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A Peculiar People: The Church as Culture in a Post-Christian Society

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Rodney Clapp's book totally transformed my view of the nature and purpose of the church. Instead of viewing the church as a collection of individuals with a particular philosophy, ideology, or political agenda; Clapp identifies the church as a community that composes a new culture. This culture, he says, should be in the business of transforming society and individuals through what he calls "sanctified subversion". That is, instead of withdrawing from the mainstream culture into our own Christian ghetto (the all too prevalent fortress mentality found among most politically and theologically conservative Christians), he says that the church must seek to interact with and redeem the things of secular society by modeling a new kind of community. However, this transformation should be about developing the church into a genuine culture and subtly reaching out to the culture around it rather than about the church dominating secular society through round after round of political power plays in the so-called "culture wars." The issue is not "taking back America" but taking back the church, allowing it to genuinely be the church as distinct, but not isolated from the broader culture.

Clapp presents an odd but appealing mixture of Reformed, Anabaptist, and postmodern perspectives. He crosses boundaries of liberal and conservative, traditional and postmodern, historic and contemporary. If you like closed, neatly defined categories of what is acceptable for the church you won't like this book. But if you want a book that presents and radical (but historic) vision of what the church should be then I highly recommend this book.

This book is dated 1996. I ran across this book and read it this summer. Perhaps this book would have been more fresh had I read it nine years ago, but in any case, I offer this review for those who might happen to run across it today...

Rodney Clapp's book began with great promise. Based on writings by Henri Nouwen, he articulated the angst many Christians feel concerning their place within the modern culture. We want to have an important role in the culture; instead, we find ourselves clamoring for recognition. Rather than being the athletes, we are the sponsors.

With an admission that he is not an expert in one particular field, Clapp promises to summon his strength as part-journalist, part-theologian to lead the church to higher ground. And indeed, higher ground comes into view as the reader marches through the pages: What if the church were truly counter-cultural? What if the church resisted American dreams and myths, and substituted them for a fresh biblical vision? The vision of this higher ground kept me turning the pages at first.

Yet instead of reaching higher ground, I found myself trudging over worn paths that only led in circles. The higher ground remained elusive, and I left this book with frustration.

I think the book suffers from what I call "pompous postmodernism." This seems to be a Christian literary genre in which the author seeks to demonstrate that all Christians until now have been misguided but, alas, now we see clearly through new postmodern lenses. Yet as a student of church history, I take issue with important aspects of Clapp's historical analysis.

In particular, his view of the Reformation is simplistic and, in my opinion, misguided. He worries that the Reformation dismantled the counter-cultural aspects of the church (hierarchy, heightened ethical demands for monks) while not addressing the biblical basis of the Reformers' concerns. Then Clapp posits that the Reformers' view of vocation (all work can be done in a Christian way) was wrongheaded, leading to a Christian sponsorship of the world's culture. However, I would argue instead that the Reformers rightly reminded the world that its culture is actually based upon, and dependent upon, the creation of God and the laws of God. (Clapp admits in a footnote that the Puritans were not so bad. One is left to wonder how these children of the Reformation got so much right when he claims the Reformers got so much wrong.)

Second, for all the talk about moving beyond a watered down "Constantinian" Christianity, which ailed the church from AD 400-1996, I fail to see what Clapp has to offer. When the dust settles, it seems the reader is left with basic principles concerning worship, liturgy, community, etc. While not bad applications necessarily, I am not sure what is new here other than the pride with which the insights are given.

Perhaps part of the problem is that Clapp is overly dependent on the writings of others. He has done some homework, offering hundreds of footnotes. But for lengthy stretches, Clapp basically recycles the work of others (Henri Nouwen, John Yoder, N.T. Wright). Clapp sometimes seems much more like an admiring fan than an original thinker. Which wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the hefty claims about (finally!) getting Christianity right.

In summary, I recommend this book as a springboard for thought concerning the church's role in the world and, in particular, American culture. But you might want to read some others who have written on the topic of church and culture, such as Charles Colson or Edmund Clowney.

