Contextualize This

Intro: Greetings and welcome to Contextualize This, a Podcast that attempts to provide a diversified and contextualized perspective on today’s relevant topics. I am your host, Norlan Hernández. 

This is EPISODE 2 titled Faith Impacting Culture. In Today’s episode we will talk about: 

• The Christ transforming culture typology

• Three sub-points that help us understand how to accomplish the goal of this category, mainly

  • Converting individuals who then act christianly in the world

  • Creating christian institutions as wholesome alternatives

  • Conquering existing institutions

Last episode, I described a typology that Richard Niebuhr offered. As a reminder, he offered 5 categories that can explain how people of faith have seen and interacted with culture: 1) Christ against culture 2) Christ of culture 3) Christ above culture 4) Christ in paradox with culture, and 5) Christ transforming culture.  I also provided an example that exemplified the first category - Christ Against Culture - through my pentecostal background. 

For this episode, I want to take a closer look at the fifth category - christ transforming culture and the subsequent subpoints explaining how this can be done. 

The purpose of this episode is not to push forward any kind of agenda. More than anything, I simply want to generate thoughts and provide a perspective. I am by no means arguing that this is the right way to understand the relationship between faith and culture. Clearly, there is much more to this that can be discussed concerning the relationship between the two and the historical development that has transpired. 

Take, for example, the Constantinian era and its influence on Christianity. Or Christendom and its impact on Latin America, or as some indigenous people groups call it in their Guna language  - Abya Yala, which means “land of vital blood”. These are clear examples of how faith has clearly had a role in the formation and experience of culture. In fact, one scholar even made the claim that during the apex of Christendom,  Christianity slowly began to dichotomize its engagement with the world. Christianity served, in many cases, to perpetuate the status quo of the government that, in return, provided security to the religious establishment. What the church once had to wrestle with, that of speaking to the social realities of the world, was no longer necessary. The church and state became a partnership. The result - the church allowed itself to become removed from the social, cultural, and political concerns and be limited to spiritual matters. This understanding of the church’s role in society is still present in some places, groups, and denominations. 

At any rate, Niebuhr’s fifth category presents many opportunities to evaluate how faith impacts culture. Let’s take a brief look at each of these subpoints: 

Converting Individuals

Although I mentioned that my pentecostal background aligned most with the Christ Against Culture typology, there are aspects of the other categories that resonate with my experience. Converting individuals is one of those. 

For as long as I can remember, I have heard the message that proclamation of the Gospel to unbelievers is the most important mission of any faithful Christian. It had eschatological underpinnings. Jesus would return when everyone was exposed to the good news. Unfortunately, the message never included an explanation of the effects of the gospel on people’s lives and culture. It is as if proclaiming the gospel only had spiritual repercussions. It is a dichotomization of life as the sacred and the profane. Proclaiming the Gospel, it would seem, did not have anything to do with the concrete, historical, and real lives people experience. Proclaiming the gospel did not influence life on earth. An ahistorical,cultural-less gospel was being preached. What this position demonstrates is that we are unaware of the depth and meaning of being a disciple of Christ - who came within a specific culture, at a specific time, lived, talked and moved through this world in a specific context. Yet being Christians means we are in a relationship with this Jesus. 

So, how can one expect to convert individuals to be in a relationship with Christ - a Palestinian Jew that spoke Aramaic? How can new believers to go out to the world and act Christianly without understanding this reality? How will they Speak Christianese? Relate Christianly? 

Rather than converting individuals, one should speak of discipling individuals to live a life that brings honor and glory to God. By doing so, new Christians will truly ask “What would Jesus do?” in every scenario of their lives - at work when presented with an ethical dilemma, with their spouse when thinking through important decisions, with rhetorics that deny the imago dei in all people of all skin colors, with systems that perpetuate injustice and inequity. Being Chrsitian doesn’t mean one is no longer part of this world. In fact, it means that we have a better understanding of what it means to be “in this world but not be of this world.” 

So, while converting individuals is a strategy that can help impact the culture, this can only be done through intentional, deep, and meaningful discipleship. 

