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Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling
2009 Christianity Today Book Award winner! Named one of Publishers Weekly's best books of 2008 (religion category).
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.
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.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
416 people are currently reading
5116 people want to read
About the author
Andy Crouch
30 books394 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
For twelve years Andy was an editor and producer at Christianity Today (CT), including serving as executive editor from 2012 to 2016. He joined the John Templeton Foundation in 2017 as senior strategist for communication. His work and writing have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and several editions of Best Christian Writing and Best Spiritual Writing—and, most importantly, received a shout-out in Lecrae's 2014 single "Non-Fiction." He serves on the governing boards of Fuller Theological Seminary and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.
From 1998 to 2003, Andy was the editor-in-chief of re:generation quarterly, a magazine for an emerging generation of culturally creative Christians. For ten years he was a campus minister with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Harvard University. He studied classics at Cornell University and received an M.Div. summa cum laude from Boston University School of Theology. A classically trained musician who draws on pop, folk, rock, jazz, and gospel, he has led musical worship for congregations of 5 to 20,000.
For twelve years Andy was an editor and producer at Christianity Today (CT), including serving as executive editor from 2012 to 2016. He joined the John Templeton Foundation in 2017 as senior strategist for communication. His work and writing have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and several editions of Best Christian Writing and Best Spiritual Writing—and, most importantly, received a shout-out in Lecrae's 2014 single "Non-Fiction." He serves on the governing boards of Fuller Theological Seminary and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.
From 1998 to 2003, Andy was the editor-in-chief of re:generation quarterly, a magazine for an emerging generation of culturally creative Christians. For ten years he was a campus minister with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Harvard University. He studied classics at Cornell University and received an M.Div. summa cum laude from Boston University School of Theology. A classically trained musician who draws on pop, folk, rock, jazz, and gospel, he has led musical worship for congregations of 5 to 20,000.
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November 30, 2021
I went to a liberal arts school.
Why did I bother?
Why did I bother learning the history of art or music? Why not just learn what it takes to make money now?
Andy Crouch answers with a book-length "because God said so." That's what you'll find in Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling. This is an expansive book that travels through sociology, through the whole storyline of Scripture, and into practical suggestions.
But it's not what you might expect coming from a centrist evangelical like Crouch (he's worked for InterVarsity and Christianity Today and sits on the boards of Fuller Seminary and Books & Culture). This book is not a rah-rah for Christians "engaging the culture." It's certainly not a piece of theological sophistry designed to permit Christians to watch Rated-R movies (Crouch only recently got his family a television). Crouch is not even very sanguine about the likelihood that any given Christian will change the world for the better. He's actually afraid that Christians are more likely to be changed by the world then to change it—and he's afraid that many evangelicals are being changed by the world for the worse.
And yet the Bible starts with a clear call for all God's image bearers to subdue the earth and have dominion over it—to "make something of the world," as Crouch helpfully summarizes it. There are humble, God-focused ways of obeying this command, a command the Bible never abrogates. And, Crouch says, we must by God's grace try. Culture forms the horizons of possibility and impossibility for every human being on earth; we should therefore, starting with our own families, take culture making seriously.
Summary
The heart of the book comes in a taxonomy of ways you can approach any given cultural artifact, from highways to ham radios. Crouch distinguishes between "gestures and postures": you can't keep the same posture toward all offerings of culture, he says. You can't condemn everything or consume everything. Crouch suggests instead that we should view his characteristic responses to culture as gestures, something you do depending on the occasion. He starts by describing four such gestures:
• Condemning culture
• Critiquing culture
• Copying culture
• Consuming culture
One or another Christian group has made each of these a consistent posture, Crouch says, and that concerns him. Some Christians (guess who?) characteristically condemn culture and withdraw from it (Crouch's critique here has more nuance than I can provide in a single-sentence summary; it's well worth your reading). Heady evangelicals—Francis Schaeffer is Crouch's patron saint example—critique it. The Jesus Movement and CCM copy culture. And most modern evangelicals simply consume it. Crouch says, however, that none of these gestures should become postures. Some cultural goods should be flatly condemned, others carefully critiqued, others copied, many just consumed. It was here that I read an extremely powerful quotation I've thought of often:
Picking up the argument again: we can't stop with these four gestures, and here Crouch gets to his major contribution by adding two more C's. Christians should have the ongoing postures of…
• Creating culture
• Cultivating culture
We should care for, preserve, and develop what is good in the cultural traditions we've received (p. 97). (Read this Times article, for example, to see how careful cultivation of the Western piano tradition has pushed human creation and achievement higher; or watch this fascinating documentary to see how typography advanced with the creation of Helvetica.) Within the space created for us by previous generations, we should add to those traditions by creating new cultural goods. This, Crouch will argue, is something God designed us to do from the beginning.
Crouch spends part two of his book telling the story of God's world from that beginning to its intended end, and you may be surprised to find what the Bible says about the culture(s) of eternity. Part three provides practical warnings (a great deal of them) and suggestions for working with God to carry out the culture-making commands of Scripture.
Evaluation
I have a few complaints about Crouch's work: he wastes three pages needlessly dismissing a straightforward reading of Genesis 1–2 (which he elsewhere relies upon—strange), he assumes that Mother Teresa was a regenerated person, and he makes a few minor overstatements. But if you are smart enough to get through this book, you'll be smart enough to spot those errors—errors which I do not think affect the substance of the argument.
This is not a book full of vague platitudes about "engaging the culture" or "redeeming" it. It's a careful scriptural study. And Crouch is not a theonomist; he doesn't ever recommend the violent takeover of public institutions. His ambitions seem a good bit more realistic. Someone who is premill and pretrib (like this reviewer) need have no problem with his eschatology.
If you take your liberal arts education seriously, read this book.
Why did I bother?
Why did I bother learning the history of art or music? Why not just learn what it takes to make money now?
Andy Crouch answers with a book-length "because God said so." That's what you'll find in Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling. This is an expansive book that travels through sociology, through the whole storyline of Scripture, and into practical suggestions.
But it's not what you might expect coming from a centrist evangelical like Crouch (he's worked for InterVarsity and Christianity Today and sits on the boards of Fuller Seminary and Books & Culture). This book is not a rah-rah for Christians "engaging the culture." It's certainly not a piece of theological sophistry designed to permit Christians to watch Rated-R movies (Crouch only recently got his family a television). Crouch is not even very sanguine about the likelihood that any given Christian will change the world for the better. He's actually afraid that Christians are more likely to be changed by the world then to change it—and he's afraid that many evangelicals are being changed by the world for the worse.
And yet the Bible starts with a clear call for all God's image bearers to subdue the earth and have dominion over it—to "make something of the world," as Crouch helpfully summarizes it. There are humble, God-focused ways of obeying this command, a command the Bible never abrogates. And, Crouch says, we must by God's grace try. Culture forms the horizons of possibility and impossibility for every human being on earth; we should therefore, starting with our own families, take culture making seriously.
Summary
The heart of the book comes in a taxonomy of ways you can approach any given cultural artifact, from highways to ham radios. Crouch distinguishes between "gestures and postures": you can't keep the same posture toward all offerings of culture, he says. You can't condemn everything or consume everything. Crouch suggests instead that we should view his characteristic responses to culture as gestures, something you do depending on the occasion. He starts by describing four such gestures:
• Condemning culture
• Critiquing culture
• Copying culture
• Consuming culture
One or another Christian group has made each of these a consistent posture, Crouch says, and that concerns him. Some Christians (guess who?) characteristically condemn culture and withdraw from it (Crouch's critique here has more nuance than I can provide in a single-sentence summary; it's well worth your reading). Heady evangelicals—Francis Schaeffer is Crouch's patron saint example—critique it. The Jesus Movement and CCM copy culture. And most modern evangelicals simply consume it. Crouch says, however, that none of these gestures should become postures. Some cultural goods should be flatly condemned, others carefully critiqued, others copied, many just consumed. It was here that I read an extremely powerful quotation I've thought of often:
Most evangelicals today no longer forbid going to the movies, nor do we engage in earnest Francis Schaeffer-style critiques of the films we see—we simply go to the movies and, in the immortal word of Keanu Reeves, say, "Whoa." We walk out of the movie theater amused, titillated, distracted or thrilled, just like our fellow consumers who do not share our faith. If anything, when I am among evangelical Christians I find that they seem to be more avidly consuming the latest offerings of commercial culture, whether Pirates of the Caribbean or The Simpsons or The Sopranos, than many of my non-Christian neighbors. They are content to be just like their fellow Americans, or perhaps, driven by a lingering sense of shame at their uncool forebears, just slightly more like their fellow Americans than anyone else. (p. 89)
Picking up the argument again: we can't stop with these four gestures, and here Crouch gets to his major contribution by adding two more C's. Christians should have the ongoing postures of…
• Creating culture
• Cultivating culture
We should care for, preserve, and develop what is good in the cultural traditions we've received (p. 97). (Read this Times article, for example, to see how careful cultivation of the Western piano tradition has pushed human creation and achievement higher; or watch this fascinating documentary to see how typography advanced with the creation of Helvetica.) Within the space created for us by previous generations, we should add to those traditions by creating new cultural goods. This, Crouch will argue, is something God designed us to do from the beginning.
