Reflections on Culture and Faith

Martha Iancu, miancu@georgefox.edu 

Is there a distinction between culture and faith? Where can the line be drawn?

During the month of November 2005, this was the discussion topic for the CETC e-mail list (http://lists.tesol.org/read/?forum=cetc-l). (Note: A summary of the e-list discussion can be found at the end of this article.)

This discussion inspired me to further explore the relationship of culture and faith to clarify this issue in my own mind. In this article I address the following questions.

·          What is culture?

·          What is the relationship between culture and faith?

·          What should I consider when encountering people of other cultures?

·          What is the importance of worldview change?

·          What transformations should I expect in connection with faith and culture?

What is culture?

Before I tackle the question of the relationship between culture and faith, it will be helpful to review the nature of culture.

Culture is often compared to an iceberg. A small part of culture is visible, but the greater part is hidden, invisible. The visible part consists of artifacts and behavior, including language performance. The visible aspects of culture are rooted in the invisible part, which includes basic assumptions, beliefs, values, and norms. The invisible aspects of culture cannot be directly observed and are like the water in which a fish swims—invisible, taken for granted, and even unnoticed (until a fish is removed from the water or a person enters a different culture). At the same time, the invisible aspects of culture are the lens through which people perceive reality.

These aspects of culture are located in each member of a cultural group. They are also expressed and elaborated through social institutions: family, economy, government, religion, and education.

In studying the rich diversity of human cultures, anthropologists have identified a variety of ways that they may differ.

Seven Dimensions of Culture[i]

Worldviews: Ways of Perceiving the World

Time Orientation: Importance of the past vs. the present vs. the future

Time: Linear or cyclic

Identity: Definition of the self vs. the other

Nature: Humans are subjugated to, dominate, or are in harmony with nature

Place: Connection to a particular location

Supernatural: Role of the supernatural in human life

Causality: What is the source of life and human experience?

Human Nature: Humans are born good, bad, mixed, or neutral and can or cannot change

Cognitive Processes: Ways of Thinking

Cognition: Analytical or holistic thinking

Classification: The mental organization of all aspects of the world

Linguistic Forms: Ways of Expressing Ideas

Language: Language represents cognitive patterns

Behavioral Patterns: Ways of Acting

Time: Emphasis on clock time vs. events

Rules: Societal rules apply universally or selectively

Human Nature: Aggressive vs. nurturing behavior patterns

Living: The focus of human life: being, being-in-becoming, or doing

Priorities: The goal of activity: completing a task or relating to people

Social Structures: Ways of Interacting

Status: Ascribed or achieved status

Group: The individual serves the group or the group serves the individual (communitarianism vs. individualism)

Hierarchy: Hierarchical or collateral relationships

Diversity: Specific cultural expectations in relation to age, race, and gender

Communication Patterns: Ways of Communicating

Directness: High context (indirect) vs. low context (direct)

Affect: People express emotions openly or communicate neutral affect

Proxemics: Interpersonal distances considered intimate, private, or public

Motivational Resources: Ways of Deciding

Problem Solving: Choose from a variety of possible solutions vs. an authority establishes one right way

It is possible to characterize the culture of a particular people group by identifying its positions in each dimension.[ii]

It would be interesting to characterize the cultures of early Christians (the Jewish Christians and the various cultural groups of gentile Christians) and our own cultures. I’m sure we would discover some dramatic cultural differences even though all the groups share the same faith.

What is the relationship between culture and faith?

In Hebrews 11:1, faith is defined as “an assurance of what is hoped for, a conviction of unseen realities.”

I have found three conceptualizations of the relation of faith to culture.

1.    Faith is separate from—though rooted in—worldview. For example, James H. Olthuis (1985) saw worldview as a mediator between faith and life experience.

2.    If culture is seen as an onion[iii] with basic assumptions (what is real) at its core and surrounding layers of beliefs (what is true), values (what is good), norms (what is acceptable), behavior (what people do), and artifacts (what people make), faith might be located in the belief layer. The beliefs spring from the basic assumptions at the core.

