Today we continue our discussion on the two major strains of Christianity in the world by beginning with out own; Western Christianity. To clarify these next few weeks are examining how two very different cultures have influenced the same faith in radically different ways. I am not trying to draw distinctions between Christians or label anyone as right or wrong. Understanding how the culture we live in affects our faith is extremely important.
This week and next week we will be examining two very broad culture systems; the West and the East. There are thousands of sub cultures within both of those categories that have further shaped peoples' faith in Christ. We are simply looking at the broadest possible categories.
This week and next week we will be examining two very broad culture systems; the West and the East. There are thousands of sub cultures within both of those categories that have further shaped peoples' faith in Christ. We are simply looking at the broadest possible categories.
The West
When we are talking about the West we are talking about Rome. Roman culture is the foundation that all of Western Civilization is built on. The genius of Roman culture was its legal system. The Roman system of laws was complex and effective. Their law system was so good that many of our most important legal concepts are taken directly from the Romans (hence there being so much Latin in law).
So what does this have to do with Christianity? Well the churches that were planted in the Western part of the Roman Empire were directly under the cultural influence of Rome. This meant that the legal brilliance that ran throughout Roman culture found its way into the churches.
Think about it for a moment. Here in America, are most of the problems we have with other churches theological or procedural? Do we disagree with their view of God or HOW they go about worshiping and serving God? Most of our disagreements are procedural.
This comes from the Roman legal system bleeding into the churches of the West. Once the Roman Empire fell, the churches in the West maintained this legalistic mindset. Problems in the West almost never had to do with theological issues (almost). The disagreements almost always had something to do with HOW things were done.
The other element the Roman legal system introduced to the West was the concept of legal status. Churches focused heavily on the status of its members; in other words saved or not saved. This is why the question of "when do you become saved" is so important in our churches. We want to know our "legal" status before God.
This focus on our legal status before God meant that churches in the West tended to focus more on humanity and the human problem of sin. This also meant that the Crucifixion became the focal point of Jesus. Why? Because the Cross was the answer to the problem of sin, effectively changing our legal status before God.
Conclusion
Everything about our faith has been shaped by the culture we live in. As I said earlier there are literally thousands of cultures within the West that further contribute and change our outlook. Still this overarching Western culture is extremely influential on us today.
I do want to emphasize something very important; cultural influence is not inherently a bad thing. It is probably easy to look at the influences of the Roman legal system and declare them a negative impact on Christianity. Next week we will look at the East and see what cultural elements influenced them. The week after that we will compare the two and I think you will see that the two sides work best together.
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