With the workshop on Gospel and culture just around the corner, I think it is appropriate to stimulate some conversation of how we communicate and think critically about how we engage culture.
It has always been useful to me to think of engagement with culture when proclaiming the gospel using three categories:
- Things we accept
- Things we reject
- Things that are redeemed
I believe that this fits in with Paul’s approach when proclaiming the gospel on Mars Hill in the book of Acts as well. Admittedly this is a bit reductionistic in that some things aren’t quite this simple, but I wonder if these categories can serve as a primer to thinking through how the Gospel is proclaimed in a specific cultural context.
Do you think that there is anything of merit in the system I propose?
What can we learn from it?
What are weaknesses to this sort of approach?
If you totally disagree with this sort of approach, how do you think through issues of relating Gospel to culture?