I have been listening to some interviews with Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation. He argues smart phones and social media have rewired our brains. Perhaps it is a subset of literacy, but I wonder how AI and social media are rewiring Christianity (and culture) in ways we will only see in 100 years.
Does Judaism's strong focus on Torah play into this at all? While I assume Jews before Jesus were not nearly as literate as any westerner today on the whole, does the rich tradition of the Law written on scrolls play into this at all. Just curious if Henrich talks about this at all.
Yes, I believe it does. Standard academics tend to see little literacy among the Jews of Jesus day. I don't think they are right. Jesus, somebody who worked with his hands, walked into a synagogue and opened the scriptures to the scribes present. That suggests that Jesus was more than literate. Why do we conclude, then, that other Jews of the working class were not literate? The Bible is perhaps the single best account life in Jesus' day that we have, after all. Henrich does not address this.
Your questions at the end strike and remind me of some other reading I have done around this topic, particulary for mobilizing Gen Z and beyond.
I think you would also appreciate Andrew Wilson's book 'Remaking the World: How 1776 reshaped the West' where he amends the acronym to add the Enlightenment and Romanticism (thus WEIRDER). Also Lesile Newbigin's work 'Gospel and Culture - but which culture?'. I think that Newbigin in his work is getting to the fundamental topic of how should and how could Christanity relate to Western secular society, and Andrew Wilson's work moves to apolgetics to the west via a historical perspective on the relationship.
Newbigin expalined Western Culture's relationship to Christianity by stating that it was like Christianitys adult-live-at-home child: The living situation is clearly uncomfortable, and neither quite likes each other anymore, but both are so used to the arrangement now that it is hard to make a change. The parent doesn't want to kick out or disown the child, but parent can't seem to get the Child to listen, all the while the Child effectively does what ever it wants.
I know that Andrew Wilson is somewhat influnced by Newbigin as well because he is with the the Gospel Coalitions Keller Center for Culutural apologetics, and Keller was deeply influenced by Newbigin and others like him. Newbigin was a former missionary to India who had returned to the West, but was shocked to see it a more difficult mission field than what he had encountered in India. This is where Keller and , now, The Keller Center for apolgoetics is picking up the mantle of trying to create a missionary experience to the west.
I know that Andrew Wilson's intent was to write a historical work for evangelism and apologetics to folks in the West. He wanted to do the historical work so that we would could engage critically with the Western secular culture, but also advocate for Christanity's distinct influence and positive impact on Western Culture.
I have found this personally helpful, but also when mobilizing Gen Z because it alows me to be critical of Western Culture while acknowleging that I am a child of it. I can honor its stregths, but must be honest about its flaws. I can understand why Gen Z is so focused on not just Romantic relationships but, in the technical sense, is so romantic and focused on asethtic experience or 'vibes'. I can avoid the pitfalls of 'colonialism' yet call them to surrender to marching orders. I can try to meet them where they are at, highlight where there their stregths as a particular part of the body of Christ may lay, but challenge them to be humble as they walk into a different culture on a short term mission trip.
To give my thoughts on whether other cultures will have to become more western as they become more Christian, I think I will carry the Parent child analogy forward (which, in missions, I know has mixed conotations). I think we have to be cautious of not disowning Western Culture. In family dynamics, triangulation of communication or relationship ties is destructive and only creates further issues. We have to be clear that there are things that the supposedly more mature Western culture does that are wrong, but we have to be clear about where the parent church has failed. We have to be honest about where the answer is not clear, where we don't know what to do. Maybe we need to switch the Parent Child analogy and remember that while Western Culture is the prodigal child, we are far more the pharisaical older brother than we ould like to admit.
That book, 'Remaking the World: How 1776 reshaped the West' is a great read and one I very much enjoyed. Good thoughts in this comment.
This is slightly off topic, but... In my view, Newbigin did a lot to help AND to hurt our ability to communicate the gospel. I would trace the missional movement to Newbigin. Churches seeking to be more "missionary like" in their local context means that they see themselves as an "other" within society. While this is helpful, it is also harmful. I say this because the cultural distance that Newbigin was referring to is minimal compared to the cultural distance that most cross-cultural missionaries undertake.
Both Newbigin and the church he was trying to influence had the same Western worldview. By making the case that we were needing to use missiological frameworks, he unwittingly lowered the bar for what we consider "cross-cultural" today.
For example, I may, as a 62 year old dude, struggle to relate well to a GenZ, 24 year old woman. The cultural distance, though, is nothing compared to me relating to 24 year old Pakistani woman from the mountains of Central Asia. These are not the same... but the shift toward missional thinking makes the case that they both require missionary thinking. This tends to downplay the difficulty of communication which is truly cross-cultural.
