When nonbelievers look and scoff at Christians as foolish, silly and dumb, we know that the joke’s on them. But perhaps their criticism of Christianity as anti-reason is somewhat valid, at least in the way the Christian faith manifests itself in the contemporary church?

Amid the present-day milieu of  decaying modernity (and the subsequent increase of religious pluralism), I believe that there is a rapidly growing need for intelligent Christianity in America, a nation which appears to be earnestly pursuing the status of a “liberated” post-Christian society. It seems now that we are casting off the shackles of foolish superstition, we are free to experience true life—or so we think. The fist of dogmatism finds any fragment of legitimacy it once grasped now slipping right through its tired, arthritic fingers. 

Thus, in order to appeal and witness to this ever-changing culture, it is, in my mind, imperative that Christians are educated and equipped to effectively relate to and participate in even the most sophisticated societal discourse. This doesn’t mean just watching secular movies to “keep up” with what’s going on in the world. It requires significant learning in areas of philosophy, logic, and rhetoric which will enable us to truly engage those around us in an intelligent and level-headed manner, for the sake of the Gospel. I suspect that this is a bit controversial, and I am willing to dialogue, but let me at first list a few short reasons why I hold this opinion.

1. We have a responsibility to preach the Gospel to people, not just into a vacuum. 
I understand that “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12 ESV). I recognize that God can (and in many situations does) use the proclamation of Scripture alone to convict and convert people. However, we cannot misapply the fact that God’s word is powerful to excuse a lack of responsibility on our part. We are instructed to make disciples (Matthew 28:19), and doing so requires some tact. Being able to understand a person’s worldview in order to carefully and shrewdly critique and subvert it allows us to communicate the Gospel more effectively. Furthermore, knowing what we’re talking about adds legitimacy  to our faith claims, especially in a society which no longer privileges Christianity nor takes it for granted.

2. Anti-intellectualism is not helpful to the Body of Christ.
If you know me, you know that I don’t completely buy into our society’s extreme glorification of a college education, and that I very strongly believe that salvation is by grace alone—not knowledge. However, the developing worldwide religious landscape consists of rapidly developing Pentecostalism, which is particularly flourishing in Third-World countries (albeit not absent in the U.S). While I rejoice that people are coming to know the name of Jesus, I am concerned over the potential for a dangerous misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit and a general disdain for rational decision-making. In 1 Corinthians 14:14-23, Paul encourages believers to use their minds in (rather than detach them from) corporate worship. God gave us a rational mind so that we might bring glory to him and edify other believers by using it appropriately.

3. Most people—even in the church—don’t have a Christian worldview.
Perhaps this is more indicative of a theological problem or a flaw in our discipleship methods, but Christians should be able to comprehend how the Gospel of Jesus should determine the way they view the world. Of course, we’re not going to agree on everything, but the foundational understanding that Jesus’ death and resurrection is so significant that it actually defines who we are and how we think about things needs to somehow be built into our discipleship processes. I realize that not everyone has the same I.Q., but most people should be able to learn how to view things through the lens of the Cross, at least on some level. By having a better education—particularly one which emphasises the Gospel as their metanarrative, Christians are better-equipped to think critically about and interact with the world around them, enabling them to recognize, avoid, and work more effectively in tearing down the idols of 21st century society. 

Of course, the problem is that there are very few systems in place (at least that I am aware of) which achieve this type of Christ-centered, intellectual preparation. Based upon my personal experience (and that of many like me), Bible colleges across the nation generally leave graduates ill-equipped to make a difference in (or even think critically about) society. And while some programs at secular universities may offer a more rigorous academic environment, they most certainly fail to promote a Christian worldview, thus leaving the average Christian very few opportunities to receive an education which will significantly aid them in their life of faith and fulfillment of the Great Commission. 

I’m not sure what needs to happen, but it appears to be an issue which must be dealt with by the local church. I know I feel a need to read more and do what I can to sharpen my mind, yet I still long for some type of training or preparation in the church which would help guide me in this. Throughout the centuries, a solid education has proven quite helpful to so many believers—from Paul to Luther and Augustine to Schaeffer. And sure, the present day perhaps has its share of theologians and scholars. But wouldn’t it be haphazard to ignore the need for educated Christians in each and every local congregation?

Why is it that Christians always seem to reach new levels of lame-ness in their bumper stickers, T-shirts, and mainstream music? Do we really think that by ripping off pop culture we’re somehow being “relevant” to the world around us? I apologize for being cynical, but when I first saw a “Jesus Got ‘R Done” shirt a few years back, I wanted to punch someone in the face. How can we expect to be taken seriously if we’re most well-known for stealing worn-out cliches and making them even more annoying?

