Did Paul Revere change culture that night with his warning? Good question?Dr. John Seel comments on Dr. James Hunter's thesis on cultural change when he writes:
"University of Virginia sociologist James Davison Hunter argues that the common view of cultural change is sociologically ill-informed and consequently ineffective. Good intentions and increased activity are no substitute for an accurate understanding."
Dr. Seel writes, at length, about Dr. Hunter's ideas on cultural change. He believes Dr. Hunter has it right. I have written about Dr. Hunter's ideas here on culture before. Dr. Seel's views on Hunter are helpful; he writes regarding culture formation that it "works in the same way: it’s a historically informed dialectical process. Culture is both socially constructed and socially constraining. We make culture and are, in turn, made by it. Culture is the frame or story through which we live our lives. Everything is seen or explained through its lens. Culture includes the ideas, images, and institutions that shape a given society’s understanding of what is thinkable, sayable, and doable in a given time and place. It serves as an invisible matrix."
Hunter's posits that culture is formed by individuals and their networks. He writes...
“While everyone participates in the construction of their own private worlds, the development and articulation of the more elaborate systems of meaning, including the realm of public culture, falls more or less exclusively to the realm of elites. They are the ones who provide the concepts, supply the language, and explicate the logic of public discourse.”
Dr. Hunter, in addition, writes, “The power of culture is not measured by the size of a cultural organization or by the quantity of its output, but by the extent to which a definition of reality is realized in the social world—taken seriously and acted upon by actors in the social world. In modern society religious elites have an existence that is essentially meaningless to the economic, political, and cultural dynamics of advanced industrial society—a sideshow to the ‘real’ issues of the day.”
As for those of us who are Christian, we have, for too long, been content to create institutions and organizations that are built to stay inside the Christian culture, never venturing outside those walls. Now, years later, we awaken from our slumber and discovered that we are not current, relevant or taken seriously any longer by the rest of culture. Why?
Dr. Seel writes regarding Hunter's thesis, "Cultural change is top-down, not bottom-up, diffused through culture-forming institutions rather than the mass mobilization of individuals. Market populism—the combination of consumerism and egalitarianism—masks this process. Culture formation does not function as a mass consumer market. Culture is not the aggregate of atomized individual choices."
He goes on to add, "Instead, the gatekeepers of the reality-defining institutions frame the public metaphors and shape the collective imagination. These institutions, in turn, set the parameters for the private behavior and consciousness of the masses. "
What are those institutions that define reality, frame the public metaphors and shape collective imagination? Well, one of the most powerful is the school. It is the school that indoctrinates and enculturates students with the demands of society. It is the school that raises the next generation of leaders and workers. It is the school that sets the parameters for behavior and consciousness.
As Christians, we must recognize the power of the school. If we fail to recognize the power of the Christian school, we will fail in changing the direction of culture. Those who wish to change culture, long ago, recognized the power of the school, and that is why the battle for the school is so intense. All moral and godly referenced has been removed from our public schools, and for what? Tolerance, church and state and negative influence are some of the reasons given, but we all know the real reason...cultural change. And, in my lifetime...culture has changed.
The question is now this: is this cultural change better? Your answer to that question will mean everything to your children, their education and the future culture they walk into as adults. At Westminster we are engaging culture for the sake of the gospel and in order to train our students properly for the battles that they will all face in the current culture. Our hope is that we can be used by a Holy God to turn culture back into one that puts God in His proper place...first in all things.
Please read Dr. Seel's article in its entirety; it will be time well spent! Blessings!
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