How Should Christians Communicate With Culture

Luther Man between God and the Devil is wonderfully written book that was authored by Heiko A. Oberman. The author of the book focuses on Luther’s life history with the overall purpose of discovering the under explored aspects of his life lessons. Oberman hoped to link Martin’s life with eternity and not a continuous progress towards heaven inspired by the chaos in the last days of eternity (Oberman, 1989, 12). Heiko is conscious of the monumental time difference between Martin Luther’s death and the period he constructs the details which comprise this work. During the author’s time of researching the history, theology, and character of Luther. We could argue that one of the over riding focuses of this book is that Luther’s poignant point of view for his life was symbolic of a struggle against the devil, or at the very least our interpretation.

Heiko Oberman’s book, Luther: Man between God and the Devil, explores Martin Luther’s life, theology and legacy. Oberman does not simply focus on Luther’s actions and behaviors as a Reformer, nor does he evaluate Luther from a purely Protestant or Catholic point of view. Instead, the book examines Luther’s continual battle with the Devil. In order to truly understand Luther, it is important “to grasp the man in his totality-with head and heart” (Oberman, 1989, xix). Luther is not merely a monk, professor, heretic or a reformer, but he was a man who 's spiritual struggle with the Devil deeply affected his life, as well as the Church.

One of the ongoing struggles for the church and Christianity is with culture. Questions have always surfaced about where we should stand on issues or whether it is permissible to isolate ourselves in all areas of life. Shaping A Christian Worldview suggests that hiding is not the preferred option, rather it is our duty to transform our modern culture.

He stressed how salvation by faith freed the soul but not the flesh. Instead, temporal power was separate from spiritual power: “This is not to say every Christian is placed over all things to have and control them by physical power…such power belongs to kings, princes and other men on earth.” Even early on, Luther made a clear definition of Christian freedom and its limits. While The Freedom of a Christian focused on the spiritual tenets of Lutheranism, in 1523 Luther clarified the role of temporal power in Concerning Governmental Authority wherein temporal power and spiritual power existed together, explaining that “Both must be permitted to remain; the one to produce righteousness, the other to bring external peace and prevent evil deeds.” Again Luther emphasized the separate spheres of the temporal and spiritual power. One of his many criticisms of the Catholic Church had been its attempt to control both spheres. These two works illustrate Luther had a conservative idea of social and political order.

It seems very funny, ironic and challenging to try and understand the mind. Perhaps that is why we continue to have so many questions about it. After all, we are trying to understand the entity, or matter that does the understanding in the first place? One fundamental question that has guided this endeavor is, “what is the mind?” and more specifically, “what is the mind in relation to the brain?”(Friedenburg & Silverman, 2012: 26) Three theories have emerged as the prevailing thoughts in today’s age that try and make sense of the mind: monism, dualism and functionalism. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses, but all-in-all, I believe that dualism is the strongest theory. It supports my Christian belief system and best explains what

Luther to protest the efforts to limit the spread of Luther’s new ideas (Alchin 2).

While many may view a Christian bound to their faith and dutiful piety, Luther shines a different light on Christianity. “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.” (Luther, 53) Martin Luther claimed God was an exclusive presence in the conscience of his followers and implying that a dutiful and faithful Christian is responsible follower of God. The result of Luther’s teaching inadvertently demonstrated that salvation did not hinge on the followers obedience to the authority of the priesthood or the church. Nor did salvation fall to the secular authority, to which affected the regulation of bodies and righteous behavior, to discipline and punish the souls of their subjects. Therefore, whether intentionally or not, Luther started the idea of public veneration of freethinking and eventually an individual’s freedom to worship. “It is evident no external thing has any evidence in producing Christian righteousness or freedom…” (Luther. 59) This quote further demonstrates Luther’s point concerning the unimportance of sacraments, fasting, relics, and the like. The inner person has nothing to spiritually gain from external acts such as fasting, going on pilgrimages, or performing “sacred”

Religion is the most important aspect of many people’s lives, serving as a roadmap to live virtuously while promising eternal life and salvation. In his work On Christian Liberty, Martin Luther writes on what it means to truly be Christian and how to achieve salvation. Luther discusses many aspects of Christian faith, including the difference between the inner person and outer man, the effect of works on salvation, the marriage with Jesus as a result of faith, how individuals should act towards others, and the important notion of Christian liberty that arises because of one’s faith. Luther’s ideas were highly controversial at the time as many of them opposed the thinking of the Catholic Church, one of the most powerful institutions in the world.