Clapp begins by showing how the church, since the time of Constantine, has functioned as a subordinate, a "chaplain" to the dominant culture. This is not a new idea (see Luther) but if it is new to you, this book does a good job expositing it. What Clapp does add to the discussion is a sharp analysis of where the church stands today -- as modern society decides it doesn't have much use for a chaplain anymore, what is the church's response? He shows how conservatives who want to put "God back in government" and liberals who want to take the gospel out of church functions (weddings, funerals, etc.) are essentially twins separated at birth -- both are simply trying to reclaim the church's traditional place in society.

Defining the problem is the strong suit of this book; offering an answer is weaker. Clapp makes it clear that there is another road that the church ought to take, and spends a long time trying to lay it out, but in the end I have less than a clear picture of what it ought to be. In his defense, I don't think this is his fault. Ultimately I think that the role the church needs to and decides to play in a post-Christian society is as yet undetermined -- it is something we need to explore, experiment with, and figure out as we go. If Clapp had offered a clear, easy step-by-step guide to how to succeed in the 21st century, I probably would've been dissatisfied with it (my postmodern roots are showing, aren't they?) As it is, I respect him for his analysis of the past, for taking stabs at possible solutions or directions, and for saying a lot of things that need to be said. This is a valuable book and one I highly recommend to church leaders and those interested in the shaping of the church.

Rodney Clapp's book totally transformed my view of the nature and purpose of the church. Instead of viewing the church as a collection of individuals with a particular philosophy, ideology, or political agenda; Clapp identifies the church as a community that composes a new culture. This culture, he says, should be in the business of transforming society and individuals through what he calls "sanctified subversion". That is, instead of withdrawing from the mainstream culture into our own Christian ghetto (the all too prevalent fortress mentality found among most politically and theologically conservative Christians), he says that the church must seek to interact with and redeem the things of secular society by modeling a new kind of community. However, this transformation should be about developing the church into a genuine culture and subtly reaching out to the culture around it rather than about the church dominating secular society through round after round of political power plays in the so-called "culture wars." The issue is not "taking back America" but taking back the church, allowing it to genuinely be the church as distinct, but not isolated from the broader culture.

Clapp presents an odd but appealing mixture of Reformed, Anabaptist, and postmodern perspectives. He crosses boundaries of liberal and conservative, traditional and postmodern, historic and contemporary. If you like closed, neatly defined categories of what is acceptable for the church you won't like this book. But if you want a book that presents and radical (but historic) vision of what the church should be then I highly recommend this book.

It is telling that a book with so much potential ends up with an uninspired pitch for "Christian friendship." "Christian friendship is not a matter of managing or controlling others [Clapp says], but of genuinely accepting their differentness and standing open to surprises - surprises that, whether joyful or demanding, extend our powers to achieve greater excellence in the practice of friendship epitomized on the cross." P. 209. If you exchange the symbol of the cross for another symbol of your choice, what exactly is the difference between Clapp's "Christian friendship" and plain old ordinary, devoted, self-sacrificing, loyal friendship that may be found amongst the non-Christians of the world?

This pitch for "Christian friendship" is illustrative of what is wrong with Clapp's account of "a peculiar people" - turns out they aren't so peculiar after all. Clapp has a lot of good things to say about the virtues of community, people bound by a common oral history, committed to a meaningful liturgy, open to the wisdom of outsiders. He warns that the modern practices of "writing and reading are solitary activities that throw the psyche back on itself," and into the pit dug by self-absorbed liberalism. He grasps the importance of shared words and communal worship -"At worship we consecrate our lives: what we worship or ultimately adore is what we live and die for." He calls the church to be a community rooted in its particular place and time. Abstractions and generalities will not do. Nor will accommodation to the principalities and powers that be.

