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Rethinking Christ and Culture: A Post-Christendom Perspective (Paperback)

by Craig A. Carter (Author)
Key Phrases: missional church, reject violent coercion, synthesist position, Jesus Christ, New Testament, John Howard Yoder (more...)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description
In 1951, theologian H. Richard Niebuhr published Christ and Culture, a hugely influential book that set the agenda for the church and cultural engagement for the next several decades. But Niebuhr's model was devised in and for a predominantly Christian cultural setting. How do we best understand the church and its writers in a world that is less and less Christian? Craig Carter critiques Niebuhr's still pervasive models and proposes a typology better suited to mission after Christendom.

From the Back Cover
"H. Richard Niebuhr's days are numbered. This carefully argued and well-written book should bring the curtains down on the more than fifty year reign of Niebuhr's typology in Christ and Culture. Carter not only shows how this paradigm is inadequate for our world but offers an alternative paradigm that is at once fuller and richer for understanding the church's social existence in the midst of a broken world that is loved by God."--Mark Thiessen Nation, author of John Howard Yoder: Mennonite Patience, Evangelical Witness, Catholic Convictions

"Craig Carter has written an important book for everyone under the influence of H. Richard Niebuhr's Christ and Culture, for everyone committed to the church's witness in the world, and for everyone concerned about the impact of Christianity upon our common life."--Jonathan R. Wilson, author of God So Loved the World

"This book is long overdue and much needed. Even though few works of contemporary theology are as influential as Niebuhr's Christ and Culture, there has been surprisingly little serious criticism of its main claims and organizing categories. Carter's stimulating book provides not only a provocative critique of Niebuhr's entire approach, it also breaks new ground by proposing an alternative understanding of the main options for the church's mission to the world."--Jeffrey P. Greenman, Wheaton College

"Craig Carter invites us to rethink critically the assumptions, arguments, and conclusions of Niebuhr's Christ and Culture. With a well-developed sense of our postmodern, post-Christendom circumstances, and with fidelity to both scripture and the broad Christian tradition, he challenges the quasi-canonical status accorded to Niebuhr's typology by many since the book's publication in 1951, especially in the United States."--Barry Harvey, Baylor University

"This exceedingly important and well-written book offers much more than a rethinking of Niebuhr's Christ and Culture. In his effort to determine what is wrong with Niebuhr's oft-cited typology, Carter digs deeply into two fundamental problems affecting not just Niebuhr but the majority of Western Christians--the church's embrace of Christendom and its unblinking support for state violence. This book is theologically careful, historically rich, and ethically thoughtful. It is intensely relevant to the cultural moment in which we live."--David P. Gushee, author of Only Human: Christian Reflections on the Journey Toward Wholeness

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Product Details

Paperback: 224 pages
Publisher: Brazos Press (January 1, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1587431599
ISBN-13: 978-1587431593
Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #77,676 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
missional church, reject violent coercion, synthesist position, legitimizing culture, culture culture culture culture culture, humanizing culture, social existentialism, cosmic lordship, society dualism, religious arm, culture type, culture position, rejecting violence

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Jesus Christ, New Testament, John Howard Yoder, New York, Holy Spirit, United States, Old Testament, Christ Type, Grand Rapids, Roman Empire, North America, World War, Roman Catholic Church, Christ Separating, Post-Christendom Situation, Karl Barth, Nicene Creed, Richard Niebuhr, Christian Attitudes, Christ Humanizing Culture, Christ Legitimizing Culture, William Penn, Bad Idea, The Grand Inquisitor, Mennonite Central Committee

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Customer Reviews

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32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Important, Prophetic, Frustrating, August 18, 2007

By	David W. Opderbeck "Guitarguy" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Craig Carter's Rethinking Christ and Culture: A Post-Christendom Perspective is as important and prophetic as it is frustrating.

Carter's central thesis is that H. Richard Neibuhr's canonical Christ and Culture presents a warped typology of Christian cultural engagement. Neibuhr presented five types of Christian cultural engagement: "Christ Against Culture"; "The Christ of Culture"; "Christ Above Culture": "Christ and Culture in Paradox"; and "Christ Transforming Culture." Although Neibuhr claimed each type had merit, he clearly favored the "Christ Tranforming Culture" model, and that model was at least implicitly adopted by both liberal mainline Protestantism and the neo-evangelicalism that emerged from fundamentalism in the 1940's.

The problem with Neibuhr's typology, Carter argues, is that each of Neibuhr's types arises from a "Christendom" perspective. That is, Neibuhr's typology assumes that Church and State are partners - whether they are sparring partners as in the "Christ Against Culture" type, or senior and junior partners as in the "Christ Transforming Culture" type - in the process of cultural construction. The "Christendom" mentality, Carter claims, dates back to the Western Church's alliance with political power forged at the time of the Emperor Constantine.

