Mistaken Christian Views of Culture | Show Notes

Summary

American Christians are no stranger to the idea of culture. But there are number of ways in which they treat the Christian's relation to culture poorly. Some mistaken Christian views of culture are derived from two broader theoretical views: Scholasticism and Theonomy. This is part two of my interview with Gregory Baus. Listen to part one here: Rethinking a Reformed Christian View of Culture

In Scholastic views, for example, the tendency is to view culture as distinct and separate from matters of faith. This often leads to the view that secularism is not only a thing, but a thing to be wary of. It's "worldly" and therefore not something to participate in. In Theonomic views, culture is something to be conquered by counter revolution. Old testament laws are brought forward to the new covenant era as a means of enforcing "cultural Christianity" through the sword.

Out of these any number of nuances emerge. But we see both this views to be erroneous.

In this episode, I discuss these mistaken views with Gregory Baus, and discuss a neocalvinist view of culture.

Featured Guest Bio | Gregory Baus

Gregory Baus is a student of the Reformational/neocalvinist philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd. A former international English teacher; he’s currently living in the US and writing a Master’s thesis on the topic of self-knowledge. (There’s a link to his profile in the show notes). Gregory became a libertarian anarchist in 2008 and we collaborated together on the statement, “What is Reformed Anarchism?” written in 2020

See his full profile: https://sites.google.com/site/ideolog/

Follow Gregory Baus on Academia, Facebook, and YouTube
https://independentscholar.academia.edu/GregoryBaus
https://www.facebook.com/gregory.baus
https://www.youtube.com/c/reformational

Main Points of Discussion

[01:52] Scholastic errors and the myth of religious neutrality
[03:44] Is this secularism?
[04:10] The neocalvinist view
[06:43] What about 'cultural Christianity?
[09:09] Theonomic errors
[15:22] Is neocalvinist "transformationalism" also unbiblical?
[19:57] Does Christian cultural activity matter "as living sacrifices" or is it all in vain?
[25:53] Gregory mentions discussion with PCA pastor Nate Xanders on the Reformed Anarchism statement

Resource Links

What is Reformed Anarchism?
https://www.academia.edu/44884160/What_is_Reformed_anarchism

Dialogue with PCA Pastor Nate Xanders on Reformed Anarchism
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwrDNUO5MDu-56FIiArhzVisvc1TayOFS