#culturalengagement

[manoasha]

Financial Planning and Lifestyle Choices for a Fulfilling Old Age"

Retirement marks a significant milestone in life, offering the promise of leisure, freedom, and a chance to pursue long-held passions. However, navigating this phase requires thoughtful financial planning and deliberate lifestyle choices to ensure a fulfilling and secure old age. Let’s explore key considerations for a successful retirement journey: 1. Financial Planning: Budgeting: Create a…

[newwavenewsandentertainment]

Seyi Law Faces Backlash as He Officially Resumes Duty as Ondo State SSA on Entertainment and Tourism

📢 Breaking News: Seyi Law Faces Backlash as He Steps into New Role as Ondo State SSA on Entertainment and Tourism Nigerian comedian Seyi Law recently made headlines for all the wrong reasons as he officially resumed his duties as Senior Special Adviser on Entertainment and Tourism to the Ondo State Governor. Despite his excitement, netizens have flooded his social media with harsh criticisms. Read the full story to find out what led to this controversy and how Seyi Law plans to overcome it. 👉 #SeyiLaw #OndoState #Entertainment #Tourism #NigerianPolitics #CulturalEngagement #CelebrityNews

[grace2build]

#jesus #gospel #reformedtheology #culturalengagement (at Methuen, Massachusetts) https://www.instagram.com/p/CBqBjcZjJx5/?igshid=1gj6sr7kepy2h

[god-speed]

希腊的建築 羅馬的字型 華文的字音 又奇妙又美丽 (奇美博物館, 臺南, 臺灣; 31 January 2017) #bw📷 #bwphotography #bwphoto #bwfilter #archiphotography #architecture #streetphotography #streetphotography_bw #streetphoto #phonephotography #phonephoto #noteiv #culturalappropriation #culturalengagement #museum #taiwan #臺灣 #stepcheena (at 奇美博物館 Chimei Museum)

[newwavenewsandentertainment]

Seyi Law Faces Backlash as He Officially Resumes Duty as Ondo State SSA on Entertainment and Tourism

📢 Breaking News: Seyi Law Faces Backlash as He Steps into New Role as Ondo State SSA on Entertainment and Tourism Nigerian comedian Seyi Law recently made headlines for all the wrong reasons as he officially resumed his duties as Senior Special Adviser on Entertainment and Tourism to the Ondo State Governor. Despite his excitement, netizens have flooded his social media with harsh criticisms. Read the full story to find out what led to this controversy and how Seyi Law plans to overcome it. 👉 #SeyiLaw #OndoState #Entertainment #Tourism #NigerianPolitics #CulturalEngagement #CelebrityNews

[tscfhamilton]

In the Bible, people of all cultures could become spiritually and ethically Christian without becoming culturally Jewish 

[tscfhamilton]

3.Develop a lifestyle that creates and shares truth and grace. Culture provide the ingredients, media and tools of our Christian discipleship, fellowship, ministry and mission. It is the stuff of life, the furniture of existence which enable us to express in audible, tangible, taste-able, visible ways what Jesus has done in our lives, and what the Spirit empowers us to share with others.

https://www.academia.edu/5180952/Are_Sri_Lankan_Christians_Afraid_of_Culture

[tscfhamilton]

2. Seek and celebrate the virtues that delight God and characterize His rule. Paul presents a full bouquet of virtues that have blossomed in every culture for his fellow believers to seek and celebrate. "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things" (Phillippians 4:8). These are God's virtues, reflected back in the customs, traditions and thought of his image-bearing creatures often despite their unwillingness to reverently obey and acknowledge Him. So when we watch an action movie or TV sitcom, read a murder mystery or join in a folk dance, we should be instinctively discerning and appreciating the underlying affirmations of the Creator's glory and the biblically revealed complexity of the human condition.

https://www.academia.edu/5180952/Are_Sri_Lankan_Christians_Afraid_of_Culture

[tscfhamilton]

1. Understand that we have been created as cultural beings. To start with, we need to remember that we have been created as cultural beings. Human beings need culture like computers need operating systems. It's the way we've been wired. All of our lives as God's image-bearing creatures in relationship with Him and each other are encompassed by the 'creation' or 'cultural mandate' (Gen 1:26). It is the fullness of this creaturely life that Jesus redeems from the curse of sin that has marred and doomed it. Jesus transforms our earthly life back to the love, beauty, truth and justice of God's renewed rule over creation. So we live now in Spirit-guaranteed expectation of the further promise that God will bring all cultures to the perfect peace and fullness of his eternal City.

