Hipster Christianity , livre ebook

Baker Publishing Group - Brett McCracken

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

132 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

Insider twentysomething Christian journalist Brett McCracken has grown up in the evangelical Christian subculture and observed the recent shift away from the "stained glass and steeples" old guard of traditional Christianity to a more unorthodox, stylized 21st-century church. This change raises a big issue for the church in our postmodern world: the question of cool. The question is whether or not Christianity can be, should be, or is, in fact, cool. This probing book is about an emerging category of Christians McCracken calls "Christian hipsters"--the unlikely fusion of the American obsessions with worldly "cool" and otherworldly religion--an analysis of what they're about, why they exist, and what it all means for Christianity and the church's relevancy and hipness in today's youth-oriented culture.

Sujets

Philosophie et théologie

Informations

Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	01 août 2010
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441211934
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0461€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

hipster christianity
WHEN CHURCH AND cool COLLIDE
brett mccracken
2010 by Brett McCracken
Published by Baker Books a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.bakerbooks.com
E-book edition created 2010
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means-for example, electronic, photocopy, recording-without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
ISBN 978-1-4412-1193-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked NASB is taken from the New American Standard Bible , Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Scripture marked NIV is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION . NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
To J. Wilson McCracken and Sig Schielke who cared little for anything hipster but knew what it meant to live Christianly
contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One The History and Collision of Cool and Christianity
1 Is Christianity Cool?
2 The History of Hip
3 Hipsters Today
4 The History of Hip Christianity
5 Christian Hipsters Today
Part Two Hipster Christianity in Practice
6 Christian Hipster Churches
7 The Emerging Church
8 Social Justice, Missional, and the New Christian Left
9 Reframing Christian Art
Part Three Problems and Solutions
10 Wannabe Hip Churches
11 What s So Wrong with Cool?
12 Authentic Christian Cool
13 Reversing the Ripple Effect
14 Relevance Is Not a Fad
Notes
acknowledgments
My family. Dad, Mom, Allison: thank you for all that you ve taught me about God, love, truth, and hard work.
Robert Hosack, for believing in this idea and taking a risk with me; and everyone at Baker Books, for making the experience easy for a first-time author.
Dr. Stanley Mattison, Donna McDaniel, and all my friends at the C. S. Lewis Foundation, for involving me in such visionary work and allowing me to live a writer s dream at the Kilns!
Larry Eskridge, Laurel Dailey, Tracy Runyon, Albert Rios, Becky Pruitt, Tammy Uzzetta, Joanna Balda, Jim Kermath, and all those who either read through chapters, offered feedback, or contributed important thoughts and considerations to this project.
Others who played crucial roles in the endeavor of writing and marketing this book: Rebecca Ver Straten-McSparran, Kevin Sanner, Theresa Abueg, Adam Ferguson, Jessica Kemp, Jason Newell, Brian Bowman, Ryan Hamm, Tim Dikun, Lee Hough, Reid Boates, and all the pastors, church leaders, and churchgoers who spoke to me during my research. Thank you all!
introduction
I have some definite views about the de-Christianizing of the church. I believe that there are many accommodating preachers, and too many practitioners in the church who are not believers. Jesus Christ did not say Go into all the world and tell the world that it is quite right. The Gospel is something completely different. In fact, it is directly opposed to the world. 1
C. S. Lewis
As I write this, I m sitting at a table in the dining room of the Kilns- the home of C. S. Lewis in the outskirts of Oxford, England, where Lewis lived from 1930 until his death in 1963. I ve written a few chapters of this book while staying here, and I offer my deepest gratitude to the C. S. Lewis Foundation for allowing me the opportunity to be a writer in residence here for a time.
C. S. Lewis is a man I ve always admired for many reasons, but perhaps chiefly because he embodies for me the type of Christian writer I ve always aspired to be-one that speaks to the culture of the day with both confidence and humility, logical clarity and literary flair, whimsy and gravitas. He was never afraid to tell it like it is, even when this ensured he d have his fair share of critics and naysayers.
The quote I opened with-from a 1963 interview Lewis did in the final months of his life-reflects exactly the sort of firm, to-the-point rhetoric that makes Lewis so relevant and beloved even today. And it s the sort of strong word the church needs more of today, at a time when the one thing most of us agree on is that Christianity is facing something of an identity crisis. Who are we to be to the twenty-first-century world? How should the church position itself in the postmodern culture? Through what cultural languages will the gospel be best communicated in this turbulent time? Is the gospel directly opposed to the world as Lewis declares, and what might this mean for hipster Christianity?