Constructing Christian Institutions 

Does converting and discipling individuals automatically lead to the construction of Christian institutions? Maybe in some cases. Maybe the question should be - should we always strive to create new Christian institutions as alternatives? I don’t think the answer is a simple yes or no. 

On one extreme, creating Christian institutions may continue to dichotomize the world into sacred and profane. Less chances for engagement, dialogue, and collaboration will be available. Take the film industry, for example. I have enjoyed the many Christian films that have been created as alternatives to some of the more explicit films that Hollywood puts out. However, let’s be real now - the quality is not nearly as high as that of Hollywood. As it currently stands, Chrsitians aren’t creating the Marvels of the industry. How much better could Christian films be if there was collaboration! 

I use Marvel because it serves as a great example. Why? Well, most people enjoy Marvel films and they are not Christian per se. However, we know that Scott Derrikson, who received his undergraduate degree from a Christian University, directed Marvel’s 2016 film Doctor Strange. Does this make the film Christian? Of course not. It does, however, illustrate my point of what could be missed should this be the only option we pursue. 

This begs the question - should we stop at constructing Christian institutions or take it one step further and also conquer existing institutions? 

Conquering Existing Institutions 

By conquering, I don’t have in mind a mass of Christians overtaking companies by force. You know, with pitchforks and torches. That is preposterous! What is meant by this, however, is Christians achieving excellence within any given industry and enterprise to the point of earning the right to lead it. In that sense, being presidents, CEOs, and being on boards is the goal. This way, existing institutions will be influenced by leaders that hold Christian values. Furthermore, these institutions will make decisions guided by Christian ethics, morals, and values. 

It all sounds so good! Right? Is there something we should consider before sending everyone to conquer the world for Christ? Yes. There is a possible assumption made about institutions and their leaders. The presupposition for taking this stance is that non-Christian leaders cannot make ethical or moral decisions. There is also the presupposition that Christians are best positioned to take on leadership roles. Lastly, we must wrestle with our understanding of the imago dei that everyone is created with. If these are, indeed, the presuppositions we have - what are we saying about God? We must understand that every human being has been intentionally formed by God (Jeremiah 1:5; Psalm 139:13). Each one of us has received gifts and talents from the Creator. Our gifts are not “turned on” the moment we accept Christ. They are on full display from the moment we are born to the moment we say confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior and beyond. 

Rather than "picking and choosing" which parts of culture are good and which are bad, we recognize that all the particularities of culture are enhanced or destroyed or enlivened when they are brought under the lordship of Jesus Christ.” (Tennent, 2010) 

Conclusion 

To bring it all home, the fifth typology Neigbuhr proposed can be accomplished through individual conversions, creating Christian alternatives, and by taking leadership roles on existing institutions. I do not think one of these is necessarily the sole solution for the transformation of culture.  As the Kingdom of God approaches the hearts of more individuals, our culture will inevitably be transformed. This will be in the form of more individuals moving through life in a Christ-honoring way, some will be inspired to unleash their creative imaginations within a specific Christian perspective, and others, through the gifts God has already given them, will excel to the point of leading existing organizations. In the end, these three sub-categories of Niebuhr’s fifth typology are dealing with the transformation of culture for the purpose of reflecting the kingdom of God. 

Outro: Thanks for listening to Contextualize This with Norlan Hernandez. If you like the show subscribe! I also encourage you to write a review, this is your way of helping make this podcast better. If you want to know more or wish to connect with me, check out my page - NorlanHernandez.com. 
Join us next time when we talk about an approach to communicating and relating to others cross-culturally called Cultural Humility.

hello and bienvenidos - welcome to Contextualize This, a Podcast that attempts to provide a diversified and contextualized perspective on today’s relevant topics. I am your host, Norlan Hernández. 

This is EPISODE 1 titled Understanding the impact of culture on faith. In Today’s episode we will: 

• Provide a broad definition of culture

• Give a brief evaluation of how faith has viewed culture

• Evaluate the impact culture has on faith

Let’s start with the definition 

Culture is one of the most contested and complicated terms to define. There have been many discussions and subsequent rebuttals made by anthropologists, sociologists, missiologists, philosophers and so on. 