Crouch spends part two of his book telling the story of God's world from that beginning to its intended end, and you may be surprised to find what the Bible says about the culture(s) of eternity. Part three provides practical warnings (a great deal of them) and suggestions for working with God to carry out the culture-making commands of Scripture.
Evaluation
I have a few complaints about Crouch's work: he wastes three pages needlessly dismissing a straightforward reading of Genesis 1–2 (which he elsewhere relies upon—strange), he assumes that Mother Teresa was a regenerated person, and he makes a few minor overstatements. But if you are smart enough to get through this book, you'll be smart enough to spot those errors—errors which I do not think affect the substance of the argument.
This is not a book full of vague platitudes about "engaging the culture" or "redeeming" it. It's a careful scriptural study. And Crouch is not a theonomist; he doesn't ever recommend the violent takeover of public institutions. His ambitions seem a good bit more realistic. Someone who is premill and pretrib (like this reviewer) need have no problem with his eschatology.
If you take your liberal arts education seriously, read this book.
August 16, 2013
This book was so vague and ambiguous, that I had to force myself to keep plodding through it to try to figure out what this guy's worldview was. I am extremely disappointed with it, and his "the Bible's authors [speaking specifically of the Genesis account of creation] didn't intend for the details to be historical", going on to advocate the "scientific theory of the big bang" was just the cherry on top. Ugh. I am fed up with weak Christianity...
February 13, 2017
You ever get on a roll where every book you pick up or movie you watch is great? That's where I've been in 2010. Keep it coming!
"Culture Making" was a book I wanted to read but was afraid to read. I suppose I've been a little worn down in recent years by evangelicals' obsession with all things culture. Andy Crouch stands well above the fray, though.
What was perhaps most surprising about "Culture Making" to me was the scope of Crouch's vision. Crouch takes on the whole thing in his book: from what is culture? to what would it mean for Christians to influence culture? to what does the Bible have to say about culture? to how we can make culture that will have a lasting and gospel-centered impact?
Each of these Crouch handles masterfully. Crouch's definition of culture -- the broadest possible definition ("culture is what we make of the world")-- sets up his thesis: God has called Christians to create meaningful culture. And with this in hand he sets about the task of reflecting on the redemptive history. Crouch isn't pretending to rewrite the redemptive story here, but his telling of it is compelling and inspiring.
Finally, Crouch gets to the nuts and bolts of his operation: what are the obstacles in culture making and how should one go about the enterprise. His reflections are God-centered and practical throughout.
Perhaps what delighted me most about the book was Crouch's ability to explain and then pass by what has subconsciously rankled me about evangelical 'culture talk' for years: talking about and analyzing culture does not equate to making culture. In fact, Crouch holds off on Niebuhr's worn out "Christ and Culture" typologies until nearly two-thirds of the book has passed. Everybody wants to transform the culture... Crouch actually begins talking about how and why we might do that.
There's really nothing negative to say about Crouch's book. In addition to being a very helpful book, it's readable and littered with wonderful turns of phrases and word pictures. The only minor critique I might have is really no critique at all... but rather a caution... Crouch is a very certain type of evangelical: a Northeasterner with a background that ranges from the evangelical and into the mainline. For many, I'm sure, there will be times where his own cultural language or theology is at a disconnect with their own. Be assured, though, that Crouch is a good guide who will serve you well, even if you don't agree with every point along the way.
"Culture Making" was a book I wanted to read but was afraid to read. I suppose I've been a little worn down in recent years by evangelicals' obsession with all things culture. Andy Crouch stands well above the fray, though.
What was perhaps most surprising about "Culture Making" to me was the scope of Crouch's vision. Crouch takes on the whole thing in his book: from what is culture? to what would it mean for Christians to influence culture? to what does the Bible have to say about culture? to how we can make culture that will have a lasting and gospel-centered impact?
Each of these Crouch handles masterfully. Crouch's definition of culture -- the broadest possible definition ("culture is what we make of the world")-- sets up his thesis: God has called Christians to create meaningful culture. And with this in hand he sets about the task of reflecting on the redemptive history. Crouch isn't pretending to rewrite the redemptive story here, but his telling of it is compelling and inspiring.
Finally, Crouch gets to the nuts and bolts of his operation: what are the obstacles in culture making and how should one go about the enterprise. His reflections are God-centered and practical throughout.
Perhaps what delighted me most about the book was Crouch's ability to explain and then pass by what has subconsciously rankled me about evangelical 'culture talk' for years: talking about and analyzing culture does not equate to making culture. In fact, Crouch holds off on Niebuhr's worn out "Christ and Culture" typologies until nearly two-thirds of the book has passed. Everybody wants to transform the culture... Crouch actually begins talking about how and why we might do that.
There's really nothing negative to say about Crouch's book. In addition to being a very helpful book, it's readable and littered with wonderful turns of phrases and word pictures. The only minor critique I might have is really no critique at all... but rather a caution... Crouch is a very certain type of evangelical: a Northeasterner with a background that ranges from the evangelical and into the mainline. For many, I'm sure, there will be times where his own cultural language or theology is at a disconnect with their own. Be assured, though, that Crouch is a good guide who will serve you well, even if you don't agree with every point along the way.
April 26, 2024
This could be one of my favorites. What a great book. This is a deeply formative book that really has changed, enlarged, and transformed my perspective on work and culture. I want to sit with Andy and just talk about the things he put in this one. It’ll inform the way I teach for sure, and will be a touchstone for all the expressions of creation and cultivation I engage in from here on out.
September 23, 2011
Very few books change my perspective in a discernible and pointed way, but this one did. Crouch offers some beautiful biblical insights and crafts a clear and useable direction for being a culture maker without being crushed by the need to "change the world". Really helpful and insightful book.
November 25, 2024
Highly recommend.
August 5, 2017
Andy Crouch is a truly original thinker, and that's why when he speaks, I consider it an honor to get to listen.
That said, there are many reasons to read this important book, and I would guess many people will find their own reasons to value Crouch's gentle and persuasive plan for how Christians can become culture makers. The reason I treasure this book was because it took the stratospheric sounding idea of "making culture" and helped bring it back to the ground where I spend most of my life.
Crouch does this first by carefully and thoughtfully defining the word culture as "what we make of the world." This simple definition both elevates my everyday actions into forms of culture making, and deflates any of my ambitions which tell me I must make a name for myself before I can truly influence the culture.
I'm only casually familiar with H. Richard Niebuhr whose "typology has framed nearly every conversation about culture among theologically minded Christians" for many decades; however, I have heard of Niebuhr's main terms: Christ against culture, Christ of culture, Christ and culture in paradox, Christ above culture, and Christ transforming culture. Crouch pushes the conversation forward by distinguishing between a posture towards culture (what Niebuhr seems to have been discussing) and a gesture . Crouch argues that it's really no use talking about culture as a whole. Instead, we need to think of culture as a collection of smaller artifacts. This distinction frees us to be more flexible in responding to and interacting with the culture. We need not always maintain a single posture, as suggested by Niebuhr's typology. Instead, when look at culture on a smaller scale we can use Niebuhr's terms as a variety of gestures, and we can choose among them to decide what is the appropriate response to a particular cultural artifact.
