Friday, July 11, 2008

Culture Making

One book I'm looking forward to reading is Andy Crouch's Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, soon to be released from IVP.

Tim Keller writes:
Culture Making is one of the few books taking the discussion about Christianity and culture to a new level. It is a rare mix of the theoretical and the practical, its definitions are nuanced but not abstract, and it strikes all kinds of fine balances. I highly recommend it.
Christian Smith provides an apt summary in his blurb:
American evangelicals in the last hundred years have found it easy to condemn culture, critique culture, copy culture and consume culture. It has been much harder for them to actively and imaginatively create culture. Andy Crouch is out to change that.
You can read the opening chapters online.

Tullian Tchividjian recently linked to a critical interaction with the book:
The Bible makes it clear that Christians need to be people of double listening — listening both to the questions of the world and the answers of the Word. We’re responsible to be good interpreters not only of Scripture, but also of culture. God calls us to be like the men of Issachar, “who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). We’re called to think long and hard, deep and wide about “our times” and all the issues surrounding the mission of the church — its proper relationship to this world as well as its proper place in it.

With this in mind, John Seel offers a critical review of Andy Crouch’s forthcoming book Culture Making. This is no ordinary review. Reading it is like listening in on a conversation between two top notch Christian thinkers who understand the complexities involved in the relationship between Christians and culture. If you are a Christian who wants to get better at “double listening”, this is a must read review.

This review will be featured in Critique magazine (in the next several weeks). It will also be posted on the Ransom Fellowship website as well (a ministry you would be wise to become familiar with).

Again, I think Crouch's book looks like it could be very helpful in many ways, and that Seel offers some good iron-sharpening-iron along the way.