https://www.academia.edu/5180952/Are_Sri_Lankan_Christians_Afraid_of_Culture

[tscfhamilton]

Engaging Culture for Christ! Notice that throughout this essay, I have urged us to "engage with culture" or simply "engage culture". Perhaps you thought my grammar was a bit odd, that I surely meant to say "engage in culture". Actually, I have used the term 'engage' in a very specific sense, and I want to explain carefully what I mean. We sometimes use the word 'engagement' in a positive sense, as in "a wedding engagement" when we mean we are giving ourselves to someone or something, a commitment. Then we also use the word in a negative sense, as in "a military engagement" or "engaging the enemy", where the meaning is that we are taking someone or something on to fight it, a conflict. So with regard to our culture, we are called to an intentional combination of both, a conflict-and-commitment. In other  words, a redemptive embrace

https://www.academia.edu/5180952/Are_Sri_Lankan_Christians_Afraid_of_Culture

[tscfhamilton]

They are not of the world, just as I am not of the  world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world" (John 17:15-18). We are not called to be sub-cultural, we are called to be counter-cultural. Sub-cultural Christianity stays away from the mainstream of culture and tries to create a Christian bubble in which we only dress in Christian 'witness-wear', listen only to 'Christian music', watch only 'Christian movies and TV channels', read only 'Christian novels' and perform only in 'Christian concerts'. We  will be holy, yes, but more in the way of the Pharisees rather than in the way of Jesus; and certainly less useful to God in the world. What God wants us to be is counter-cultural, called to immerse ourselves in a cynical, jaded and superficial culture to infuse people's hearts and minds with grace, hope and insight. And what better way to do it than through engaging the arts? But how many Christians do you know who've participated in the Galle Literary Festival or been short-listed for the Gracien Prize? Or (with a few exceptions) been critically acclaimed for eye-opening creativity in any cultural sphere that rises above stale and stilted attempts to spell out the gospel?

https://www.academia.edu/5180952/Are_Sri_Lankan_Christians_Afraid_of_Culture

[tscfhamilton]

Secondly, the Bible itself gives us many examples of how things that were once used for pagan practices were given radically transformed expression for the worship of God and the benefit of His people. Psalm 104, for instance, is an amazing theological re-working of the Great Hymn to Aten composed by Pharaoh Akhenaten (1353-1336 BC). While the Egyptian original praised the sun (deified as the god Aten) for the order of nature and life on earth, the psalmist 'put the story right' by attributing all those wonderful provisions for humans and animals to the one true living God who really takes such loving care of His creation. Then there are Paul's quotations of the pagan Greek poet-philosophers Epimenides and  Aratus in his speech to the Athenians. Paul drives home the point that even the classical Greek poets understood that God is bigger than human-built temples and is the creator of all. Interestingly, in the poem Cretica from which Paul quotes the line "In him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28a), the reference is to Zeus, not Yahweh. Also the preceding lines of Paul's quotation "For we are indeed his offspring" (28b) are : Let us begin with Zeus, whom we mortals never leave unspoken. For every street, every marketplace is full of Zeus. Even the sea and the harbour are full of this deity Everywhere everyone is indebted to Zeus. For we are indeed his offspring... (Phaenomina, 1-5). These ancient poets were wrong to attribute to the mythological 'Zeus' what was only true about the Creator God who had revealed himself in history. So Paul did not reject what the Greek poets were saying (simply because it was outside the Bible), but instead, he re-directed the Greeks' understanding to where it should rightly be focused- to the Creator God who had sent his Son for the salvation of all nations.

https://www.academia.edu/5180952/Are_Sri_Lankan_Christians_Afraid_of_Culture

[tscfhamilton]

