christ and Culture, 18. 63 See: Ibid., 20. 64 Carter also describes how ‘attempting to transform culture without also being against vast tracts of it,’ which has been in the case in the West’s Christendom, has been ‘a recipe for gradual accommodation.’ Ibid., 25. 65 Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Everyday Church: Mission by Being Good Neighbours. (IVP, 2001), 59. 66 See: Ibid., 56. 67 Ibid., 57.


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cutting edge’ that is not comprised of ‘events that are like the culture, but a life and message that are unlike the culture.68 Global Christianity

Whilst Christianity is on the decline in the West, it is increasing in the East and South.69 Jenkins writes how this ‘is occurring in non-‐traditional denominations that adapt Christian belief to local tradition.’ He further suggests that this will comparably change the religion as it immerses into the ‘prevailing cultures of those host societies.’70 Sanneh attributes this Christian resurgence to it ‘transcending ethnic, national, and cultural barriers,’71 as the gospel is adopted into local cultures. He writes how the Christian expansion in Africa was most successful in cultures ‘where indigenous religions were strongest,’ 72 which were previously considered incompatible with Christianity.73 Sanneh writes that, ‘Africans embraced Christianity because it resonated so well with the values of the old religions.’74 The success of this adoptional approach to culture in missions is in complete contrast to the limited success of previous missionaries75 who attempted to force the local cultures into a mould of Western Christian culture.76

Contemporary World Christianity no longer operates under the West’s Christendom mandate. It is now embraced in cultures not shaped by the Roman-‐Church merger and further Enlightenment thinking, but instead is shaped by societies that express it through their traditional customs and culture.77 Sanneh comments how it is through these new Christian communities that one can possibly see a glimpse of the ‘culture that shaped the origins of the NT church.’78

Conclusion

If Clement was right in suggesting that God is at work in secular culture, and Tertullian was also right in claiming the church was no longer following God, then perhaps God must at times express his goodness outside of Christianity. However as Clement suggests, without Christ being mediator to the secular, this divine inspiration is destined for corruption. It is therefore the duty of Christians to draw upon the goodness from their surrounding secular cultures. It is this approach, which appears to be the reason for the success of Christianity’s global expansion. Where, instead of trying to compete 68 See: Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Everyday Church, 56. 69 Jenkins writes how this move south is ‘almost a return’ to Christianity’s roots. ‘It was founded in the Near East, and further popularised in North Africa and Asia, but did not really become prominent in northern Europe (and Europeanised North America) until after 1400.’ Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom, 15. 70 Ibid., 7. 71 Lamin Sanneh, Whose Religion is Christianity? The Gospel Beyond the West. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), 7. 72 Ibid., 18. 73 For example, it was by aligning the indigenous name for God with Christianity’s God that enabled Christians to successfully relate their religion to these secular cultures. Ibid., 18. 74 Ibid. 42. 75 Eliot describes how the Colonial British had the self-‐‑assurance that their culture ‘was the best in the world,’ and displayed ignorance to the ‘relation between culture and religion.’ T.S. Eliot, Christianity and Culture, 138. McGrath further covers how ‘most European missionaries had little knowledge’ of other cultures and failed to understand ‘the importance of interacting with local belief systems.’ Subsequently Christianity in these missional countries operated under a ‘European theology…without any real integration with the local culture.’ Alister E. McGrath, Christian Theology an Introduction, 126. 76 See: Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom, 31. 77 See: Lamin Sanneh, Whose Religion is Christianity, 22. 78 Ibid., 26.


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with culture, Christians relate to secular society’s understanding of its own culture, whilst at the same time relating what is unjust and evil.

Niebuhr provides useful categories for secular relations, yet the contemporary success of Christianity does not just fit into one of his models, but rather takes influence from the all, 79 giving a multi-‐level middle ground approach. This appears to also be Paul’s method. He demonstrates a balance of being able to embody counter-‐culturalism yet relate to secular society using the positives drawn from their culture. He does this whilst importantly still demonstrating the love of God towards humanity, something that every Christian is also called to do.80

79 For instance, Christians need to stand against the negative aspects of culture (Christ against culture); to be among culture as a positive role model (Christ of culture); to show that Christ can draw the best out of cultural products (Christ above culture); transform culture for the better (Christ transforming culture); yet also acknowledge the tension that following culture and following Christ can cause (Christ and culture in paradox). 80 See: 2 Timothy 2:24-‐‑25.


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Bibliography

Boyd, Gregory A. The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power is Destroying the Church. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2005.

Carter, Craig A. Rethinking Christ and Culture: A Post-‐Christendom Perspective. Ada, MI: Brazos Press, 2007.

Chester, Tim and Timmis, Steve. Everyday Church: Mission by Being Good Neighbours. IVP, 2001.

Claesson, Gösta, trans. “Tertullian, De Pudicitia.” No Pages. Cited 8 May 2013. Online: http://www.tertullian.org/articles/claesson_pudicitia_translation.htm.

Dodgson, C. trans. “Tertullian, De Spectaculis.” No Pages. Cited 8 May 2013. Online: http://www.tertullian.org/lfc/LFC10-‐13_de_spectaculis.htm.

Drake, H.A. Constantine and the Bishops; The Politics of Intolerance. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2000.

Eliot, T.S. Christianity and Culture. Boston: Mariner Books, 1960.

Hansen, G. Walter. The Preaching and Defense of Paul in Witness to the Gospel. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998. Holmes, Peter, trans. “Tertullian, Ad Nationes.” No Pages. Cited 8 May 2013. Online: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/tertullian06.html.

Holmes, Peter, trans. “Tertullian, De Anima.” No Pages. Cited 8 May 2013. Online: http://www.tertullian.org/anf/anf03/anf03-‐22.htm.

Holmes, Peter, trans. “Tertullian, The Prescription Against Heretics.” No Pages. Cited 8 May 2013. Online: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0311.htm.

Jenkins, Philip. The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity. New York: Oxford Press, 2003.

McGrath, Alister E. Christian Theology an Introduction. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, 1994.

Niebuhr, H. Richard. Christ and Culture. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1956.

Sanneh, Lamin. Whose Religion is Christianity? The Gospel Beyond the West. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003.

Todd, Richard A. A history of Christianity, Constantine and the Roman Empire. Lion Publishing, Bristol, Great Britain, 1977. Van Voorst, Robert E. Readings in Christianity. Toronto: Wadsworth, 2001.

Wilson, William trans. “Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen.” Cited 8 May 2013. Online: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0208.htm.


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Wilson, William trans. “Clement of Alexandria, The Paedagus.” Cited 8 May 2013. Online: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0209.htm. Wilson, William trans. “Clement of Alexandria, The Stromata.” Cited 8 May 2013. Online: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0210.htm.

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Christian attitudes toward philosophy and toward secular culture