Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: absolutely small group, prodigal sower, new cultural goods, The Gates, United States, New Testament (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...Andy Crouch has long had a knack for observing the culture around us and then showing us how we can make it better. With Culture Making, Crouch offers all that and more. Anyone who cares for the renewal of our culture must read this book!" -- D. Michael Lindsay, author of Faith in the Halls of Power and assistant professor of sociology, Rice University

"A deep and thoughtful reminder that the resurrection of Jesus empowers us to cultivate the garden, to build in the ruins of our world, and to create within and around us cultures of life." -- Kelly Monroe Kullberg, author of Finding God Beyond Harvard: The Quest for Veritas, and founder and director of Project Development, The Veritas Forum

"American evangelicals in the last hundred years have found it easy to condemn culture, critique culture, copy culture and consume culture. It has been much harder for them to actively and imaginatively create culture. Andy Crouch is out to change that. I confess I doubt whether they can rise to the challenge. But I am persuaded by Crouch's case that the Christian calling requires it. Here is a voice worth taking very seriously." -- Christian Smith, professor of sociology, University of Notre Dame

"Are Christians to be countercultural? Or protect ourselves from 'the culture'? Or be 'in' culture but not 'of' it? In this bracing, super-smart book, Andy Crouch changes the terms of the conversation, calling Christians to make culture. I am hard-pressed to think of something that twenty-first-century American Christians need to read more." -- Lauren F. Winner, assistant professor of Christian spirituality, Duke Divinity School, and author of Girl Meets God

"Are Christians to be countercultural? Or protect ourselves from 'the culture'? Or be 'in' culture but not 'of' it? In this bracing, super-smart book, Andy Crouch changes the terms of the conversation, calling Christians to make culture. I am hard-pressed to think of something that twenty-first-century American Christians need to read more." --Lauren F. Winner, assistant professor of Christian spirituality, Duke Divinity School, and author of Girl Meets God

"As an artist and an advocate for artists, I am grateful for this book. Andy Crouch's edifying analysis of culture and the church and his timely call for us to be culture makers make this work invaluable in today's faith journey. This is a groundbreaking guidebook for all who are concerned about cultural issues and the church." -- Makoto Fujimura, artist and founder, International Arts Movement

"Crouch works through the Bible's narrative arc to show the hand of God in the development of culture and makes the case that Christians must be producers, not just critics, of culture in order to create societal good." -- Relevant, July/August 2008

"Culture Making is a book that's been needed for decades, but it arrives at just the right moment. People of faith--now poised to use their influence--have much to contribute to the common good as creators and advocates, not just as critics and judges. But that requires careful thought and clear insight, both of which are abundantly found in this profound and practical book. Andy Crouch has long had a knack for observing the culture around us and then showing us how we can make it better. With Culture Making, Crouch offers all that and more. Anyone who cares for the renewal of our culture must read this book!" --D. Michael Lindsay, author of Faith in the Halls of Power and assistant professor of sociology, Rice University

"Culture Making is one of the few books taking the discussion about Christianity and culture to a new level. It is a rare mix of the theoretical and the practical, its definitions are nuanced but not abstract, and it strikes all kinds of fine balances. I highly recommend it." -- Tim Keller, pastor, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York City, author, The Reason for God

"Good books are either brilliant or helpful, but the best books are both--and Andy Crouch has attained that rare combination of virtues in Culture Making. As a Christian, as a parent and as an organizational leader, I would like to make a difference in the world. Crouch not only helps me understand where that yearning comes from, but how to pursue it with passion, commitment, power and spiritual health. Culture Making is a joyful gift of intelligence and practical provocation for thoughtful Christians." -- Gary Haugen, president, International Justice Mission, author of Good News About Injustice and Just Courage

"In Culture Making, Andy Crouch has given us a vision for creativity that is not reserved for the practitioners of high art, but that reveals the dignity of the most ordinary sorts of cultural creation. It is a transformative vision that inspires to action and--in the face of the almost inevitable failures--perseverance. In the end, cultural creativity is not a gift we own, exercise and grow anxious over, but one that we receive and nurture--and through which we come to know grace." -- David Neff, editor-in-chief and vice president, Christianity Today Media Group

"In this graceful, articulate volume Crouch challenges Christian common wisdom about creation and challenges as well our traditional understandings about the Revelation to John and how it articulates with the rest of Holy Writ. As refreshing as it is smart, Culture Making is a significant addition to contemporary Christian thought." -- Phyllis Tickle, compiler of The Divine Hours and former religion editor, Publishers Weekly

"In this graceful, articulate volume Crouch challenges Christian common wisdom about creation and challenges as well our traditional understandings about the Revelation to John and how it articulates with the rest of Holy Writ. As refreshing as it is smart, Culture Making is a significant addition to contemporary Christian thought." --Phyllis Tickle, compiler of The Divine Hours and former religion editor, Publishers Weekly

Product Description

It is not enough to condemn culture. Nor is it sufficient merely to critique culture or to copy culture. Most of the time, we just consume culture. But the only way to change culture is to create culture.