Dualism is a philosophy that hypothesizes our mind is more then just our body. Dualists all deny that the mind is the same as the brain. In contrast Personalism is a philosophy that says our mind and body are one and the same. Personalists regard personhood as the fundamental notion that which gives meaning to all reality. We will explore their differences through their impact on abortion, death and politics.

Luther was adamant that the church must begin and end with the Word of God and that Jesus was the Word made flesh.2 Luther believed that Jesus Christ created the Bible and the church and therefore it was impossible for the church to create the Bible because it was the inspired Word of God.3  The Bible was the one and only authority of the Church and nothing else compared.  His beliefs lead him into conflict with the Catholics who believed that they had the authority over the church.  Out of this belief in the Word of God came all of His other theological teachings such as salvation by grace, the sacraments of the church, the law and the gospel, and the cross.4  His belief that he did not have to work for God’s approval but that it was given to him freely by grace and this was a starting point for all of his other views to really take shape. In so doing this he found a boldness to stand up for his beliefs and went down in history when he nailed the Ninety-Five Thesis to the door of the Church at Wittenburg.5 There was new technology taking place namely the invention of the printing press and the world was growing and moving forward.6

Through reading the chapter 4 of the book “Church History”, written by Kevin Hughes, I find the connection between the Luther's Conflict with Catholic opponents and the definition of the Church. In other words, although the traditional Catholic theologians and Luther have different views about the if a human could follow Gospel perfectly, they were still a unity that gathered by God to form the Church, and both of them were doing their best to teach the Holy Spirit of God to other citizens. Arguing the sense of human sinfulness, Christians could better ways to bring Jesus’ Holy and love to others. Moreover, the deeper understanding of sins could save from people from the suffering of further sins. For example, between 1517 and 1520, Luther wrote thirty works about his theology ideas and sold more than 300,000 copies total. It gives many people a completely new view about human sins.

The incredible success of the physical sciences in the past few centuries has brought with it a new view of our place in the world. While technology and medicine have made huge strides in giving our species an upper-hand in the fight for survival, elegant physical theories have given us a deeper understanding of the universe itself; having opened Pandora 's Box, most of us are ready to hail the rise of Physicalism, confident that we will soon have a complete understanding of the world and all its workings. But despite its success in nearly every other area, the physicalist worldview meets with a particular problem in the area of the mind. While elegant and sometimes-convincing theories have been put forth to rid our philosophy of Descartes 's troublesome specter, they have each come up against various obstacles and, sometimes, dead-ends. While phlogiston, the ether, and élan vital have been gracefully put to rest, Dualism has, for better or worse, stuck around. Here I will briefly discuss a few of the proposed alternatives to Dualism and some of the issues they have encountered, with the aim to show that, unlike those subjects covered by the physical sciences, the mind brings it some unique properties that may simply not lend themselves to physical explanation.

In his classic work Christ and Culture, H. Richard Niebuhr asserts that the relationship between earnest followers of Jesus Christ and human culture has been an "enduring problem."1 How should believers who are "disciplining themselves for the purpose of godliness" (1 Tim. 4:7) relate to a world whose culture is dominated by "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life" (1 John 2: 16)? Culture is God's gift and task for human beings created in His image and likeness. At creation humanity received a "cultural mandate" from the sovereign Creator to have dominion over the earth and to cultivate and keep it (Gen. 1:26, 28; 2:15). But sin's effects are total, and

Dualism is a broad term that can encompass many areas within philosophy itself. In aspect to metaphysics, it classifies the types of entities in the world into two subcategories, physical and non physical substance. While this may appear to be a very wide and ambiguous opinion, it becomes very specific in regards to our own existence. Paul Churchland puts it very explicitly in his book Matter and Consciousness, and defines dualism as the idea that, “the essential nature of conscious intelligence resides in something nonphysical” (Churchland 1). Though dualism is a highly regarded and popular view on the state of existence, its core arguments present an array of problems that detract from the credibility of its

All institutions within society facilitate communication, and in that way, they all contribute to the creation, spread, and evolution of culture (Crouch, 2008). When Christians speak of engaging with culture it usually means consuming culture with discernment. We teach one another how to analyze and evaluate culture in its myriad forms. The only way to change culture is to create more of it” (Crouch, 2008, p. 66) This is right and important. We are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so we are not