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Interpreting Your World: Five Lenses for Engaging Theology and Culture
Whether we interpret Scripture or culture, it matters what we do, not just what we think or feel. How do we live with our interpretation, and how do we live it out? This book helps us understand how culture forms us as political actors, moves us aesthetically, shapes the rhythms of our lives, and connects (or disconnects) us from God and neighbors we are called to love. The goal is to be equipped to engage culture with greater fluency and fidelity in response to the triune God.
This short, accessible introduction to the conversation between theology and culture offers a patient, thoughtful, and theologically attuned approach to cultural discernment. It helps us grow our interpretive skill by training our intuition and giving us a slower, more deliberate approach that accounts for as much of the complexity of culture as possible. The book explores 5 dimensions of culture--meaning, power, morality, religion, and aesthetic--and shows how each needs the others and all need theology. Each chapter includes distinctive practices for spiritual formation and practical application. Foreword by Kevin J. Vanhoozer.
This short, accessible introduction to the conversation between theology and culture offers a patient, thoughtful, and theologically attuned approach to cultural discernment. It helps us grow our interpretive skill by training our intuition and giving us a slower, more deliberate approach that accounts for as much of the complexity of culture as possible. The book explores 5 dimensions of culture--meaning, power, morality, religion, and aesthetic--and shows how each needs the others and all need theology. Each chapter includes distinctive practices for spiritual formation and practical application. Foreword by Kevin J. Vanhoozer.
176 pages, Paperback
Published September 20, 2022
11 people are currently reading
1247 people want to read
About the author
Justin Ariel Bailey
3 books43 followersJustin Ariel Bailey works at the intersection of Christian theology, culture, and ministry. Having served as a pastor in a number of diverse settings, his research seeks to bridge gaps between church and academy, and the formational spaces where they overlap. He is the author of the book Reimagining Apologetics (IVP Academic, 2020) and the forthcoming volume Interpreting Your World (Baker Academic, 2022). He serves as associate professor of Theology at Dordt University and is the host of the In All Things podcast.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
July 6, 2023
I have been partial to the consideration of the roles of and relationship between theology and culture ever since I read Paul Tillich’s Theology and Culture and took a course from John Newport using his text, Theology and Contemporary Art Forms (though his use of Rookmaaker’s Modern Art and the Death of a Culture didn’t seem quite so edifying). More recently, I’ve read Comic Con Christianity and God’s Wider Presence. All of these books support a more intensive consideration of (listening to and reflecting upon) culture as a foundation for what would ultimately be an apologetic for getting the gospel to wider populations. Interpreting Your World: Five Lenses for Engaging Theology and Culture follows in that tradition but offers a more functional methodology.
Author Justin Ariel Bailey uses five approaches for his engagement: meaning (grounding and defense), power (creation vs. coercion), ethics (moral boundary-making), religion (sacred experience and otherness), and aesthetics (poetic/artistic experience of beauty) as lined out on p. 16. I actually liked Kevin J. Vanhoozer’s (Bailey’s former professor’s) suggestion of substituting the word “semantic” (in its broadest sense) for the “meaning” dimension to create the acronym SPERA (Latin word for “hope”—p. xiii). I also like the fact that Bailey’s wraps up each discussion with a “Distinctive Practice” for each of the five lenses, designed to challenge believers to employ their theology in life. Meaning’s practice is not labeled as such, but it is “Hosting” (pp. 37-39), while the clearly labeled practices for the rest are: “Iconoclasm” (pp. 60-62) to deal with power, “Organic Servanthood” (pp. 82-84) to enhance the moral dimension, “Directional Discernment” (pp. 103-104) to assist in keeping religious concepts from becoming idolatrous, and “Generous Making” (pp. 125-126) to allow expression of aesthetic impulses.
Choosing multiple lenses with which to view both culture and theology is a wise choice by Bailey because he is concerned that readers recognize the fallacy of “separate but equal” cultures as incoherent, impotent, and illusory (p. 10). So, Bailey urges us to use these lenses at our disposal to avoid the illusion of “critical distance” (p. 16) and interact authentically with cultures. For those who are afraid that engaging with cultures alien or hostile to Christianity would be selling out, he later writes (in tune with Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck) that: “This is a critical point: not every cultural product remains purely a work of human hands. Some cultural products are taken up into the divine economy of redemption. … humans make immune system bubbles for themselves, but some spaces are made by God—through human hands—so that humanity can live in God’s presence. This does not make those cultural works less human; it represents God sanctifying human creative work for holy purposes.” (p. 31)
The discussion of meaning (or culture as meaning) suggests culture as an immune system that protects identities through boundaries, but also: “…provides us with a dynamic system of discernment, one that allows us to move through an ocean of information and yet maintain a unified identity.” (p. 22) Citing Clifford Geertz, he observes: “…we are suspended in webs of significance that we ourselves have spun.” (p. 23) Of course, this has a positive effect of building a sense of belonging, but can also have a negative effect of avoiding even edifying cultural strains because we have an “allergic reaction” to ideas and impressions that destabilize our comfort zones (p. 24). Here, despite Bailey’s awareness that aspects of culture can be drawn into redemptive work, he warns: “Modern culture’s detachment from the tapestry of transcendence has led to a sense of unease.” (p. 25)
Two particularly memorable concepts in the chapter on meaning stuck with me. First, “…no culture is so fallen that all its stories, systems, and significances need to be replaced without remainder. In fact, the heart of the approach pursued in this book can be summed up in the following phrase: fulfillment, not replacement.” (p. 37) Also, on the same page, he cites Scot McKnight’s assertion that: “…what set Jesus apart from the Pharisees was their distinctive understandings of holiness. The Pharisees believed that holiness was something fragile to be protected; Jesus believed that holiness was something powerful to be unleashed.” (p. 37)
Holiness as powerful forms a nice segue to the discussion on power. Bailey sees power as a tension between creativity and coercion. He recognizes that humanity without redemption distorts creation such that it is manipulated into a lust for power and control. At this point, he risks losing a large section of his audience because he speaks of the necessity of critical theory and many ultra-right wing church members will immediately jump to CRT as the epitome of this theory. Critical theory is more than CRT, though CRT is one application thereof. However, the main point of Christians subjecting power to critical theory is that the Bible is full of necessary examination and testing (p. 44). If believers allow secular society to provide all of the critical examination of “cultural industries” and institutions, we will see a continuation of the trend where: “Religion is being replaced by pop culture as the ‘opiate of the masses.’” (p. 48) Naturally, this doesn’t speak well of religion or pop culture.
