Culture has been described as “the set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group.”* That sounds kinda stale, but so much of culture is anything but. It can be seen in unique expressions of art, music, dance, food and so much more. It colours the landscape of human existence and offers identification and belonging in community.
At the same time, I have also seen dark sides to cultures. Just as we develop healthy unique expressions of culture in our communities, I guess we can also develop the opposite.
I was chatting with some friends recently about culture and how faith should interact with it. What do you think…should our faith impact our culture? If so, in what ways?
It amazes me how ingrained culture is. Hans Magnus Enzensberger once said that “Culture is a little like dropping an Alka-Seltzer into a glass-you don’t see it , but somehow it does something.” We don’t tend to think why we do things the way we do them. Culture often functions like an invisible script for life playing in our heads, and critiquing your own culture is perhaps one of the hardest things to do well.
As it is so ingrained, changing or setting culture is also incredibly difficult. Because of this I think these can be incredibly powerful questions: What kind of culture are my words/actions setting? What kind of culture would I like to be a part of? What would I do if I was going to create that culture?
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