Culture and worldview
[Interpretation of Pluralist Culture]
Oral narration and pictures provided by Shao Wensi‧Compilation╱Wang Shufei
Editor’s note:KRC 2022The spring retreat of 2018 was based on the premise of "paying attention to the truth, carefully observing the times, and observing knowledge and behavior". Mrs. Shao Wensi was invited to "discuss how to interpret contemporary pluralistic culture with biblical truth" and discussed the relationship between culture and worldview, multiculturalism, and theology. Interpretation of culture, and how the early church overcame the multicultural situation in the New Testament and other four aspectsexplainbright.
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Life is limited, and it goes by in the blink of an eye. Decades of serving the Lord prepare you for the taste of the Lord’s grace. In the course of many years of study, I have deeply realized that theological education is not only the accumulation of knowledge, but also a process of renewing life and refining thinking. I invite you to reflect: Is there anything that needs to be adjusted in the direction of the Chinese church community in the past few decades? Can we return to the original meaning of the Bible? What are the real ideas and values behind different denominations? The title of the lecture is "Discussion", and we hope to provide some inspiration, return to the biblical text, and explore God's original will and God's comprehensive blueprint for the church.
The traditional value system is collapsing, and Christian faith concepts are facing challenges. Perhaps a better understanding of the cultural situation can broaden your horizons. Cultural situations affect people's overall lives and choices, while theological thinking explores God's intentions and actions in cultural situations. Theological thinking and cultural exploration must be closely related, and this core message must influence the direction of the church.
When Christian culture is marginalized and faced with the current secular outlook, we must look at the social propositions we care about from this perspective. How are biblical truths implemented in actual culture and life? In the flood of multiculturalism and secular worldviews, how can the church stay true to biblical truth, interpret the tide of the times, and become the mainstay? We hope to work with you to not only interpret biblical truths into culture, but also to understand biblical truths from a cultural perspective.
cultural significance
Culture is the integrated pattern of knowledge acquired through social interaction, used to integrate experience and produce behavioral patterns that enable a nation to survive by adapting to changing environments. Social interaction is when we interact with others in groups. Different cultural groups, living conditions and environments are completely different from ours.
Integrating life experiences and producing common behavior patterns and life patterns form a nation. This nation can survive by constantly changing to adapt to the changing environment.
Culture is the expression of ultimate beliefs and values, which affects and determines what people see, say, and do in life. People from different cultures have some things they want to see in their hearts, which may be different from ours. For example, people who do not believe in the Lord should also have faith, but in their faith, they already have filters to choose what they want to see. This needs to be discovered. Culture is also a system of behaviors that helps us behave in accepted and familiar ways. In anthropology, culture is analyzed and interpreted from the behavioral patterns of the entire group.
The cultural system contains three elements:The Myth of Origin (the myth of origin),that power(power),destiny(destiny).Every human being or culture has its own myths passed down about its origins in the past. Power is what we are facing now; people compete for power in various ways. Destiny refers to the future.
The past, present, and future of each ethnic group deeply affect culture. This theory is not only applicable to cultures in different regions of the world, but also to subcultures in small circles. For example, in Chinese churches, members come from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. In similar church cultures, there are still differences arising from different backgrounds. Different subcultures. Within the larger framework of the past, present, and future, ideas, beliefs, and values about culture are generated.
To learn a cultural worldview, before looking at other cultures and ethnic groups, the first step is to understand yourself and examine what affects your own vision and values. The point is not whether the existing ideas, beliefs, and values are right or wrong, or whether they please God; the point is to understand and compare them with the values, beliefs, and thoughts that come from God and are involved in the biblical text. This is the process of life change and growth.
The ideas, beliefs and values of the ethnic group as a whole will gradually form the social structure and the behavior pattern of the entire society. Therefore, the cultural influence is wide and deep.
Carl Henry, the most influential theologian of the 20th century, said:"Because of the crisis of contemporary culture, theological interpretation and analysis of culture and cultural trends are extremely important. What our time is facing is the crisis of truth and the word of God: there is no more obvious fact in contemporary Western life than this. This crisis is an epistemological and theological crisis of growing distrust and relentless questioning of any definite discourse.”
