The Power of Culture

Recently I posted comments on a book entitled, To Change the World by Dr. James Davison Hunter. In his book, Dr. Hunter questions the normative view of culture and every norm associated with it.

Culture is thought to be about hearts and minds, and to change culture one simply had to change the majority of hearts and minds. Dr. Hunters believes this is not the case at all. He, not only, challenges this notion but provides an alternative view of culture, which, after dwelling on it and re-reading that section of the book, I tend to agree with his analysis and subsequent theory on this.

Dr. Hunter believes that culture is a "normative order by which we comprehend others, the larger world and ourselves and through which we individually and collectively order our experiences." Dr. Hunter believes that the heart of culture is a "complex of norms" or as he has termed them, "commanding truths." Dr. Hunter believes that these "commanding truths" define the "shoulds and should nots of our experiences and the good and evil, the right and wrong, the appropriate and inappropriate, the honorable and the shameful. To put it succinctly, Dr. Hunter describes culture as a system of truth claims and moral obligations." To him culture is really about ideas.

If Dr. Hunter is right, and I believe that he is more right than wrong, then, what does this new view of culture say about the role of education in acquiring morality? Outside of the family, there is no greater teacher of morality than the educational institution. It is said that values and morals are caught more than taught, and that the act of catching comes from sheer hours of time spent in connection with others who already have values or are also catching values. The truth that we claim and the morality that we follow, from where do they come?

Truth and morality begin within the family, but as your child grows others begin to partner with you in this process despite your greatest protests. Teachers, friends, coaches and friend's parents start to become part of this process - not intentionally, of course. As your child's world expands, they begin to spend more time away from you and with others. They play, run and imagine in different ways and with different others. They interact with the world through their family, their friends, their teachers, their coaches, their mentors and their heroes. All of this affects the formation of their truth and their morality in a deep and impacting way. Eventually, a fabric is woven into a worldview that is, in essence, reality for all of us. Dr. Hunter believes this created worldview is so embedded in who we are that it is reality for all of us. He writes,

"[Worldview] is not just our view of what is right or wrong or true or false but our understanding of time, space, and identity - the very essence of reality as we experience it."

Dr. Hunter's view of culture is very different and very helpful to those of us who want to understand the power of culture and its impacting effect on all of us. He writes on what culture is,

"One must view culture, then not only as a normative order reflected in well established symbols, but also as the organization of human activity surrounding the production, distribution, manipulation, and administration of these symbols. Another way to say this is that culture is intrinsically dialectical. It is generated and exists at the interface between ideas and institutions; between the symbolic and the social and physical environment."

If it is indeed a battle of ideas and their relationships to all of us, and I am beginning to believe that it is, then the education we choose matters greatly. The power of culture is two-fold: culture is a powerful influence on who we are, and it is a power that can be changed by ideas and the people who promote them. Education is an important variable in their equation. Stay tuned for more comments on this very interesting topic! Blessings!

Culture, Change and Christian Education

Did Paul Revere change culture that night with his warning? Good question?

Dr. John Seel comments on Dr. James Hunter's thesis on cultural change when he writes:

"University of Virginia sociologist James Davison Hunter argues that the common view of cultural change is sociologically ill-informed and consequently ineffective. Good intentions and increased activity are no substitute for an accurate understanding."

Dr. Seel writes, at length, about Dr. Hunter's ideas on cultural change. He believes Dr. Hunter has it right. I have written about Dr. Hunter's ideas here on culture before. Dr. Seel's views on Hunter are helpful; he writes regarding culture formation that it "works in the same way: it’s a historically informed dialectical process. Culture is both socially constructed and socially constraining. We make culture and are, in turn, made by it. Culture is the frame or story through which we live our lives. Everything is seen or explained through its lens. Culture includes the ideas, images, and institutions that shape a given society’s understanding of what is thinkable, sayable, and doable in a given time and place. It serves as an invisible matrix."

Hunter's posits that culture is formed by individuals and their networks. He writes...

“While everyone participates in the construction of their own private worlds, the development and articulation of the more elaborate systems of meaning, including the realm of public culture, falls more or less exclusively to the realm of elites. They are the ones who provide the concepts, supply the language, and explicate the logic of public discourse.”

Dr. Hunter, in addition, writes, “The power of culture is not measured by the size of a cultural organization or by the quantity of its output, but by the extent to which a definition of reality is realized in the social world—taken seriously and acted upon by actors in the social world. In modern society religious elites have an existence that is essentially meaningless to the economic, political, and cultural dynamics of advanced industrial society—a sideshow to the ‘real’ issues of the day.”

As for those of us who are Christian, we have, for too long, been content to create institutions and organizations that are built to stay inside the Christian culture, never venturing outside those walls. Now, years later, we awaken from our slumber and discovered that we are not current, relevant or taken seriously any longer by the rest of culture. Why?

Dr. Seel writes regarding Hunter's thesis, "Cultural change is top-down, not bottom-up, diffused through culture-forming institutions rather than the mass mobilization of individuals. Market populism—the combination of consumerism and egalitarianism—masks this process. Culture formation does not function as a mass consumer market. Culture is not the aggregate of atomized individual choices."

He goes on to add, "Instead, the gatekeepers of the reality-defining institutions frame the public metaphors and shape the collective imagination. These institutions, in turn, set the parameters for the private behavior and consciousness of the masses. "

What are those institutions that define reality, frame the public metaphors and shape collective imagination? Well, one of the most powerful is the school. It is the school that indoctrinates and enculturates students with the demands of society. It is the school that raises the next generation of leaders and workers. It is the school that sets the parameters for behavior and consciousness.

As Christians, we must recognize the power of the school. If we fail to recognize the power of the Christian school, we will fail in changing the direction of culture. Those who wish to change culture, long ago, recognized the power of the school, and that is why the battle for the school is so intense. All moral and godly referenced has been removed from our public schools, and for what? Tolerance, church and state and negative influence are some of the reasons given, but we all know the real reason...cultural change. And, in my lifetime...culture has changed.

The question is now this: is this cultural change better? Your answer to that question will mean everything to your children, their education and the future culture they walk into as adults. At Westminster we are engaging culture for the sake of the gospel and in order to train our students properly for the battles that they will all face in the current culture. Our hope is that we can be used by a Holy God to turn culture back into one that puts God in His proper place...first in all things.

Please read Dr. Seel's article in its entirety; it will be time well spent! Blessings!

Are You Ready to Change the World?

Are you listening to what is taking place in culture today? Are you seeing any substantial positive change taking place?

Please do not be lulled into believing that electing any of the current crop of candidates from either party will change things. What are their proposed changes? Most believe that if they are elected they will possess the right language and the right compassion to be understood by other countries of the world in such a way that we will all finally be one. We will never be all one unless, of course, one dominates all others. Our goals are not to be selfish; instead, they are to be selfless.

Universal health care, amnesty, taxes, socialism: none of it matters if there is still a growing moral vacuum in our country. Fellow Christians we know the Truth of the gospel, and it is the key to changing our country and the world. Dr. Hunter, in his article, suggests that the contours of the world are not changed by cosmic chance or vast majorities of people, but, instead by individuals and their networks. These individuals and their networks move to the centers of culture and refuse to be moved to any periphery. Read his fascinating article at http://www.ttf.org/index/journal/detail/to-change-the-world/ to see what I mean. You will find this on the Trinity Forum website.

Now, think of how a Christian school fits inside his concepts and proposals. Are you ready to change the world?