3.    Faith is a complex of basic assumptions within the core of the cultural onion. Van Rheenen (2003a) gave several examples of underlying assumptions—that spirits control people or come back to life in another body, for instance—that are integrated into the worldview of different cultures and “implicitly validated by their cultures” (The Use of Kuhn's Concept of Paradigm in Missiology section, ¶ 1). Citing Hiebert, Van Rheenen contrasted the Judeo-Christian and Asiatic worldview assumptions:

There are also worldview assumptions inherent to Judeo-Christian cultures and fundamental to biblical Christianity. A central assumption is that “God created a universe that exists outside of but dependent upon himself” (Hiebert 1985a, 113). People, in turn, are rational beings who can know and understand God and his message as revealed in the Bible. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob can be known and understood in history. He is not far away from any one of us. This Judeo-Christian worldview stands in vivid contrast to certain Asiatic perspectives which view the outside world as an illusion of the mind. Such an Eastern worldview perceives that true reality cannot be found in the external world but by looking within oneself by meditation . . . (Hiebert, 1985a, 45). (The Use of Kuhn's Concept of Paradigm in Missiology section,

¶ 2)

Whichever model one chooses for locating faith in relation to culture, faith cannot simply be tacked on to culture; it must be integrated into the culture. According to Strauss (2005):

Individual beliefs within a worldview fit into a larger system of value, acceptance, self-identity, purpose, and a person’s place in the world. Commitment to a worldview is tightly integrated with the elements in that system. . . . [A] person’s worldview goes far deeper than cognitive structures. It involves a thorough integration with the larger system. (More Than Cognitive Commitment section, ¶ 1-2)

Because many cultural dimensions are not intrinsically tied to Christian faith, there is not just one culture that can be considered “the Christian culture” to which every Christian must be converted. People who don’t recognize this are in danger of adopting what Osborn (1993) calls the “reactionary approach” to sharing faith with people of a different culture. In the reactionary approach,

we dismiss the other culture as beyond redemption. Individual souls have to be saved from that culture . . . and deny their background in favour of a ‘Christian culture’ (usually an amalgam of the Christian Gospel and our own culture). . . . Such an approach is reminiscent of what Niebuhr called ‘Christ against culture.’ (How Should We Respond to the New Age? section, ¶ 3)

The cultural dimensions implicit in Christian faith need to be integrated into the culture of new Christians. Existing cultural dimensions that are incompatible with Christian faith will change in the process.

What are the “unseen realities” that form the content of faith in Christ? What are the components of the worldview that need to exist in the culture of a Christian? The foundation of a Christian worldview is the story of the Bible, from creation and the fall to the fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation (Naugle, 2005). Underlying, surrounding, and emerging from this narrative are components of a Christian worldview: beliefs about God, reality, knowledge and truth, reason, human nature, and ethics and values (Harris, 2004). 

What should I consider when encountering people of other cultures?

Regarding interaction with people of other cultures, Osborn (1993) advocated inculturation. To communicate effectively with members of another culture, we cannot simply translate our message linguistically. “It demands that we identify with the other culture (often as second class citizens, resident aliens) and first rediscover for ourselves the message of the Gospel in terms of that other culture” (How Should We Respond to the New Age? section, ¶ 6).

Osborn (1993) noted that this approach is similar to the category ‘Christ the Transformer of culture’ in Niebuhr’s analysis of Christian attitudes toward culture. He elaborated:

All cultures are spheres of God’s activity; they express aspects of the truth; anticipations of the Gospel may be found within them. But all cultures, including our own culture (even, or perhaps especially, our churchy sub-cultures), fall short of the truth. All cultures are fallen. But the Gospel can penetrate a culture like a virus penetrating a living cell. As members of the culture respond to Christ they will begin to perceive points of tension between their culture and their allegiance to Him. This, in turn, gives rise to theology and Christian action from within the culture. The end result may be the transformation of the culture from within. (How Should We Respond to the New Age? section, ¶ 7)

Richardson (2003) has discovered in numerous cultures customs and legends that can serve as “redemptive analogies” that serve as a cultural bridge to translate the power of the message of the Gospel into terms that resonate with the people. Congdon (1985, p. 299, cited in Van Rheenen, 2003a, The Role of Power Encounter in Conversion section,  ¶ 6) emphasized that “peoples come to a vital faith only when Christ is encountered as Lord at the core of their worldview.”

What is the importance of worldview change?

According to Van Rheenen (2003a), it is essential for people’s worldviews to change if they are to become true followers of Christ: “‘Christian conversion’ without worldview change in reality is syncretism” (The Role of Power Encounter in Conversion section,     ¶ 9). In syncretism, people may become nominal Christians while continuing to hold other religious beliefs. “Becoming a Christian necessitates the reordering of all reality around God and his desires for human life. Change begins from the inside out rather than the outside in” (Van Rheenen, 2003a, Conclusions section, ¶ 3).