It is easy for Christians today to listen to sermons and lectures online without knowing how to distinguish them, forming a patchwork of beliefs that are not rooted in the biblical text. This generation cannot tolerate coherent thinking. Everyone just wants a set meal; you give me one set, and I will copy it and do discipleship. How many people can read the Bible from Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 to Revelation year after year? How many Christians are willing to take the time to clarify what God is telling us in the Bible? Quoting the Bible does not mean that you understand the truth, and you may misinterpret the scriptures. For example, take 1 Corinthians 6:19, "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?" As a basis for eating and drinking, your body must be healthy, otherwise you will fall short of God. But this verse has nothing to do with physical health. Rather, it refers to whether a body in which the Holy Spirit dwells can be defiled by sexual immorality.
Another example is the knowledge of God. Since the second half of the 20th century, the entire church world has taken the Cross of Jesus Christ (Christ Center) as the core of its faith. However, what the Bible reveals is the Triune God. In all events in the Bible, it is the presence of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.Jesus Christ is the only way connecting man and God,HimWhat was accomplished on the cross is faithcore. But we cannot ignore the homogeneity, co-existence, and co-working of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Cultures all have certain glues of belief and understanding of life and reality to maintain cohesion. This core belief becomes the belief framework of the culture. For example, the ancient Greeks were able to produce an impressive culture outside of the foundations of Judaism and Christianity, which still affects the Western world today. The Greek educational philosophy is one of the two mainstreams and is still prevalent in public schools today. Hebrew education adopts the discipleship method, which is the method conveyed in the Bible. The current cultural thinking, such as criticism and skepticism, is not new to the 19th century. It has been deeply rooted in the marrow of Greek culture.
The ancient Greeks did believe in an invisible, eternal, spiritual, and rational reality, which served as the basis for attempts to impose an invisible rational order on the visible world order. This is similar to Christianity. The difference is that although the ancient Greeks believed in the invisible world, they lacked the spiritual resources to implement the framework of their faith; they lacked the means of grace to embody the spirituality they discovered. The spiritual resources implemented by Christianity and Judaism are the abundant grace from God.
Today's culture does not even believe that there is an invisible world with a final order beyond the secular world, and that human life should follow this order, so chaos abounds.
Henry's conclusion is that for a culture that has lost its true core, pragmatism is the last resort. The Chinese are a pragmatic people and judge value based on "usefulness". Therefore, there is a lack of thinkers, because thinkers are the least useful and therefore have no value. But thinkers influence the entire direction of the church.
The belief of pragmatism believes that what is good for life and daily life is the truth, and everything is determined by human experience. This is the danger of pragmatism. Henry said:"In a place withoutAbsolutelyConsiderationvalueIn this era, people accept everything freely. For example, passFreely shape life, history and nature through your own creativity. This creativity will eventually consume humanity. Modern men and women will feed off themselves in a frenzy of freedom. "
Modern people pay the most attention to self-creation, but self-creation leads people astray from the true way, not only eating themselves up, but also devouring the dignity and meaning of life that God created in the first place. Today humans have created an environment that leads to destruction. Christians have God’s truth and a mission to speak out in this generation.
▲How can you and I interpret culture with biblical truth and understand biblical truth from a cultural perspective?
Culture and worldview
To understand a culture’s worldview, you must first know and be able to explain the framework and blueprint that provides a nation with life. The second is assessment, providing an analysis grid (grid) to judge beliefs and behaviors in order to build consensus in society. The third is strengthening. Following the model established by the worldview can satisfy the psychological need for assurance and peace.The satisfaction of human souls comes from the Lord who created heaven, earth, and all things. Help this group find the satisfaction deep in their souls. Only by having the assurance of being a human race can we have peace.No.The fourth is integration. All aspects of life are actually interrelated, interlocking and cannot be cut apart, giving people a sense of wholeness and stability. The fifth is maintenance, by reinterpreting events to fit the worldview.
As a human being created by God, his entity affects his character, beliefs, thinking system and values. The worldview includes four aspects: entity theory, axiology, metaphysics, and epistemology.
1. Entity Theory (Ontology)
Christians believe that humans were created by God, but people without Christian faith do not have this concept. The origin of how people view themselves is entity theory, thinking: Who am I? Who is God? Where do I come from? Where to go? What is the meaning of my life?