I do not intend to provide the perfect answer. More than anything, I wish to provide a starting point (maybe even at the risk of oversimplifying the term). 

That being said - Broadly speaking, culture can be defined as the shared set of practices and behaviors, traditions, knowledge, understanding, and artifacts such as music and art, and so on, by a group of people. 

There are many ways with which culture is discussed. For this conversation, it is important to note that I do not limit the conversation of culture to ethnicity. I intend to use a broader understanding which will lend itself to acknowledging and understanding the different dynamics of meta and micro-cultures. 

By this I mean we can speak broadly about the culture within a society (culturally, ethnically, linguistically, religiously, and nationally speaking) as well as the unlimited possibilities of subcultures (sports, music, hobbies). All of which share some commonalities. 

I also want to be very clear with my line of argument here: culture is found EVERYWHERE, even within faith establishments. There has been a tendency to dichotomize or have a simple two part position and see culture and faith through the lens of sacred and profane. There is a lack of understanding in how they interact and engage one another. Hence the motivation behind this episode. 

Let’s take a quick look at this relationship. 

How faith groups have interacted with culture has varied by context. There is no one way that describes an entire group, denomination, or people regarding their engagement with culture. So, the following is limited to my own experience. Hopefully, some of it resonates with you or gets your thoughts going. I also hope this conversation helps you think through your own context using the tools, experiences, and examples provided here. 

From my personal experience, again - a Latin American Pentecostal context - it has been one of almost complete detachment. This has been so in the context of both Nicaragua as well as in the US - more specifically in L.A. 

With my community, there has been a tendency to completely detach from one’s sociocultural context. By this, I mean that the church has made a stark division between the sacred and the profane (spiritual and worldly), culture is found within the latter. Because this is so, anything found outside the church is synonymous with sin. Therefore there is also a tendency to spiritualize everything, including the very real and concrete problems the members of a society face today, such as wars, illness, and natural disasters. To put it simply anything within the church walls is good, anything outside of the church walls is bad.

Let me give you a quick simple example of how this has been true in my life and my experience. I remember growing up listening to preachers say that what we call today TV was an instrument of the devil. Additionally, I remember the countless times my mother did not let me go to the movies because she considered it a sin. Let me take it one more step which may be a little controversial within my community - music. It is a common understanding that the Latin American community and culture there is a distinct taste for music and dancing. Latin America is known for the cumbia, hachada, salsa and the accompanying movements. 

I remember my struggle with music. I would listen to music that was not considered Christian (such as the genres just mentioned and once I came back to the US it was rap, reggae, rock, r&b) and feeling completely guilty about doing so. I would spend an enormous amount of time talking to God and repenting about this sin. 

This posture towards the things that I found outside of the church walls created a clear division between the faith and the surrounding culture. I struggled with my ethnic and cultural identity because everything was seen through the lens of what The church considered sacred. However there was a real lack of understanding of the Dynamics of culture and faith and how they interact. This this gap contributed to a lot of confusion concerning what it means to be human, Latin American, and Christian in a real and historical world. It also made it difficult to understand how God intended me to live a life that was filled with so much culture. Why would God allow me to be born in a culture that is so sinful? I wrestled with the connection between faith and culture. 

It wasn’t until after bible school and seminary that I found folks that critically engaged these topics (which aren’t discussed enough in the church night I add). These great minds have looked into and evaluated the topic of culture from a Christian perspective. I will not bore you with names and technicalities. But here is a brief summary of one example by Helmut Richard Niebuhr - a North American theologian. 

He claimed there were at least 5 ways to categorize this relationship (1): 

Christ Against Culture – Christ is in opposition to culture and calls us into radical opposition. Anabaptists, as well as some fundamentalists and Pentecostal groups, are examples we might typically associate with this type.

Christ of Culture – Christ and his followers embrace culture because the culture has substantially embraced him. Stackhouse suggests that Puritan New England may have approximated this posture.

Christ Above Culture – Christ comes to Culture, which is a mixture of good and bad, to instruct and improve it through his church.  Thomas Aquinas was an exemplar of this model.

Christ in Paradox with Culture – Christ calls us to be citizens of two worlds. Some have suggested This is often identified with Lutheran theology.

