Holy: Understanding it Better Through Spelling Things Out

We often assume that our cultural principles are equally valued by everyone.  We speak of the "American Revolution" or of Thomas Kuhn's "Scientific Revolutions".  We also hear calls for "freedom" or calls for "change".  We also hear the words of another Thomas, Thomas Paine, kicked around in pop culture.  We hear the never-ending call for "Common Sense".  But does the church have an organized way to understand its connections to others in the larger society of the church?  And how does this apply to how we understand the meaning of holy?  Our principles for how we connect to others can also determine what definition of holy we are willing to support.  That is why I want to talk about these cultural matters here.   

One of the most brilliant things that I learned as an undergrad was the basic principles of culture and revolution.  People speak often of freedom and revolution, but often without an organized picture of how culture comes or holds together as well as breaks apart into separate communities.  One of the keys to understanding any human society or individual is to understand their principles spelled out in five areas.   The church as a community is also effected by the principles of culture:

1) continuity and change - the amount of these must each be spelled out for people to feel affection for the culture of a society or person

2) bond and barrier - the relationship of these must each be spelled out for people to relate to the culture of a society or person

3) culture and revolution - the whole of these must each be spelled out for people to become part of the culture of a society or person  (these are the overall whole umbrella terms for relations)

4) rule and freedom - the action of rule and freedom must be spelled out for people to get involved with the culture of a society or person

5) sense and nonsense - the thing of sense and nonsense must be spelled out for people to understand the culture of society or person.

NOT one of these can be left out when people are trying to consider how they fit into a culture or how well they fit with another person.   Likewise they can effect how what responds to my comments on the definition or meaing of holy. 

I wish right now I had the time to complete some of my earlier entries, but they require fairly large chunks of uninterrupted time.  This entry is meant to help people see a little better where I am coming from culturally as a part of the larger Christian church and as an individual Christian. It is looking at my work on the meaning of holy from a relational point of view, but also broken into the different dimensions of a relationship. 

Each one of the five combinations above are for me relational or cultural.  A church has a culture as a society and the individual carries with them their cutural principles.  I value all five of the pairs above.  So how then do I see my relationships within the larger church? 

Let's begin with continuity and change. For me, I am concerned about both the lack of continuity and the lack of change in the church.  Recently, I received an email from a major Evangelical writer and he downplayed the place for a list of past heroes of the faith.  I think that individual is in danger of losing their continuity with the past.  My first inkling for the meaning of holy meaning being something other than "set apart" was in the context of the translation of the KJV.  If it were not for a commitment to continuity with past believers, I may have overlooked or under valued the past.  But I also cringe at how many are not able to change their hearts from the current consensus on what holy means as "set apart".  Why is it not possible to change one's position?  Are there not places and times to value change over continuity?   I think there are! 

Next, bond and barrier.  This really gets to the naked simplicity of what culture is all about.  It is about the bonds within a society and the bonds that society members have formed with each other. 

[under construction - please see earlier complete entries]

Jon