Making Culture: Quote from Chapter 2

"So when we speak of "ethnic" culture we are referring to these extraordinarily complex, rich collections of traditions of culture making, each rooted in a particular set of times and places.  But we should not be misled by the common associations of the word ethnic.  In many American supermarkets you can still find and "ethnic food" aisle - as if only some kinds of food participate in a cultural tradition. Nonsense - all food is "ethnic"(41).

OK, so the first time I read this quote something struck me as odd.  And here is why.  When he discusses the word ethnic, I know what he means by the term.  And when he discusses the "ethnic food aisle" at a grocery store, I also know what he means.  But I also know what he means he discusses the ethnic food aisle and he assumes I and others know what he means.  So, how can he call it "nonsense" for us to call it that simply to differentiate that aisle form the aisle with chips?  In our culture that is what we call it!  To call it nonsense is to assume a culture's understanding of the term "ethnic food aisle" is without sense.  Actually it has immense sense.  Or does he mean something by "nonsense"?  ;)

President Obama is My President

It is the height of unbelief to not have a category for being thankful for what happened last night.

1. We should be glad and thankful we do not live in the country we lived in 40 years ago where Jim Crow laws were still in effect.  The fact that a biracial man has been elected to the highest office in the land when just a few decades a job would have been hard for him to find is simply incredible.  Christians more than anyone should be glad to see this.

2. We should be thankful to our Sovereign God who is always doing his people good.  Romans 8:28 says, "All things work together for good for those love him and are called according to his purpose."  And just to make it more specific, Paul says 5 chapters later in Romans 13, "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.  Therefore whoever resists the authorities, resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment...for he is God's servant for your good." 

3.  For those who fear hard times because of oppression or economic difficulty, let me ask you one question, "Do you really think ease and wealth are the best soil for which the gospel to grow and flourish in our land and world?"  Again, God is working for our good, and our good should be the propagation of the gospel and the exaltation of the name which is above all names.

Culture Making: Quotes from Chapter 2

"Culture requires a public: a group of people who have been sufficiently affected by a cultural good that their horizons of possibility and impossibility have in fact been altered, and their own cultural creativity has been spurred, by that good's existence.  This group of people does not necessarily have to be large.  But without such a group the artifact remains exclusively personal and private.  it may be deeply meaningful to its owners...but it has not reshaped the world for anyone.  At least not yet.".

"Until an artifact is not shared it is not culture."

My Favorite Trick-or-Treaters

Culture Making Quote from Chapter 1

"... creativity cannot exist without order - a structure within which creation can happen.  On a cosmic level the extraordinary profusion of species could never survive if the world were an undifferentiated soup of elements.  This is true of human creativity too.  Without the darkened box of a theater, films would lose their compelling power.  Without the lines and spaces that make up written English, this book would be a soup of letters.  Creativity requires cosmos - it requires an ordered environment.

So in a way the Creator's greatest gift to his creation is the gift of structure - not a structure which locks the world, let alone the Creator himself, into mechanical repetition, but a  structure which provides freedom.  And those who are made in his image will also be both creators and rulers.  They will have a unique capacity to create - perhaps not to call something out of nothing in quite the way that God does in Genesis 1:1, but to reshape what exists into something genuinely new." (Culture Making, 22)  

Culture Making

Last week I picked up Culture Making by Andy Crouch after reading a review by Sean Michael Lucas.  I read the introduction fairly soon after buying it but I only really got into the first chapter last night because I wanted to finish another book I had been reading before going to sleep at night.

So like I said, I read the first chapter last night and it really blew me away.  My body was sore and tired after a run and then DCF but I could not put it down, only forcing myself after finishing the first chapter.

I have been enjoying reading a fellow blogger's comments and quotes as he reads through Total Church so I have decided to do the same with this book.  I hope it will drum up discussion from my 5 readers (none of which is my mom btw).

Thunderstruck

This is my new favorite site.

The Story by Brandi Carlile

This is the best song not by Coldplay I have heard in awhile. 

What's God Got to Do With It?

Newsweek has an article on the Osteens.

The Prodigal God

Tim Keller discusses his new book which will be out next week.

Homecoming Queen

Check out this article about a girl with Downs Syndrome becoming Homecoming Queen.

"Kristin has a lot of friends - she likes everyone.  It doesn't matter if you're tall or short, pretty, not pretty, smart, not smart - she likes everybody.  She has great friends."

This reminds me of a line in a song by Bill Mallonee that I have never been able to get over.

"I suppose there are benefits of being retarded/At least your life's a string of moments unguarded."

Faith and Film

Warren Cole Smith argues "Fireproof Shouldn't be Critic-proof."

ESV Study Bible

Tim Challies reviews it here.

Tim Keller Interview from WashingtonPost.com

Hat Tip: Steve McCoy

The Banned SNL Skit

Can be found here