Crouch also recognizes that the most powerful form of culture is the family. I know already that it is likely a fool's dream to be influential over many people, but Crouch explains why: culture is usually pretty optional. People can accept your cultural proposal or simply ignore it. But that isn't so at the family level. As a mother, I have an exceptional amount of influence over the culture of my family. Crouch's emphasis on making culture at the local level is an important antidote to the celebrity Christian culture that, even for me, has started to seem like the only way to be a culture-maker.
The real gift of this book for me was in how he taught me to see the world as full of opportunities for moving the horizon of the possible. Crouch stirred my imagination and summoned my courage to make culture right where I am. And that's an awfully nice way to feel after you finish reading a book.
That said, there are many reasons to read this important book, and I would guess many people will find their own reasons to value Crouch's gentle and persuasive plan for how Christians can become culture makers. The reason I treasure this book was because it took the stratospheric sounding idea of "making culture" and helped bring it back to the ground where I spend most of my life.
Crouch does this first by carefully and thoughtfully defining the word culture as "what we make of the world." This simple definition both elevates my everyday actions into forms of culture making, and deflates any of my ambitions which tell me I must make a name for myself before I can truly influence the culture.
I'm only casually familiar with H. Richard Niebuhr whose "typology has framed nearly every conversation about culture among theologically minded Christians" for many decades; however, I have heard of Niebuhr's main terms: Christ against culture, Christ of culture, Christ and culture in paradox, Christ above culture, and Christ transforming culture. Crouch pushes the conversation forward by distinguishing between a posture towards culture (what Niebuhr seems to have been discussing) and a gesture . Crouch argues that it's really no use talking about culture as a whole. Instead, we need to think of culture as a collection of smaller artifacts. This distinction frees us to be more flexible in responding to and interacting with the culture. We need not always maintain a single posture, as suggested by Niebuhr's typology. Instead, when look at culture on a smaller scale we can use Niebuhr's terms as a variety of gestures, and we can choose among them to decide what is the appropriate response to a particular cultural artifact.
Crouch also recognizes that the most powerful form of culture is the family. I know already that it is likely a fool's dream to be influential over many people, but Crouch explains why: culture is usually pretty optional. People can accept your cultural proposal or simply ignore it. But that isn't so at the family level. As a mother, I have an exceptional amount of influence over the culture of my family. Crouch's emphasis on making culture at the local level is an important antidote to the celebrity Christian culture that, even for me, has started to seem like the only way to be a culture-maker.
The real gift of this book for me was in how he taught me to see the world as full of opportunities for moving the horizon of the possible. Crouch stirred my imagination and summoned my courage to make culture right where I am. And that's an awfully nice way to feel after you finish reading a book.
May 3, 2010
Upon the cover alone, this book had two things going against it: 1) the class I had to read it for was not proving itself reliable to quality literature, and 2) It was a Christian look at our role within the broader, "mainstream" world.
Disclaimer: I am a Christian. I just don't like the way Christians portray themselves in our literature with it comes to our role in not-necessarily-"Christian"-culture.
Andy Crouch approaches such a touchy subject with grace and respect but establishes his point so as to say, "I respect you, and I deserve your respect."
And deserve our respect he does. I have not yet read such a firm, realistic understanding of anyone's--be them "Christian" or not--role in the society. We don't all come from trust funds and fame. Some of us start from the ground up, driven only by our unquenchable desire to change the world like it's never been changed before. Past literature on the subject says one of two things: "It's not your job, as an evangelical Christian, to change the world because the world cannot be changed and there's no use trying," or "You can do it. Follow steps 1, 2, and 3 and fasten your seatbelt. It happened to me, it can happen to you, too!" Crouch takes a step back, sighs, shakes his head a bit and says, "You can't change the world. You are one person. But, don't lose heart. Keep trying. Changing the world isn't as grand as it seems. You want to change the world? Change your family. Change a few friends. Start small, and don't stop."
Crouch writes in such a style so as not to apply specific to the Christian community. Do not be fooled--that is his intended audience. But, unlike a lot of stereotypical Christian-literature, he doesn't hype up the "Godyness." He does not flower Christianity with scented roses and hyperbolic language, and he doesn't promise every dream to come true upon "trusting in Him." He has a definite center, but he is deeper than that.
And, to the audience for which he intended, he has a different message than they might be expecting. As to our role as Christians in the world (and not of the world, as we're told in Sunday School), he states his thesis very matter-of-factly. "We are created in the image of God. And since God is the Creator, so are we creators." It's as simple as that. We are made to take part in the world because we were made to create within the world, and to add our artistic voice to the grand mural growing each and every day.
Anyone, "Christian" or not, "creator" or not, would better himself (or herself) by reading this book.
Disclaimer: I am a Christian. I just don't like the way Christians portray themselves in our literature with it comes to our role in not-necessarily-"Christian"-culture.
Andy Crouch approaches such a touchy subject with grace and respect but establishes his point so as to say, "I respect you, and I deserve your respect."
And deserve our respect he does. I have not yet read such a firm, realistic understanding of anyone's--be them "Christian" or not--role in the society. We don't all come from trust funds and fame. Some of us start from the ground up, driven only by our unquenchable desire to change the world like it's never been changed before. Past literature on the subject says one of two things: "It's not your job, as an evangelical Christian, to change the world because the world cannot be changed and there's no use trying," or "You can do it. Follow steps 1, 2, and 3 and fasten your seatbelt. It happened to me, it can happen to you, too!" Crouch takes a step back, sighs, shakes his head a bit and says, "You can't change the world. You are one person. But, don't lose heart. Keep trying. Changing the world isn't as grand as it seems. You want to change the world? Change your family. Change a few friends. Start small, and don't stop."
Crouch writes in such a style so as not to apply specific to the Christian community. Do not be fooled--that is his intended audience. But, unlike a lot of stereotypical Christian-literature, he doesn't hype up the "Godyness." He does not flower Christianity with scented roses and hyperbolic language, and he doesn't promise every dream to come true upon "trusting in Him." He has a definite center, but he is deeper than that.
And, to the audience for which he intended, he has a different message than they might be expecting. As to our role as Christians in the world (and not of the world, as we're told in Sunday School), he states his thesis very matter-of-factly. "We are created in the image of God. And since God is the Creator, so are we creators." It's as simple as that. We are made to take part in the world because we were made to create within the world, and to add our artistic voice to the grand mural growing each and every day.
Anyone, "Christian" or not, "creator" or not, would better himself (or herself) by reading this book.
November 17, 2025
This is a must-read for Christians interested in making something of the world (which should be all of us). Andy Crouch believes that human beings, as image bearers, are tasked with the responsibility of creating culture. We cannot just condemn, critique, copy, or consume it—though these all have their place. We MUST create it.
The only way to change culture is to make culture, and that happens in small, seemingly insignificant ways, often with groups of 3, 12, and 120. We have far more power than we realize, and we should use it locally (the only place culture making happens) for and alongside the powerless, gesturing toward the culture of the Heavenly Kingdom.
This is an inspiring, wise, and biblical approach that will help anyone think about the arts, education, politics, technology, etc., and all of our cultural goods. It’s theoretical and practical. It’s definitely Kuyperian, which I always suspected of Crouch. It’s modest (you aren’t going to change the world) and bold (you can change the small place and community you inhabit). And most importantly, it’s highly attuned to the story of scripture, the purpose of human existence, and the grace of God in Christ.
The only way to change culture is to make culture, and that happens in small, seemingly insignificant ways, often with groups of 3, 12, and 120. We have far more power than we realize, and we should use it locally (the only place culture making happens) for and alongside the powerless, gesturing toward the culture of the Heavenly Kingdom.
This is an inspiring, wise, and biblical approach that will help anyone think about the arts, education, politics, technology, etc., and all of our cultural goods. It’s theoretical and practical. It’s definitely Kuyperian, which I always suspected of Crouch. It’s modest (you aren’t going to change the world) and bold (you can change the small place and community you inhabit). And most importantly, it’s highly attuned to the story of scripture, the purpose of human existence, and the grace of God in Christ.
June 21, 2022
This book contains large quantities of profoundnesses and I struggle to verbalize what my thoughts are on them, but I assure you they're positive.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to live an impactful life.
