{"id":4572,"date":"2017-07-17T05:53:10","date_gmt":"2017-07-17T13:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=4572"},"modified":"2017-07-17T05:53:10","modified_gmt":"2017-07-17T13:53:10","slug":"to-change-the-world-week-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2017\/07\/17\/to-change-the-world-week-four","title":{"rendered":"To Change The World, Week Four"},"content":{"rendered":"
Blog readers: Chi Alpha @ Stanford is engaging in our annual summer reading project. As we read through To Change The World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World <\/a>by James Davison Hunter, I\u2019ll post my thoughts here (which will largely consist of excerpts I found insightful). They are all tagged summer-reading-project-2017<\/a>. The reading schedule is online at https:\/\/xastanford.org\/summer-reading<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n
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The first part of this week\u2019s reading<\/span> is a straightforward extension of Hunter\u2019s thought so far, perhaps best summed up by this observation:<\/div>\n
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Against the prevailing view, the main reason why Christian believers today (from various communities) have not had the influence in the culture to which they have aspired is not that they don\u2019t believe enough, or try hard enough, or care enough, or think Christianly enough, or have the right worldview, but rather because they have been absent from the arenas in which the greatest influence in the culture is exerted<\/i>. (page 89, emphasis in original)<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
A book he mentions in the footnotes, Faith In The Halls Of Power<\/i> by D. Michael Lindsay, is definitely worth reading<\/span> in conjunction with this one. The book is available online through the Stanford library<\/a>. I posted some excerpts from it a few years ago: Notes from Faith in the Halls of Power<\/a>.<\/div>\n
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What I was most pleased by in this week\u2019s readings were Hunter\u2019s reflections about the perils of elitism.<\/div>\n
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The significance of every person before God irrespective of worldly stature or accomplishment and the care for the least are the ethical hallmarks of Christianity.\u2026 This is why elitism\u2014a disposition and relationality of superiority, condescension, and entitlement by social elites\u2014is so abhorrent for the Christian. Its foundation is exclusion on the implicit (and sometimes explicit) view that people are not equal in love and dignity before God. Thus, by its very nature, elitism is exploitative. So far as I can tell, elitism for believers is despicable and utterly anathema to the gospel they cherish. (page 94)<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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Whatever its larger influence in the world may be, a culture that is genuinely alternative cannot emerge without faithful presence in all areas of life. This will include networks (and more, communities) of counter-leaders operating within the upper echelons of cultural production and social life generally. These are realms of performance and distinction that may be rare and inaccessible to the average person, but they are still critically important to both the renewal of the church and its engagement with the culture. (page 96)<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Here is my challenge to you,<\/b> someone who is being conditioned by Stanford to serve in elite roles. Whatever you wind up doing, learn to love what you do without disdaining less elite believers. This is harder than you think it will be. A part of elite culture you must remain vigilant against is ostentatiously despising people who relish popular culture. One key marker will be whether you truly view believers who have never heard the word intersectionality and who view Denny\u2019s as the pinnacle of cuisine as brothers and sisters worthy of celebrating and defending. In other words, be elite without being elitist<\/b>.<\/div>\n
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Worth reading<\/span> in this regard is the recent David Brooks New York Times column and its frenzied responses.<\/div>\n
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How We Are Ruining America<\/a> (David Brooks, NYT): \u201cTo feel at home in opportunity-rich areas, you\u2019ve got to understand the right barre techniques, sport the right baby carrier, have the right podcast, food truck, tea, wine and Pilates tastes, not to mention possess the right attitudes about David Foster Wallace, child-rearing, gender norms and intersectionality.\u201d This column spawned much derision on social media, but I strongly agree with Brooks. Here are two sympathetic reactions from Freddie deBoer on the left<\/a> and from Rod Dreher on the right<\/a>. Dan Drezner takes it in a different direction<\/a>.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The above snippet will be featured in today\u2019s Friday email.<\/div>\n
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Given our summer<\/span> reading<\/span>, I supposed I should highlight that this is from a New York Times columnist. I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve noticed this, but I deliberately choose articles from high-status institutions and individuals that are either directly relevant to the Christian life or are germane to a Christian view of human flourishing. I don\u2019t hold to this rigidly, but it\u2019s something I am very aware of when composing each Friday email. It\u2019s one small step towards helping our community interact with the most influential parts of culture.<\/div>\n
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Incidentally, if you don\u2019t get those Friday emails and are interested in them, you can sign up at http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/subscribe<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blog readers: Chi Alpha @ Stanford is engaging in our annual summer reading project. As we read through To Change The World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World by James Davison Hunter, I\u2019ll post my thoughts here (which will largely consist of excerpts I found insightful). They are all tagged summer-reading-project-2017. The \u2026 Continue reading \u201cTo Change The World, Week Four\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Some reflections on the perils of elitism from To Change The World.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[209,210],"class_list":["post-4572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources-reviews","tag-summer-reading-project-2017","tag-to-change-the-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1bK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4572"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4573,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4572\/revisions\/4573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}