The "Constantinian wedding of church and state" (the fourth century adoption of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire), Clapp asserts, has been a disaster for the church right up through modern times. It has robbed the Church of its culture, and without its culture the Church's relevance and vitality are fatally compromised - Christianity, having lost its political and coercive clout long ago, became an inward, spiritual exercise for individuals, rather than communal practice of a Christ-like way of being. The choices seem to be: 1) accommodate the dominant culture (characteristic of the left) or 2) retrench, i.e., recapture the ability to dictate to others Christian morality (characteristic of the right). Since neither choice is acceptable, Clapp weaves a course between the two, admonishing that "discernment never ends. As situations change, it often evolves in new and unpredicted directions." P. 156.

These are good words, and make this a valuable book (certainly worth reading) but they lead us back to the issue of friendship, and this (again, in an illustrative way) is where Clapp fails us. He leaves us hanging: "we cannot in any event leave or even take a vacation from mass-techno-liberal capitalism [i.e., the dominant culture]. That is a system that, for the foreseeable future at least, we have no choice but to acknowledge." Clapp suggests Christians become "benevolent parasites" of this "mass-techno-liberal capitalism." P. 201. As our thoughtless and brutal global economy (the engine that makes dominant culture possible) wages war on our small and beautiful planet, as it chews up and spits out more and more people, guaranteeing abject poverty for billions of present and future human and animal friends, Christians are not to retrench, they are not to accommodate, they are to become benevolent parasites? The worship of such a lame and helpless people must smell like toxic waste to the Creator of the universe. When the dust has settled, Clapp leaves us with nothing all that radical, nothing that peculiar. Christians will, with any luck at all, continue to eat, drink, dwell, travel, bank, invest, shop . . .i.e. live . . . pretty much as others of comfortable good will -with an offering of benevolent deeds and a host of good friends.

This is an excellent book for those who want to be challenged out of today's complacent Christianity. Clapp provides a clear vision of how the church can be dynamic and authentic in a postmodern society. He calls the church to an awareness of the syncretism that exists in our own time, and renews the vision of an authentic church that is its own distinct culture.

Clapp describes his purpose as "a book about the mission and ministry of the church after Constantine," a church he describes in the present tense as "the ruins of Constantine's settlement" which are "beyond repair" (23). He provides a plethora of detail about the general downward direction of the overall quality of the church since the New Testament period, in spite of some temporary heroics along the way, such as what the Reformers attempted, but overall the trend is negative. Among other criticisms, he points to the church as responsible for having "created modern secularism" (28), offset with a nugget of hope: "There is a place for Christians in the postmodern world, not as typically decent human beings but as unapologetic followers of the Way. There is a place for the church in the postmodern world, not as a sponsorial prop for nation-states but as a community called by God explicitly named Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" (32).

The reviewer did not agree with many of the author's sweeping generalizations of history and overly simplistic aspersions cast on numerous bodies of believers and movements within Christianity. The church, for example, did not "sponsor" Western civilization (22), but rather its reversal of fortune and new position of influence were thrust upon it by Constantine (which "condition" Clapp claims started in 200 AD instead of 312 but does not explain how), who for the most part reacted as a single agent against former Roman barbarism. While power did eventually go to the head of the church at the height of the papacy, and the church made grave errors, such as the Crusades and Inquisitions, what Clapp omits from his review are the many powerful and effective self-reforms, starting even before Constantine with monasteries, of which he only mentions the Reformation "corrective" (27). His summary of the middle ages consisted of one paragraph (27), in which not even the famous Carolingian reforms were mentioned. It is one thing to point out the mistakes of the church, but it did not do everything wrong.

Clapp mixes secular with Christian examples to make arguments, for instance citing Muslims, Emerson, and Southern Baptists as contributing to American gnosticism, or "homegrown syncretism" (36)--a cult, a humanist, and a respected denomination? Such an overreaching approach seems to throw out the baby with the bath water. More overstating: Christian leaders "psychologized the faith"--in fact, "the most prominent psychologizers are probably evangelicals" (39), "Christian liberals and conservatives have made America their church" (45), and "it is no easier to identify a true American than to identify a true Christian" (53). No figure seemed to measure up, not Billy Graham, Chuck Colson, C. S. Lewis, or Philip Yancey. He describes the Apostle Paul as being "consummately liberal" (70). He even implicates the church (rather than a madman deceiving an entire nation) at fault for producing Nazi hypocrisy (73). It is one thing to turn a blind eye, mostly out of fear of Hitler; quite another to generate the holocaust.

