Finding God in Popular Culture

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

While at St. Vladimir's Seminary, my Canon Law professor was John Erickson. Many years later, Prof. Erickson was ordained to the priesthood and even served as the dean of the seminary for a few years. He is now retired, but still serving when and where he made be needed. This is an older article of Fr. John's, written in 2005 (and, I believe, already ordained by then). Nevertheless, it is a timely article for it raises the issue of the Church's relation to contemporary culture. I found it in the latest issue of the Monthly News journal of SUPRASL, an Orthodox Christian movement found in Poland.

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Our world is filled with strange new words. We download our favorite mp3, jpeg, and wav files to our laptops. We listen to our favorite music on our iPods. We consult our favorite blogsters for news and commentary on current affairs. Weary of recreational shopping at the megamall, we turn to a dot.com. We click on an icon quite unlike those that we venerate in church. We express our feelings with an emoticon.

Of course some of our words—and the cultural realities behind them—are not exactly new, though they may be new to us. We enjoy takeout sushi or burritos—not to mention pizza—as much as hamburgers or hotdogs. We patronize upscale restaurants featuring fusion cuisine. We stock up on unpronounceable spices and condiments from every continent save Antarctica.

Contemporary culture—from literature and the arts to sports and fashion—has become global in scope. On the one hand, it is broader and more pervasive than most cultures of the past. No matter where we live on the face of the earth, we are connected by the internet and cell-phones. We drink Coca-Cola. We watch films from Hollywood. We also watch films from Bollywood (Bombay). But this culture is also shallower than most cultures of the past. It is easy to identify shared technologies and foods. It is harder to identify shared values and aspirations.

….sometimes we are tempted to identify our faith with a particular culture, possibly a past culture or even an imaginary culture, so that it is hard for us to envision the possibility of new and different cultural expressions of Orthodoxy. 

How are we Orthodox Christians to respond to this new cultural situation? Do we have a theological word to offer? Sometimes the ‘word’ that we hear is not only critical. It is distinctly hostile. We know that over the centuries Orthodoxy has shown a remarkable capacity to adapt to diverse cultures and even to transform and transfigure them. We point with pride at the accomplishments of St. Cyril and Methodius, of St. Innocent of Alaska, of St. Nicholas of Japan. We know, in principle, that our faith can be expressed in a variety of cultural forms, in response to a variety of cultural circumstances. But sometimes we are tempted to identify our faith with a particular culture, possibly a past culture or even an imaginary culture, so that it is hard for us to envision the possibility of new and different cultural expressions of Orthodoxy. Sometimes we are so enamored of our great cultural achievements of the past that we despair when faced by a future in which our Orthodox faith—indeed the Christian faith itself—seems to be increasingly marginalized. We are tempted to withdraw into sectarian separation from the world rather than engage it in fresh and creative ways. Or, more often, we try simply to ignore the rapidly changing world around us (a futile undertaking!), deeming it of no spiritual significance.

Such approaches—counter-cultural or anti-cultural—may claim a scriptural warrant. Christ tells His disciples that “they are not of the world” (John 17:16), even though they may still be in the world. Christians are warned, “Do not love the world or the things in the world, for if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (I John 2:15). But at the same time, we know that “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

These words—at first glance contradictory—pose a challenge. They challenge us to love the world, but in a new way. We are indeed to reject “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life” (as the text from I John continues). But we are to love the world as God does—in a way that is self-giving and ultimately redemptive. We know that the world is fallen. But we also know that God created this world as good, to participate in His goodness, to reflect His beauty and creative power.

Certainly we must reject what is “of the world”—“the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life.” But at the same time, let us try to love the world as God loves it, with our eyes open and our ears unstopped.

A trip to the mall or a few hours surfing on the internet can provide many examples of “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life.” But contemporary culture also offers many examples of human striving for justice, beauty and truth. What can we learn from the loneliness and vulnerability of the superhero (cf. Young Superman in Smallville), from the indomitable courage of the hobbit Frodo Baggins in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, from the exposure of hypocrisy and cant in The Simpsons? 

Do we take the trouble to look for Christ—and for the human search for Christ—in these and other expressions of contemporary culture? Perhaps we personally don’t have much interest in comic-book superheroes or Tolkien’s rich fantasy world, not to mention the Simpson family. Perhaps we don’t even use the internet or shop at the malls. But those around us do. And perhaps, in these unlikely venues, they too will meet Christ.

God’s call can be heard in unusual places throughout this world that He loves so much. He beckons to us in unusual ways. Certainly we must reject what is “of the world”—“the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life.” But at the same time, let us try to love the world as God loves it, with our eyes open and our ears unstopped.

This article was originally published in the programme booklet for Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary’s 2005 Education Day “Icons and ipods: Finding God in Popular Culture”.