A Practical Guide to Culture

Helping the Next Generation Navigate Today’s World

Questions

  1. John’s most recent book is intended for Christian leaders and parents as they equip the next generation for cultural engagement. The book is neatly organized. Read through the contents and write out the titles of the four main sections. Note the subsection titles and how they relate to the section theme. Why do you think Part Four was included?

    Part One: Why Culture Matters

    1. What Culture Is and What It Does to Us

    2. Keeping the Moment and the Story Straight

    3. A Vision of Success

    Part Two: A Read of the Cultural Waters

    1. The Information Age

    2. Identify After Christianity

    3. Being Alone Together

    4. Castrated Geldings and Perpetual Adolescence

    Part Three: Pounding Cultural Waves

    1. Pornography

    2. The Hookup Culture

    3. Sexual Orientation

    4. Gender Identity

    5. Affluence and Consumerism

    6. Addiction

    7. Entertainment

    8. Racial Tension

    Part Four: Christian Worldview Essentials

    1. How to Read the Bible

    2. How the Trust the Bible

    3. The Right Kind of Pluralism

    4. Taking the Gospel to the Culture.

    If Parts One through Three introduce you to the problem and convince you of its significance, Part Four is there to answer the, “Now what do I do about it?” question.

  2. Part One: Summarize the concept “culture” and what impact it has on the individual.

    Culture is the environment humans make for themselves to live in; it’s what we think is normal. We (mostly passively) shape it, and it actively shapes us.

  3. Part Two: In a sentence or two, summarize how each of the “undercurrents” of culture in the subsections impact the individual.

    The Information Age

    Kids these days are inundated with information, but aren’t trained with how to evaluate the ideas that bombard them. The media through which information is delivered are not neutral, but shape what and how we think.

    Identity After Christianity

    When we jettisoned Christianity, we lost what it means to be human. In the ensuing search for meaning, we seek to place self, sex, science, stuff, or the state in the place of God.

    Being Alone Together

    The ever-presence of information technology in our lives gives us the false impression that we don’t need physical community in our lives, that digital community is sufficient; however, buying this lie tends to convince us that (1) we’re the center of our own universe, (2) we deserve to be happy all the time, (3) we must have choices, (4) we are our own authorities, and (5) information is all we need, not teachers.

    Castrated Geldings and Perpetual Adolescence

    There was a time when there were two groups in society: children and adults. In the middle of the 20th century, teenagers emerged as a distinct group, and in the intervening decades this middle group of those who haven’t matured has expanded to the age of 30 or so. The antidote for this perpetual adolescence is to cultivate virtue in young people and actively raise them into adulthood.

  4. Part Three: Which ones among the cultural issues discussed really cought your attention? Are the “Action Steps” particularly helpful for you?

    Pornography

    Having been rescued from addiction to pornography myself, I was surprised that none of the action steps involved growing up to be the man or woman God’s made you to be. That was the turning point for me.

    Addiction

    As one who’s been saved from certain addictions in the past, and still struggles with some in the present, I was disappointed that this chapter was so narrowly focused on drugs and alcohol. It’d be worthwhile to broaden it and ask people if they’re addicted to coffee, sugar, carbohydrates, etc., plus a number of the other chapters in this part of the book.

    Racial Tension

    It feels like there’s an unspoken assumption that if your circle of friends isn’t ethnically diverse, then you’re racist (I’m exaggerating it to make a point). When I lived in the United Arab Emirates, my friends came from here, there, and everywhere across the globe. As I live now in Albuquerque, NM, the people I regularly interact with are largely white and New Mexican. The diversity of the groups of people I interact with is representative of the diversity of the local population. Such a possibility was overlooked in the treatment of this chapter.