How does culture affect the way we understand Scripture.docx

How does culture affect the way we understand Scripture?

North American evangelicals read the Bible—and the world—through Western eyes. Indeed, all

human beings come to the Bible with cultural habits, deeply ingrained patterns of interpreting the

world that inevitably shape—and sometimes warp—our interpretation and understanding of

Scripture. This insight is now commonplace in discussions about biblical interpretation in

popular and academic circles.

To read Scripture well, we must read ourselves and our culture well. Picture an iceberg looming

in the distance as a metaphor for our worldview. How much of an iceberg do we actually see?

Well, as the captain of the Titanic sadly experienced, very little. The tip pokes up through the

that help us to see some things very clearly but distort our vision elsewhere. Think, for instance,

of the parable of the Prodigal Son. When 100 North American students were asked to read the

parable and retell it, only six mentioned the famine the prodigal experiences away from home. In

a word, American readers tend to be "famine-forgetters," perhaps because most Americans

simply have not experienced terrible famine. Compare the response of 50 Russian readers to the

very same parable: 42 out of 50 mentioned the famine. Why? The cultural history of famine in

World War II has deeply embedded itself in the Russian consciousness, and this cultural lens

influences what Russian Christians see in a biblical text.

Or consider an additional example: How often have you sat in a Bible study, looked at a passage

with other group members, and then had the leader of the group ask, "What does the passage

mean to you?" A minute or two passes in silence; slowly individuals begin to respond: "To me

this passage is saying" this, or "to me this passage means" that.

Of course, to ask what a passage means is praiseworthy. But to make the individual Christian the

starting point for interpretation and the center of a text's meaning—the Western pattern—is

problematic. Randolph Richards and Brandon O'Brien in Misreading Scripture with Western

First, if I make myself the center in my search for meaning in the Bible, I will naturally mine the

Scripture for passages that I sense are immediately relevant to my life, and ignore swaths of texts

where I don't discern immediate applicability. "This," the authors say, "leaves us basing our

with meaning. Simply put, I am not the focus of the Bible's meaning; Christ is. Yes, as God's

image-bearers, we play an important role in the Bible's story. Christ has come to save us, and

much of the Bible's story explains the wonder of how he has done just that. But if the first

question I ask of a biblical text is how I can apply that text to my life, I leapfrog over meaning to

applicability. I place myself at the center of the universe, a tendency especially prevalent among

American Christians.

Richards and O'Brien believe this self-centered perspective leads us "to believe that we (meaning

I) have a privileged status in God's salvation history. I may not be sure what God's plans are, but

Avoiding Icebergs

Non-Western interpretations are not necessarily superior to Western ones. Asian readers are just

as apt to misread the Bible as North Americans, as are Africans, Europeans, South Americans,

and Australians. Sin's distorting effect skews the vision of all cultures. All human beings view

Since we inevitably come to the Bible loaded with cultural presuppositions about the nature of

reality—some very helpful, some not so helpful—is reading the Bible well a pipedream? Not at

Spirit. The exegetical and theological insights of different members of Christ's church—

sprinkled throughout the world's cultures and histories like so many stars—provide the

illumination we need to read and understand the Scripture.

Our eyesight brightens and clarifies as we listen to one another—to past believers who have

journeyed with Christ before us, and to present-day believers who initially seem so different

Bible as a "global community." By doing so, we can "open the chamber and allow new voices

in." And by consciously expanding the circle of our conversation partners, we strengthen each

other where we tend to be weak, shortsighted, stunted, or blind.

Christ continues to speak to all Christians and all cultures through the Bible—a text that always

points to Jesus himself. We can't stop being North American or Asian, African or South

American; our cultural identity and language, though warped by sin, is a gift from God. What we

can do, though, is increase our awareness of the cultural and historical settings in which God has

world. I had no problem grasping the idea of eternal life and the need for personal salvation, but

the answers I was familiar with were deficient when it came to how my faith practically played

out during my years in this present world.

Nobody addressed what to me seemed an obvious problem: Christianity gained more

conversions in America over the last two hundred years than any other faith. Simultaneously,

As I read Colson and Pearcey’s book, for the first time in my life I encountered Christians who

had dared to set aside the talking points and “go off message.” They had recognized the

problems and offered biblical, logical solutions. I began to reconnect to Christian purpose.

historic. I was convinced that everyone I knew needed to read this book. I just knew that if more

Christians could grasp this bigger picture, it could change the face of Christianity throughout our

nation.

these ideas and convey them in the most practical, life-giving, and encouraging way to everyone

I could.

within our culture may be one such place where God is at work. I believe God is calling the

church in the United States to grasp its calling to influence the greater culture. We can feel it in

the rebuke of pretentious Christianity and sense it in the hearts and minds of young Christ-

followers desperate to live lives pleasing and honouring their Maker. I can’t imagine anything

more important or significant in our lifetimes than to be a part of the church’s recapturing its role

in shaping culture. When we do this, the life-giving message of Jesus Christ will go forward in

ways unprecedented throughout the 21st century.

The Origins of Cultural Influence

Modern-day evangelicals are most familiar with God’s saving grace—the means by which God’s

saving power, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, can redeem people from their

sin and give them new life in Christ and throughout eternity. What we hear less about, today, is

another theological concept called common grace. Wayne Grudem defines common grace as

“the grace of God by which he gives people innumerable blessings that are not part of salvation.”

This common grace is available through and to all of His creation. David refers to it in Psalm

is in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just

and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:44-45).

unfolds as God hands Adam the responsibility to pick up where He has left off. He is called to

reflect God’s image and to have dominion over all things, to “steward” God’s good creation and

all of its resources in the service of God and man (Genesis 1:26-28). God’s declaration to

humanity of their divinely appointed duties provided deep purpose and meaning to human life.

Humankind were called to partner with God in the work He wanted to do throughout creation.

It was Colson and Pearcey’s explanation of the cultural mandate that grabbed my mind and my

heart:

God cares not only about redeeming souls but also about restoring his creation. He calls us to be

agents not only of his saving grace but also of his common grace. Our job is not only to build up

the church but also to build a society to the glory of God. As agents of God’s common grace, we

are called to help sustain and renew his creation, to uphold the created institutions of family and

Christians live to serve the common good of our neighbours, and that service creates unmatched

Cultural Influence Lost

For centuries, Christian growth and maturing was understood as a gradual process. The historical

idea of a “catechesis” was based on an intentional, deliberate process of growth that introduced a

new believer to the life they aspired to live on this earth. Conversion was not achieved in a

engagement over time. Although eternal salvation might be grasped in a moment, the lifestyle of

winsome engagement could take a lifetime to achieve.

existence. Even intellectuals embraced it, since Christian faith offered answers to the nagging

questions of the human condition. Sadly, this way of thinking would be drastically transformed