Cultural Engagement

The history of Christianity has perpetuated two attitudes towards engagement of culture. One proposes a synthetic attitude as a yes to engaging culture and affirming our place in that culture. The other proposes an antithetic attitude as a no to condemn the influences of philosophy, the arts, and the whole of other cultures. Diverse as they may seem, these tensions arise from one basic cause: confusion and conflict over the respective spheres of the religious and the political. What Augustine called the City of God and the city of man, are locked in a worldwide, frequently bitter struggle for influence and power. Providentially I find my epiphania in Paul Jones’ primary condition of longing for a resolution that coalesces around revelation as a self-authenticating experience. Such illumination serves as the centre of a new perspective. Through this new kind of seeing, things become new. And this new kind of seeing is the unfolding view of cultural engagement. Unfolding is both an investigation of the two opposing views of cultural engagement, and the call for a preferred view. That preferred view is based on my distinction between engagement as a cultural mandate for change, and engagement as a communications mandate or strategy for informing culture. It is my position that use of the words informing culture, best describe the concept of engaging culture.

“Two Friends,” by Gerrit Verstraete. 2011. Cat.No. 1196. Graphite on gesso on paper. (21X15 in. / 55.5 X 38 cm )