REDEEMING THE CULTURE

I've had questions about this issue for several years now. I remember driving to Philadelphia with my buddy Kevin and listening to a number of Tim Keller lectures about this particular topic--given at some Acts 29 function I think. I had never thought much about local churches having a responsibility to redeem culture. I had no opinion on the matter.

But what I found that day was if everything I knew about the Bible (what it says explicitly, implicitly, and the implications of both) could be compared to an airstrip, then Tim Keller's words (on this topic) had no place to land. What he said was winsome and clever, but, I don't think at least, scriptural.

Tim Keller certainly isn't the only purveyor of this idea (and far from the most radical!) and I'm not sure if he's the best conversation partner, so I'm really hoping that what I know 'broadly' of his thoughts on this issue can serve as a springboard for my brothers jumping in. I know that I won't be convinced until I have several questions addressed.

That being said, the next several posts will be questions and concerns (in no particular order) I have about the Bible's teaching on the local church's responsibility to redeem (not just citizens, but) city structures, (not just business men, but) businesses, (not just people, but) culture.

QUESTION 1.

It's true that Paul focussed on cities for his missionary work, but aren't cities in the NT only valued so far as they contain lots of people who apart from Christ are destined for hell and that they are strategic places for getting the truth circulated to other individual people who apart from Christ are destined for hell?

SIMILARITIES BETWEEN MODERNISM AND POSTMODERNISM ON AUTHORITY

The enlightenment insistence on the autonomy of human reason was perhaps before all else, a revolt against all 'authorities'. The postmodern recognition that reason has its limits has not brought that revolt to an end. Instead it has given it a different dress, the inviolability of personal perspective: no-one has the right to say I am wrong. (Mark Thompson, A Clear and Present Word, 134)