Christianity & Culture

I received William Wilberforce’s book, Real Christianity, as a Father’s Day gift, and I just started reading it last week. I can tell already, that it is going to be a wonderfully encouraging and convicting book to read. As we were driving somewhere I was talking to Jessica about the book and some of the very insightful things to he says that are amazingly relevant today in regards to Christianity and culture. In the opening paragraph of the first chapter he writes, “You might think that if you consider yourself a “good” person and are against “bad” things, your faith is adequate. The fact is, you might not be a Christian at all but simply a moral person. You might understand the Christianity our culture has adopted without understanding what constitutes authentic faith. You might know some of the basic facts about Christianity but have no idea how those facts should apply to your life.” While we have the same problems today, I think one fundamental difference comes in regards to what he says about “the Christianity our culture has adopted.” In terms of the time in which he was writing this in late 18th century England, we can see in history the culturally accepted Christianity that he is talking about. However, if one takes a good look around in 21st century America, I think that one would be hard pressed to find a Christianity that is adopted by the culture. I believe instead of culture adopting forms of Christianity we have Christianity that wants to adopt forms of culture. In essence, while the trend seems reversed, the result is the same. Wilberforce talks in his introduction of how, in this book, he wants to deal with “the problems with the beliefs and actions of those who already claim to be Christians.” This is the result of having a culture that “accepts” Christianity and a Christianity that wants to be accepted by culture. We have people who claim to be Christians, and as Wilberfore puts it, they have “such little understanding of the real nature of the faith they profess.

This was a man whose life was very much wrapped up in the culture because of his position and the cause that he fought against, yet he was so motivated and driven in his labors by his faith in Christ. Imagine a politician whose life was all wrapped up in the Kingdom of God, and not the kingdom of England or the kingdom of popular opinion. I am greatly looking forward to continue my reading of this book and seeing what this man has to say about what it means to believe in Christ.