Carter suggests that the "Christendom" perspective is misguided, even idolatrous, because it causes the Church to participate in violence. Drawing on Stanley Hauerwas and John Howard Yoder, Carter proclaims that instead the Church should "be the Church." True to these Anabaptist and pacifist roots, Carter argues that violence is the antithesis of Christian faith. The Church should reject alliances with secular powers, maintain the separation of Church and State, refuse to fight in wars, renounce natural theology and civil religion, and challenge governmental and other abuses of power through nonviolent protest and exemplary moral behavior. Carter proposes a new typology in response to Neibuhr's, which includes an axis of violence versus non-violence.

Evangelical readers such as myself who are weary of the Religious Right will appreciate much that Carter has to say. Carter notes that

"my fellow evangelical Christians have been persuaded by Niebuhr (and others) that they need to compromise with violent coercion as a means to the end of gaining cultural influence . . . just substitute some adherent of Adam Smith for F.D. Maurice in the last couple of pages [of Christ and Culture] and there you have it. Let us not forget that capitalism and socialism are both secular ideologies born in the enlightenment."

Because evangelicals have identified so closely with Neibuhr's "Christ Transforming Culture" Christendom perspective, Carter suggests, "[w]hat we mean by gospel is pretty much summed up by liberal, democratic capitalism. When you say it like that, it sounds so ridiculous that one is tempted to think that no one would believe that. But millions do." If more evangelical thinkers and leaders were willing to acknowledge and repent of our compromises with "conservative" politics, we would indeed move closer towards constituting the sort of community Jesus desires us to become - one that transforms the world through the cruciform power of love, patience, gentleness, and self-control, rather than through the worldly weapons of power.

But for all its prophetic punch, Carter's analysis is also deeply frustrating. His dogged adherence to a"fall" thesis of Christian history often is gratingly reductionistic. For example, Carter states that "'[b]etween the fall of Rome in 410 and the sixteenth-century Reformation, Christendom became an `oppressive, a totalitarian religious system, in which the Church became phenomenally wealthy and seriously corrupt.'" Carter cites some compelling examples of the Church's abuse of its power during this period, including efforts to force conversion and suppress religious liberty, forced tithes, and the Crusades. These and other examples Carter provides are indeed horrible.

Carter ignores, however, the many, many positive expressions of genuine Christian faith during this period. Take, for example, the evangelistic and cultural achievements of Irish monks in the sixth century; the founding of Benedictine communities also starting in the sixth century; Thomas Aquinas' magisterial systematization in the thirteenth century; or the work of the Franciscans also starting in the thirteenth century. Or, consider the spiritual and cultural influences that fed into great Medieval works of literature and art, such as, say, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Dante's Divine Comedy, or Hans Memling's evocative and moving triptychs. And so on, and so on. And all of this, of course, leaves untold the stories of countless ordinary Christians during these times who undoubtedly tried, within the limitations of their circumstances, to live faithful lives.

The problem here is that Carter's Anabaptist glasses filter out any positive aspects of Medieval Roman Catholic faith in support of the mythos of a pure Anabaptistic remnant stretching back like a crimson thread to the Apostles. The complex tapestry of Christian history, with its often overlapping scenes of beauty and ugliness, is reduced to this one strand. History just isn't that simple.

Carter also fails to engage in any robust fashion with the eschatological implications of his views. Early in the book, Carter suggests that "the mission of the church is to witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ, which means that the transformation of the wider culture in which the church lives will always be a secondary by-product of the church's main mission rather than its primary goal in this age" (emphasis added). This sounds like old-school dispensationalism, in which any effort to reform society was viewed as an illegitimate expression of the "social gospel." In his concluding chapter, however, Carter sounds a seemingly different note: although the kingdom of God "is not present in its fullness and will not be until the unveiling (apocalypse) and appearing (parousia) of Jesus Christ at the end of the age," even today "Jesus reigns, and the kingdom is present wherever his reign is confessed."

The "already-not-yet" perspective on the Kingdom of God, however, seems to suggest a more active role for the Church "in this age" than merely that of a witness to the gospel. Unfortunately, many streams of Christian political engagement that draw from this more robust understanding of the Kingdom, including the neo-Calvinism that fuels much of the Religious Right, have become snagged in the quest for political power. But why can't a Reformed Kuyperian / Dooyeweerdian eschatological sense of redeeming culture mesh with Carter's Anabaptistic focus on non-violence? And why can't these perspectives then blend with a chastened natural theology, which takes Barth's critique to heart but which nevertheless recognizes, with Aquinas, Augustine, and contemporary Catholic social theory, that faith seeks understanding, an understanding that can be communicated at least in some degree to anyone possessing the image of God? Perhaps then we could more closely approach a thoroughly Biblical ethic of cultural engagement, which draws from all the riches of scripture and the diverse Christian tradition, including Jesus' teachings about power and violence.

