Lecture Notes: The Reformed Perspective on Culture

Introduction

• The speaker has addressed Bandung Theological Seminary previously.
• Topic: "The Reformed Perspective on Culture."
• Importance of technology in connecting despite physical distance.

Culture and Religion

• Common misconception: Christians often separate cultural endeavors from religious commitments.
• In Reformed tradition, culture and religion are intertwined.
• Human cultural engagements display loyalty or disloyalty to God.

Definitions

• Culture: Intersecting patterns of concepts, behaviors, and attitudes characterizing human communities (e.g., language, arts, worship, etc.).
• Religion: Basic beliefs, practices, and attitudes requiring loyalty and devotion; includes secular ideologies (e.g., Marxism, modern eroticism).

Interconnections

• Cultures impact religious commitments; varieties in language, music, food, etc.
• Reformed tradition embraces cultural diversity among Christians.
• Apostle Paul’s approach: Became "all things to all people" for the gospel.

Reformed Perspectives on Culture

• Cultures are incarnations of religions.
• Cultural Mandate (Genesis 1:28): Be fruitful, multiply, fill, subdue, and have dominion over the earth.
• Reformed theologians: Cultural endeavors cannot be divorced from faith.

Comparison with Other Christian Traditions

• H. Richard Niebuhr's "Christ and Culture" (1975): Five groups of Christian approaches.
  • Christ against Culture: Separatist movements (e.g., Amish, Mennonites).
  • Christ of Culture: Syncretistic branches (e.g., Holy Roman Empire, liberal Protestant churches).
  • Christ the Transformer of Culture: Reformed tradition's goal of transforming cultures with biblical norms.

Challenges

• Reformed Christians risk withdrawal under persecution, compromising when favored by larger cultures.
• Importance of evaluating cultural endeavors continuously.

Variety within Reformed Tradition

• Agreement: Christ will transform all cultures at His return.
• Disagreement: How much transformation before Christ's return.
  • Premillennialism: Pessimistic, limited progress.
  • Postmillennialism: Optimistic, golden age of transformation.
  • Amillennialism: Fluctuating influence of Christianity.

Scriptural and Natural Guidance

• Scripture and Nature: Both guide cultural transformation efforts.
• Calvin’s metaphor: Scriptures as spectacles to see God’s revelation in nature clearly.

Strategies within Reformed Tradition

• Reconstruction Theology: Emphasizes biblical guidance over natural revelation.
• Two Kingdom Theology: Distinct realms of church (scripture-led) and world (natural law-led).
• Mainstream Reformed Theology: Authority of scripture and natural revelation; balance of specific/general biblical norms.

Conclusion

• All Christian traditions have insights to offer each other.
• Positive contributions of Reformed outlooks: cultural mandate, commitment to transformation, reliance on scripture and nature.
• Encouragement to uphold reformed emphases for transforming human culture.