Here at Chesterton House, we talk a lot about theology and culture. Why? Because Christianity is an embodied and incarnational faith. We are cultural creatures, and as H. Richard Niebuhr once put it, "we cannot escape culture any more readily than we can escape nature."

In his landmark 1951 book Christ and Culture, Niebuhr discusses at length the various ways Christians have understood and enacted the tension to be "in the world but not of it." Niebuhr maps this landscape in a five part typology. At one end of the spectrum there is Christ against culture, an other-worldly spirituality that largely rejects culture as corrupt, a view he says is typical among Anabaptists. At the other end there is Christ of culture, an accommodationist position typical of liberal Protestants that harmonizes Christianity with culture.

In between there are what Niebuhr calls three mediating positions that deal more explicitly with the tension of living simultaneously in the the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of the world. First, there is Christ above culture, the view typical among Roman Catholics that nature entails divine imperatives knowable by reason that are consistent with and that prepare us for the imperatives of the gospel. Second, there is Christ and culture in paradox, the view typical of Lutherans in which the constraints of life in a sinful world are understood to be inescapably at odds with radical faithfulness to the gospel. Third, there is Christ transforming culture. In this tradition, following Augustine, Calvin, and Edwards, the gospel is understood as restoring good but fallen orders of creation, and revelation as restoring the corrupted faculty of reason. These are of course ideal types offered with many qualifications.

Although much has changed in 50 years, Niebuhr's book remains remarkably helpful. As Martin Marty writes in the preface to the 50th anniversary edition of the book, Christ and Culture has left such a mark that all conversations about Christianity and culture must now take these categories into account. As we challenge students to live out their faith in all areas of life, we agree with Marty that internalizing these types and distinctions will help us reason and speak more clearly.

Consider, for example, German theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In April, 1945, just weeks before the end of World War II, Bonhoeffer was executed for participating in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Bonhoeffer's story is one of courage. It is also a case study in the application of faith. Bonhoeffer wanted to be an academic, not an assassin. Moreover, he was a pacifist. In the end, however, he concluded that what faith required of him was neither retreat nor accommodation, but resistance.

Many people assume that when Bonhoeffer joined the assassination plot, he abandoned his pacifism. But in Martin Doblmeier's award-winning film Bonhoeffer (2003), we see the troubled pastor asking God to forgive him for the sin he was about to commit. That scene poignantly captures Bonhoeffer's distinctively Lutheran theology of culture. He is depicted as believing that he had twin duties to stand before God and to act politically for the good of others--and that the two duties could not be fully reconciled.

There are many other examples, past and present, that illustrate efforts to reconcile the tension of living as citizens in two kingdoms. Suffice it to say, there is no escaping culture. Incarnational theology requires us to flesh out our loyalty to Christ in the particularities of the time and place we happen to live. Faithfulness to Christ thus requires careful consideration of one's culture.

We invite you to join us this Saturday evening as three local pastors reflect on the theme of Christ and culture. Rev. Rob Foote, pastor of Lutheran Trinity Church, Rev. Steve Froehlich, pastor of New Life Presbyterian Church, and Fr. Bob Smith of the Cornell Catholic Community, will all share their thoughts on the topic, followed by time for questions and discussion.

The response to our most recent mailing has been very encouraging. Thanks to all who have been helping us reach our goal of raising $200,000 by January 2007. With your generous support, we passed the half-way mark this summer and are now over 60% of the way to our goal. We need to raise $75,000 in the next three months in order to trigger the full matching gift. The matching gift opportunity is in effect until January 15th, 2007. More information on the matching grant and how you can support the Chesterton House ministry is available here: http://www.chestertonhouse.org/funding.html. Please prayerfully consider helping us reach this goal.

Although public lectures are the most visible part of the Chesterton House ministry, most of our new programming this year is elsewhere. We have three discussion groups this year. Discussion groups are excellent opportunities for students who desire to go deeper into thinking Christianly about a particular area of study. The three groups are Faith and Science, Current Issues, and Environmental Studies. More information on discussion groups can be found at http://www.chestertonhouse.org/events/discussion_groups

We also have developed a speakers' bureau as a resource to the various Christian fellowship groups on campus for retreats and weekly meetings. Chesterton House director Karl Johnson, for example, will speak this semester to Grace Christian Fellowship, Cornell Christian Fellowship, and at the combined Graduate Christian Fellowship and Cornell International Christian Fellowship retreat. More information on the speakers' bureau can be found at http://www.chestertonhouse.org/resources/speakers_bureau.

Chesterton House exists in part to provide students with opportunities for spiritual growth and development. Toward that end we have created a student position on the governing board. We are pleased to announce that this position has been inaugurated by Josh Pothen '07. Josh is a pre-med computer science major who has been involved with the Chesterton House ministry since his freshman year. His interests include theology, bioethics, anime, and film criticism. We are privileged to have Josh giving his valuable time to the ministry, and we look forward to his contributions.

Recognizing the quality of the science and religion programming we have offered in the past, the Metanexus Institute has awarded Chesterton House a three-year, $15,000 grant. The Metanexus Institute administers Templeton Foundation monies for programming in science and religion. These funds will go to support the Faith and Science discussion group, and to help bring in additional visiting scholars in the general area of science and religion.

For those interested in reading more on the theme of Christ and culture, there is no lack of material. Among the many items accessible via the web, we recommend the articles of the Christian Vision Project. A Project of Christianity Today, the Christian Vision Project is asking select Christian leaders to respond to the question, "How can followers of Christ be a counterculture for the common good?" As Jean Bethke Elshtain rightly observes in her recent article "With or Against the Culture?" the question itself, which is borrowed from New York City pastor Tim Keller, implies a combination of two of Niebuhr's categories: Christ against culture and Christ transforming culture. Elshtain's article is not yet posted, but articles by Keller and several others can be found at http://www.christianvisionproject.com/

Those interested in how Niebuhr's framework applies specifically to scholarship may be interested in D.G. Hart's article "Christian Scholars, Secular Universities, and the Problem with the Antithesis," published in the Christian Scholar's Review (30:4).

"As a stand-alone posture, against too often turns into brittle condemnation, a stance of haughty (presumed) moral superiority, wagons circled. Transform on its own may degenerate into naive idealism, even utopianism, a stance concerning which Bonhoeffer reserved some of his most severe words. . . Avoiding these extremes, we must see Christ against and for, agonistic and affirmative, arguing and embracing. This is complex but, then, Christianity is no stranger to complexity. One of the glories of the faith historically has been its wonderful intricacy, the way in which it engages the intellect."