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Challenge to the Christendom Perspective, May 22, 2007

By	soule-man (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

The primary purpose of "Rethinking Christ and Culture" is to challenge the Christendom perspective presupposed throughout Niebuhr's 1951 publication, "Christ and Culture". Carter argues that Niebuhr's work is insufficient so far as it presupposes Christendom and inadequately classifies all groups that are against violence as fitting within the "Christ against Culture" position. As such, Carter attempts to present a more nuanced postion regarding Christ and culture within a non-violent framework. Carter argues that the basic difference between a "Christendom" and "Post-Christendom" position centers on either the acceptance or rejection of coercive violence. While coercive violence is inherit to a Christendom stance, argues Carter, it is utterly incompatible with the teachings of Jesus. Carter calls for a separation between church and state and charges the church to non-violent proclamation of Jesus' lordship. Perhaps Carter offers the best summary of his work when he states, "All that I have done in this book is to identify the key points of spiritual resistance to the powers: the repudiation of coercive violence" (203).
My hunch is that while many readers may find Carter's work refreshing, others may potentially be irritated by the book's repetitive nature and forceful tone. Regardless, my own opinion is that Carter's work serves as a helpful aid in stimulating thought and encouraging chartiable dialogue.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Sorry, no repentance here!, May 29, 2009

By	Suzanne G. Bowles "Dr. Sue History Prof" (Florham Park, NJ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Carter calls for all Christians to repent of Christendom. Sorry, I'm not buying it. And I'm not repenting of the Crusades or the European colonization of America either! That's history -- stuff happens.

Carter's book is a critique of H. Richard Niebuhr's Christ and Culture, a book Carter seems to dislike on a visceral level. His beef with Niebuhr seems to be based on Niebuhr's rejection of the "Christ against culture" paradigm which is the one with which Carter most closely identifies himself. On a more general level Carter rejects Niebuhr's assumption of the existence of "Christendom". Carter thinks Christendom is by definition a bad thing because it is based on an alliance between church & state (more on this below), and the state is also bad by definition to Carter because it is based on coercive violence. Carter creates his own typology of the various ways Christians can relate to their culture with 6 options replacing Niebuhr's 5. Carter claims that all Niebuhr's categories rely on a tacit assumption of Christendom whereas Carter's own categories are divided into two sub-groups, one that accepts the notion of Christendom (bad) and one that doesn't (good). Some of the other reviews explain Carter's views in more detail. I will just give my critique based on what I see as the three major weaknesses in Carter's argument.

1. Over-reliance on the thought of Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder. One might classify Carter's argument as the "reductio ad Yoder". Things are true because Yoder says so; Yoder says things therefore they are true. Numerous assertions are made throughout the book with no substantion or evidence other than "Yoder said so." On the few occasions where a substantiation of Yoder is cited, the source given is -- guess what -- another book by Yoder. Yoder interprets Yoder! He is self-authenticating! Really, this gets tiresome very quickly.

2. An elastic definition of Christendom. Christendom means whatever Carter wants it to in various cirsumstances. Carter mainly talks about Christendom in a European context where state churches developed (because of what Carter sees as the weakness of 4th century bishops in selling out to Constantine so they could get state protection) & in many places still exist. But he also wants to include the US within Christendom. That's hard to pull off given the fact that the US has no state religion, so he conveniently changes the definition to include a nation where there is separation of Church and state but most people are nominal Christians & there is a blurring of real Christianity with civil religion and patriotism. His argument is inconsistent.

3. A doctrinaire pacifism. Really, this work is a brief for pacifism disguised as a critique of Niebuhr. Carter not only rejects any kind of violence but he also seems to reject the whole notion of the state because, so he claims, the hallmark of a state is reliance on coercive violence. There's a lot one could say in reposne to this, but I'll confine myself to two points. One, Carter never deals with biblical verses that discuss the role of the state (e.g. Romans 13) or what the attitude of the Christian should be toward the state. Late in the book he begrudgingly admits government is necessary to preserve order & protect people, but says flat out that Christians should have no part in it. It's a very separatist vierw of Christianity. Two, his pacifism suffers from the weakness of all pacifist arguments -- namely, that pacifists have the luxury of practising their pacifism only because others fought and died for them. He talks a lot about the Holocaust(and blames Christendom for it!), but does not grasp (or admit) that the Holocaust was ended only because of military force. Like all pacifists, Carter is willing to let the weak and innocent die as long as Christians don't sully their hands with violence. 'Nuff said.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Rethought & Moving On
I too am one who has read and re-read Niebuhr's classic "Christ and Culture." I too like Carter am one who was confused and muffled by this work, Carter due to his strong... Read more

Published 13 days ago by rodboomboom

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Book
This book gives an interesting perspective. I had to read it for a class and it is not the easiest read, but it does bring up some interesting points.

Published 3 months ago by Zack Polk

4.0 out of 5 stars rethinking the assumptions of Christendom
A great read by Craig A. Carter discussing the assumptions of Christendom in H. Richard Niebuhr's Christ and Culture typologies. Read more

Published on May 17, 2007 by Joshua R. Hayden

4.0 out of 5 stars raises good questions despite being a little too narrow
I really enjoyed this book and the Spirit did some work on my heart as I read through the concepts of repentance and non-violence. Read more

Published on March 8, 2007 by M. Homola

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