marn@babbage.seas.ucla.edu (Jure Marn) (05/18/91)
This will be crossposted to soc.religion.christian, soc.religion.islam,
soc.culture.jewish, soc.culture.europe and soc.culture.misc.
The followups are directed to soc.culture.misc. If anybody see fit to
crosspost this anywhere else, please do so (remeber followups to
s.c.misc)
Background:
A group of people at UCLA would like to form a newmagazine
catering toward needs of people whose common denominator
is Christianity. The newsmagazine, however, must not be
of religious character. We already have a Jewish and Muslim
newsmagazin.
A question:
Is Christianity a culture? And, how do you know it is/ it is not?
Thanks,
--
Jure Marn
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marn@wright.seas.ucla.edu ! kdor visoko leta ...
Thank you for flowers, flames and fun ! ... ima dober razgled dhosek@hmcvax.claremont.edu (Don Hosek) (05/23/91)
In article <May.18.02.07.48.1991.3796@athos.rutgers.edu>, marn@babbage.seas.ucla.edu (Jure Marn) writes: > Is Christianity a culture? And, how do you know it is/ it is not? I'd be inclined to say not. Christianity can be the basis for a culture, but there is no single culture that necessarily can come out of that. In practice, it should be noted that Christianity generally does not follow that mode, but rather conforms an existing culture to itself. As an example, consider the vast cultural differences between a Greek Orthodox Christian and an American Protestant. Judaism and Islam tend to be somewhat more culturally isolationsist than Christianity and tend to have more distinctive cultural traits as a result (although some Christian missioners have felt the need to bring European culture with them as part of their gospel missioner; my experience indicates that they are less successful in terms of true conversion than a missioner who promulgates the gospel in the context of the existing culture). T.S. Eliot's essays on the topic (available as _Christianity and Culture_ from HBJ) might be informative. -dh