Our problem is that we’re simply reacting to culture. Many of us just try to copy it; others of us are fed up and simply abandon it. Yet neither of these approaches is healthy. Instead, Christians should be participating in the creation of culture for the sake of engaging and changing culture. If anything, we should be leading the charge in innovation and creativity, under the conviction that through Jesus, God is reconciling the entire world to himself. Not only can we bring God glory through creating beauty and utilizing our gifts, but we can greatly impact a world which desperately needs the gospel.

Tim Chester (The Crowded House, Sheffield, UK) has recently produced a series of blog posts concerning this very issue which have been quite successful in articulating the Biblical foundations for creating culture and demonstrating how such principles can be put into practice.

Here are links to the posts on his blog, in order:

Covenanted for Culture, Redeemed for Cultural Renewal

The Role of Christian Artists

What is True Art?

Cultural Renewal and Church Planting

I think any Christian—especially those interested in urban ministry, church planting, or the arts—will find these posts very helpful. I have benefited from reading them and recommend that everyone check them out (especially the first one).

I recently finished reading Mark as Story [link], a book which, despite its flaws, succesfully promotes a narrative approach to reading the Gospels. While the authors made some dangerous and unsupported theological statements, their overall treatment of the Gospel of Mark as a story was quite helpful and renewed my interest in the way humanity is shaped by narratives. Certainly, Graeme Goldsworthy’s According to Plan [link] made significant progress in helping a modern audience read the Bible as one big, unfolding narrative. Lately, however, I’ve been reading through The Drama of Scripture by Craig Bartholomew and Michael Goheen [link], a similar book which introduces the idea of a unified Biblical narrative as essential to evangelism in the postmodern world. Their work is founded upon the understanding that human beings are significantly shaped by stories—particularly over-arching, grand stories or metanarratives—and that the Biblical story is the only such metanarrative which is true, meaningful and liberating.

Dr. Goheen has an excellent grasp on the over-arching story which has shaped modern Western society; I heard him speak about a year ago, and by the end of the first day of his conference lectures, I felt like my mind was already operating over-capacity. Now that I’ve had some time to think through things, I am coming to see the extreme importance of understanding our cultural story—that is, our metanarrative—in respect to impacting our society with the Gospel.

Any given person can only have one metanarrative, though they may know a number of other stories. It is our metanarrative, in fact, which determines the way in which we view and interpret all other stories. Therefore, if we accept the metanarrative of modern society—a story rooted in the Enlightenment, where reason is the hero and scientific or technological progress makes for a “happy ending”—we will find that all other stories (including the Gospel of Christ) are subject to our greater, over-arching metanarrative. This very thing caused the rise of liberalism in respect to Biblical studies, where modernism very much shaped the way people read the Bible.

A person’s metanarrative is the lens through which he will view all other narratives; it is his gopspel. However, if the Biblical story is our metanarrative, it will effectively critique competing, false metanarratives (such as the modernistic gospel of rational optimism).

In this, we can see the goal of our evangelism is not to only preach the Gospel as a laundry list of truths, but to subvert the false gospels (or metanarratives) which deceive our culture. It is too easy to embrace certain Biblical truths as long as they “fit” our existing worldview; many people will accept Scriptural doctrines insofar as their metanarrative allows them to be accepted. Thus, we get Christians who go to Sunday church services but live self-centered lives devoid of fruit; Christianity has become a mere additive to their pre-existing metanarrative.

However, the Gospel of King Jesus is not merely a series of doctrines, but an altogether different foundational understanding of the word. It is a new metanarrative, and until people allow it to destroy their existing metanarratives, they will not experience its power. “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 2:22-24 ESV).

With that being said, the present-day difficulty is postmodernism—”an incredulity toward metanarratives,” as famously defined by Jean François Lyotard. Because our society so blindly submitted to the false gospel of modernism, rationalism and humanism, we are now reaping what we have sown; from wreaking environmental havoc to creating weapons of mass destruction, our modernistic metanarrative has led us to despair. Thus, postmodernism recognizes the betrayal of the modernistic gospel and is highly skeptical, therefore, of all such metanarratives; any over-arching story which serves as a source of meaning and hope is highly suspect.

Of course, postmodernism is really a metanarrative of its own, as it defines the way in which we view the world; however, in this story, the antagonists are metanarratives themselves. To reach resolution, all such metanarratives must be reduced in power—they must become “just another story” rather than an over-arching gospel—and only when this happens, postmoderns believe, can society be truly free from danger. This explains why phrases like “whatever works for you,” “who are you to judge?” and “all roads lead to God!”  have become so immensely popular as of late.