So yeah, basically everyone.
I think I'm officially an Andy Crouch fan.
___________
"So do you want to make culture? Find a community, a small group who can lovingly fuel your dreams and puncture your illusions. Find friends and form a family who are willing to see grace at work in one another's lives, who can discern together which gifts and which crosses each has been called to bear. Find people who have a holy respect for power and a holy willingness to spend their power alongside the powerless. Find some partners in the wild and wonderful world beyond church doors. And then, together, make something of the world."
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to live an impactful life.
So yeah, basically everyone.
I think I'm officially an Andy Crouch fan.
___________
"So do you want to make culture? Find a community, a small group who can lovingly fuel your dreams and puncture your illusions. Find friends and form a family who are willing to see grace at work in one another's lives, who can discern together which gifts and which crosses each has been called to bear. Find people who have a holy respect for power and a holy willingness to spend their power alongside the powerless. Find some partners in the wild and wonderful world beyond church doors. And then, together, make something of the world."
July 26, 2024
Was this book too smart for me? Or was it really just a lot of word salad? 🧐
His overall point, that Christians must MAKE the culture, not hope to alter what’s there already, was valid. Trying to figure out how he proposes we do that is the problem. Crouch really came across as a guy who just liked to sound smart without having anything truly meaningful to say.
His overall point, that Christians must MAKE the culture, not hope to alter what’s there already, was valid. Trying to figure out how he proposes we do that is the problem. Crouch really came across as a guy who just liked to sound smart without having anything truly meaningful to say.
March 14, 2024
"Culture Making" challenges Christians to transcend mere critique or consumption of culture, urging them to actively create culture. Rejecting divisive "culture wars," Crouch emphasizes the divine mandate for cultural cultivation. Exploring the complexities of cultural dynamics, he underscores the transformative power of cultural engagement, rooted in biblical narrative and partnership with God. This manifesto inspires a generation to embrace their role as culture makers.
I was both convicted and inspired while reading Crouch’s innovative perspective on the biblical mandate to create and care. He offers a great nuanced perspective that makes cultural criticism more than just, well, criticism. As image bearers of God we are called to form culture through values of justice, beauty, and truth. I enjoyed the stories from his time spent running IVCF at Harvard University. On top of being thought-provoking and informative, it was also very enjoyable.
Thank you @ivpress for the gifted copy 🥰 I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time!
Perfect for you if you like:
Frameworks for Christian creativity and innovation
Biblical perspective on cultural stewardship
Reflecting on the role of Christians in shaping culture
Similar to:
Culture Care by Makoto Fujimura
Desiring the Kingdom by James K. A. Smith
Garden City by John Mark Comer
I was both convicted and inspired while reading Crouch’s innovative perspective on the biblical mandate to create and care. He offers a great nuanced perspective that makes cultural criticism more than just, well, criticism. As image bearers of God we are called to form culture through values of justice, beauty, and truth. I enjoyed the stories from his time spent running IVCF at Harvard University. On top of being thought-provoking and informative, it was also very enjoyable.
Thank you @ivpress for the gifted copy 🥰 I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time!
Perfect for you if you like:
Frameworks for Christian creativity and innovation
Biblical perspective on cultural stewardship
Reflecting on the role of Christians in shaping culture
Similar to:
Culture Care by Makoto Fujimura
Desiring the Kingdom by James K. A. Smith
Garden City by John Mark Comer
May 2, 2020
This is one of the best books about the human experience and calling I've ever read. Crouch offers a powerful apologetic for the biblical metanarrative and its implications in daily life. A must read.
March 19, 2014
When I chose this book to read, I was hoping for a massive kick-in-the-pants to 'get out and make.' I was hoping that it would be a rallying cry for Christians (and all people) to be more creative and enterprising. The book delivered, but it did more: it gave some cautionary advice that I had actually never thought about, and made it worth sticking around to the end of the book to discover, despite the occasional reading obstacles. I'll explain.
First, the parts that got me riled up (in a good way) to go and make awesome things:
"The only way to change culture is to make more of it," Crouch writes, and I love that. So many of us merely criticize culture, or consume culture, but it's the creators who wield the power to change it. Go and make! It's our calling, one and all, to create and to cultivate.
Some more quotes:
"When it comes to cultural creativity, innocence is not a virtue. The more each of us knows about our cultural domain, the more likely we are to create something new and worthwhile."
"Any cultural good, after all, only moves the horizon for the particular public who experience it. For the rest of the world, it as as if that piece of culture, no matter how excellent or significant it might be, never existed." (In other words, be content knowing that the audience you reach may be the only audience that will matter for you)
There was another great moment where Crouch explains that some of the most influential, world-changing culture is not witnessed by its creators, because the change is long-building, slow-burning and eventual. In fact, while many of us want to make an instant splash with what we create, and that's often the sure sign of something that WON'T change culture in the long run. Go for making the goods that have a gradual, movement building strength.
As we went along, Crouch reminded us that sometimes the culture we make, makes other culture no longer possible. For instance, the infrastructure of the highway system made it quick to travel in a car, but has made horse travel over long distances nearly impossible. So even though we often herald new culture as utterly winsome, be aware of what it makes impossible.
Near the end is where the surprising cautions came in:
- We can't changed the world. We won't. (You'll have to read why for yourself.)
- Creating cultural goods give you a form of power. Be cautious, be wise, be humble about the temptation to accrue power as a culture-maker. It's big, and rarely discussed.
--A note on how to read his book--
In the introduction, Crouch writes "I hope families will read this together," so I decided to give it a go, and began reading the first chapter to my wife. I was soon being begged to please stop, and to never read this book to her again. If you like books that nitpick over semantics, you'll love the first chapter of this book, where he spends the whole time over-defining the word culture, and overusing the word "omelets" as his cute, everyman analogy for culture-making. He could have just said: "A good synonym for culture would be 'civilization' - anything humans create, from small to big." Chapter one done.
So stopped reading it aloud and moved to chapter 2, silent reading. I quickly discovered the book wasn't exactly meant for that either. It's too studied and careful to be read casually.
Chapter 3. I wasn't going to give up yet. The material seemed too important. To get the most of the book, I realized I needed to change my outlook entirely: I brought a pen with me. I would read it at tables. I would study it like a textbook, thinking about passages. THAT'S how the book is meant to be read.
Armed with the right process, I carried on.
Because of the book's wisdom, I give it 4 stars, but if it was just on the writing style and structure, I would have to give it 2 stars; it's a labour for sure.
First, the parts that got me riled up (in a good way) to go and make awesome things:
"The only way to change culture is to make more of it," Crouch writes, and I love that. So many of us merely criticize culture, or consume culture, but it's the creators who wield the power to change it. Go and make! It's our calling, one and all, to create and to cultivate.
Some more quotes:
"When it comes to cultural creativity, innocence is not a virtue. The more each of us knows about our cultural domain, the more likely we are to create something new and worthwhile."
"Any cultural good, after all, only moves the horizon for the particular public who experience it. For the rest of the world, it as as if that piece of culture, no matter how excellent or significant it might be, never existed." (In other words, be content knowing that the audience you reach may be the only audience that will matter for you)
There was another great moment where Crouch explains that some of the most influential, world-changing culture is not witnessed by its creators, because the change is long-building, slow-burning and eventual. In fact, while many of us want to make an instant splash with what we create, and that's often the sure sign of something that WON'T change culture in the long run. Go for making the goods that have a gradual, movement building strength.
As we went along, Crouch reminded us that sometimes the culture we make, makes other culture no longer possible. For instance, the infrastructure of the highway system made it quick to travel in a car, but has made horse travel over long distances nearly impossible. So even though we often herald new culture as utterly winsome, be aware of what it makes impossible.
Near the end is where the surprising cautions came in:
- We can't changed the world. We won't. (You'll have to read why for yourself.)
- Creating cultural goods give you a form of power. Be cautious, be wise, be humble about the temptation to accrue power as a culture-maker. It's big, and rarely discussed.
