Summary and personal reflection (due on Sp.15th)

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AReflectiononChristandCultureintheEnduringProblem.docx

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A Reflection on Christ and Culture in the Enduring Problem

Valerie Xu

International Degree completion: Trinity Western University

LDRS 375 I6 - Culture & Christianity

Mr.Chris Howe (Just so you know, my last name is Christiansen.)

Sept,19, 2020

A Reflection on Christ and Culture in the Enduring Problems

The modern world is changing at a very rapid pace and today's society does not like to include religion in politics, technology, art, science, economics, and business. It tries to keep religion out of things that run the world to make it universal for everyone to work under the same umbrella. In the book ‘Christ and Culture’, (It’s better to put the title in italics.) H. Richard Niebuhr discusses various enduring problems that were and are the hot topic of debate when it comes to Christianity and culture or Christianity and civilization. That is why I have chosen Chapter one 'The Enduring Problems'. Various liberals of today’s (of today believe that) belief that religion should be disconnected from public education and more of a secular idea should be adopted to make civilization more acceptable for the people coming from various religions and cultures. The main example of this mentioned by Niebuhr is Klausner. Klausner has discussed the clash in history between Christianity and Judaism which was prevailed for about two thousand years only because of the intolerant attitude of Christians towards Jews. The Christ was not only rejected by the Jews but by many Greeks, Romans, moderns, and westerns just because they perceived a threat to their culture and civilization. According to Niebuhr, the main key behind the success of Romans was their tolerant attitude towards (Towards who?) which made them go far ahead of other civilizations while Christianity seemed to threaten the culture and growth of a civilization. The other problem that has been raised in various arguments is regarding putting the trust alone in God which may hinder human achievement. The main example regarding this problem that is discussed in the book is of Romans, that would they have been able to achieve what they did in the past if they had put their trust in God alone or would have been left without even a piece of land to call their own. Due to not only these problems, many people and societies see Christian and Christianity as a threat also because of the concept of monotheism. For a better understanding of this, Niebuhr pondered on the concept of first understanding the definition of Christianity and the Culture because it gets more complex if one is unable to understand these terms first. According to him, Christianity is when one is a follower of Jesus Christ and considers him as of the higher authority over him. Some followers of Jesus Christ see him as God and some see him as a teacher but then some people see him as a revealer of incarnation, resurrection, Day of Judgment, life after death, and the one who revealed the concepts of heaven and hell. And for these people, he is never to be confused with other prestigious religious personalities. But the definition of culture according to Niebuhr is the procedure of human activity which people tend to superimpose over what is natural for example, what is created by a human is the language, tradition, ideas, social behaviors, and values. These things are what make up the culture and it is very important for people to understand the concept of this in respect of the present world to grasp on the understanding of Christ and Culture. (Great job explaining why there has been a conflict between Christianity and the larger world. It would also be good to include what Niebuhr calls the enduring problem, which is that Christ is perfect while culture is imperfect. How can the two interact. He also talks about five ways Christians have approached culture throughout history. That would be good to include in the summary.)

I agree with certain things Niebuhr has talked about but at the same time I do not agree with some of his points. I believe that yes, the religion should be kept out of things that are of importance on the international level and today the world is more of a global village and to be ahead in the game we need to bring everyone under the same roof first and need to lend an ear to the other people coming from different cultures and religions, (How could we do that if religion was left out of it?) But when it comes to our social life and personal life I think we need to integrate Christianity. I know some people have more of liberal and secular thinking who do not want to integrate religion in their personal life because it may hinder their achievements but I believe to stay on the right path and to adopt what the majority believes is right even is wrong is not my cup of tea because it may make the world more complex and may eradicate the sense of right and wrong from people if we only kept running after the achievements that we consider is of great importance. We need to adapt some of the religious sayings according to the present world but not all because the world is now different as compared to the world of Jesus Christ. And the human is a sinful creature according to him that makes us the one who does make mistakes but also have given the gift of love which in my view is very essential to follow for a better and a healthy society.

Hey Valerie.

You wrote this essay in a clear and concise manner. There were some grammatical mistakes but nothing major. One thing missing was that it is important to put citations in the paper, even when you are not directly quoting Niebuhr. If you are discussing his ideas, you should be putting down which pages those ideas come from. Could you go back and do that, then send me the paper again? You also had some thoughtful reflection on what you agreed with and disagreed with. See my comments throughout on some things that were left out.

God bless.

Chris

B

References

Richard Niebuhr, H. (1951). Christ and culture (p. 197). New York: Harper and Row.