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Christianity-Lite and the Image of God
A strong case can be made that in trying to seize the opportunities offered by culture, contemporary followers of Jesus have been overwhelmed by its threats. Having rejected both cocooning and combat, a majority of today's Christians have slid from a conciliatory and constructive engagement of culture to an attempt at relevance resulting in conformity. Christianity-Lite is not in a position to restore and transform culture because it is too enamored of it and enmeshed in it. Alan Wolfe observes, "American culture is an enormously powerful force. It will change religion, just as religion will change culture." Already, he says, evangelicals "are far more shaped by the culture than they are capable of shaping it to their own needs." New York Times columnist Walter Kirn puts the final nail in the proverbial coffin: "Christianity doesn't compete with pop culture. It is pop culture."

This overall assessment of Christianity-Lite leads to a staggering conclusion. It seems fair to say that Jesus would not recognize the message and practices of Christianity-Lite. When it comes to finding God, in the words of the Beatles, "once there was a way to get back homeward," but today, the very ones who claim to know the way, the truth, and the life are obscuring the path. Again, I believe that humans possess innate spiritual, intellectual and creative, relational and moral capacities, and it seems clear that what we are seeing in Christianity-Lite is a diminishment of God's image on the part of followers of Jesus. But we're all in the same boat; today, irreligious and religious seekers each face a losing proposition: either the delusional cultural blender style of spirituality or Christian religion in the form of Christianity-Lite. This is a grim scenario, because every human since the dawn of time has intuitively sensed that, in the words of Joni Mitchell, "we've got to get ourselves back to the garden." How does the noble idea of every human being created in God's image—with spiritual, intellectual, creative, relational, and moral capacities—relate to Christianity-Lite? If neither culture nor contemporary Christian faith can show us the way, where can we turn?

From The Culturally Savvy Christian by Dick Staub (April 2007, $21.95, cloth) by permission of Jossey-Bass, a Wiley Imprint

Copyright © 2007 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

The Culturally Savvy Christian is available from ChristianBook.com and other retailers.

Staub's website and blog, "where belief meets real life," has a section on The Culturally Savvy Christian.

In The Dick Staub Interview, formerly a weekly feature on our website, Staub spoke with writers, theologians, and other cultural influencers.

Relevant Magazine interviewed him about churches using film and broader questions of culture and faith.

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May 2007, Vol. 51, No. 5