Citing the work of Lewis Smedes, Bailey emphasizes that God is coming again to fix the world and make it altogether good again, but “In between, his children are to go into the world and create imperfect models of the good world to come.” (p. 52) Yet, it is the very fact that our models are imperfect that requires critiques from the outside and the margins, since we on the inside have difficulty recognizing just how imperfect our models are (p. 53).
I enjoyed his citation of G. K. Chesterton’s famous line on morality as part of his introduction to the ethical/moral lens: “…both morality and art require ‘drawing the line somewhere.’” (p. 65) This is an important chapter where Bailey insists that we must listen to concerns and ideas outside of church, examine our concerns, ideas, and traditions within church, and test everything in the light of Scripture (p. 66). He cites Jonathan Haidt’s six polarities of concern: 1) care versus harm, 2) fairness versus cheating, 3) liberty versus oppression, 4) loyalty versus betrayal, 5) authority versus subversion, and 6) sanctity versus degradation (p. 70). Each pair forms a spectrum along which moral concerns and behavior are played out.
Bailey appropriately critiques moral systems which are so mechanical or functional that they do not allow for the internal hunger for truth and right (p. 72) Immediately thereafter, Bailey extols the connective tissue of morality that theologians would call immanence, the sense of what we, as believers, would describe as God being near us so that we are addressed by and accountable to more than ourselves (p. 73). With these two observations, the lack in instrumentality and the need for authority and guidance beyond ourselves, Bailey exposes the problem with most ethical systems and, if we are not careful, with our personal constructs of morality.
He also recognizes that faith is not a simple (or even complex) catechism of answers. He quotes Block from Bergman’s The Seventh Seal where the character protests to Death by saying, “I want knowledge! Not faith, not assumptions, but knowledge. I want God to stretch His hand, uncover His face, and speak to me.” (cited on p. 88) Humans have a tendency to substitute patterns of community, personal transformation, social engineering, quests for meaning, creativity, and accountability to an individual or group for an ongoing relationship with transcendent God (p. 90). This is how one moves from faith to a “do-it-yourself” spirituality. Yes, we need those patterns described earlier, but we also need them where a sense of awe and otherness can break into the tunnel vision of our existence from a vertical dimension that we do not personally control (p. 97). As a correlative, Bailey knows that the only way we’ll find such a vertical intervention is through revelation in Jesus Christ (p. 101).
In terms of aesthetics, Bailey makes a game attempt to describe what is often a subjective exercise, but he admits that it isn’t entirely possible. Instead, he underscores the importance of aesthetics to our flourishing human experience. He points out how many people are afraid of art and imagination because they think of it as merely “escape,” but he draws from Tolkien’s exposition of fantasy as providing the conceptual groundwork for people to deal with the dyscatastrophe of sorrow and failure as well as the reception of the eucatastrophe of joy and deliverance (p. 123). That alone would be affirming, but Bailey went further by asserting that such imaginative escapes caution us against the presumption that we have completed our personal quests and that they have demonstrated in arousing our desire (speaking positively here) for discovering deeper reality (p. 123).
In his conclusion, he warned against the danger found among many believers in discounting human cultural efforts (on any of the five fronts of which he has written) as being “merely” human and not communicating any of the divine to the believer. He writes that this leads to a double-blindness “…in which Christians are overly apprehensive about what happens outside the church and overly accommodating of what happens within.” (p. 137)
But I thought his most prophetic statement came on the next page: “When it comes to cultural engagement, it has resulted in a basic posture of suspicion toward the wider culture’s artifacts and resignation toward (if not outright celebration of) the mediocrity of popular ‘Christian’ culture.” (p. 138) Interpreting Your World: Five Lenses for Engaging Theology and Culture would make a fine small group study in many churches, as well as a solid textbook for those special studies courses on Theology and Culture. As for me, I wanted to be challenged in my assumptions and dissuaded from my Qoheleth-mode of condemning cultural artifacts before I really engage them. I needed this volume and I appreciate it.