--A note on how to read his book--
In the introduction, Crouch writes "I hope families will read this together," so I decided to give it a go, and began reading the first chapter to my wife. I was soon being begged to please stop, and to never read this book to her again. If you like books that nitpick over semantics, you'll love the first chapter of this book, where he spends the whole time over-defining the word culture, and overusing the word "omelets" as his cute, everyman analogy for culture-making. He could have just said: "A good synonym for culture would be 'civilization' - anything humans create, from small to big." Chapter one done.
So stopped reading it aloud and moved to chapter 2, silent reading. I quickly discovered the book wasn't exactly meant for that either. It's too studied and careful to be read casually.
Chapter 3. I wasn't going to give up yet. The material seemed too important. To get the most of the book, I realized I needed to change my outlook entirely: I brought a pen with me. I would read it at tables. I would study it like a textbook, thinking about passages. THAT'S how the book is meant to be read.
Armed with the right process, I carried on.
Because of the book's wisdom, I give it 4 stars, but if it was just on the writing style and structure, I would have to give it 2 stars; it's a labour for sure.
September 12, 2023
Culture wars are nothing new. Whether outside or inside, there are different cultures that exist in many places. Organizations too possess a mixture of different cultures within themselves. In many Christian circles, one of the key catchphrases to depict our Christian witness was "cultural engagement." This is a strategy of bringing the gospel to the places where ordinary people are found. What actually is "cultural engagement?" The two extremes of cultural assimilation and cultural rejection are non-starters. Many might think that the solution lies somewhere between the two. Author Andy Crouch gives us a paradigm-shifting perspective to argue for creative culture-making. This necessitates the introduction of "new vocabulary, a new story, and a new set of questions." Part One is an attempt to understand cultural vocabulary from a sociological perspective. This is essential because culture often means different things to different people. Crouch takes us through a historical survey of how culture changes with a particular focus on the interactions between Christianity and culture. One of the most intriguing discussions happened to be the way he interacts with the various methods of dealing with culture. He makes a distinction between "gestures and postures," the former a mere somewhat passive acknowledgment of the method compared to the latter which is a more active, default, or conscientious attitude.
1) Condemning Culture: "Fundamentalist Withdrawal"
2) Critiquing Culture: "Evangelical Engagement"
3) Copying Culture: with a focus on "Jesus Movement and CCM"
4) Consuming Culture: "Evangelism's Present Tense"
He critiques each of these approaches and warns about the temptation to move from "gestures" to "postures." He understands the separatist condemnation mindset but urges openness toward the beauty and possibilities of culture. He acknowledges the need to critique but reminds us about the advantages of participation and enjoyment. He notes that copying can lead to undesired consequences. On consumption, he points out the importance of discernment. He then introduces us to the postures of cultivation and creation by using the metaphors of artists and gardeners. In Part Two, he weaves in the gospel story as a witness to culture. Going back to the Genesis story, he shows us how culture reflects human beings in the world. In particular, he asserts that humans are made to be creative. Sadly, the entry of sin also results in negative consequences. Surveying the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, we are given a bird's eye view of God's calling for humans to be like Jesus, the culture maker. Part Three looks at the Calling for us.
My Thoughts
==============
Let me give three thoughts about this book. First, the technological impact on culture. As an avid technologist, I applaud Crouch's frequent engagement with technological issues. In particular, his take on technological changes contrasts sharply with artistry longevity. Indeed, he alludes to Stewart Brand's insight about the inverse relationship between "speed of change" and "long-term impact." This reminds me of how technology seems to obsolete itself over time. If cultural changes were to be directly tied to technology, wouldn't society be constantly in the throes of obsolescence? Using the example of the iPhone, Crouch observes that while it has revolutionized society at large, it has taken on a life of its own, totally different from the intent of Steve Jobs's vision.
Second, I like Crouch's positive engagement toward culture in general. When this book was first released in 2008, it was a breath of freshness to help us navigate an increasingly multicultural, pluralistic, and increasingly sophisticated environment. Even after 15 years, this second edition is still fresh and relevant. With the help of Richard Niebuhr's classic typologies in "Christ and Culture," he summarizes the four different ways Christians have dealt with culture and proposes a forward-looking approach. That is a commendable effort indeed. Some might even see Crouch's material as an update to Niebuhr's thinking as the world has since changed. Interestingly, he tries to disarm us from adopting the attitude of trying to change the world but to recognize our helplessness. Just like how the Israelites were powerless against Egypt, how the nations of Israel and Judah were powerless against the Assyrians, Babylonians, the Persians, and how the Early Church was powerless against Roman persecutors, Crouch gently guides us away from using our own wisdom and strength to change the world.
Finally, this book shines hope for us to find and live out our calling. We are not called the change the world, but to be a part of change in creating culture. We are not called to take the powers of the world but to live in a manner that enables the world to see the Power of God. Service and Stewardship ought to be the guiding principles in a world of hierarchy and politics. Together with other reminders about community and grace, we should all take heed of Crouch's exhortation.
In summary, we are not called to change but to be witnesses for God to change the world. We should engage culture in a way that is in line with our calling. Through this lens, all the cultural typologies mentioned by Niebuhr and Crouch should not be dismissed but considered with discerning the way to create a path forward. The gospel story is a powerful alternative to the lenses of world cultures, and Crouch has given us a wonderful book to describe that.
Andy Crouch (MDiv, Boston University School of Theology) is a partner for theology and culture at Praxis, an organization that works as a creative engine for redemptive entrepreneurship, and he is the author of The Tech-Wise Family, Strong and Weak, Playing God, and Culture Making. Andy serves on the governing boards of Fuller Theological Seminary, the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. For more than ten years he was an editor and producer at Christianity Today, including serving as executive editor from 2012 to 2016. He lives with his family in Pennsylvania.
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5.
conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of InterVarsity Press via NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.
1) Condemning Culture: "Fundamentalist Withdrawal"
2) Critiquing Culture: "Evangelical Engagement"
3) Copying Culture: with a focus on "Jesus Movement and CCM"
4) Consuming Culture: "Evangelism's Present Tense"
He critiques each of these approaches and warns about the temptation to move from "gestures" to "postures." He understands the separatist condemnation mindset but urges openness toward the beauty and possibilities of culture. He acknowledges the need to critique but reminds us about the advantages of participation and enjoyment. He notes that copying can lead to undesired consequences. On consumption, he points out the importance of discernment. He then introduces us to the postures of cultivation and creation by using the metaphors of artists and gardeners. In Part Two, he weaves in the gospel story as a witness to culture. Going back to the Genesis story, he shows us how culture reflects human beings in the world. In particular, he asserts that humans are made to be creative. Sadly, the entry of sin also results in negative consequences. Surveying the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, we are given a bird's eye view of God's calling for humans to be like Jesus, the culture maker. Part Three looks at the Calling for us.
My Thoughts
==============
Let me give three thoughts about this book. First, the technological impact on culture. As an avid technologist, I applaud Crouch's frequent engagement with technological issues. In particular, his take on technological changes contrasts sharply with artistry longevity. Indeed, he alludes to Stewart Brand's insight about the inverse relationship between "speed of change" and "long-term impact." This reminds me of how technology seems to obsolete itself over time. If cultural changes were to be directly tied to technology, wouldn't society be constantly in the throes of obsolescence? Using the example of the iPhone, Crouch observes that while it has revolutionized society at large, it has taken on a life of its own, totally different from the intent of Steve Jobs's vision.
Second, I like Crouch's positive engagement toward culture in general. When this book was first released in 2008, it was a breath of freshness to help us navigate an increasingly multicultural, pluralistic, and increasingly sophisticated environment. Even after 15 years, this second edition is still fresh and relevant. With the help of Richard Niebuhr's classic typologies in "Christ and Culture," he summarizes the four different ways Christians have dealt with culture and proposes a forward-looking approach. That is a commendable effort indeed. Some might even see Crouch's material as an update to Niebuhr's thinking as the world has since changed. Interestingly, he tries to disarm us from adopting the attitude of trying to change the world but to recognize our helplessness. Just like how the Israelites were powerless against Egypt, how the nations of Israel and Judah were powerless against the Assyrians, Babylonians, the Persians, and how the Early Church was powerless against Roman persecutors, Crouch gently guides us away from using our own wisdom and strength to change the world.