Entity theory includes:
1. Concept of God:There is a God in China. Although this God has the same name as the God in the Bible, the concepts are completely different. In Chinese culture, those who have magical powers, great achievements and noble moral character are all gods. For example, Guan Gong is obviously a human, but finally becomes a god.
2. Concept of history:Things in the past will cease to exist if they are past. If you don’t know history, you won’t know the past. You won’t be a grateful person, and you won’t be able to see God’s grace. History includes the concept of God. From the worship rituals and objects of worship of a culture or group, we can understand their concept of God. From the myths passed down from generation to generation by a nation, we can understand the interests that attract this cultural group and their ideas about power.
3. The concept of soul:In the worldview of biblical culture, the soul of a person who belongs to the Lord belongs to the Lord. Compared with the concepts of other religions, the soul of a person has different destinations after death, which is very different.
2. PricevalueArgument(Axiology)
The theory of value consists of two parts:
1. The structure of authority: In Chinese churches in North America, there is often a communication challenge between the leaders of the previous generation and the next generation. The older ones may be wearing sunglasses that are remnants of thousands of years of imperial culture. They may suffer from cultural color blindness and are troubled by the fact that they cannot see the younger generation who are mature lovers of the Lord and have a solid spiritual foundation. During this epidemic, Asian countries have adopted a policy of isolation until they are completely eliminated, while the Western concept is to increase antibodies to enhance immunity. When it comes to spiritual education for the next generation, the Chinese often use segregation to prevent them from being exposed to bad mainstream culture. However, in Western culture, children are vaccinated to increase their antibodies, so that when they leave home and become independent, they can rest assured that the damage from the virus will be limited. The main axes of Chinese and Western cultures are very different. Understanding the theory of value will give you a completely different perspective on the spiritual education of the next generation.
2. About guilt and shame. This section is discussed in more detail under “Values” in “Biblical Worldview” below.
3. Metaphysics (Metaphysics)
Biblical values influence the structure of families and society. Just like living together without getting married, it is also a commitment, but only for that period of time. The traditional concept of family is that once married, mutual commitment is a covenant relationship.
4. Epistemology (Epistemology)
"How do you know that the God you preach is the true God? What you know is the truth? How do you know the truth? How do you know the true God?" These are all epistemological issues.Epistemology is an intellectual challenge.Many people think that as long as they can live one day at a time, smoothly, without disasters, and without any shortage of food, clothing, and daily necessities, that will be fine. But people live not only for food and clothing!
The main areas of epistemology are: (1) Logical thought system (logic): including mathematical and nonlinear logic. The West has linear thinking. (2) Sorting system (sorting): how to classify and prioritize. The Western world values performance, but traditional Chinese thinking values relationships. In recent years, China has integrated with the world, and has also learned from Western priorities and is optimistic about the results.
The pragmatism tendency of Chinese culture is due to the fact that after many hardships and wars, the highest priority is survival; survival has made us a pragmatic nation. Many cultures in today's world have also become pragmatic. The Chinese are very diligent, but they often copy other people's good products and rarely explore the foundation and source of the ideas behind them.
Here are seven questions to ask about your worldview:
1. What is real reality? Is the younger generation of believers wrapped in a protective bubble?
2. The nature of external reality, that is, what is the world around us?
3. What is a human being?
4. What happens after death?
5. How is it possible for a person to know anything?
6. How do you know what is right and wrong? How can we not judge right and wrong based on our own subjective beliefs and concepts, but adjust to judging right and wrong from God’s standpoint in the Bible?
7. What is the meaning of human history?
biblical worldview
How does the Bible respond to the four parts of the worldview (image below)?
1. Entity Theory
1. God is the triune Creator, transcendent, sovereign, and good. This is the most important part of the gospel message. What different ethnic groups agree on is this Creator. The book of Hebrews clearly shows that He governs all people, things, things, and the natural environment in the world, and is truly good.
2. History is linear, with progressive historical events fulfilling God’s will for mankind, with the ultimate goal being redemption and restoration. History must be continuous rather than fragmentary; at a certain point in time, things not only happened in Israel, but also happened all over the world at the same time. These events are connected and given meaning by God's hand. This is the biblical view of history.
