Media experts differ widely on the value of popular culture. Is it today’s “face of Jesus”? Or, does it vitiate spirituality and tear down worthwhile societal values? The article traces concepts of culture and culture formation. The author argues that popular culture both reflects and affects the values people construct for themselves. Popular culture is a meaning-making and religious act. By engaging general revelation, it may express human hungers, anxieties, injustices and sorrows significantly and truly. Yet it may provide an alternate reality and narrative, supplanting the sacred metanarrative for the plot of life once provided by the religious community. This reality often centers on entertainment personalities through whom people can vicariously live their lives. Popular culture’s narrative framework for personal identity formation may produce its own “God,” and miss its God-ordained purpose of providing an insightfully human narrative that may through the Spirit lead ultimately to the Logos, Jesus Christ. The article is followed by two critical responses.
Author: Stanley J. Grenz
The late Professor Stanley J. Grenz was a graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder (B.A.), Denver Seminary (M.Div.), and the University of Munich, Germany (D.Theol.). At his passing, Professor Grenz was Pioneer McDonald Professor of Theology at Carey Theological College, Vancouver BC, and Professor of Theological Studies at Mars Hill Graduate School, Seattle WA.
Professor Grenz was a prolific writer who wrote over 100 articles for journals and periodicals. He authored or co-authored 20 books, the latest of which were The Named God and the Question of Being (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, forthcoming 2005) and Rediscovering the Triune God: The Trinity in Contemporary Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004). His articles have appeared in journals ranging from Christianity Today and the Christian Century to Christian Scholars Review, Theology Today, and the Journal of Ecumenical Studies.
We deeply regret the passing of Professor Grenz in March 2005 from a brain hemorrhage. Cultural Encounters is grateful to Professor Grenz for his help in promoting the journal in its early stages, including serving as a contributing editor, and for contributing an essay to its Winter 2004 inaugural issue. We are in his debt, and we will miss him deeply.