Finally, this book shines hope for us to find and live out our calling. We are not called the change the world, but to be a part of change in creating culture. We are not called to take the powers of the world but to live in a manner that enables the world to see the Power of God. Service and Stewardship ought to be the guiding principles in a world of hierarchy and politics. Together with other reminders about community and grace, we should all take heed of Crouch's exhortation.
In summary, we are not called to change but to be witnesses for God to change the world. We should engage culture in a way that is in line with our calling. Through this lens, all the cultural typologies mentioned by Niebuhr and Crouch should not be dismissed but considered with discerning the way to create a path forward. The gospel story is a powerful alternative to the lenses of world cultures, and Crouch has given us a wonderful book to describe that.
Andy Crouch (MDiv, Boston University School of Theology) is a partner for theology and culture at Praxis, an organization that works as a creative engine for redemptive entrepreneurship, and he is the author of The Tech-Wise Family, Strong and Weak, Playing God, and Culture Making. Andy serves on the governing boards of Fuller Theological Seminary, the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. For more than ten years he was an editor and producer at Christianity Today, including serving as executive editor from 2012 to 2016. He lives with his family in Pennsylvania.
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5.
conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of InterVarsity Press via NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.
August 16, 2017
I'm not sure how to review this book. Like most books I read, I felt like a lot of it could've been easily edited out. I am a woman who LOVES the definition of terms and concepts before diving into them but boy howdy I got REAL TIRED of the omelette example. I don't know if I can ever hear the word and not get a feeling of dread that an impending cultural explanation is coming. BUT, there are some real gems in here. For anyone who creates (spoilers that's all of us let's be real), this may give you a profoundly new perspective, or at least a jumping off point for inner reflection. While I think(? I couldn't tell when he was sharing his opinion or providing a "neutral" view) I disagree with a fair amount of what he thinks about scripture, I have to admit that I found a lot of his interpretations of it through a cultural creation lens very moving. All in all, worth a read (or at least a skim if one is good at that).
June 18, 2019
This book was a good reminder that as Christians, we are called not only to become more like Christ, and reach a lost world, but also to fulfill the role given to our first parents as sub-creators. A very clearly-written, clear-cut world that keeps from going toward any extreme and shows pragmatic ways to be a Christian in a cultural world.
March 1, 2017
As a wise old pagan once said of his opponents, "when they speak ambiguously the vulgar assent to what they say." In other words, it's easy to get people on board when all you say is a buncha nothin'. That's the only way I can explain the appeal of this book.
June 28, 2022
Disclaimer: Theologically, I write this from a Calvinist/Presbyterian background, with a fair share of other spiritual convictions by nature of my discipline and education, all of which inform my stance on some of the issues addressed here. Academically, you can take Eliana out of the English major but you can't take the English major out of Eliana. Socially and culturally I am... not white, even though I was born in this here 'Murica. So here I am trying to articulate why I spent more time understanding why I disagreed with Crouch than I spent actually reading the book.
1) After a good deal of frowning and rereading, I still do not understand what the author's "concrete definition" of culture is, even though he kept saying "now that we have a concrete definition of such and such." He very clearly comes from a particular racial, social, geographical, and theological background, which is not inherently bad (we all come from our own particulars), but can be dangerous when bias and personally limited understandings of "culture" and "place" are misused or go unacknowledged. You can also really tell at certain points that this book was written over a decade ago by a particular man for a particular audience; the author uses phrases, assumptions, sayings, stereotypes, descriptors, etc. that simply would not fly these days in the hands of a socially aware audience, even if an oblivious editor wouldn't catch them.
2) Even though he does eventually come back around to topics of grace, Crouch gives an awful lot of credit to human works, which I fundamentally disagree with. He builds a hefty share of the making side of his arguments on the premise that humans take part in creating new things, even going so far as to claim an ex nihilo "quality" of human creativity. His defense aganist another common theology of art and making — that human creative efforts are more liminal, responsive, exploratory, etc. — is vague and dismissive, taking up a mere paragraph and featuring questionably mystic metaphors about language making. A little mysticism is great — helps us break out of some otherwise stiff church boxes, which I appreciate both as a writer and a worshipper — but take it too far and you lean heavily on the human experience of God rather than God's own revelation.
That said, one of the reasons why I'm giving this two stars instead of less is because there's a forgiveable amount of nuance to this grace point in his chapter on "Why We Can't Change the World," give or take yet another argument that could have been structured better. But that doesn't come up until Chapter 12 (and 16), and meanwhile this entirely different foundation has been laid.
3) Crouch has a lot of ideas about the culture of heaven (and thus the cultures of earth) that I'm not sure are as soundly backed up by scripture as might seem. He's not the first academic/pastor figure I've encountered who believes that what we create on this earth will ascend to a more purified and whole state in heaven. It's a nice idea, but I'd be interested to know how that fits into the biblical reality that heaven and earth will pass away and that God himself will create anew. Does what we create have a soul? No. So I'm not sure we can put resurrection of culture into quite the same box as resurrection of the body. I'll have to look into that more. But in a similar vein, Crouch argues that we are actively in the process of building and contributing to heaven's culture while we are still on earth. But I wonder if we are instead practicing or otherwise being... idk... sanctified?? for that day? What if the work is not as much about the work as it is about our own salvation and the salvation of those who are likewise impacted by our work? God-given is good, but toward what glorified end? What or who is glorified?
4) The writing is also not that engaging. I think this is the first arts/culture/theology book I've read so far that has had me bored within the first couple chapters. While I'm at it, there's a chapter where he call his own point a "key insight." No, sir. That is reserved for summaries and annotations of other people's work. Not your own in your own book. Smh.
Where the language is actually good comes in his careful perusal and exploration of the different historical contexts of cultural passages in the Bible. To cater to that strength, this book should have been primarily a study of culture-making throughout the Bible, with maybe a chapter or two at the end drawing out some of the implications for us as makers in the present, focusing specifically on the resurrection and John's Revelation.
5) In the end, this book does not pass the "would I read this on the train and hope someone asks me about it?" test. I did try to read a few chapters on said mode of transportation, but the more I disagreed with the test the more terrified I became that someone would ask what I was reading.
If you made it this far, huzzah. There were probably typos; don't tell me about them.
1) After a good deal of frowning and rereading, I still do not understand what the author's "concrete definition" of culture is, even though he kept saying "now that we have a concrete definition of such and such." He very clearly comes from a particular racial, social, geographical, and theological background, which is not inherently bad (we all come from our own particulars), but can be dangerous when bias and personally limited understandings of "culture" and "place" are misused or go unacknowledged. You can also really tell at certain points that this book was written over a decade ago by a particular man for a particular audience; the author uses phrases, assumptions, sayings, stereotypes, descriptors, etc. that simply would not fly these days in the hands of a socially aware audience, even if an oblivious editor wouldn't catch them.
2) Even though he does eventually come back around to topics of grace, Crouch gives an awful lot of credit to human works, which I fundamentally disagree with. He builds a hefty share of the making side of his arguments on the premise that humans take part in creating new things, even going so far as to claim an ex nihilo "quality" of human creativity. His defense aganist another common theology of art and making — that human creative efforts are more liminal, responsive, exploratory, etc. — is vague and dismissive, taking up a mere paragraph and featuring questionably mystic metaphors about language making. A little mysticism is great — helps us break out of some otherwise stiff church boxes, which I appreciate both as a writer and a worshipper — but take it too far and you lean heavily on the human experience of God rather than God's own revelation.
That said, one of the reasons why I'm giving this two stars instead of less is because there's a forgiveable amount of nuance to this grace point in his chapter on "Why We Can't Change the World," give or take yet another argument that could have been structured better. But that doesn't come up until Chapter 12 (and 16), and meanwhile this entirely different foundation has been laid.
3) Crouch has a lot of ideas about the culture of heaven (and thus the cultures of earth) that I'm not sure are as soundly backed up by scripture as might seem. He's not the first academic/pastor figure I've encountered who believes that what we create on this earth will ascend to a more purified and whole state in heaven. It's a nice idea, but I'd be interested to know how that fits into the biblical reality that heaven and earth will pass away and that God himself will create anew. Does what we create have a soul? No. So I'm not sure we can put resurrection of culture into quite the same box as resurrection of the body. I'll have to look into that more. But in a similar vein, Crouch argues that we are actively in the process of building and contributing to heaven's culture while we are still on earth. But I wonder if we are instead practicing or otherwise being... idk... sanctified?? for that day? What if the work is not as much about the work as it is about our own salvation and the salvation of those who are likewise impacted by our work? God-given is good, but toward what glorified end? What or who is glorified?