These big, background questions inform the work you have before you. But this book is about a more specific question-though a crucial, far-reaching question-that has come up time and time again for the church, especially in recent years. It is the question of cool; of whether or not Christianity can be, should be, or is, in fact, cool. This book is about an emerging category of Christians I ve called Christian hipsters and an analysis of what they re about, why they exist, and what it all means for Christianity and the question of cool.
The title Hipster Christianity refers to the fact that this is a book about the culture and paradoxes of cool Christianity, but the title is also a slight nod to Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. Lewis s book was about what Christianity is at the core-the meat and potatoes of our faith. It attempted to make the case for Christianity based on rational arguments and substantive insights. By contrast, hipster Christianity -what I m describing in this book-is a faith more concerned with its image and presentation and ancillary appeal. It assumes that mere Christianity isn t enough or isn t as important as how Christianity looks and is perceived by the outside world.
As I have blogged about the phenomenon of cool Christianity and Christian hipsters, the polarizing nature of this topic has become clear. Whether through the conversations I ve had at the various churches I ve visited throughout the country, on the blog boards that deal with my book topic, or just with my friends with whom I ve talked through these issues, I have become more and more aware that the things I m looking at are extremely complicated and deserve a fair, thoughtful, thorough treatment.
Yes, you heard that right. This is a serious exploration of hipster Christianity. It s not a joke, and though it is humorous at times and occasionally ironic, it is by no means an exercise in sarcasm (as in, say, Robert Lanham s Hipster Handbook ).
And this book is not just about hipsters; it s not even just about Christian hipsters. Rather, the book explores the whole concept of cool as it pertains to Christianity. It looks at the way that-since the 1970s-contemporary Christianity has prioritized ideas like cool, relevant, and countercultural, largely failing on an institutional level to achieve those things and yet succeeding in pockets and parts via individuals and otherwise organic incarnations of what you might call hip Christianity.
The book is not an advertisement or rallying cry for hip Christianity, nor is it an outright chastisement. It s a critical analysis. It s about the contradictions inherent in the phenomenon of Christian cool and the questions Christians should be asking of themselves if they find themselves within this milieu. Are the purposes and/or effects of cool compatible with those of Christianity? If we assume that cool necessarily connotes the notion of being elite, privileged, and somehow better than the masses, how can we reconcile the idea with that of Christianity, which seems to beckon us away from self-aggrandizement or pride of any kind?
Whatever criticism I end up putting forward in the book, I hope that readers recognize that it is all for the ultimate refinement of the church and its mission in the world.
It has been very popular in recent years for Christians to bash on other Christians, to criticize the church and basically engage in a sort of the church is totally f-d up and we know it self-flagellation. A litany of books by Christian authors with titles like Death by Church and They Like Jesus But Not the Church have emphasized this point: it s en vogue for Christians to hate on Christianity in all of its mainstream forms.
But I love Christians, and I love the church. I even love hipsters, and I recognize why the label might offend some of them.
I m writing this book not to position myself as some sort of expert on any of this or to make some audacious claim about anything, but because-like C. S. Lewis and countless others before and after him-I love Christianity and I love the church. She is the bride of Christ. I want to see her thrive, expand, and be all that she can be for the world. I want to see the cause of Christ advanced and not muddled up. And this topic-the relationship of the church to the notion of cool - strikes me as a vitally important issue that needs to be addressed with tenderness, nuance, and when appropriate, constructive rebuke.
The book is divided into three parts. Part One, The History and Collision of Cool and Christianity, lays the foundation for what we re talking about-the history of the idea of cool (chapter 2), the meaning of the term hipster (chapter 3), the history of the development of hip Christianity (chapter 4), and the emergence of the Christian hipster (chapter 5). Part Two, Hipster Christianity in Practice looks at the specific qualities and attitudes of Christian hipsters, including what their churches are like (chapter 6), how they think about