From Cultural Protest to Cultural Recovery
Don Eberly
July 1, 1996
Evangelicalism is gaining in numbers, gaining in political power, and gaining in visibility. The same cannot be said of its cultural influence. Evangelicalism still lags behind Catholicism and even a declining mainline Protestantism when it comes to impact within the culture-shaping arena, especially at an elite level. If this problem remains uncorrected, a golden opportunity for evangelical influence in American society may come and go. Few evangelical leaders today are doing serious and consequential cultural work in the secular arena from a Christian standpoint. This is remarkable in light of the fact that so many orthodox Protestant heroes of the past 250 years of history—Wilberforce, Lewis, and Bonhoeffer, to name just a few—were thinkers and reformers who penetrated deeply into the secular world. We should ponder why this age has produced no evangelical figure of comparable stature. The dearth of evangelical leadership in the cultural arena points to the urgent need within today's evangelical community to learn how to engage secular American culture effectively. Key to the success of any such reconstructive effort is the recovery among evangelicals of a positive view of culture, and of the divine mandate to shape and transform culture. This is the attitude we see embodied in C. S. Lewis, who wrote that "at an early age I came to believe that the life of culture was very good for its own sake, even that it was good for man." Lewis recognized that a sound culture originates in God's providence and goodness and is intended to provide for the general welfare of all, Christians and non-Christians alike. Catholics have long held this view. Not surprisingly, it is Catholics who are most effectively engaging the culture today. ...
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