Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Careers, Workplace and Religion
How God made us to “make something of the world” (Andy Crouch at Redeeming Work Twin Cities, part II)

How God made us to “make something of the world” (Andy Crouch at Redeeming Work Twin Cities, part II)

Last updated on: January 12, 2015 at 11:22 am by Chris Armstrong

How God made us to “make something of the world” (Andy Crouch at Redeeming Work Twin Cities, part II) 2015-01-12T11:22:19-05:00 Chris Armstrong

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Redeeming Work Twin Cities was full of pleasant surprises for me. For one thing, I’m a longtime fan of Ken Myers, founder/interviewer at Mars Hill Audio Journal. So I perked up when Andy Crouch used Ken’s concise definition of culture:

“What human beings make of the world—in both senses.”

Earth, Blue Planet, Globe, Planet, World, Space

The two senses, explained Andy, are these:

First, culture is simply the things we make – material – chairs, furniture, pews, clothing, projectors, microphones, interstate highways. Even speech is an act of culture-making. And though we don’t usually think about it, that’s actually material too: we use the resources of our lungs, larynx, making sound waves, which are hitting your ears. It is physics. It is making stuff.

But culture is not just stuff. It is also the second sense of “make of” – the meaning we make. Culture is the fruit of the human quest for meaning in the world. It comes out of an innate human sense that the world has meaning latent within it. This is not just a neutral sense. Studies of early cognition in children show that they impute meaning even where we adults don’t see any. We come into the world primed to find meaning in it.

Further, said Andy, these two dimensions of culture always interact: The stuff we make must make sense, and the sense we make must issue in stuff. It’s the incarnational principle.

Clothing is this way. It is stuff. If all we needed was something to insulate ourselves from our environment or to cover up our vulnerability with other humans, we could all show up in sheets – like the monks in the early Apple ads: plain, gray, boring. This would fulfil the functions of clothing. Instead, we get up in mornings and “adorn” ourselves – we put on clothes that have un-useful qualities. Checks on a shirt, for instance—what function do they serve? Or why pick cuffed rather than uncuffed jeans. There is no function – it only signifies, said Andy, that “I’m 46 and wish I was 26.” (Laughter.)

The point is that each of us got up this morning and made different choices about what we put on. Really, even choosing not to choose has a meaning. So the material things we use—they’re never “just stuff.” They always involve some sense we’re making of the world.

What does that mean? It means that as church leaders we must care about culture. Culture is the arena in which we try to structure and make sense of our lives and our world.

Up on the screen, it’s Catherine, Andy’s wife, in her lab. She’s an experimental physicist. Behind her is a laser table that she works at, a very complex, expensive device. Lasers bounce around through lenses, do things, Andy says “I’m not qualified to explain”: they bombard a little piece of silicon or semiconductor, and amazing things happen, which you study under a microscope.

It’s very material, what Catherine does with her research. But it’s also full of meaning. You can do math with it – it becomes a way we think about meaning, just as truly as we do through poetry, philosophy. Through manipulating this physical “stuff” you can come up with imaginary systems of structuring reality.

And crazily, these systems actually map onto physical reality. It’s as if the world were designed for the sense makers and stuff makers to discover: it is elegant, beautiful, responsive to human inquiry.

Why would the world have to be like this? It doesn’t. The world waited for billions of years of the universe’s history, and finally these creatures come along who live to make something of the world. And the world has elegant, beautiful meaning. Even Catherine’s secular colleagues find themselves experiencing wonder.

Stanford theoretical physicist Andrei Linde will likely get Nobel prize – on the internet there’s a video of him finding out that an important theory he originated has been verified. After 30 years of waiting, it’s confirmed. Amazing moment. He and his physicist wife are almost in tears. “All along,” he says, “I wondered if I’d been tricked into liking this theory just because it is beautiful.” No, Andrei, you weren’t tricked. The world is beautiful. And you were made in order that you could discover this. The world has meaning and material, and humans fuse them in ways no other creature does.

Great story, I think—but what does it have to do with faith and work? Only this:

One more thing about Catherine, says Andy. She has done this work as university professor for 11 years. She and I have been faithful attenders to our church that has served our family well. But at almost no time in the 11 years in that congregation has anything from the pulpit, any sermon spoken to what she spends her days doing.

While writing Culture Making for four years, Andy listened to what was spoken from the pulpit, listened carefully for who was held up as examples, models of faithfulness, discipleship, engagement with the world.

Almost every example was a professional Christian:

ministers,

missionaries,

church professionals.

Never was there a single anecdote on our working lives. Why? Why no stories about culture makers told from our pulpits?

Because we are missing chapters of our Bible. The functional Bibles of many Christians re culture in work are missing some chapters. (And that’ll be the subject of our next post from Redeeming Work Twin Cities.)

Image: Pixabay.

Redeeming Work conference

Previous Post

June 13, 2014

Rubber gloves or muddy hands? Andy Crouch at Redeeming Work (Twin Cities)

Next Post

June 13, 2014 Andy Crouch on why we can't see the faith-work connection: “We’re missing chapters of our Bible.”

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Art Audio posts Bible and Work Book Review Books Budgeting Calling Common Good Community Development Conferences Discipleship Economics Entrepreneurship Ethics Faith and Family Faith and the Marketplace Faith and the Workplace faith and work History of Work and Vocation Leadership Local Church Meaning New Blogger News Prayer Relationships Seminaries Theology of Work Uncategorized Video posts Vocation Worship Resources

Select a Month April 2026 October 2025 September 2025 July 2025 April 2025 January 2025 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 May 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 August 2023 July 2023 April 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 May 2022 April 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 June 2021 May 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 January 2020 December 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 April 2018 March 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What did Jesus feed to the 5,000 people?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Chicken and rice Bread and fish Cake and wine Fruit and cheese