Interestingly, according to Van Rheenen (2003b), syncretism is an issue today for Christians who are influenced by empiricism, which “disavow[s] any powers which cannot be perceived, studied, and analyzed by the five senses” (Syncretism on the Secular Extreme section, ¶ 1). According to Van Rheenen, western theologians tend to confront scriptural references to spiritual powers by ignoring them, saying spiritual powers no longer exist, treating them as mythological, or interpreting them as societal structures rather than interpreting them “literally as personal spiritual beings.” Van Rheenen asked, “Is it possible that their interpretations were determined more by a secular mind-set than by biblical exegesis?” (Syncretism on the Secular Extreme section, ¶ 5).

Olthuis (1985) recognized that worldviews are influenced by all aspects of a person’s experience and thus can be expected to change. He stated, “Worldviews, if they are to remain viable, need to be changed continually—as faith deepens, as insight into reality grows, and as individuals and cultures themselves move on to new stages in their development” (Worldview in Process section, ¶ 4). Olthuis elaborated on how worldview change in connection with faith affects us all:

In . . . moments of deep disquiet, people may make the startling discovery that not only is their worldview inadequate, but fidelity to their faith demands adopting another vision of life. Thus Christians seeking fidelity to Christ may move from an ascetic Christ-against-culture worldview to a more accommodating Christ-and-culture two realm vision, from a Christ-above-culture Thomism to a Christ-transforms-culture perspective. (Worldview Crisis section, ¶ 5)

What transformations should I expect in connection with faith and culture?

In a true cross-cultural exchange, people of both cultures experience changes in their worldview. Murray (2005) used the “double conversion” in Peter’s encounter with Cornelius (Acts 11) to illustrate this. All of the parties involved—Cornelius and his household as well as Peter and the Jerusalem church—experienced “a paradigm shift, a new way of seeing the world” (Conversion section, ¶ 1).

Conversion is a paradigm shift that stimulates new ways of thinking and living, not arrival at a pre-determined destination. Conversion is multidirectional and lifelong. . . . [Peter’s] opening words—‘I now realise how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts those from every nation who fear him and do what is right’—are humble, grateful and directed as much to himself as to Cornelius. (Conversion section, ¶ 6-7)

This paradigm shift is substantiated through behavior.

Conversion is about believing and belonging. It involves commitment to a story and a community. But it is also about behaving in ways that are congruent with this story and strengthen the life and witness of this community. . . . [F]aith must be lived if it is to be believed. (Murray, 2005, Behaving section, ¶ 1 & 3)

Conclusion

So how shall we answer the question posed at the outset—Is there a distinction between culture and faith?

Yes, there is a distinction between faith and culture. Faith is rooted in the basic assumptions that form the core of worldview and is reflected in other dimensions of culture.

Faith transforms culture. This faith will be expressed differently in different cultures, though all must have in common certain basic elements of worldview. The cultural transformation process is ongoing.

Our faith is revealed in how we live our lives. As we enter into relationship with people, we should seek to understand the various dimensions of their culture. When we identify with the other culture and “rediscover for ourselves the message of the Gospel in terms of that other culture” (Osborn, 1993, How should we respond to the New Age? section, ¶ 6), the Holy Spirit will open our eyes to ways the people of the other culture can encounter Christ at the core of their worldview (Congdon, cited in Van Rheenen, 2003a). When people experience faith in Christ, the cultural transformation process begins to occur “from the inside out” (Van Rheenen, 2003a, Conclusions section, ¶ 3).

References

Bunkowske, E. W. (2002). The cultural onion. Retrieved February 14, 2006, from Concordia University-St. Paul, Master of Arts in Christian Outreach Program [click on Onion Diagram to access article]

http://www.csp.edu/maco/Courses/573/index.html

Church of the Nazarene Clergy Development. (2002). Communicating Christ cross-culturally: Student guide. Kansas City, MO: Nazarene Publishing House. Retrieved January 10, 2006, from Church of the Nazarene, Clergy Education Web site: http://nazarenepastor.org/ClergyEducation/Default.aspx?tabid=69

Clark, G. G. (n.d.) Variations in value orientations. Retrieved January 8, 2006, from http://www.srds.ndirect.co.uk/values.htm#var01

Douglas, G. (2005). An introduction to elements of intercultural communication [PowerPoint presentation]. Retrieved January 8, 2006, from North Carolina State University, CHASS Computing Labs Web site: http://fltc.chass.ncsu.edu/documents/AnIntroductiontoElementsofICCJune2005-5.ppt

