9/15/2025

How are Christians to relate to the culture we live in?  It’s a question I’ve struggled with through the years.  A classic book that was helpful to me in seeking to answer this question is Richard Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture.  It was my textbook in biblical ethics.

Jim Denison summarizes Niebuhr’s thoughts about the five ways Christians can relate their faith to society and culture this way . . .

1.  Christ against Culture

This argues that Christians must reject the fallen world in every way, having nothing to do with the cultural issues of the day.

However, the incarnation seems to give the lie to this approach.  If the physical world is inherently fallen, how could Jesus have remained sinless while inhabiting flesh?  And why would he spend so much of his ministry healing and redeeming those mired in a culture beyond hope?

Even beyond those factors, though, the reality is that it’s not truly possible to escape the larger culture.  We can retreat from certain elements of it and reject others, but anytime the church or even pockets of believers have attempted to take this approach, the larger body of Christ has suffered for it.

2.  Christ of culture

This attempts to integrate the world and the word of God, the culture and the Christian faith.  It blurs the distinction between the two and adopts the prevailing culture as the way to understand faith.  While the stated goal is typically making the gospel more appealing to those who desperately need to hear it, the end result is typically a version of the good news that does not resemble the message Christ called us to preach to the world.

3.  Christ above culture

This teaches that we live in two worlds, the spiritual and the secular, and we must give each its due.  However, the great problem with this approach is the sinfulness of humanity.  This does not do enough to transform the culture it seeks to help.

4.  Christ and culture in paradox

This rejects Christ above culture by arguing that the culture is so inherently sinful as to be beyond saving.  Yet it contradicts the first approach, Christ against culture, by arguing that we must try.  We must preach grace to law, the gospel to the lost.  We respond to the issues of our culture by preaching the gospel of salvation, for only when souls change can the world change.

The problem with this approach is that it often borders on a Christian nihilism in which we preach out of obedience but with little hope of making a real difference.  Moreover, its proponents often do not speak to issues the Bible itself addresses, such as the treatment of the poor, care for God’s creation, or many other issues.  It takes too narrow a view of what God wants to accomplish in this world through his people.

5.  Christ transforming culture

This seeks to bring the biblical worldview to bear on every dimension of society for the purpose of redeeming the culture for the kingdom.

Unlike the first, it does not ignore the culture.  Unlike the second, it does not adopt it.  Unlike the third, it does not separate the two realms.  Unlike the fourth, it seeks the salvation of souls but also the transformation of society.  The fifth approach works to apply biblical truth to cultural issues for the sake of advancing the kingdom of God on earth.

Why should America’s Christians be countercultural?  Because we are called to speak truth to culture.  God is calling his people to be catalytic agents of cultural transformation.  Changed people change the world.

Engage with the culture to the glory of Christ.  Make your work, home, school your mission field.

Ask God to show you if there are ways in which you are hindering the Holy Spirit’s ability to work in and through your life.  Is there a sin you need to confess?  A fear, worry, or regret you haven’t given over to God?

Whatever the case may be, know that you cannot fulfill God’s purpose for your life without God’s power in your life, and that means surrendering every facet of your existence to the Holy Spirit.

-Michael