Christ Transforming Culture – Christ calls us to redeem the world by bearing witness to him and work for the transformation of individuals and institutions. 

• Converting individuals, who then go into the world.

• Constructing Christian institutions

• Conquering existing institutions with legitimate power

Other typologies and assessments are available and speak to the cultural, social, and political aspects of how Christians or people of faith view and evaluate culture. 

If it has not been clear up to this point, let me be clear: My claim is that culture is everywhere and it shapes us. It defines our behavior as well as our beliefs. Culture can be intentionally nurtured (think of sports, music, hobbies) or subconsciously consumed (think of belief systems and traditions). In short, the context of our upbringing and current reality influences how we see and experience the world. 

Stop for a moment and think hard and deeply about something you are really passionate about or something you really dislike. Now, ask yourself - why is thisso? Why do you have a passion for or why do you dislike something so much? Here is a personal example: I once got lost in thought and asked a seemingly existential question: why do I like ketchup so much? I literally put it on everything - my arroz y frijoles, cup of noodles, I mix it with crema centroamericana and make it into a dip for my hot Cheetos. I categorize it as an existential question because it took me down a path of acknowledging some of the cultural and family factors that were at play - ketchup has been very accessible in Nicaragua. It is inexpensive. It is tasty. Additionally, I was influenced by my oldest brother - he loves ketchup too. Hence, my culture and my family very much influenced my unorthodox affinity to ketchup. Yes, this is an oversimplified example. However, nothing is too small nor too big to evaluate within this conversation. If you think hard enough and long enough you will find many factors that contribute to the lens through which you see the world. In other words our context, in part, creates our worldview.

Let me give you another example - a more substantive one. I came to a crossroads with my faith a few years ago. At this point, I had attended a bible institute for 4 years and had gotten my Master’s degree in theology. As already mentioned, The academic journey helped me think more critically about my faith. Part of what I was processing was the many points of tension I found within my church community. These tensions were created because of an unhealthy fusion of cultural values with Christian claims. To use the typology I just introduced, my community was under the Christ against culture category. Cultural Claims were then “christianized”.

This tension interested me so much that I ran a case study with three participants from a Central American Pentecostal church in los angeles. Dress attire, among other findings, surfaced as contested topics within this context. Traditionally speaking, women are required to wear the appropriate attire at church (and if you are very conservative this also means outside of church). This means a decent non-revealing shirt, skirt, or dress. However, the participants of this study claimed they did not agree with the rigidity with which this is enforced in the church. Two of them made an excellent point that this was a matter of displaying honor and respect. However, they argued that they understood honor and respected differently than their previous generation of church members and leaders. For them, it was less about the appearance and more about the internalized morality and external display of obedience to God’s word that mattered most. Additionally, two of the three respondents argued the part of sin was always associated with the woman, rather than placing the moral responsibility on men as well. This reminds us of the women brought before Jesus in John 8.

Similarly, I have found, experientially and in research, that gender scripts play a role in the many tensions we experience within the Latin American church due to the unhealthy fusion of cultural values with Christian claims. With a little research, one is able to see that an understanding of gender scripts within the church is very much influenced by cultural gender scripts, which scholars have termed as machismo and marianismo (its often ignored counterpart). Research has also made the connection that some aspects of these gender scripts are informed or have a spiritual foundation, hence the term maria-nismo which includes the name Maria (Mary) the mother of Jesus.  

Culturally speaking, gender scripts are very present within the Latin American community - be it in latin America or within Latin American communities around the globe. These gender scripts position men as the head of the house, breadwinners, and rule-makers while women are static, submissive, caregivers and child-bearers. However, more and more we are seeing that women are not subscribing to these scripts without evaluation. In the US, it is a common understanding that more women earn college degrees than men, even though there is still a very serious salary gap between the two genders. I won’t go there today. 

Women are breaking the mold and rewriting their narratives, which includes pursuing professional careers. I am a huge advocate of this. I love to see women empowered. I am always happy to be an advocate, an ally, and a cheerleader. This may be so because of my mother’s influence in my life. Oh, how I wish she would have had someone to be rooting for her! My father was never really in the picture and my mother always displayed a strong, empowered, go-getter, and loving and caring character. It is also worth mentioning that having a wife and a daughter and wanting the best for them also influenced my posture. 

