Culture Always Reveals Something

I have argued before that culture always creates disciples (https://www.culturallycatholic.org/john-the-baptist-patron-saint-of-christian-culture). It is just what culture does. In a similar way I believe that culture always is revelatory. Culture always reveals something, it reveals deeper beliefs held by that culture and this is true for every culture that currently is or has been. As an example, someone could examine the movies and TV shows that are produced and are popular in America and see that our culture is obsessed with sex and that we tend to have certain views and attitudes toward sex. In the same way, Christian culture is always a medium for Revelation. Christian culture reveals what Christians believe to be true about God.

A fascinating example of this happened a number of years ago when the British-based Christian youth organization Hope Revolution Partnership studied the main reasons that British youth converted to Christianity. It was shocked to find that the top reason for British teenager's conversions to Christianity was visiting beautiful churches. 1 in 6 young people converted because of beautiful churches they visited. In fact, beautiful churches were more significant in conversions than attending a youth group or speaking to other Christians about their faith. (You can read about this study here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/17/one-six-young-people-christian-visits-church-buildings-inspire/). Prayer and beautiful churches were more effective than youth groups.

There are a number of reasons why this might be the case, but I want to focus on one: culture always reveals something. Historic Chrisitan culture believed in the beauty and omnipotence of God and created churches that reflected this reality. When people visit those churches, they start to get a taste, a glimpse, of the beauty and impotence of the Christian God and they are attracted to that.

On one end someone could argue from this that building beautiful churches is a means of evangelization. I think that can true but not necessarily the point here. The point is the Christians have always believed certain things about God and loved God such that they created churches to reflect the beauty and goodness of God. Those churches then became places that revealed something about God: God is magnificent. (It also shouldn’t surprise us that over the past 70 or so years in the West when we went through the process of becoming a post-Chrisitan culture, most of the churches built during this time resemble more of a factory or outlet mall and not a space dedicated to a magnificent God.)

Culture always reveals something and that is both true for a society at large and culture on the level of a family or small community. What does your family culture reveal about God? What does the culture of your community reveal about God?

As the famous saying goes, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”