Clapp's liberal political agenda was suspect but came out of the closet when he explicitly endorsed homosexuality by slighting "biblical and other ancient texts" and lauding the sexual wisdom of ancient (polytheistic) Greeks (102-3), while less directly carrying their torch, for example, using agenda language like "homosexual rights" (73), "all sexes" rather than simply two (109), and repeated insinuations into otherwise legitimate categories, such as adding "gay and straight" to Paul's list of those who are now one in Christ in Gal. 3:27--Jew/Greek, slave/free, male/female (166). Again, it is one thing to indict Christians for forming exclusive clubs and being insensitive and unloving; it is quite another to embrace biblical sins as a demonstration of "love."

Throughout, Clapp presents the views of secular, unsaved, even cultic Americans as representative of the church, which is neither accurate nor fair. He obfuscates the "inward" matter of being born again, a step all must take first before advancing, as representing the extent of modern Christianity (69). As a writer, he builds on weak or unbiblical presuppositions, predictably producing flawed conclusions. He presents a creative but shameless (for his slurs and intellectual dishonesty) defense for an ancient sin unequivocably condemned in both Testaments of Scripture. Perhaps his biggest sacrifice for his cause, even Scripture has limitations since it is "merely" written word (135), and yet another example of "privatizing" matters of faith (120)!

Clapp's goal to describe the post-Constantinian church failed in both its unfairness and hyperbole, and also was corrupted by his own obvious "capitulation" to current left political agendas (including abortion, 71, 73, 176). If his solution was for the church to become a "holy nation" (59), he should have encouraged that and stayed on task, and he might have had a decent book. It is one thing to want Christians to do church in a better way; it is another to endorse everything the world believes in order to give the church a makeover. Parts were good, i.e., the reviewer loved all of chapter five, but even a little leaven spoils countless good words. He strongly disagreed with Clapp's analysis of the Jonah story (chapter 9), with its thinly disguised casting of the "despised" Ninevites as homosexuals, who in the end are more responsive to Jonah's preaching than assumed, which is hailed as the "faithfulness of pagans" (154), and who in the end will rise to judge believers. What his skewed version (i.e. bad leaven) not so cleverly omits is the repentance factor, which (consistent throughout Scripture) requires leaving sinful ways behind prior to promotion as judges (Jonah 3:8-10).

As a young seminary student, I have been reading many and varying works on theology, philosophy and biblical studies. Rodney Clapp's book on the church as an alternative people (culture) existing within the world is a clarion call for the questions we need to be asking and the directions our churches need to be moving. Much like, Stanley Hauerwas, Clapp reveals the decay and erosion we have today as a result of the Church being absorbed by Constantine way back in the 4th century B.C. In our pluralist, post-everything society, the time is ripe for the Church to assert itself as God's polis and in doing so actually offer new life or as Jesus said "abundant life" to those who are subjected to a system of destruction and dehumanization.

Clapp's style is candid and written in a lucid manner which will allow the lay reader to understand the theology behind the work wihtout being well versed in historical theology. Ultimately Clapp is not proposing anything new, rather he is pointing the Church back to its starting point. That is, the fact of Jesus' life, death and resurrection as the starting point for any coherent self-understanding. He argues that the Church as God's called out people (like Israel) is the place in which the starting point can be found, affirmed and lived without apology to a culture that has no starting point (e.g. American liberal democracy primed by the Enlightenment).

Pastor's read this book! Members of the body of Christ, read this book, read Acts, then look outside to the perverse and dying culture in which we live and find life as God's polis.

Shabbat Shalom!

This book is used as a text book, so far I've learned from this book

This book was recommended to me by a friend.
I didn't think much of the idea, but as soon as I started reading (within the first 2 pages even), I was struck with an urgency to "touch the center of [people's] lives."
Clapp takes a look back through history to show us how we got here as a Church and what can be done. This book was written in 1996, but I really think he was way ahead of his time in regards to evaluation and process.