But does this mean that if something has pagan origins then it cannot be used by Christians? If so, Christians cannot practice or seek treatment from 'western' medicine because the original Hippocratic oath clearly invoked pagan deities: "I swear by Apollo, the healer, Asclepius, Hygieia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgment, the following Oath and agreement...". Nor can we even use the 'western' calendar with days idolatrously dedicated to the sun (Sunday), moon (Monday), and the pagan gods of Europe: Tiw (Tuesday), Wodan (Wednesday), Thor (Thursday), Frige (Friday) and Saturn (Saturday); and months honoring the deities Janus (January), Mars (March), Maia (May), Juno (June), and the deified Caesars Julius (July) and Augustus (August). How is it that we are blind to these pagan origins, and yet balk reflexively at medical systems, exercise routines, martial arts techniques and musical forms originating in Africa, India or China? The answer is, of course, how much something has been separated from the original worldview in which it  was developed. And the point is that most things can be separated from the belief systems  within which they found significance

https://www.academia.edu/5180952/Are_Sri_Lankan_Christians_Afraid_of_Culture

[tscfhamilton]

Firstly, it must be realized that in the pre-modern age (before the 18th century European Enlightenment), everything was explained, validated and formalized in terms of religious and supernatural ways of understanding. Cultures were necessarily loaded with spiritual significations. Everybody went about their daily routines (of waking up, bathing, preparing and eating food, beginning and ending work, setting off on a journey, etc.) and major life events (such as birth, coming of age, qualifying in a trade, betrothal and marriage, childbearing, death and burial) guided by beliefs and rituals that sought the blessings of good powers and protections against evil powers. Nothing was 'secular'. Everything was 'spiritual'. So, if someone discovered a medicine, it was introduced as a revelation from a god or ancestral spirit. If rulers wanted to enforce a social structure on a population, they commanded it as the will of the gods from creation. If someone developed a dance form or exercise routine, it was dedicated to a god and ritualized as an act of worship. Astronomy was part of astrology and chemistry was part of alchemy. There was no other way to give anything importance and pass it on from generation to generation if it was not somehow connected to religion.

https://www.academia.edu/5180952/Are_Sri_Lankan_Christians_Afraid_of_Culture

[tscfhamilton]

Over the long term, the challenge of Christian communities in every culture was to re-orient their inherited traditions and the direction of their future innovation towards the transforming purposes of God's righteous rule and the light of the Christian worldview. This would result in not one but many Christian cultures, a diversity of ways of life all united in acknowledging and expressing Christ as Lord the source and goal of life. This is called the 'translation principle' of Christian mission. It has resulted in the amazing impact that Christian mission has had on indigenous cultures in every continent. It is true that some missionaries and their westernized converts mistakenly rejected indigenous cultural forms as inherently heathen and demonic. There certainly are elements in any culture that are incompatible with Christian faith (such as witchcraft, ethnic and caste oppression and gender-based discrimination) and must be rejected totally, however 'traditional' they may have become. However, the vast majority of a culture's language, literature, arts, community celebrations and so on are redeemable. Most 'Christian' traditions of European origin have pre-Cristian pagan roots. The success of Christianization among the tribal peoples of Europe was due precisely to the ability of their early Christian pioneers to take their customs and arts, empty them of their pagan content and fill them with specifically Christian meanings. Traditions like celebrating feasts in memory of exemplary saints and martyrs, making pilgrimages to places of historic religious significance, decorating Christmas trees, blowing out candles on a birthday cake and the simple farewell wish "Goodbye!" (from "God be with you") come readily to mind. How did they do it, and why have we hardly even tried?

https://www.academia.edu/5180952/Are_Sri_Lankan_Christians_Afraid_of_Culture

[tscfhamilton]

In the New Testament, the Apostles were led by the Holy Spirit to decide that Jewish culture was not normative for Gentile believers. They rejected the idea that Christian life and worship would in any way benefit from an adherence to 'Jewish roots'. By the time of  Jesus, the Hebrew Scriptures itself had been translated to Greek. It is this Greek translation (the Septuagint) that became the Bible of the New Testament church. Paul  warned gentile believers not to become more Jewish, but rather encouraged them to convert within their own cultural identities, and taught them to live Christ-oriented lives  which meant that they had to now also 'convert' their former cultural habits to honour Christ alone and bring them under His lordship. Therefore, Christianity was not a proselytizing faith, but a missionizing faith. People of all cultures could become spiritually and ethically Christian without becoming culturally Jewish

https://www.academia.edu/5180952/Are_Sri_Lankan_Christians_Afraid_of_Culture