What this leaves us with is a sense of meaning which finds its root in tolerance, passivity, and ignorance. Ultimately, it will only bring further confusion and despair. Yet for now, as evangelists, we face the dilemma of promoting a metanarrative—a radical one at that—to a world whose existing metanarrative tells them that we’re fools. If we’re going to have success, we must embody the gospel in all that we do—to truly allow it to become our metanarrative—and to live life in such a way that the truth of the Biblical story is made evident in our actions. Preaching the Gospel must involve the systematic teaching of doctrines, to be sure, but the power of the Gospel itself must not be restrained nor hindered by our unwillingness to unleash its earth-shattering, life-changing, mind-blowing nature to the world.

As I was listening to the radio today, I heard that a recent study¹ found my hometown of Cincinnati to be #4 out of the top five manliest cities in America. However, here are the criteria for evaluation:

1. Number of professional sports teams.
2. Use of tools and hardware.
3. Frequency of monster-truck rallies.

That’s it; no joke. Finally, the keys to true masculinity have been made known to us. And, thank goodness, it only takes three things: sports, tools, and monster trucks.

While I fully realize that this study was for entertainment purposes only, I must say that I don’t buy into the idea that Cincinnati is a manly city. Sure, sports may reflect the fact that God made man with a natural drive toward mission and conquest. Tools perhaps reflect man’s God-given nature to build and restore. And monster trucks, well, they could reflect the passion for strength and intensity that, once again, God built into man. But “macho-ness” is not manliness, and, while I realize this study was not intended to be serious, our society has some fundamental misconceptions about masculinity that are leading us down a dangerous path.

In reality, most men in our culture have no idea how to actually be men; fathers aren’t instructing their sons, the public schools sure aren’t teaching it, and good role models are hard to come by. Look at the way men are presented on television sitcoms; husbands are generally into “macho” activities but also happen to be complete idiots with no idea how to take care of their wives and families (specifically, I think of Tim Allen’s character on Home Improvement or Kevin James’ character on The King of Queens, but there are plenty of other examples). Therefore, our concept of what is “masculine” involves much of the following:

• Red meat
• Poker
• Chest hair
• Grunting
• Flatulence & the infamous “pull my finger” trick
• Cars or, even better, trucks
• Beer
• Laziness
• Blood & sweat, but never tears
• Hunting
• Video games
• Intellectual and emotional shallowness
• Belly flab
• Primitive camping
• War, weapons and the military
• Clogging up the toilet
• Starting firesand, yes,  
• Sports
• Tools
• Monster truck rallies

Of course, not all of these things are necessarily wrong; however, when they supplant true masculinity, there is a problem. In fact, many of us try to fake real masculinity through them; we reject the purpose that God has given us and try to replace it with a few behaviors that we think will make us look like masculine men. To be sure, we can enjoy red meat, beer, camping, and sports, even to the glory of God, but when we turn to such things to escape our calling as men, we are only fooling ourselves. Poor masculine leadership is essentially what started and now sustains the feminist movement. This city needs men who will step up, be responsible and intelligent, provide for their families, lay down their lives for their wives, discipline and train their children, and, above all, preach the gospel. And unfortunately, I have yet to see this in any significant capacity. Sorry Cincinnati, I don’t think you’re really that manly.

I do want to add a caution, however, to what I’ve said. It’s quite easy to blog about masculinity and even make controversial statements that don’t go over too well in a hyper-egalitarian society. The difficult thing, however, is to practice what we preach. We are lazy, prideful, sinful human beings, and unfortunately, we can talk about masculinity all we want without getting anywhere. It’s easy to think that being masculine requires that we boldly announce our views of manhood to the world, but ultimately, the problem is not a philosophical one, but a pastoral one. It involves real people, not just ideas, and getting into arguments over the web is not only fruitless, but it often constructs unnecessary barriers between us and our opponents. Should we be bold and forthright about our convictions regarding biblical masculinity? Absolutely. I am not suggesting compromise. However, we must not sacrifice meekness in the name of boldness, and we must not reduce a relational problem to an academic one. Furthermore, our desire to see change should begin with the relationships around us. We want to fight battles that can be won, not battles that only serve to further escalate the war. In postmodern America, this will take some tact, but above all, it will require legitimacy, sincerity, dedication, and careful and intentional relationships with those around us. So, with that being said, who wants to go camping?

¹This study was apparently done by Sperling’s BestPlaces as part of a promotion by Combos snacks. Obviously it is not serious research.

Since Nadya Suleman recently gave birth to octuplets, much debate has arisen over the ethics of having children in today’s world. While I am not endorsing Suleman’s actions (having such a large number of children simply to receive monetary aid from the government and well-meaning citizens, which Suleman has been accused of, very much trivializes the meaning of childbearing), it is nonetheless clear that our society has an ungodly hatred of children. Having fourteen children by in vitro fertilization—at least without a male provider—is perhaps irresponsible. However, many debaters claim that the rest of us should avoid childbearing due to overpopulation and the destruction of the environment. This is downright foolishness, and Christians need to take a stand.

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