Andy Crouch unleashes a stirring manifesto calling Christians to be culture makers. For too long, Christians have had an insufficient view of culture and have waged misguided "culture wars." But we must reclaim the cultural mandate to be the creative cultivators that God designed us to be. Culture is what we make of the world, both in creating cultural artifacts as well as in making sense of the world around us. By making chairs and omelets, languages and laws, we participate in the good work of culture making.

Crouch unpacks the complexities of how culture works and gives us tools for cultivating and creating culture. He navigates the dynamics of cultural change and probes the role and efficacy of our various cultural gestures and postures. Keen biblical exposition demonstrates that creating culture is central to the whole scriptural narrative, the ministry of Jesus and the call to the church. He guards against naive assumptions about "changing the world," but points us to hopeful examples from church history and contemporary society of how culture is made and shaped. Ultimately, our culture making is done in partnership with God's own making and transforming of culture.

A model of his premise, this landmark book is sure to be a rallying cry for a new generation of culturally creative Christians. Discover your calling and join the culture makers.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 284 pages
• Publisher: Intervarsity Press (August 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0830833943
• ISBN-13: 978-0830833948
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,120 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Smart, Challenging, and Humane!, July 21, 2008

By	Tara Edelschick (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In a political, religious, and journalistic climate focused on culture "wars" and "clashes," I was leery of what another Christian book on culture might have to say. I was delighted to see the issue framed entirely outside the scope of those debates. Instead, this book was about creating culture.

It was smart, challenging, and most of all very humane. I couldn't stop thinking about it and talking about it long after I finished reading. For Christians who see their role as cultural critics, Andy's book provides a new framework for understanding our role as culture makers. For non-Christians, the book provides a fresh perspective on the grace that sustains and transforms our desires to build, create, and restore. Can't recommend it enough.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Challenging and groundbreaking, July 23, 2008

By	Alissa Wilkinson "alissamarie" (Brooklyn, New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a must-read book for those of us who are tired of talking and ready for action. Crouch works through the story of humans as presented in the Bible to show God's work in developing human culture, whether it be words, omelets, art, government, or relationships.

Crouch provides an expanded definition of culture - beyond art, media, and politics - and calls Christians to be producers, not just critics, in order to create and promote good in society. He writes with discernment, providing context for the ways the American church has historically responded to culture (condemning, critiquing, copying, and consuming) and giving a vision of the way things could be.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A clear voice on vocation, August 31, 2008

By	Jen in Madison (Madison, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Someone once told me that our twenties are about figuring out who we are, and our thirties are about figuring out what we should be doing with our lives. I'd say that's about right, in my own limited experience. A mid-career switch from a steady and well-paid job I was good at to a couple of iterations of a new vocation I'm not sure I'm good enough at--this has been the story of my life in my thirties, and I've sometimes gotten pretty lost in all of it. The Church's varied, and usually unsolicited, opinions on these matters often don't help at all.

"Culture Making" offers sharp insight into the issue of vocation, delivered methodically, yet beguilingly, via elegant and sometimes beautiful prose. Andy Crouch sets the scene and tells the story of culture, then rapidly sweeps the reader into this story, finishing with a heart-stopping, imagination-grabbing, challenge to go and make something of the world.

After defining the terms--culture is what we make of the world, creating new culture is the only way to change culture (although gestures of condemnation, critique, copying and consumption may certainly have validity)--Crouch filters the biblical story from Genesis to Revelation through the lens of culture, then addresses our role as co-creators and cultivators with God in this world and the next (it's filled with co-created cultural goods that pass what I call the `new Jerusalem test', and the idea takes my breath away). While all three sections of the book are tightly integrated, it is this third section, entitled "Calling", that really sings.

Crouch's broad definition of culture making--the introduction of any cultural good--is also liberating for those of us with a narrow view of vocation. Essentially--we can, and must, be creative in every area of our life, because we bear the image of our creator. This is must-read stuff, and not just for artists (although I think artists will really sink their teeth into this one). It's food for thought for any Christian wishing to make a meaningful contribution to their world. It certainly has contributed deeply to my own thinking about vocation.