CC-402 Christianity and Culture

When the gospel enters a culture, what does it change and what does the culture do to it? Learn to help your church decide together what to keep, change or refuse.

Following Christianity and Culture, this course starts with a Finnish mission among the Ovambo people of Namibia. It looks at Andrew Walls's two principles: the gospel is at home in every culture, and every believer is a pilgrim in it. It follows the question through the Bible's story, mission, public life, history, today's secular and digital world, and the arts. The course touches living communities and painful history; when a matter needs more than a course can give, turn to your church or a professional where you live.

What you will study

• What culture is, and how the gospel meets it
• Walls's two principles: at home in every culture, a pilgrim in every culture
• H. Richard Niebuhr's five types and his critics
• The Bible's story from garden to city, and translating the gospel into a culture
• The church and public life: the main Christian answers
• The gospel and culture in history, from the early church to Africa today
• A secular, plural and digital world; story, art and film
• Deciding in community: family, work, politics, media and other faiths

Course materials

• Christianity and Culture, a WWES textbook
• The Bible