Author Justin Ariel Bailey uses five approaches for his engagement: meaning (grounding and defense), power (creation vs. coercion), ethics (moral boundary-making), religion (sacred experience and otherness), and aesthetics (poetic/artistic experience of beauty) as lined out on p. 16. I actually liked Kevin J. Vanhoozer’s (Bailey’s former professor’s) suggestion of substituting the word “semantic” (in its broadest sense) for the “meaning” dimension to create the acronym SPERA (Latin word for “hope”—p. xiii). I also like the fact that Bailey’s wraps up each discussion with a “Distinctive Practice” for each of the five lenses, designed to challenge believers to employ their theology in life. Meaning’s practice is not labeled as such, but it is “Hosting” (pp. 37-39), while the clearly labeled practices for the rest are: “Iconoclasm” (pp. 60-62) to deal with power, “Organic Servanthood” (pp. 82-84) to enhance the moral dimension, “Directional Discernment” (pp. 103-104) to assist in keeping religious concepts from becoming idolatrous, and “Generous Making” (pp. 125-126) to allow expression of aesthetic impulses.
Choosing multiple lenses with which to view both culture and theology is a wise choice by Bailey because he is concerned that readers recognize the fallacy of “separate but equal” cultures as incoherent, impotent, and illusory (p. 10). So, Bailey urges us to use these lenses at our disposal to avoid the illusion of “critical distance” (p. 16) and interact authentically with cultures. For those who are afraid that engaging with cultures alien or hostile to Christianity would be selling out, he later writes (in tune with Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck) that: “This is a critical point: not every cultural product remains purely a work of human hands. Some cultural products are taken up into the divine economy of redemption. … humans make immune system bubbles for themselves, but some spaces are made by God—through human hands—so that humanity can live in God’s presence. This does not make those cultural works less human; it represents God sanctifying human creative work for holy purposes.” (p. 31)
The discussion of meaning (or culture as meaning) suggests culture as an immune system that protects identities through boundaries, but also: “…provides us with a dynamic system of discernment, one that allows us to move through an ocean of information and yet maintain a unified identity.” (p. 22) Citing Clifford Geertz, he observes: “…we are suspended in webs of significance that we ourselves have spun.” (p. 23) Of course, this has a positive effect of building a sense of belonging, but can also have a negative effect of avoiding even edifying cultural strains because we have an “allergic reaction” to ideas and impressions that destabilize our comfort zones (p. 24). Here, despite Bailey’s awareness that aspects of culture can be drawn into redemptive work, he warns: “Modern culture’s detachment from the tapestry of transcendence has led to a sense of unease.” (p. 25)
Two particularly memorable concepts in the chapter on meaning stuck with me. First, “…no culture is so fallen that all its stories, systems, and significances need to be replaced without remainder. In fact, the heart of the approach pursued in this book can be summed up in the following phrase: fulfillment, not replacement.” (p. 37) Also, on the same page, he cites Scot McKnight’s assertion that: “…what set Jesus apart from the Pharisees was their distinctive understandings of holiness. The Pharisees believed that holiness was something fragile to be protected; Jesus believed that holiness was something powerful to be unleashed.” (p. 37)
Holiness as powerful forms a nice segue to the discussion on power. Bailey sees power as a tension between creativity and coercion. He recognizes that humanity without redemption distorts creation such that it is manipulated into a lust for power and control. At this point, he risks losing a large section of his audience because he speaks of the necessity of critical theory and many ultra-right wing church members will immediately jump to CRT as the epitome of this theory. Critical theory is more than CRT, though CRT is one application thereof. However, the main point of Christians subjecting power to critical theory is that the Bible is full of necessary examination and testing (p. 44). If believers allow secular society to provide all of the critical examination of “cultural industries” and institutions, we will see a continuation of the trend where: “Religion is being replaced by pop culture as the ‘opiate of the masses.’” (p. 48) Naturally, this doesn’t speak well of religion or pop culture.
Citing the work of Lewis Smedes, Bailey emphasizes that God is coming again to fix the world and make it altogether good again, but “In between, his children are to go into the world and create imperfect models of the good world to come.” (p. 52) Yet, it is the very fact that our models are imperfect that requires critiques from the outside and the margins, since we on the inside have difficulty recognizing just how imperfect our models are (p. 53).
I enjoyed his citation of G. K. Chesterton’s famous line on morality as part of his introduction to the ethical/moral lens: “…both morality and art require ‘drawing the line somewhere.’” (p. 65) This is an important chapter where Bailey insists that we must listen to concerns and ideas outside of church, examine our concerns, ideas, and traditions within church, and test everything in the light of Scripture (p. 66). He cites Jonathan Haidt’s six polarities of concern: 1) care versus harm, 2) fairness versus cheating, 3) liberty versus oppression, 4) loyalty versus betrayal, 5) authority versus subversion, and 6) sanctity versus degradation (p. 70). Each pair forms a spectrum along which moral concerns and behavior are played out.
Bailey appropriately critiques moral systems which are so mechanical or functional that they do not allow for the internal hunger for truth and right (p. 72) Immediately thereafter, Bailey extols the connective tissue of morality that theologians would call immanence, the sense of what we, as believers, would describe as God being near us so that we are addressed by and accountable to more than ourselves (p. 73). With these two observations, the lack in instrumentality and the need for authority and guidance beyond ourselves, Bailey exposes the problem with most ethical systems and, if we are not careful, with our personal constructs of morality.
He also recognizes that faith is not a simple (or even complex) catechism of answers. He quotes Block from Bergman’s The Seventh Seal where the character protests to Death by saying, “I want knowledge! Not faith, not assumptions, but knowledge. I want God to stretch His hand, uncover His face, and speak to me.” (cited on p. 88) Humans have a tendency to substitute patterns of community, personal transformation, social engineering, quests for meaning, creativity, and accountability to an individual or group for an ongoing relationship with transcendent God (p. 90). This is how one moves from faith to a “do-it-yourself” spirituality. Yes, we need those patterns described earlier, but we also need them where a sense of awe and otherness can break into the tunnel vision of our existence from a vertical dimension that we do not personally control (p. 97). As a correlative, Bailey knows that the only way we’ll find such a vertical intervention is through revelation in Jesus Christ (p. 101).
