I’m in Mere O on church and culture
I’ve got an essay in the latest issue of the print edition of Mere Orthodoxy, and Jake has just posted it online this morning. It’s titled “Once More, Church and Culture.” Here’s the opening paragraph:
Christendom is the name we give to Christian civilization, when society, culture, law, art, family, politics, and worship are saturated by the church’s influence and informed by its authority. Christendom traces its beginnings to the fourth century after Christ; it began to ebb, in fits and starts, sometime during the transition from the late middle ages to the early modern period. It is tempting to plot its demise with the American and French revolutions, though in truth it outlasted both in many places. It came to a more or less definitive end with the world wars (in Europe) and the Cold War (in America). Even those who lament Christendom’s passing and hope for its reestablishment have no doubt that the West is post-Christian in this sense. The West will always carry within it its Christian past — whether as a living wellspring, a lingering shadow, a haunting ghost, or an exorcised demon — but it is indisputable that whatever the West has become, it is not what it once was. Christendom is no more.
Re-reading what I’ve written there (drafted last summer, I think), I’m inclined to say the opening seven paragraphs make for some of my better writing. It’s a potted history of Christendom before and in America, and how it continues to haunt Protestant reflection about “church and culture.” Part two of the essay takes up H. Richard Niebuhr’s typology and James Davison Hunter’s “faithful presence.” Part three takes a stab at an alternative framework—but not one more single-label option that captures all contexts and circumstances. Read on to see more.
And once you’ve read it, go subscribe to the Mere O print magazine. It’s great!
Two further thoughts. First, some version of this essay has been rattling around in the back of my mind since January 2017, when I first taught a week-long intensive course called “Christianity and Culture.” I’ve taught it now every single January since. That’s seven total! Didn’t even miss for Covid. The texts have varied, but I’ve consistently had students read Hauerwas, Jenson, JDH (excerpts), JKAS (You Are What You Love), THW (Liturgy of the Ordinary), TIB (Strange Rites), Douthat (Bad Religion), Dreher (the old pre-book FAQ), Wilkinson/Joustra, Tisby, Cone, and Crouch. It always goes so well. And every Friday of the course, I conclude with, basically, what I’ve written in this essay: a set of typologies; a critique of them; and my own proposal. I’m grateful to Jake for letting me finally put it down in black and white.
Second, this essay has brought home to me how much this topic has dominated my thoughts, and therefore my writing, since I finished my dissertation six years ago. Specifically, the topic of the church in relation to society, which brings in its wake questions about Christendom, America, liberalism, and integralism, not to mention missiology, culture, technology, liturgy, and even anti-Judaism. Everything, in other words! For those who may be interested, here is an incomplete list of publications that bear on these matters and thus supplement this particular essay:
Theologians Were Arguing About the Benedict Options 35 Years Ago” Mere Orthodoxy | 13 March 2017
Public Theology in Retreat Los Angeles Review of Books | 20 September 2017
Holy Ambivalence Los Angeles Review of Books | 1 March 2018
The Church and the Common Good Comment | 17 January 2019
The Specter of Marcion Commonweal | 13 February 2019
A Better Country Plough | 4 August 2019
Sacraments, Technology, and Streaming Worship in a Pandemic Mere Orthodoxy | 2 April 2020
The Circumcision of Abraham’s God First Things | 1 January 2021
When Losing Is Likely The Point | 18 June 2021
Market Apocalypse Mere Orthodoxy | 25 August 2021
Statistics as Storytelling The New Atlantis | 1 October 2021
Still Supersessionist? Commonweal | 29 October 2021
Jewish Jesus, Black Christ The Christian Century | 25 January 2022
Unlearning Machines Comment | 24 March 2022
Can We Be Human in Meatspace? The New Atlantis | 2 May 2022
Another Option for Christian Politics, Front Porch Republic | 4 July 2022
The Ruins of Christendom, Los Angeles Review of Books | 10 July 2022
The Church in the Immanent Frame First Things | 14 July 2022
The Bible in America (forthcoming in The Christian Century)