Moore, Culture Matters

Share this:

T. M. Moore, Culture Matters: A Call For Consensus on Christian Cultural Engagement. Baker Academic and Brazos Press, 2007.

Referenced in: Christian Political Theory and Church-State Relations

LifeandLeadership.com Summary

This is a meaty, academic work. On one level, it is a neo-Calvinist, Kuyperian revisit of the classic by Niebuhr, Christ and Culture (1951), but not so much in terms of “church-state” relations, but of how Christians engage culture generally. On another level, it is an application of Augustine’s classic, City of God, to the contemporary issues of church and culture. Still on another level, it is simply Moore’s impassioned plea for Christians to be more intentional in their appropriation of culture. Instead of just “breathing it in,” he calls for us to critically assess and discern those aspects that are at odds with Christian faith, to affirm cultural expressions that bear the imprint of God, and to borrow cultural forms that help communicate kingdom values. Richard John Neuhaus, who writes the foreword, captures this aspect of Moore quite well:

Even if fish can think, they likely give little thought to the water in which they swim. Similarly, culture is the taken-for-granted air of ideas, habits, hopes, and fears that we breathe every day. Unlike fish, however, we human beings can and should think about it, and we can and should do something about it. (7)

Moore also campaigns for Christians to “advance distinctly Christian forms” in academia, art, literature, and music.

Moore interacts with Niebuhr. It helps to begin with a summary of Niebuhr’s five typologies, which are included in a summary of Christ and Culture.

Beyond this, Moore describes his own “Christian Approaches to Culture” (summarized on pp. 12-14) that are more descriptive of how Christians generally interact with culture.

1. Cultural indifference – The vast majority of Christians barely give culture a second thought. It’s not that they’re not engaged in culture; they just don’t think about their involvement all that much, at least not from the perspective of their Christian beliefs. They do not condone cultures evils, but in many respects their tastes, politics, habits, and conversations differ little from their non-Christian friends and associates.

2. Cultural aversion – For ultraconservative Christians, culture is a blight to be avoided. This group is highly sensitive to the ways contemporary Christian culture threatens their beliefs, morals, and institutions. They associate with culture only as necessary for their survival and the progress of the gospel.

3. Cultural trivialization – This approach wants distinctively Christian cultural expressions, but accomplishes it through popular forms and artifacts. It is the Christian “bookstore culture” of plaques and posters, knick-knacks, jewelry and junk (e.g. WWJD). It is found in pop Christian music with themes and lyrics reflecting narrowly spiritual concerns.

4. Cultural accommodation – This view makes room in beliefs and lifestyle for whatever new expressions of culture may appear. They espouse a pluralistic and nonjudgmental appropriation of culture in matters of tastes and preferences, preserving the right and dignity of all to choose. The difference between this and cultural indifference (no. 1) is that accommodators do so out of a core of Christian conviction.

5. Cultural separation – This perspective promotes and construct alternatives to culture by creating a Christian subculture. This often includes homeschooling, distinctively Christian artifacts in their homes, Christian sports leagues and recreation groups, Christian “Yellow Pages,” Christian radio and television, etc. They have little influence beyond their narrow audiences. Their new culture protects them from the harmful effects of society within the safe confines of the Christian community.

6. Culture triumphalism –These Christians expect too much of culture and see Christianity as a way of transforming society by voting the right candidates, changing laws, securing judges, and imposing themselves on others through judicial, legislative, and ecclesiastical processes with belief that these will advance the kingdom of God.

Rarely do people adhere to any one of these exclusively, and probably participate in all of them at times, depending on the issues at stake.

Moore proposes arriving at some kind of consensus “that can unite Christians in common cultural endeavor and provide us a platform for pursuing the progress of Christ’s kingdom in all areas of life.” (15) To do this, he gleans from the greatest influences of five periods of church history – Augustine’s City of God, Celtic Christianity (including contemporary musician Phil Keaggy), John Calvin, Abraham Kuyper, and the Breakpoint division of Prison Fellowship Ministries (Charles Colson). He then looks at the arts, such as the theological poetry of Czeslaw Milosz and the guitarist and composer David Wilcox. In all, he seeks “to identify guidelines for encouraging a more consistent and determined effort at setting forth the biblical worldview through our involvement in culture matters in an age straddling the cusp of the modernist/postmodernist divide.” (17-18) This is followed by a conclusion that synthesizes the learning from all the previous chapters.

Moore makes a great contribution to this subject. A weakness is that he omits discussions of the Anabaptist perspective as currently expressed through such notables as Jim Wallis and Ron Sider. Perhaps this is because the book is not fundamentally on church-and-state or political involvement, but on cultural engagement generally. It is an excellent discussion of the various attitudes Christians have toward culture, whether consciously or not, and presents well-reasoned suggestions that adherents to any perspective can appreciate.

From the Publisher

Many of Jesus’s contemporaries hated him because he pointedly critiqued their culture. Culture matters. But to be effective in engaging culture, Christians today must know their message. Christians are called to reform culture by engaging society head-on. With meaty content, real-life examples, and probing study questions, Culture Matters shows how godly incarnations of the arts and intellect ultimately right a topsy-turvy world. T. M. Moore offers readers a superb analysis of the methods for engaging culture effectively.

From the Back Cover

Few Christians can agree on how believers should interact with the culture at large. Should they embrace it wholeheartedly? Reject it altogether? Form a subculture? Or pursue a more excellent way? These are but a few positions or approaches that believers have taken toward the world. In fact, T. M. Moore catalogs a total of six responses to culture and advocates for Christian unity in Culture Matters.

Moore examines the past, highlighting shapers of culture such as St. Augustine, Celtic art, John Calvin, and Abraham Kuyper. In addition, he discusses contemporary movers and shakers, including prison evangelist Chuck Colson and musician Phil Keaggy. Ultimately, he arrives at some recommendations for all believers. He urges them to become more culturally conscious and prods them to view culture as a gift or a trust from God. Not only does Moore address the individual believer but he also speaks to communities of faith. Culture Matters is a challenging read for all thinking Christians.

Editorial Reviews

“This is far and away the best and most important of T. M. Moore’s many excellent books. As one of the premier Christian thinkers today, Moore presents a magnificent case for Christian cultural engagement. Well worth reading.”—Chuck Colson, founder, Prison Fellowship Ministries

“T. M. Moore focuses his keen analytical mind on the field of cultural analysis. Rather than despair by what he sees, he finds hope in both the effective engagement of Christians in the past and the prospect of developing similar ways to engage culture today. Both intellectually sound and thoroughly practical, this book should be read by every Christian serious about understanding and engaging modern culture.”—James W. Sire, author of The Universe Next Door and A Little Primer on Humble Apologetics

About the Author

T. M. Moore is dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals and on a wide range of websites. Moore’s most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics. He and his wife and editor, Susie, make their home in Concord, Tennessee.

***For additional information on this resource, including reviews, click the bookstore links. Check the reference at page top or the links below for resource guides on related topics.***

See Other Resource Guides on Christian Social Ministry:

Related Ministry Resource Guides on LifeandLeadership.com:

See Resources on Over 100 Ministry Topics:

Ministry Resource Guides Index

Church and Culture, Church and State, Political Theology, Social Ministry