In terms of aesthetics, Bailey makes a game attempt to describe what is often a subjective exercise, but he admits that it isn’t entirely possible. Instead, he underscores the importance of aesthetics to our flourishing human experience. He points out how many people are afraid of art and imagination because they think of it as merely “escape,” but he draws from Tolkien’s exposition of fantasy as providing the conceptual groundwork for people to deal with the dyscatastrophe of sorrow and failure as well as the reception of the eucatastrophe of joy and deliverance (p. 123). That alone would be affirming, but Bailey went further by asserting that such imaginative escapes caution us against the presumption that we have completed our personal quests and that they have demonstrated in arousing our desire (speaking positively here) for discovering deeper reality (p. 123).
In his conclusion, he warned against the danger found among many believers in discounting human cultural efforts (on any of the five fronts of which he has written) as being “merely” human and not communicating any of the divine to the believer. He writes that this leads to a double-blindness “…in which Christians are overly apprehensive about what happens outside the church and overly accommodating of what happens within.” (p. 137)
But I thought his most prophetic statement came on the next page: “When it comes to cultural engagement, it has resulted in a basic posture of suspicion toward the wider culture’s artifacts and resignation toward (if not outright celebration of) the mediocrity of popular ‘Christian’ culture.” (p. 138) Interpreting Your World: Five Lenses for Engaging Theology and Culture would make a fine small group study in many churches, as well as a solid textbook for those special studies courses on Theology and Culture. As for me, I wanted to be challenged in my assumptions and dissuaded from my Qoheleth-mode of condemning cultural artifacts before I really engage them. I needed this volume and I appreciate it.
November 27, 2022
It was a joy to read your newest book, Dr. Bailey! Thank you for writing a tangible book to continue the conversation of our Theology and Pop Culture class. I appreciate the lenses you presented as well as the many examples provided throughout to connect with.
November 20, 2022
I’m hard pressed to think of a theologian who inspires me quite like Justin Bailey. His latest work is compelling not just as an accessible, original text of cultural theology.
But upon reading this book, one gets the impression that Bailey is less interested in making church relevant by helping Christians become skilled interpreters of culture. Rather, Bailey seems rightly concerned with helping people of faith reconsider how the Spirit might already be present within culture– in places they would least expect to find God. Here Bailey shines as a seasoned theologian and pastor-poet, whose voice needs to be heard.
This work will fill you with new hope. My clear-cut favorite of 2022.
But upon reading this book, one gets the impression that Bailey is less interested in making church relevant by helping Christians become skilled interpreters of culture. Rather, Bailey seems rightly concerned with helping people of faith reconsider how the Spirit might already be present within culture– in places they would least expect to find God. Here Bailey shines as a seasoned theologian and pastor-poet, whose voice needs to be heard.
This work will fill you with new hope. My clear-cut favorite of 2022.
December 30, 2022
Culture is like the air we breathe: it's everywhere, you can't avoid it, and we rarely give it a thought. Bailey in this book asks how theology can aid us in understanding, evaluating, and engaging with culture.
As the book's title suggests, he gives us five ways in which to approach culture: the meaning dimension, in which he uses the image of an immune system to explain this approach; the power dimension, in which he interacts with critical theory and other ways of considering power; the ethical dimension, in which he shows how our moral sensibilities affect our interaction with culture; the religious dimension, in which he shows how culture taps into meaning, purpose, community, and ritual; and finally the aesthetic dimension, in which he shows how culture strives for beauty, excellence, and a certain electricity.
Having said that, I realize that paragraph is much too reductive of the book. Bailey includes numerous helpful images to illustrate his point, most particularly the image of sharing a meal together. We all must interact with culture, we are all part of a culture, and his desire is that as Christians we not react with either disgust and condemnation to pop culture, nor that we thoughtlessly engage in it. He wants a conversation; he wants us to test the spirits. Yes, culture is messy, which is why we need wisdom and discernment.
The book, while short, is not a quick read. There are some dense passages. Bailey mentions that he has his students at Dordt University read this book in his courses on Christianity and culture. So it is an academic read, but it's not designed for the classroom only. It's for our living rooms, our workplaces, our churches, for wherever we encounter culture.
As the book's title suggests, he gives us five ways in which to approach culture: the meaning dimension, in which he uses the image of an immune system to explain this approach; the power dimension, in which he interacts with critical theory and other ways of considering power; the ethical dimension, in which he shows how our moral sensibilities affect our interaction with culture; the religious dimension, in which he shows how culture taps into meaning, purpose, community, and ritual; and finally the aesthetic dimension, in which he shows how culture strives for beauty, excellence, and a certain electricity.
Having said that, I realize that paragraph is much too reductive of the book. Bailey includes numerous helpful images to illustrate his point, most particularly the image of sharing a meal together. We all must interact with culture, we are all part of a culture, and his desire is that as Christians we not react with either disgust and condemnation to pop culture, nor that we thoughtlessly engage in it. He wants a conversation; he wants us to test the spirits. Yes, culture is messy, which is why we need wisdom and discernment.
The book, while short, is not a quick read. There are some dense passages. Bailey mentions that he has his students at Dordt University read this book in his courses on Christianity and culture. So it is an academic read, but it's not designed for the classroom only. It's for our living rooms, our workplaces, our churches, for wherever we encounter culture.
