RSSJ. Gresham Machen W.H. Chellis I try to be a thou…
J. Gresham Machen
W.H. Chellis
I try to be a thoughtful guy. I do not want to see my friend Darryl Hart going hungry so I try to buy all of his books (unless it mean my family will go hungry and as a Pastor…)
Anyway, I just picked up J.G. Machen’s Selected Shorter Writings, edited by the good Dr. Hart. I was struck by this quote from Machen’s essay Christianity and Culture
Are then Christianity and culture in a conflict that is to be settled only by the destruction of one or the other of the contending forces? A third solution, fortunately, is possible– namely, consecration. Instead of destroying the arts and sciences or being indifferent to them, let us cultivate them with all the enthusiasm of the veriest humanist, but at the same time consecrate them to the service of God. Instead of stifling the pleasures afforded by the acquisition of knowledge or by the appreciation of what is beautiful, let us accept these pleasures as the gifts of the heavenly Father. Instead of obliterating the distinction between the kingdom and the world, or on the other hand withdrawing from the world into a sort of modernized intellectual monasticism, let us go forward joyfully, enthusiastically to make the world subject to God. pg. 402
Amen!
D Hart
June 19th, 2006 at 8:52 am
It is the early Machen. He had yet to get the post-millennialism out of his system. Funny how a World War will help with that.
W.H. Chellis
June 19th, 2006 at 9:06 am
Darryl says, “step into my parlor”
Bill says, “ouch”
Andrew Matthews
June 19th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
It may be true that Machen moved away from postmillennialism, but did he also come to reject the consecration of culture? It seems to me that would entail the complete secularization of human life, where all human activity is oriented solely toward temporal ends.
Brent England
June 20th, 2006 at 12:33 am
Hmmm…after taking a few minutes to surf the site I feel like singing Psalm 133 and giving hugs. Well, maybe we could just read the Psalm and keep the emotions to a minimum…
Big shout-outs to my “peeps” - Deedge and DVD! Nice to see you too, Bill!
Ennyhoo, I hope to be able to take more time to keep abreast of posts and maybe chime in occasionally. This is a topic where I was especially challenged during my happy days at WSC, and I am glad to continue being sharpened by brothers in Christ.
W.H. Chellis
June 20th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
I am not post-millenial. I am not even that optimistic. Still, I believe that Christianity can impact cultures. I do not need eschatology to tell me so. I have history. I do not need to look forward to a utopian abstraction, I can look back a concrete tradition.
Of course, the tradition is not without warts. The history is a bit bloody and sometimes embarrasing. It was never heaven on earth nor will it ever be. So what? Just because I reject perfectionism in my personal life does not mean I do not long for some feeble movement toward sanctification.
D Hart
June 21st, 2006 at 9:27 am
Could someone explain to me how the kingship of Christ relates to Christianity having an impact on culture? I can see how Christian notions about human nature, the natural world, personal property, legitimate authority, etc., would be different for a society than the teachings of Hinduism or Confucianism. But the influence of Christianity on culture seems a fairly thin variety of Christ’s kingship. The former is subjective, the latter is objective, and that’s why the RP’s wanted an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Once you go down the road to transformation of culture, well, you might as well be Kuyperian.
Have a nice day.
W.H. Chellis
June 21st, 2006 at 10:21 am
Fair enough.
Culture is subjective but God’s providence is diverse. The RP/NRA endevour to amend the written Constitution of the United States with a Christian Amendment is objective, but no less objective than the place of Christ’s Kingship within the unwritten constitution of England.
Now, the point is not some dull hope of creating a one size fits all “Christian culture” but allowing Christian truth to engage the whole life of the believer as it is lived in the household, the marketplace, and the polis.
This relates to the Kingship of Christ because His Kingdom of Power includes history/providence/ natural law/moral law. In this historical epoch, to speak about the rule of God in any area is to speak of the mediatorial reign of Christ. All reality is subservient to the economy of redemption.
Further, while the Kingdom of Power can be distinguished from the Kingdom of Grace but never divorced. All culture originates a common cultus. For this we might site R.J. Rushdoony or just as easily Christopher Dawson.
If this sounds Kupyerian, I would suggest it also sounds Thomistic. Would Richard Hooker or T.S. Eliot have said anything less? Would John Calvin or John Knox?
So, it might make me sound Kuyperian but it might simply make me Burkean.