4) The writing is also not that engaging. I think this is the first arts/culture/theology book I've read so far that has had me bored within the first couple chapters. While I'm at it, there's a chapter where he call his own point a "key insight." No, sir. That is reserved for summaries and annotations of other people's work. Not your own in your own book. Smh.
Where the language is actually good comes in his careful perusal and exploration of the different historical contexts of cultural passages in the Bible. To cater to that strength, this book should have been primarily a study of culture-making throughout the Bible, with maybe a chapter or two at the end drawing out some of the implications for us as makers in the present, focusing specifically on the resurrection and John's Revelation.
5) In the end, this book does not pass the "would I read this on the train and hope someone asks me about it?" test. I did try to read a few chapters on said mode of transportation, but the more I disagreed with the test the more terrified I became that someone would ask what I was reading.
If you made it this far, huzzah. There were probably typos; don't tell me about them.
February 10, 2011
This is a book about culture - about what culture is, God's role in culture, and what our actions as Christians should be, in roughly that order. I found it to be a helpful book in understanding what culture is and how to affect it, a thought-provoking book when it examined scripture through the lens of culture, and an encouraging book when discussing how we personally can and should act.
The author begins by removing from us the common idea that we can even talk about "the culture" in a simple monolithic way, or that it would be helpful to do so if we could. Rather, he says, a culture is its pieces, is its cultural goods - the roadways, the foods, the institutions, and more. Broadly speaking, a cultural good is something that changes the boundaries of the possible and the impossible - the telephone makes it possible for you to speak to your family when far from them, and may also make it impossible (in some jobs) to ever be really off-work. If we want to have an effect on culture, we should drop this vague talk about "changing the culture" - we need to interact with it specifically, with these cultural goods.
But how should we interact with culture? There are actually many responses we can have to culture - we can condemn culture, critique culture, copy culture, consume culture, or cultivate and create culture. Cultivation and creation go together because no cultural good exists in a vacuum - it always builds in some way on what has come before it. At times, any one of these might be the proper response to some cultural good, but creation is particularly important because culture only changes as new cultural goods displace old ones.
After discussing culture in general, Crouch turns to the Bible, and walks us from Genesis to Revelation and presents the Biblical story as a story about culture. This is the part of the book I enjoyed the most. Starting in Genesis, we are told that man is made in the image of God, an image that surely at least includes God's creative aspect. In Genesis 2, we find Adam in a garden - a garden is not just nature, but already nature + culture. Culture too is one of God's gifts to man. We also see God making room for man's own creativity - instead of simply telling Adam the name of every creature He makes it Adam's choice.
The cultural story continues through scripture. Later, God chooses the nation of Israel, creates for them a unique culture through the Levitical laws and a unique cultural vocation - living in total dependence on Him. Then, He sets them in the well-trafficked Jordan valley, making sure that Israel's unique cultural vocation would be lived out in full view of the surrounding nations. Later still, in Jesus we meet the single greatest culture-affecter of all time, and it is worth noting that many of the personal changes Jesus encourages are to be accomplished by cultural changes - prayer is to be in quiet rooms instead of on the street, for example. Finally, at the end of the story, in Revelation, the new Jerusalem is revealed - not a garden as in Genesis, but a city, that place where cultures have their fullest expression. And, Crouch argues, many of the cultural goods we are so familiar with today will still be there, in redeemed form, and it is worth asking ourselves if the goods we create today will have a chance at making it into the New Jerusalem.
The middle section of the book, it should be said, will also be the most controversial, especially for readers with a more conservative view of scripture. Crouch states quite plainly, for example, that he views Genesis 1-11 as "less a finely documented history than a story that invites our trust." He does, certainly, trust these chapters enough to draw many lessons from them. And he later emphasizes the importance of the fact that "the Christian faith is a historical faith."
The final third of the book discusses how we are to go about in our calling to culture, and begins with a shot of humility - the first chapter is titled "Why We Can't Change the World." To change the world in this context means to create or modify some cultural good in a way that affects the horizons of possiblity and impossiblity for everyone - a difficult feat. Furthermore, Crouch says, there are no "sufficient conditions" for a world-changing cultural good - in other words, you simply cannot know ahead of time if your creation will have the effect and reach you desire.
We can, however, certainly have a more local effect on culture, and for that we need three things - power, community, and grace. Power is the ability to propose a new cultural good - but power also comes with risks, and is alluring and corrupting. So how should we act as Christians? Crouch has several suggestions, but perhaps they can be summarized in saying that we should choose to use power in ways that rob it of its temptation - specifically, by exercising service and stewardship.
But, even with power, culture is also rarely created alone. Instead, we need a community, and this community tends to take the form of concentric circles of people - Crouch calls them the 3, the 12, and the 120. He gives the example of a corporation, in which the ~3 might be the CEO, COO, CIO, and CFO, the 12 would be the board of directors, and the 120 would be the rest of the key staff. This numerical pattern has Biblical parallels as well - the Synoptic gospels stress the roles of Peter, James, and John around Jesus. Beyond them there are the remaining 12 disciples, and there are indications of a larger group as well - Jesus sends out 70 disciples to declare the coming of the kingdom in Luke 10, for example.
Finally, we need grace. God is at work in human culture, so supernaturally abundant results are possible every time we create a new cultural good. To find your personal calling in culture, Crouch suggests you ask yourself a question - "Where do you experience grace - divine multiplication that far exceeds your efforts."
The author begins by removing from us the common idea that we can even talk about "the culture" in a simple monolithic way, or that it would be helpful to do so if we could. Rather, he says, a culture is its pieces, is its cultural goods - the roadways, the foods, the institutions, and more. Broadly speaking, a cultural good is something that changes the boundaries of the possible and the impossible - the telephone makes it possible for you to speak to your family when far from them, and may also make it impossible (in some jobs) to ever be really off-work. If we want to have an effect on culture, we should drop this vague talk about "changing the culture" - we need to interact with it specifically, with these cultural goods.
But how should we interact with culture? There are actually many responses we can have to culture - we can condemn culture, critique culture, copy culture, consume culture, or cultivate and create culture. Cultivation and creation go together because no cultural good exists in a vacuum - it always builds in some way on what has come before it. At times, any one of these might be the proper response to some cultural good, but creation is particularly important because culture only changes as new cultural goods displace old ones.
After discussing culture in general, Crouch turns to the Bible, and walks us from Genesis to Revelation and presents the Biblical story as a story about culture. This is the part of the book I enjoyed the most. Starting in Genesis, we are told that man is made in the image of God, an image that surely at least includes God's creative aspect. In Genesis 2, we find Adam in a garden - a garden is not just nature, but already nature + culture. Culture too is one of God's gifts to man. We also see God making room for man's own creativity - instead of simply telling Adam the name of every creature He makes it Adam's choice.
The cultural story continues through scripture. Later, God chooses the nation of Israel, creates for them a unique culture through the Levitical laws and a unique cultural vocation - living in total dependence on Him. Then, He sets them in the well-trafficked Jordan valley, making sure that Israel's unique cultural vocation would be lived out in full view of the surrounding nations. Later still, in Jesus we meet the single greatest culture-affecter of all time, and it is worth noting that many of the personal changes Jesus encourages are to be accomplished by cultural changes - prayer is to be in quiet rooms instead of on the street, for example. Finally, at the end of the story, in Revelation, the new Jerusalem is revealed - not a garden as in Genesis, but a city, that place where cultures have their fullest expression. And, Crouch argues, many of the cultural goods we are so familiar with today will still be there, in redeemed form, and it is worth asking ourselves if the goods we create today will have a chance at making it into the New Jerusalem.
The middle section of the book, it should be said, will also be the most controversial, especially for readers with a more conservative view of scripture. Crouch states quite plainly, for example, that he views Genesis 1-11 as "less a finely documented history than a story that invites our trust." He does, certainly, trust these chapters enough to draw many lessons from them. And he later emphasizes the importance of the fact that "the Christian faith is a historical faith."