July 31, 2024
Read for a class. There are some great tools for engaging culture while still holding true to one’s theology.
January 16, 2026
This was an enjoyable read on understanding culture and engaging with it from a Christian perspective. In Interpreting Your World, Justin Ariel Bailey offers five lenses through which we can and should view culture. Often, I find that a book’s introduction is the strongest part and everything else declines from there, but this book was the opposite. After reading the introduction, I wasn't particularly motivated to continue, but chapter 1 completely changed that.
Chapter 1 was the highlight of the book for me. In it, Bailey examines culture through the lens of meaning and offers a helpful analogy: culture as both a virus and an immune system. As a virus (not in a negative sense), culture is something that "invades us and sets our agendas." It "clings to us because it means something to us. And we are fundamentally creatures who need meaning to survive." But not everything goes viral, because culture also acts as an immune system. Only the aspects of culture that resonate with our sense of meaning will have "sticking power," which is why it's essential for Christians to contextualize the gospel to our ever-changing cultures.
Overall, it offered a fresh take on culture that helped me think more deeply about realities I take for granted daily. Each chapter concluded with a specific practice aligned with the given metaphor, making the book both informative and practical.
Great quotes:
“Culture is a verb, something we can't not do, part and parcel of being human. Culture, in the biblical story, represents the creative human vocation to unfold creation's intricacies and to image God in bringing order to chaos. Culture making is an act of obedience to the divine mandate to take the good start given to us and to make it even better (Gen. 1:26-28). As the human response to God's creative action, our investment in culture is a deeply theological project. It may suppress or deny awareness of God (Rom. 1:18), but it cannot ignore the mandate to make something of the world.” p10-11
“When it comes to the shape of Israel's immune system bubble its common life, centered on the tabernacle—purity and pollution are conceived in the most tangible of terms. To put it plainly, it is less about religious feelings and more about bodily fluids. As Stanley Hauerwas has remarked, "Any religion that does not tell you what to do with your genitals and pots and pans cannot be interesting.” p32
“In the incarnation, Jesus takes on our humanity. Dying, he destroys our death; rising, he restores our life. Through his ascension he brings our humanity into the very presence of God. Finally, through the gift of the Spirit, he prepares every culture to be a fitting "host" for the good infection of the gospel, seasoned by the "salt-like" proclamation of the church (Matt. 5:13; Col. 4:6).” p36
“There will be cultural immune systems and idolatries that will make for a more hostile reception. Others will seek quickly to syncretize the gospel, thus rendering themselves more resistant to the gospel's leavening power. But no culture is so fallen that all its stories, systems, and significances need to be replaced without remainder. In fact, the heart of the approach pursued in this book can be summed up in the following phrase: fulfillment, not replacement. To be sure, the malignancy of sin must be removed. Cultural idolatries must be confronted. But everything that is truly human will be healed-along with all of creation-finding its fullness in the kingdom of God.” p37
“But what if eschatology, like aesthetics, is a "flight to reality" rather than from it? I take this argument from Tolkien's stunning essay "On Fairy Stories," in which he answers the accusation that fantasy literature (characterized by exhaustive world building, invented languages, and magic) is mere escapism. The key to his response is a distinction between two sorts of escape. One sort of escape we should rightly resist: desertion, like soldiers who abandon their posts in selfish pursuits. But there is another sort of escape, a heroic motif: escape from unjust imprisonment. He writes, "Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? The world outside has not become less real because the prisoner cannot see it."43 If we find ourselves in a world evacuated of mystery, then nothing is more fitting than wanting to escape, to go home. Tolkien argues that we are drawn to fairy tales because they cleanse our imagination. They take the familiar features of the world and render them strange, reengaging our attention and, with it, our creative humanity.” p122
Chapter 1 was the highlight of the book for me. In it, Bailey examines culture through the lens of meaning and offers a helpful analogy: culture as both a virus and an immune system. As a virus (not in a negative sense), culture is something that "invades us and sets our agendas." It "clings to us because it means something to us. And we are fundamentally creatures who need meaning to survive." But not everything goes viral, because culture also acts as an immune system. Only the aspects of culture that resonate with our sense of meaning will have "sticking power," which is why it's essential for Christians to contextualize the gospel to our ever-changing cultures.
Overall, it offered a fresh take on culture that helped me think more deeply about realities I take for granted daily. Each chapter concluded with a specific practice aligned with the given metaphor, making the book both informative and practical.
