From The Rectory
I
don’t manage to read as many books as I’d like. And I have a dreadful memory.
But I think my stand out Christian book of the year so far is by Dr Daniel Strange,
the Director of Oak Hill Theological College in London, where I trained. Dan’s Plugged
In: Connecting your faith with what you watch, read and play (The Good Book
Company, 2019) is a really great read which is born out of years of teaching
this stuff to would-be vicars and others. This is a book from which every
Christian could benefit.
Even
if you’re not interested in the question of Christ and culture, you ought to
be. It’s one of the old chestnuts of theology.
Culture
is how we do stuff. It’s our art and books and music. But also, our way of
life, our habits, whether we bow or shake hands or do a high five.
Theologians
have asked to what extent Christ is interested in culture. Is there a Christian
culture or many? Does Jesus judge culture? Or abolish culture? Or save culture?
Or transform culture or what? What cultures will there be in heaven and the New
Creation?
One
of the best things in the book are the worked examples of Christians engaging
with culture by Dan’s students which he included at the end. Extraordinarily,
Dan shows us how we can think Christianly about Zombie movies and even Japanese
domestic toilets. Those are just examples, but we can see from them that Christ
has something to say to and about every area of human activity.
Anyway,
you should read the book. It’s only 160 pages long. And it costs less than £7.
And it’s remarkably engaging and readable. I like to scribble in the margin of
my books and I was tempted to underline something on almost every page.
One
big idea of the book is what Dan calls subversive fulfilment. The subversive
bit is to do with judgement on culture. Nothing in our world is perfect. And
everything has the potential to be a kind of false god whom we worship, who
offers us some version of salvation. So, Jesus always says some kind of NO to
culture. For example, Jesus would say to Celebrity Master Chef that
there is more to life than fame or food.
But
there is also fulfilment of culture. Everything comes from God and rightly
understood points to God. He is the source and goal of all that is good in culture.
So, all the deepest longings which we often express in inordinate or misguided
ways can be satisfied in God. Celebrity Master Chef should point us to
true glory and to the heavenly banquet of the New Creation when there will be
no unhealthy competition or elimination of losers or food that is horrid or
poisoning or….
You
know what to do! https://www.thegoodbook.co.uk/plugged-in
The Revd Marc Lloyd
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