Culture, Religion, and Henry Van Til

Quote: "Culture is religion externalized." - Henry Van Til

I attended the First Annual Christian Heritage Homeschool Conference (get your tongue around that name!) awhile back and picked up some pretty nifty things. Like that quote up there. I listened to some things I didn't agree with as well, but the main speaker, Douglas Phillips, was spot on in just about everything he said. (Like the number of commas in that last sentence?)

But I digress. Take a look at that quote again. Do you realize how rife with application that quote is? Don't believe me? Look again! Those four words have so many implications it makes me giddy.

Point: All men are inherantly religious.

This is dangerously close to anthropology, but it is true. One of the things that makes men men (mankind, as in "of the race of men") is their spiritual nature. To put it simplistically, we have souls, dogs do not. Because we have a spiritual nature, we do things *of* a spiritual nature, or at the least, we do things in a "spiritual" way. One man may commune with the Lord of Hosts, and another may never miss an episode of his favorite TV show. One man may help the poor and destitute because God has commanded it, and another may kill those of a different skin tone because his is the only "true" skin tone. No man can be totally divorced from his spiritual nature and be human. We all have our gods. We all worship something.

Point: All cultures are religious.

Since men are inherantly religious, and since cultures are made up of men, cultures are religious. This is merely a logical progression from the first point, but it is also a point that can easily be seen in the annals of history. Every culture has someone or something it reveres, whether it's a statue that's called a god or some abstract ideal. The Greeks had "noble manhood," the Americans have individualism. Et cetera.

Point: There is a distinctly Christian culture.

This is the point I'd never really thought about before, even if I'd already lived by it. There really is a distinctly Christian culture. Now your thoughts of multicultural tolerance and pluralistic diversity will rise to the top, I know, because mine did as well. "But all cultures are different, so the applications of Christianity will be different." Perhaps, but only if you mean that some areas of one culture will be more affected than the same areas of a different culture. The savages in Paupa New Guinea are saved and are told to put on clothes, marry only one wife, and quit killing each other. The savages in America are saved and are told to stop hoarding clothes, quit lusting after your neighbor's wife, and care for the widows and orphans. However, the teachings of the Bible if followed will inevitably move the culture towards a specific end, because the teachings of the Bible are specific. Love God, love your neighbor. By loving God, you will be loving your neighbor. By loving your neighbor, you will be loving God. There is no room for cultural differences when it comes to these fundamental truths, and any difference in these fundamental truths will be accounted as sin, not "cultural diversity."

Back when Jesus the Messiah was walking the earth instead of sitting beside the Father, he said "By their fruits ye shall know them." He was speaking of false prophets, but it is so with culture and the people that make up the culture as well. "Culture is religion externalized" is not some stuffy quote for scholars with 50-pound heads to sagely nod about. It's the way of the world. How is your soul? Thus shall be your religion. How is your religion? Thus shall be your culture.

Scared yet?