Great quotes:
“Culture is a verb, something we can't not do, part and parcel of being human. Culture, in the biblical story, represents the creative human vocation to unfold creation's intricacies and to image God in bringing order to chaos. Culture making is an act of obedience to the divine mandate to take the good start given to us and to make it even better (Gen. 1:26-28). As the human response to God's creative action, our investment in culture is a deeply theological project. It may suppress or deny awareness of God (Rom. 1:18), but it cannot ignore the mandate to make something of the world.” p10-11
“When it comes to the shape of Israel's immune system bubble its common life, centered on the tabernacle—purity and pollution are conceived in the most tangible of terms. To put it plainly, it is less about religious feelings and more about bodily fluids. As Stanley Hauerwas has remarked, "Any religion that does not tell you what to do with your genitals and pots and pans cannot be interesting.” p32
“In the incarnation, Jesus takes on our humanity. Dying, he destroys our death; rising, he restores our life. Through his ascension he brings our humanity into the very presence of God. Finally, through the gift of the Spirit, he prepares every culture to be a fitting "host" for the good infection of the gospel, seasoned by the "salt-like" proclamation of the church (Matt. 5:13; Col. 4:6).” p36
“There will be cultural immune systems and idolatries that will make for a more hostile reception. Others will seek quickly to syncretize the gospel, thus rendering themselves more resistant to the gospel's leavening power. But no culture is so fallen that all its stories, systems, and significances need to be replaced without remainder. In fact, the heart of the approach pursued in this book can be summed up in the following phrase: fulfillment, not replacement. To be sure, the malignancy of sin must be removed. Cultural idolatries must be confronted. But everything that is truly human will be healed-along with all of creation-finding its fullness in the kingdom of God.” p37
“But what if eschatology, like aesthetics, is a "flight to reality" rather than from it? I take this argument from Tolkien's stunning essay "On Fairy Stories," in which he answers the accusation that fantasy literature (characterized by exhaustive world building, invented languages, and magic) is mere escapism. The key to his response is a distinction between two sorts of escape. One sort of escape we should rightly resist: desertion, like soldiers who abandon their posts in selfish pursuits. But there is another sort of escape, a heroic motif: escape from unjust imprisonment. He writes, "Why should a man be scorned if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? The world outside has not become less real because the prisoner cannot see it."43 If we find ourselves in a world evacuated of mystery, then nothing is more fitting than wanting to escape, to go home. Tolkien argues that we are drawn to fairy tales because they cleanse our imagination. They take the familiar features of the world and render them strange, reengaging our attention and, with it, our creative humanity.” p122
February 27, 2023
In "Interpreting Your World," Justin Bailey offers an incredible and incisive introductory text that is sure to help readers reimagine afresh the relationship between culture and theology for today's world and challenges. Throughout this volume, Bailey is clear that he is specifically challenging certain kinds of Christian dispositions (that are commonly characteristic of many conservative streams of Christianity) towards culture, namely, dispositions that take on the character of dismissal, anxiety, and/or reductiveness.
He offers "five lenses for engaging theology and culture," which are packaged via the cultural dimensions of meaning, power, ethical, religious, and aesthetic. For each dimension, he offers insightful analysis regarding their cultural function, and after each analysis he poetically demonstrates the manner in which Christian theology might listen and respond, as well as observe and critique, each of these cultural dimensions, while also pointing them to their final and collective longing in Christ.
There are many things one can take away from this, indeed, too many to recount here. But one of the central benefits, or offerings, of this volume is to redirect the reader's gaze towards the living God whose activity can even be experienced within the world outside of the church, and whose divine economy can be discerned through those meaning-making creatures who have a share in the divine image. Bailey thickens the plot, as it were. Indeed, culture is both beautiful and ugly, teeming and complex, and thus for Christian disciples instead of hostile or dismissive tones better yet for faithfulness may be a critical spirit that is funded by generosity and vice versa. Or, as he puts it, one that is quick to listen, and slow to speak.
Having said that, though, there are many questions I felt Bailey did not (adequately) address. For instance, how do we (i.e. the church and cultural participants) disentangle ourselves from the current culture wars - that dictate the norms of dialogue and imagination - without forfeiting faith's convictions or without losing a clear voice of Christian witness? And thus, how do we apply this overall approach without being grossly accommodating? And how do we discern when we have unwittingly done so? Additionally, what does it look like to put this into public practice, without again exacerbating polarizing tensions?
Certainly, another volume could be written on this question alone, but I also wonder how the church might be able to discern, then, any clear normative standards for its own practices of meaning-making, even as it participates in the wider world of culture. In other words, how do we know when we are closer towards 'arriving,' even if we're never able to on this side of the eschaton? Even so, "Interpreting Your World" certainly moves us in the right direction, and helps the church to get started.
He offers "five lenses for engaging theology and culture," which are packaged via the cultural dimensions of meaning, power, ethical, religious, and aesthetic. For each dimension, he offers insightful analysis regarding their cultural function, and after each analysis he poetically demonstrates the manner in which Christian theology might listen and respond, as well as observe and critique, each of these cultural dimensions, while also pointing them to their final and collective longing in Christ.
There are many things one can take away from this, indeed, too many to recount here. But one of the central benefits, or offerings, of this volume is to redirect the reader's gaze towards the living God whose activity can even be experienced within the world outside of the church, and whose divine economy can be discerned through those meaning-making creatures who have a share in the divine image. Bailey thickens the plot, as it were. Indeed, culture is both beautiful and ugly, teeming and complex, and thus for Christian disciples instead of hostile or dismissive tones better yet for faithfulness may be a critical spirit that is funded by generosity and vice versa. Or, as he puts it, one that is quick to listen, and slow to speak.
Having said that, though, there are many questions I felt Bailey did not (adequately) address. For instance, how do we (i.e. the church and cultural participants) disentangle ourselves from the current culture wars - that dictate the norms of dialogue and imagination - without forfeiting faith's convictions or without losing a clear voice of Christian witness? And thus, how do we apply this overall approach without being grossly accommodating? And how do we discern when we have unwittingly done so? Additionally, what does it look like to put this into public practice, without again exacerbating polarizing tensions?
Certainly, another volume could be written on this question alone, but I also wonder how the church might be able to discern, then, any clear normative standards for its own practices of meaning-making, even as it participates in the wider world of culture. In other words, how do we know when we are closer towards 'arriving,' even if we're never able to on this side of the eschaton? Even so, "Interpreting Your World" certainly moves us in the right direction, and helps the church to get started.