I have been listening to some interviews with Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation. He argues smart phones and social media have rewired our brains. Perhaps it is a subset of literacy, but I wonder how AI and social media are rewiring Christianity (and culture) in ways we will only see in 100 years.
Yes, I bet we are undergoing a similar rewiring right now, and much more quickly.
Does Judaism's strong focus on Torah play into this at all? While I assume Jews before Jesus were not nearly as literate as any westerner today on the whole, does the rich tradition of the Law written on scrolls play into this at all. Just curious if Henrich talks about this at all.
Yes, I believe it does. Standard academics tend to see little literacy among the Jews of Jesus day. I don't think they are right. Jesus, somebody who worked with his hands, walked into a synagogue and opened the scriptures to the scribes present. That suggests that Jesus was more than literate. Why do we conclude, then, that other Jews of the working class were not literate? The Bible is perhaps the single best account life in Jesus' day that we have, after all. Henrich does not address this.
Your questions at the end strike and remind me of some other reading I have done around this topic, particulary for mobilizing Gen Z and beyond.
I think you would also appreciate Andrew Wilson's book 'Remaking the World: How 1776 reshaped the West' where he amends the acronym to add the Enlightenment and Romanticism (thus WEIRDER). Also Lesile Newbigin's work 'Gospel and Culture - but which culture?'. I think that Newbigin in his work is getting to the fundamental topic of how should and how could Christanity relate to Western secular society, and Andrew Wilson's work moves to apolgetics to the west via a historical perspective on the relationship.
Newbigin expalined Western Culture's relationship to Christianity by stating that it was like Christianitys adult-live-at-home child: The living situation is clearly uncomfortable, and neither quite likes each other anymore, but both are so used to the arrangement now that it is hard to make a change. The parent doesn't want to kick out or disown the child, but parent can't seem to get the Child to listen, all the while the Child effectively does what ever it wants.
I know that Andrew Wilson is somewhat influnced by Newbigin as well because he is with the the Gospel Coalitions Keller Center for Culutural apologetics, and Keller was deeply influenced by Newbigin and others like him. Newbigin was a former missionary to India who had returned to the West, but was shocked to see it a more difficult mission field than what he had encountered in India. This is where Keller and , now, The Keller Center for apolgoetics is picking up the mantle of trying to create a missionary experience to the west.
I know that Andrew Wilson's intent was to write a historical work for evangelism and apologetics to folks in the West. He wanted to do the historical work so that we would could engage critically with the Western secular culture, but also advocate for Christanity's distinct influence and positive impact on Western Culture.
I have found this personally helpful, but also when mobilizing Gen Z because it alows me to be critical of Western Culture while acknowleging that I am a child of it. I can honor its stregths, but must be honest about its flaws. I can understand why Gen Z is so focused on not just Romantic relationships but, in the technical sense, is so romantic and focused on asethtic experience or 'vibes'. I can avoid the pitfalls of 'colonialism' yet call them to surrender to marching orders. I can try to meet them where they are at, highlight where there their stregths as a particular part of the body of Christ may lay, but challenge them to be humble as they walk into a different culture on a short term mission trip.
To give my thoughts on whether other cultures will have to become more western as they become more Christian, I think I will carry the Parent child analogy forward (which, in missions, I know has mixed conotations). I think we have to be cautious of not disowning Western Culture. In family dynamics, triangulation of communication or relationship ties is destructive and only creates further issues. We have to be clear that there are things that the supposedly more mature Western culture does that are wrong, but we have to be clear about where the parent church has failed. We have to be honest about where the answer is not clear, where we don't know what to do. Maybe we need to switch the Parent Child analogy and remember that while Western Culture is the prodigal child, we are far more the pharisaical older brother than we ould like to admit.
That book, 'Remaking the World: How 1776 reshaped the West' is a great read and one I very much enjoyed. Good thoughts in this comment.
This is slightly off topic, but... In my view, Newbigin did a lot to help AND to hurt our ability to communicate the gospel. I would trace the missional movement to Newbigin. Churches seeking to be more "missionary like" in their local context means that they see themselves as an "other" within society. While this is helpful, it is also harmful. I say this because the cultural distance that Newbigin was referring to is minimal compared to the cultural distance that most cross-cultural missionaries undertake.
Both Newbigin and the church he was trying to influence had the same Western worldview. By making the case that we were needing to use missiological frameworks, he unwittingly lowered the bar for what we consider "cross-cultural" today.
For example, I may, as a 62 year old dude, struggle to relate well to a GenZ, 24 year old woman. The cultural distance, though, is nothing compared to me relating to 24 year old Pakistani woman from the mountains of Central Asia. These are not the same... but the shift toward missional thinking makes the case that they both require missionary thinking. This tends to downplay the difficulty of communication which is truly cross-cultural.