I take this same posture when it comes to the church. I do believe women can be pastors. I do believe they can be leaders. I do believe women can do just as good a job as anyone else. I do not believe that a female pastor is only possible when being married to a pastor or by being the widow of a pastor. Both of which have been the case within the circles I have been part of. 

Theologically speaking, I see many examples of how Jesus affirmed women. In case you didn't know, there were women in Jesus’s ministry. Additionally, some of those women were wealthy and helped fund his ministry (see Luke 8 for an example). Furthermore, Jesus treated women equally when it came to discipleship. This is made clear by Mary’s action to sit and be discipled by Jesus in Luke 10. In Jesus’s time and context, it was not common for women to sit at the teacher’s feet and be discipled. Yet, Jesus welcomes it! 

Yes, there is a natural difference between men and women. God created them both with a purpose. For this episode, suffice it to say in God’s economy, gender scripts work differently. Our job is to be sensitive to the cultural values we place and how we enforce them within our spiritual journey. 

The purpose of this episode was not to judge Latin American Pentecostal culture. I am also not attempting to discredit my tradition theologically, spiritually, or culturally. On the contrary, my love and commitment to this tradition causes me to be intentional about its evaluation with the purpose of progress and clarity. I have come across many pentecostal christians, young and old, that struggle with the same things I’ve outlined here. 

So, let me sum it all up: I’ve defined culture broadly as a shared set of practices and behaviors, traditions, knowledge, understanding, and artifacts such as music and art, and so on, by a group of people. In addition, I claimed that culture is found everywhere, even with faith establishments. An example of how scholars have evaluated the interaction between faith and culture was provided. And lastly, I ended with a claim that culture shapes us. I provided some examples of how this has been the case in the Latin American Pentecostal circles I have been a part of. 

Outro: Thanks for listening to Contextualize This with Norlan Hernandez. If you like the show subscribe! I also encourage you to write a review, this is your way of helping make this podcast better. If you want to know more or wish to connect with me, check out my page - NorlanHernandez.com. 

Join us next time when we talk about how faith can impact culture. 

1 - Kruse Kronicle. Best of it: Revisiting Niebuhr's Typology. Retrieved from https://krusekronicle.typepad.com/kruse_kronicle/2009/05/best-of-it-revisiting-niebuhrs-typology.html#.XrBtIBNKjGI

Intro: Hello and Bienvenidos (welcome) to Contextualize This, a Podcast that attempts to provide a diversified and contextualized perspective on today’s relevant topics. I am your host, Norlan Hernández. 

This is EPISODE 0 titled Introducing Contextualize This. In Today’s episode we will talk about: 

• The motivation behind the creation of this\ podcast

• Introduction to the Host

• And why you should subscribe!

Let’s get started

Motivation

Why another podcast, you might be asking? Don’t we already have enough already? While that may be true, I think there is still a need for the contextualization of ideas and concepts. Ideas such as leadership, theology, spirituality, culture, and so on. There is still a need to make things fit into our culture. Into out context. That right there is the process of contextualization. In short Contextualization is the process of making things relevant.  Too often the dominant culture determines the path forward without stopping to think about different perspectives have you ever watched a very interesting lecture or watched a TedTalk that presented great ideas? And think to yourself “how would this fit in my context? My church? My neighborhood? My family? My society? 

I’ve asked that so many times. Allow me to give you a personal example of what I mean by contextualization.  I have often asked myself what does it mean to be Christian? Furthermore, I have asked What does it mean to be a Christian that is Latino? These questions have taken me on a journey toward understanding my ethnic and cultural identity as it relates to my Christian faith. 

So I have asked myself questions regarding what factors contributed to my understanding of my ethnic and cultural identity and faith. As you would imagine, the answer was multilayered. Here re a few factors that I wanted to highlight. First, familia. Family has been a critical component in my understanding of my ethnic and cultural identity. Growing up in Nicaragua with my siblings, my parents, my extended family. Seeing them - all of that contributed to my understanding of my ethnic and cultural identity. Similarly, geography. I lived in Nicaragua for a few years. I went to school there. 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. From middle school through high school, every summer I would spend it in Nicaragua. That definitely helped me cement my understanding of my ethnic and cultural identity. 

