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After all, if culture is what humans do, and humans are in the image of God, we can't too quickly rule out the possibility that there are going to be signs of common grace or the image of God in culture.

The other extreme would be to too quickly buy into it. There are interesting books out now in the evangelical world about finding God in popular culture. Here I think we have to be discerning. It is true that God can make himself known through nature and the stars above and if he has implanted his image in us, we can know certain things about God, I suppose, through what people do. I'm not sure we can come to saving knowledge of God through culture, though. You can't substitute culture for the gospel. The gospel is going to be a Word that interrupts culture.

I'm somewhere in the middle: We just need to be discerning. There will be things we can affirm in culture, there will be things we'll have to reject in culture. But to the extent that culture is the product of human beings who bear God's image, there is the possibility that we'll see something of God's image reflected in culture. This is why I think we need to do exegesis. We need to find out what's being said and what it means before we can say yes or no to it.

In the introduction, you asked, "How does one evangelize cultures that have already received the gospel only to revise or reject it?" I suppose you're talking about Western cultures?

That's right. I was reflecting what Lesslie Newbigin has said. He has been the one who called our attention to the fact that we're at a new point in church history. This is the first time we've ever had to face and deal with a post-Christian culture. So, evangelism has to take on a different meaning now, and that's what we're working through. How do you evangelize a culture that already knows the gospel, has accepted it, and then has moved on to a different story?

How much of an answer do you have for that question?

Simply giving people information isn't enough. That used to be a big part of evangelism. We would hand out tracts and Bibles, we would give people the information. Now what people need is to know not simply what the story is, but how does one live the story. They need to know that it can be lived; they need to see what it means in the 21st century.

In order to answer the question of meaning, we have to show people—not just tell them—about the story of Jesus. We need to be forming Christian communities that form compelling corporate ways, compelling corporate witnesses to the nature and meaning of the gospel. And that's a huge task for the church.

If the church is doing its business right, I think it will be a parable of the kingdom that will be just as shocking and subversive to our day as Jesus' parables were to his.

What resources do people need to analyze their culture?

I think the first thing is that you have to be conscious that culture is a piece of communication—like a text—that calls for interpretation. One of the things [Everyday Theology] is trying to do is a bit of vision casting, trying to raise people's consciousness. Don't just take this for granted, don't just take it at face value. Let's think about this and what it means. The second thing you need is a way of making sense of it.

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October (Web-only) 2007, Vol. 51