The final third of the book discusses how we are to go about in our calling to culture, and begins with a shot of humility - the first chapter is titled "Why We Can't Change the World." To change the world in this context means to create or modify some cultural good in a way that affects the horizons of possiblity and impossiblity for everyone - a difficult feat. Furthermore, Crouch says, there are no "sufficient conditions" for a world-changing cultural good - in other words, you simply cannot know ahead of time if your creation will have the effect and reach you desire.
We can, however, certainly have a more local effect on culture, and for that we need three things - power, community, and grace. Power is the ability to propose a new cultural good - but power also comes with risks, and is alluring and corrupting. So how should we act as Christians? Crouch has several suggestions, but perhaps they can be summarized in saying that we should choose to use power in ways that rob it of its temptation - specifically, by exercising service and stewardship.
But, even with power, culture is also rarely created alone. Instead, we need a community, and this community tends to take the form of concentric circles of people - Crouch calls them the 3, the 12, and the 120. He gives the example of a corporation, in which the ~3 might be the CEO, COO, CIO, and CFO, the 12 would be the board of directors, and the 120 would be the rest of the key staff. This numerical pattern has Biblical parallels as well - the Synoptic gospels stress the roles of Peter, James, and John around Jesus. Beyond them there are the remaining 12 disciples, and there are indications of a larger group as well - Jesus sends out 70 disciples to declare the coming of the kingdom in Luke 10, for example.
Finally, we need grace. God is at work in human culture, so supernaturally abundant results are possible every time we create a new cultural good. To find your personal calling in culture, Crouch suggests you ask yourself a question - "Where do you experience grace - divine multiplication that far exceeds your efforts."
October 27, 2021
This book unpacks our calling to cultivate and create culture and the resiliency it requires:
“At root, every human cultural enterprise is haunted by the ultimate impossibility…But God is at work precisely in these places where the impossible seems absolute. Our calling is to join in what he is already doing - to make visible what, in exodus and resurrection, he had already done…Grace itself leads us to the world’s broken places…so where are we called to create culture? At the intersection of grace and the cross.”
——
4 Stars for delivery: Mr. Crouch introduces more ideas than he probably needs to in a 268-page book. It gets chaotic. Some things he calls out directly. Others he places in a corner, tiptoes away, and then leaps across the room to pick back up. Sometimes, you don’t know where you’re headed or how you got there. But, we always come back to cultivating and creating.
Good stuff. One to read in your 20s and then revisit in 3-7 years.
“At root, every human cultural enterprise is haunted by the ultimate impossibility…But God is at work precisely in these places where the impossible seems absolute. Our calling is to join in what he is already doing - to make visible what, in exodus and resurrection, he had already done…Grace itself leads us to the world’s broken places…so where are we called to create culture? At the intersection of grace and the cross.”
——
4 Stars for delivery: Mr. Crouch introduces more ideas than he probably needs to in a 268-page book. It gets chaotic. Some things he calls out directly. Others he places in a corner, tiptoes away, and then leaps across the room to pick back up. Sometimes, you don’t know where you’re headed or how you got there. But, we always come back to cultivating and creating.
Good stuff. One to read in your 20s and then revisit in 3-7 years.
June 27, 2018
I greatly appreciated Crouch’s nuanced, wholistic, Biblically-rooted approach to the work of culture-making. Particularly helpful were the chapters about our “postures” toward various elements of culture and his unpacking of Jesus as the greatest culture maker of all. I finished the book feeling both sobered and inspired, a mix that feels right to me given the nature of the subject. Would highly recommend to any Christian who seeks to understand his/her work in the broader context of God’s redemptive purposes.
September 24, 2020
A must-read for artists and creators, but really is for anyone interested in seeing the world change. I learned a lot!
November 17, 2025
Always a 5 star read
January 6, 2022
Incredibly insightful and thought-provoking, there is a lot to digest and consider in this book. Definitely worth reading!
February 26, 2025
Some interesting thoughts on culture and our relationship to it as Christians.
August 12, 2020
Page after page filled with thoughtful reflections on “culture,” with a chastened understanding that we’re called to be “culture makers” without following the zeitgeist of “changing the world” (at least not what most people usually mean by that).
March 22, 2018
One of the finest books I have read on the topic of culture and the Christian responsibility to be "culture-makers". Crouch points out that most Christians in the US tend to ignore the first two chapters and the last two chapters of the Bible. Humans were originally placed in the world to be culture makers and to cultivate the raw materials God created the world with. He points out that when God created Adam and Eve He then called His work "very good". To illustrate this principle Crouch mentions how wheat is good. But when a culture-maker takes it, grinds it into flour, adds yeast and salt and water and bakes it to become bread - what you now have is "very good". Likewise with grapes that are good - they can be harvested, crushed, fermented and turned into wine which is also "very good".
Ultimately human culture in some fashion will be redeemed and brought forward into the Kingdom itself. Revelation 21 has this rather startling claim:
"24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. "
The glory and honor of the nations will be part of the New Heavens and New Earth. We are not going back to a primitive state of Eden. Rather humanity's ultimate end will be in a City - a place of culture.
Now I have to point out that the only reason I did not give this book 5 stars is because the writer talks about making a chili and using bulgar wheat instead of meat. As a Texas I can only say: That.Is.Not.Right.
Otherwise apart from that minor flaw I highly recommend this book to every Christian.
Ultimately human culture in some fashion will be redeemed and brought forward into the Kingdom itself. Revelation 21 has this rather startling claim:
"24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. "
The glory and honor of the nations will be part of the New Heavens and New Earth. We are not going back to a primitive state of Eden. Rather humanity's ultimate end will be in a City - a place of culture.
Now I have to point out that the only reason I did not give this book 5 stars is because the writer talks about making a chili and using bulgar wheat instead of meat. As a Texas I can only say: That.Is.Not.Right.
Otherwise apart from that minor flaw I highly recommend this book to every Christian.
January 19, 2015
Andy Crouch wants Christians to think rightly about culture. And not only how we think about it, but also how it fits within the framework of what God has accomplished in the person and work of Jesus Christ. He says that he had “a hunch that the language of ‘engaging the culture,’ let alone the ‘culture wars,’ fell far short. . . . I also sensed that most churches were neglecting the centrality of culture to the bible story and the gospel itself” (p. 5) and “Indeed, the good news is the world is already changed, in a specific and astonishing way. God’s ways are not our ways. . . . The good news about culture is that culture is finally not about us, but about God” (p. 7).
That gospel rootedness reorients the entire discussion ongoing in the church. Culture making is less about what we do or accomplish, rather it’s about what God has already done and is doing in the world. Culture Making starts in Part 1 by defining and exploring what culture is (“Culture is, first of all, the name or our relentless, restless human effort to take the world as it’s given to us and make something else” [p. 23 also see p. 36 “culture is what we were made to do”].
Read the entire review here
Buy Crouch’s Culture Making here
That gospel rootedness reorients the entire discussion ongoing in the church. Culture making is less about what we do or accomplish, rather it’s about what God has already done and is doing in the world. Culture Making starts in Part 1 by defining and exploring what culture is (“Culture is, first of all, the name or our relentless, restless human effort to take the world as it’s given to us and make something else” [p. 23 also see p. 36 “culture is what we were made to do”].
Read the entire review here
Buy Crouch’s Culture Making here
June 1, 2023
Re-read this before beginning grad school this fall and I'm so glad I did. This book is an absolute gem and has really shaped the way I think about how culture shapes our horizons of what is and isn't possible. Which means Christians have a responsibility to be culture keepers and also create cultural goods that extend our local horizons toward goodness. I also love this book's insight into New Creation.
Favorite Quotes: We don't make Culture, we make omelets.
When it comes to cultural creativity, innocence is not a virtue. The more each of us knows about our cultural domain, the more likely we are to create something new and worthwhile.
Beware of world changers—they have not yet learned the true meaning of sin.
Favorite Quotes: We don't make Culture, we make omelets.
When it comes to cultural creativity, innocence is not a virtue. The more each of us knows about our cultural domain, the more likely we are to create something new and worthwhile.
Beware of world changers—they have not yet learned the true meaning of sin.
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