3. The Bible shows that man has the image of God, but fell into sin; man is a living creature with spirit.
2. Pricevalueview
According to the Bible, the highest authority for human values comes from an all-holy, all-knowing, all-loving God; the God who created us determines what is most valuable. The values of life should be adjusted in this direction. After the fall, man developed feelings of guilt and shame. Many of the insecurities among church leaders stem from unresolved feelings of shame and guilt.
To resolve shame and guilt, we must be rooted in God’s covenant love, which is God’s redemption plan accomplished by Jesus Christ on the cross. Covenant love should become our sense of security. It not only satisfies God’s justice, but ultimately reconciles people to God. Not only to repair the relationship between man and God, but also to repair the relationship between God and the world, and to restore God’s original order and intention for the world.
3. Metaphysics
Biblical metaphysics is reflected in the social structure of godly education, financial freedom, and social care. This is not only the education of the next generation, but also the faith education of believers. In the structure of marriage, one man and one woman, one husband and one wife, love each other for life.
4. Epistemology
1. Logical system: The Bible clearly shows that people can know right and wrong, good and evil, and can know God. This desire and expectation is real. The Bible is a supernatural authority, but supernatural is not the same as supernatural. The Bible should not be regarded as a supernatural book. The Bible is God’s word and God’s revelation. All its contents are God’s revelation to man of who He is and what He wants to do.
2. Sorting system: The Bible clearly distinguishes the paths of the righteous and the wicked; the righteous follow the true God; the wicked follow idols, and the idols may also be themselves.
The epistemology in the Bible first clearly distinguishes between the true God and idols, and secondly emphasizes unity in love and no competition and division. Conflict and division bring pain. If parents often argue, yell, or even fight, their children will feel pain and have long-lasting effects; the same is true in the church. The prerequisite for unity in love is to feel secure in the love of the Lord. Many people feel a sense of security, but it is not enough, and they whisper in their hearts: Why didn’t the pastor pay attention to me? Why don't the elders come to see me? Why don’t my co-workers do what I want? This is because we have not received God’s love.
The epistemology of the Bible helps us clarify what kind of God we know, how He is related to my life, and how He is related to me as a human being. We can also distinguish between serving in love or indulging in selfishness. Every Christian should serve one another and should not just focus on his or her own affairs. Every believer who is filled with the love of the Lord should not be selfish.
From understanding culture to crossing culture
Entity theory affects values; the values of the ethnic group as a whole affect metaphysics, which in turn affects epistemology; epistemology has a great influence on social phenomena. Therefore, it is very important to understand that human thinking has a worldview framework.When we understand the cultural worldview, we can implement the truth of the Bible into our real life.
After understanding different cultures, understand that this group of people is God’s entrustment to you and me in this time and space. Use a wise and non-threatening method, serve with the love of Jesus and the assigned mission, and guide others to see Christians. positioning and meaning.
We hope that Christians can transcend different cultures, learn to listen to ideas that are very different from ours with a humble and gentle heart, train themselves to respect others, and seize opportunities to communicate.
In the next article, readers are invited to explore how multiculturalism manifests itself in today’s society and challenges it poses to the truth.
Questions to think about:
• Review the cultural background in which you grew up (including personal, family, and social).
• What is your personal worldview?
• What is the overall cultural worldview of your nation? What fundamental impact did it have on you?
Bibliography and sources:
•Smart, Ninian. Worldviews: Crosscultural Explorations of Human Beliefs. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000.
•Sire, James W. The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2004.
•Larkin, William, and David Cashin. Culture and Worldview Course Curriculum. CIU, 2006.
•Vanhoozer, Kevin J. “The World Well Staged? Theology, Culture, and Hermeneutics,” in God and Culture.
•Carson, DA, and John D. Woodbridge, ed. God and Culture. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1993.
•Henry, Carl. God, Revelation and Authority, vol. 1. Waco, TX: Word Books, 1976.
Mrs. Shao Wensi, currently pastoring a church with her husband and pursuing a PhD in theological studies; she has worked in professional business management, finance and taxation, and computer communications. While educating his children at home, he completed a Master of Divinity; he has devoted himself to theological education, home education, marriage and family ministry, discipleship training, Bible teaching, Eurasian missions and church planting, and preacher training. They have three adult sons, one daughter, and four grandchildren.