Christianity and Culture

Definition and Meaning

In this context, culture refers to the whole range of human creations: language, the arts, customs, scholarship, and institutions. The topic asks whether believers should keep their distance from culture, accept it, or work to transform it.

The best-known framework for organizing this discussion is Christ and Culture (1951) by the American theologian H. Richard Niebuhr. Niebuhr, the younger brother of Reinhold Niebuhr, classified the relationship between Christ and culture into five types.

• Christ against Culture: Emphasizes separation from the culture of the world. Examples include Tertullian and Leo Tolstoy.
• The Christ of Culture: Identifies Christ with the best values of culture. An example is nineteenth-century liberal theology.
• Christ above Culture: A synthesis model holding that grace perfects culture. An example is Thomas Aquinas.
• Christ and Culture in Paradox: Holds that the believer lives in tension between two realms. An example is Martin Luther.
• Christ the Transformer of Culture: Holds that fallen culture is renewed in Christ. Examples include Augustine and John Calvin.

Niebuhr stated that he did not present any single type as the correct answer. Nevertheless, John Howard Yoder, a theologian in the Anabaptist tradition, and others criticized the typology for implicitly portraying the transformationist model as superior.

Biblical and Historical Background

Those who emphasize engagement and transformation appeal to the cultural mandate of Genesis 1:28 and to the "salt of the earth" and "light of the world" of Matthew 5:13–14. Those who emphasize separation give weight to being "not of the world" in John 17:14–16 and to "be not conformed to this world" in Romans 12:2. In the modern era, the Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper stressed cultural engagement on the basis of the doctrine of common grace (the grace God extends to all people).

Practice in the Korean Church

Early missionaries and Korean believers regarded ancestral rites, alcohol and tobacco, and concubinage as incompatible with the faith and avoided them. The custom of holding memorial services in place of ancestral rites also took root in the course of this process (Ancestral Rites and Memorial Services). Attitudes toward alcohol and tobacco still vary among denominations and congregations (Alcohol and Tobacco).

In the 1960s, Methodist theologians such as Yun Sung-bum and Yu Tong-shik proposed indigenization theology, which sought to express the gospel in the idiom of traditional Korean culture. Objections arose from those concerned about syncretism (the blending of elements from other religions), and an ongoing debate followed. From the 1980s onward, the Christian worldview movement, influenced by Kuyper, spread chiefly among evangelical and Reformed scholars and campus mission organizations. Some denominations belonging to the National Council of Churches in Korea have emphasized the reform of social structures and political culture as a task of faith.

The worship music debate over whether to admit popular music and contemporary Christian music (CCM) into worship is another strand of this topic. Some observers also contend that shamanistic culture has influenced the blessing-seeking faith found in Korean churches (The Korean Church and Shamanism).