Thirdly, I think you will resonate with this. Food! Food as been such a tangible way for me to engage and interact with my culture. It has definitely solidified my understanding of my ethnic and cultural identity. If eel Nicaraguense when I each the Nacatamales and chancho con yuca. Lastly, I want to highlight what we see on social media, or films, news and tv shows. Often times, Latinos are portrayed in a certain way. Maybe as lazy, or dangerous, or uneducated. None of which resonated with me. But all of which I wanted to help rewrite the narrative for. 

I also ask questions concerning the factors that might have informed my understanding of my faith. And yes, the answer was multilayered. And Yes, some of the same things that came out in the previous questions came out in this one. So, familia was one of those things. Family. More specifically, I think of my mom and how she inculcated my faith. I understood what it meant to have a prayer life because I saw her on her knees every night. I understood what it was to have a relationship with God because she put it on display during the high and lows we went through as a family. Secondly, geography once again came up. More specifically I am thinking about language and traditions that are found within these specific geographical locations. While I was in Nicaragua - the traditions that were at play there. Here in L.A., the traditions and language that are at play here. Thirdly, the culture within the faith. I come from a pentecostal background. Worship style, preaching style, and an understanding of relationship - all of that contributed to my understanding of my faith. Additionally, I can think of the dominant culture. Especially living here in L.A.. I think about what it means to acknowledge the dominant culture and ask the question: what have we taken from the dominant culture and what have we embedded within our individual culture. So I think about technology and the use of social media. I also think about worship and music styles and music genres. I think about language in the context of L.A. Are we going to do all of this in Spanish, or English, or Spanglish or bilingual? 

Okay, so far I’ve sprinkled some things about myself. But I want to do this more formally. 

Introducing the Host

Mi nombre is Norlan Hernandez. My family is from Nicaragua. Both of my parents were both in Matagalpa. A beautiful city in the northern part of the city. I am the third boy out of four. Yes. my mom had a wonderful time raining all four boys! As for Christianity, my background is a pentecostal background. I’ve been married for 6 wonderful years to my beautiful wife - Isabel Hernandez. Here is a fun fact - my wife’s last name was Hernandez before marrying me. So she didn’t’ have to change her last name! Now, we have a beautiful 3-year old daughter. Aella Mia Hernandez. We named her Aella after an amazonian worrier in Greek Mythology who was only defeated by one man - Hercules. Metaphorically speaking, we wanted o make sure our daughter had strong man and would only be defeated by one man. As far as my education, I started off at Cerritos Community College where I spent a few years. I then transferred over to Cal State LA where I earned my degree in Liberal Studies. While I was completing my undergrad, I was also attending a small Spanish-speaking bible school. When I finished both of these, I enrolled in seminary at Fuller Theological Seminary. This is where I obtained a master of arts in theology, which set a strong foundation for an understanding of my faith. And now, i find myself pursuing a Ph.D. in intercultural studies at Cook School of intercultural studies. My dissertation topic will be on the intersection of Latino identity and Christian faith. All within the context of Nicaragua. 

As far as my professional journey. I have worked every job under the sun. Anywhere from fast food to retail and banking to helping the family with construction and helping my dad in the mechanic shop. I also was doing my own thing with graphic design to my last two positions. One in the corporate world, where I was an operations training manager for a global company. And now, I am a director at a Christian university where I am one of the few Latino leaders on campus. 

It is from this experience that I come to you and I bring you this podcast. If the conversations about theology, and leadership, and culture, and technology and so much more, interest you, and if you are interested in being exposed to different perspectives and seeing examples of how to contextualize these ideas and concepts. I encourage you to subscribe. 

That being said, Thanks for listening to Contextualize This with Norlan Hernandez. If you like the show and want to know more or wish to connect with me, check out my page - NorlanHernandez.com. I also encourage you to write a review, this is your way of helping make this podcast better. 

Join us next time when we talk about the impact culture has on our faith.