July 25, 2022
Man is a social animal where we divide ourselves into groups or communities that are typically determined by something we call “culture.” In fact, culture plays an outsized role in determining our identity, purpose and “tribe.” Some philosophers argue that the very nature of self can only develop within and without other people … for it is be such comparisons and contrasts that we find out what makes us different and what makes us the same (e.g. the boundaries of self and the collective and of the other). Culture is such a ubiquitous part of our psychology that it is actually difficult to define it distinctly … so it is more of a recognition when you see it (a sort of this are my people and these are not division of the world) … Much like the author, I find that I “gravitate to spaces in which I am comfortable, where I know what will be asked of me, spaces where I have some measure of power, influence , and control.” And yet, isolation is Not the Call of the Christian. So while I bring my own culture into the world, conflict is inevitable when I encounter other cultures … some markedly different than my own. How should I “interpret” and “differentiate” myself unless I can understand how culture drives my own motivations and that of others?
This book gives us 5 “lenses” by which we can better understand what culture is and how it works in our communities and weaves that into the generally call by Christ to love [our enemies] and what that means. Each lens highlights an aspect of culture that should ultimately be viewed together as a whole. Each lens is introduced with a bit of an explanation of why that particular metaphor works (for example … Jonathan Haidt is used to introduce a Moral Foundations Theory that explores sin (6) [paired] innate moral intuitions and the tension within each pair in terms of resonance and resistance). Also within each, the author proposed several theological threads exploring the intersection of culture and theology (the point of the book). The sections each end was a series of questions to reflect on or discuss. Over all, this was an quick and easy read without any of the “big” words or ideas often found within a theology piece, so I would recommend that book for any inquirer interested in a culture and how such interacts with [christian] theology (in both directions).
Introduction: Is There Anything to Say?
1. The Meaning Dimension: Culture as Immune System
2. The Power Dimension: Culture as Power Play
3. The Ethical Dimension: Culture as Moral Boundary
4. The Religious Dimension: Culture as Sacred Experience
5. The Aesthetic Dimension: Culture as Poetic Project
Conclusion: The Lived Dimension
I was given this free advance review copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#InterpretingYourWorld #NetGalley.
This book gives us 5 “lenses” by which we can better understand what culture is and how it works in our communities and weaves that into the generally call by Christ to love [our enemies] and what that means. Each lens highlights an aspect of culture that should ultimately be viewed together as a whole. Each lens is introduced with a bit of an explanation of why that particular metaphor works (for example … Jonathan Haidt is used to introduce a Moral Foundations Theory that explores sin (6) [paired] innate moral intuitions and the tension within each pair in terms of resonance and resistance). Also within each, the author proposed several theological threads exploring the intersection of culture and theology (the point of the book). The sections each end was a series of questions to reflect on or discuss. Over all, this was an quick and easy read without any of the “big” words or ideas often found within a theology piece, so I would recommend that book for any inquirer interested in a culture and how such interacts with [christian] theology (in both directions).
Introduction: Is There Anything to Say?
1. The Meaning Dimension: Culture as Immune System
2. The Power Dimension: Culture as Power Play
3. The Ethical Dimension: Culture as Moral Boundary
4. The Religious Dimension: Culture as Sacred Experience
5. The Aesthetic Dimension: Culture as Poetic Project
Conclusion: The Lived Dimension
I was given this free advance review copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#InterpretingYourWorld #NetGalley.
September 29, 2022
Justin Ariel Bailey is becoming one of my favorite current thinkers/writers when it comes to intelligent engagement with ideas from a Christian perspective. This book is just as good as (maybe better than?) his first, which I also loved, and this time he takes a broader look at an unwieldy topic, "culture." He weaves together an impressive range of sources, and is a deep reader of a great variety of ideas, from critical theory to pop culture to conservative theology, all in service of "thickening" our posture towards the culture we inhabit. The five lenses he proposes are accessible enough to understand, while complex enough to challenge and leave room for nuance.
All in all, this is a remarkably wide-ranging book, deftly written, and refreshingly concise. I'm very grateful for Bailey's voice, and hopeful that he is representative of a new wave of thoughtful Christian intellectuals. Highly, highly recommended.
All in all, this is a remarkably wide-ranging book, deftly written, and refreshingly concise. I'm very grateful for Bailey's voice, and hopeful that he is representative of a new wave of thoughtful Christian intellectuals. Highly, highly recommended.
September 21, 2022
Justin Ariel Bailey has done it again! His second book details five disciplinary dimensions (meaning, power, ethics, religion, and aesthetics) for joining the conversation between theology and culture. Its excellence shines through in several ways: Bailey is capacious in imagination, incisive in analysis, generous in posture, elegant in conciseness, and constructive in application. It's difficult for me to imagine any Christian college student, young professional, middle-aged congregant, or reflective retiree who wouldn't benefit immensely from taking it up and reading. Highly recommended!
January 2, 2023
A helpful little book that seeks to complicate —while simplifying — a Christian's engagement with culture(s). Bailey puts forth five dimensions to cultural interpretation, which is pulled together by the all-encompassing thread of theology. Bailey is an apt guide to cultural engagement. The book will be especially challenging for cultural separatists. I was pleased to find several deployments of J.H. Bavinck!
August 8, 2024
I highly recommend reading this book after you have read James K. A. Smith’s You Are What You Love. Justin Bailey builds on Smith’s work in fascinating and helpful ways.