Harris, R. A. (2004). Table of contents. The integration of faith and learning. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books. Retrieved January 11, 2006, from http://www.virtualsalt.com/int/intbook.htm

Matlock, M. (2005). Shifting cognitive styles: Changes in the way we think. Retrieved January 8, 2006, from http://www.youthspecialties.com/articles/topics/culture/cognitive.php

Murray, S. (2005). Church after Christendom: Belonging/believing/behaving. In Church after Christendom. Paternoster Publications. Retrieved January 10, 2006, from http://www.anabaptistnetwork.com/node/260

Naugle, D. (2005). Scrutinizing a scandal: A Christian worldview analysis of a Christian college professor who flunks Christian worldview tests and doesn’t teach from a Christian worldview. The New Pantagruel, 2(1), 68-77. Retrieved January 10, 2006, from http://www.newpantagruel.com/issues/2.1/scrutinizing_a_scandal_a_chri.php 

Olthuis, J. H. (1985). On worldviews. Christian Scholars Review, 14(2), 153-164. Retrieved January 8, 2006, from http://gospel-culture.org.uk/olthuis.htm

Osborn, L. (1993). The gospel in the new age. The Gospel and Our Culture Newsletter, 18. Retrieved January 10, 2006, from http://gospel-culture.org.uk/1993.htm

Richardson, D. (2003). Introduction: From Peace Child to the Koran. In Secrets of the Koran. Ventura, CA: Regal Books. Retrieved January 11, 2006, from http://www.gospellight.com/regalbooks/books/SecretsOfTheKoran.pdf

Strauss, S. (2005). Worldview awareness—not just for missionaries anymore. Christian Research Journal, 28(3). Retrieved January 10, 2006, from http://www.equip.org/free/JAW015.htm

Van Rheenen, G. (2003a). Change in animistic societies. In Communicating Christ among folk religionists: Kingdom ministry in Satan’s nest. Retrieved January 11, 2006, from http://missiology.org/folkreligion/chapter4.htm

Van Rheenen, G. (2003b). Christianity and animism: Contrasting worldviews. In Communicating Christ among folk religionists: Kingdom ministry in Satan’s nest. Retrieved January 11, 2006, from http://missiology.org/folkreligion/chapter5.htm 

Van Steenbergen, G. J. (2002). Semantics, world view and bible translation: An integrated analysis of a selection of Hebrew lexical items referring to negative moral behaviour in the book of Isaiah [Dissertation]. Retrieved January 8, 2006, from Stellenbosch University, Department of Ancient Studies Web site: http://academic.sun.ac.za/as/cbta/GvanSteenbergen.pdf

Martha Iancu is director of the English Language Institute and associate professor of ESL at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon, USA. She is on sabbatical during the 2005-06 academic year in Bucharest, Romania.

Appendix: Summary of the CETC E-list Discussion

Some of the ideas shared in the CETC e-discussion in response to the questions, “Is there a distinction between culture and faith? Where can the line be drawn?”

Note: This list includes direct quotations as well as the author’s summaries of contributions of participants in the e-discussion.

“Faith transcends cultural boundaries.” (Lisa)

“Christianity and our belief in Christ unite us across cultures.” (Adelaide Hyde Parsons)

“Faith and culture are . . . intimately intertwined” in any particular culture. (Lisa)

“For every culture there is a biblical, godly way to act.” (Gwen Cary)

Christians in India express their faith, to varying degrees, through practices that reflect indigenous traditions, or that combine western and indigenous traditions. Translation of scripture takes into consideration the cultural connotations of words, so that the direct dictionary translation of a word may be inappropriate to express the original meaning of a text cross-culturally. (Iris Devadason)

Faith transforms culture. (William Schmidt)

We shouldn’t assume that all members of a culture have a certain faith, even though they participate in traditions related to that faith. Likewise, we shouldn’t assume that because one representative of a culture professes and practices a certain faith that all members of that culture share the same faith. (Lisa and Gena Bennett)

“The Lord respects and works through cultures.  He is above them, but knows that we, his children, live within them.” (Gwen Cary)

“We have God’s revelation to us to guide us into Truth, so we do have to honor that Truth as higher than any cultural more.” (Becky Eppinger)

“I believe this ‘renewing of the mind,’ ‘being changed from the inside out’ [described in Romans 12:2] happens within everyone, in every culture, who walks with Jesus in a living relationship. . . . A personal quest of mine . . . is to identify commonalities of the ‘renewed mind’ in many cultural settings.” (Sharon Yoder)