Dear friends and supporters,
We’re on the road this week headed home to stay for about 12 days before heading out again to Alabama for the For God and Truth Conference (see more below), so this e-newsletter will be shorter than usual. It’s basically an introduction to and promotion for my newest e-book.
Loss of Consensus in Culture and Church
Times of cultural confusion are times of loss of consensus. Confusion happens in our individual minds when we are obliged to consider conflicting data. We aren’t speeding, yet the police officer pulls us over. Why would this be? We get vaccinated against Covid-19 yet are required to wear a mask. Why? Conflicting data produces confusion, and cultural confusion is the consequence of cultural conflict when consensus breaks down.
The consensus in the West since the Middle Ages has been Christianity, specifically Christian culture. This was an obviously imperfect but foundationally cohesive culture that tied together the thinking of Western man: the reality of the Triune God, the truth of the Bible, the authority of God’s moral law, and man’s task to conform himself to God’s place for him in the world.
This consensus created a cultural cohesiveness that was preserved even during the fiercest wars. The European religious wars of the early 17th century, for example, emerged precisely because of that consensus — basically everybody believed in God and the Bible, but they disagreed over how to interpret them. As strange as it may seem, this Thirty Years’ War was a testimony to Christian consensus.
The Modern Confusion
That consensus began to dissolve with the 18th century European Enlightenment, which set reason above revelation as the arbiter of truth. Henceforth, man’s reason, not God’s revelation, was to provide the cultural consensus.
Except it didn’t. In less than a century, Romanticism, elevating the individual’s feelings and emotions and intuition, rose to combat the sterility of Enlightenment. Since that time, consensus has gradually eroded, not just in culture, but also the church. Everyone is now his own authority.
My new e-book discusses leading examples of this loss of consensus, this void of Christendom.
The Coming Godless Consensus
But man cannot forever endure confusion, even cultural confusion. He longs for certainty and coherence. Today, the new developing consensus is secular and Neo-pagan: cancel culture, Black Lives Matter, homonormativity, and statism. This evolving consensus, if successful, will brook no dissent.
The only viable alternative is a new Christian cultural consensus.
This book is about launching that consensus.
You can get the book here. Please consider getting a copy and recommending it to others.
Will you consider a tax-deductible donation to CCL via PayPal or Venmo? Or mail a check to CCL, Box 100, Coulterville, CA 95311. God uses you to keep us going — and expanding.
Personal
Just a reminder that I’ll be addressing the For God and Truth Conference (Pastor Ernie Yarbrough) in Decatur, Alabama, August 4–7. My two topics are:
1. “Developing A Biblical Theology of Culture: Roots of Grace”
2. “Developing A Biblical Theology of Culture: Fruits of Grace”
Sharon will be accompanying me as (almost) always.
I’ll also be delivering two intimate-venue talks on “Christian Responsibility as Cultural Responsibility,” one in the Birmingham, Alabama area (Sunday, August 1) as well as the northern Tennessee area (Monday, August 9). These talks are by invitation only, so please contact me if you’re interested in attending.
Next week I hope to write on “Jesus’ Capitalism.”
Your fervent prayer and gracious support have helped CCL to grow more in the last 16 months than at any time the last 16 years. May God be glorified. And thank you.
Yours for clarity, and against confusion,
Founder & President, Center for Cultural Leadership
More great stuff:
The Center for Cultural Leadership site is here.
My Amazon author page (print and digital) is here.
You can find my sermons and lectures at my YouTube channel.
Sign up to get my blog updates here.
Here’s my Twitter feed.
If you want to get the free exclusive hard copy publication Christian Culture, please send me a Facebook private message.
The CCL phone number is 831-420-7230.
The mailing address is:
Center for Cultural Leadership
P.O Box 100
Coulterville, CA 95311