November 18, 2022
Justin Bailey is an assistant professor at Dordt College. This is a book about culture and theology, a lived-out everyday life. He wrote this book in part “in part because I am troubled by the dismissive tone with which many of my fellow Christians (and particularly my fellow Calvinists) approach culture”.
Karl Marx’s eleventh of his Theses on Feuerbach is: “Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.” Here Bailey writes on ways to interpret the world but as Marx observes interpretation must move on to engagement and where needed transformation. But then before transformation must come interpretation.
Culture is an elastic term. Bailey is rightly concerned that we do not adopt a thin view of culture or a reductive view of culture. To avoid that he discusses five lenses or “penta-focal lenses” through which culture can be observed and interpreted. He doesn’t define exactly what he means by culture – perhaps that is deliberate? One of the best definitions is that of Christian philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd – who is surprisingly absent from Bailey’s writings. Dooyeweerd in his Roots of Western Culture describes culture as “… the term culture refers to whatever owes its existence to human formation in contrast to whatever develops in ‘nature’.
Bailey’s five lenses are:
1. The Meaning Dimension: Culture as Immune System
2. The Power Dimension: Culture as Power Play
3. The Ethical Dimension: Culture as Moral Boundary
4. The Religious Dimension: Culture as Sacred Experience
5. The Aesthetic Dimension: Culture as Poetic Project
For each of the dimensions, he identifies a practice. For the meaning dimension the practice is hosting; for the power dimension the practice is iconoclasm; for the ethical dimension the practice is servant hood; for the religious dimension the practice is discernment; and for the aesthetic dimension the practice is making. These provide constructive and interesting insights into how we respond to, approach, and shape culture.
He correctly realises that cultural participation must go beyond resistance and critique. It also needs to include the cultivation of beautiful things. And helpfully identifies some “characteristic flaws” in Christians’ approach to culture:
intellectualism (overreliance on analysis), triumphalism (overestimation of our ability to “transform the culture”), and parochialism (underappreciation of the gifts on the outside).
Sadly, these have often marred a distinctly Christian approach. Hopefully, Bailey’s book will go towards helping alleviate these unbiblical traits.
Bailey notes that:
I was attracted to the Dutch “Reformational” tradition because of the way it trained me to recognize the multifaceted glory of creation and the beauty of ordinary life. This tradition has trained me to oppose reductionism at every turn.
And there are obvious echoes of this tradition in what Bailey writes, but, surprisingly, there is no interaction with Dooyeweerd – though Kuyper, Herman and J.H. Bavinck do get some mentions. Dooyeweerd identifies fifteen different modal aspects, and it would have been good to see all of these aspects explored concerning culture.
The book is well written and provides some excellent questions for reflection and discussion at the end of each chapter. The appendix also has a set of thought-provoking questions. Even though this book doesn’t have all the answers to Christian cultural interaction it does pose important questions and offers some wisdom into how we approach culture.
My thanks to Baker Academic for supplying an ARC.
Karl Marx’s eleventh of his Theses on Feuerbach is: “Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.” Here Bailey writes on ways to interpret the world but as Marx observes interpretation must move on to engagement and where needed transformation. But then before transformation must come interpretation.
Culture is an elastic term. Bailey is rightly concerned that we do not adopt a thin view of culture or a reductive view of culture. To avoid that he discusses five lenses or “penta-focal lenses” through which culture can be observed and interpreted. He doesn’t define exactly what he means by culture – perhaps that is deliberate? One of the best definitions is that of Christian philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd – who is surprisingly absent from Bailey’s writings. Dooyeweerd in his Roots of Western Culture describes culture as “… the term culture refers to whatever owes its existence to human formation in contrast to whatever develops in ‘nature’.
Bailey’s five lenses are:
1. The Meaning Dimension: Culture as Immune System
2. The Power Dimension: Culture as Power Play
3. The Ethical Dimension: Culture as Moral Boundary
4. The Religious Dimension: Culture as Sacred Experience
5. The Aesthetic Dimension: Culture as Poetic Project
For each of the dimensions, he identifies a practice. For the meaning dimension the practice is hosting; for the power dimension the practice is iconoclasm; for the ethical dimension the practice is servant hood; for the religious dimension the practice is discernment; and for the aesthetic dimension the practice is making. These provide constructive and interesting insights into how we respond to, approach, and shape culture.
He correctly realises that cultural participation must go beyond resistance and critique. It also needs to include the cultivation of beautiful things. And helpfully identifies some “characteristic flaws” in Christians’ approach to culture:
intellectualism (overreliance on analysis), triumphalism (overestimation of our ability to “transform the culture”), and parochialism (underappreciation of the gifts on the outside).
Sadly, these have often marred a distinctly Christian approach. Hopefully, Bailey’s book will go towards helping alleviate these unbiblical traits.
Bailey notes that:
I was attracted to the Dutch “Reformational” tradition because of the way it trained me to recognize the multifaceted glory of creation and the beauty of ordinary life. This tradition has trained me to oppose reductionism at every turn.
And there are obvious echoes of this tradition in what Bailey writes, but, surprisingly, there is no interaction with Dooyeweerd – though Kuyper, Herman and J.H. Bavinck do get some mentions. Dooyeweerd identifies fifteen different modal aspects, and it would have been good to see all of these aspects explored concerning culture.
The book is well written and provides some excellent questions for reflection and discussion at the end of each chapter. The appendix also has a set of thought-provoking questions. Even though this book doesn’t have all the answers to Christian cultural interaction it does pose important questions and offers some wisdom into how we approach culture.
My thanks to Baker Academic for supplying an ARC.
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