Refusing to let the culture dictate our lives

How does the culture dictate our lives?

It does so by setting certain patterns of thought that we unconsciously, uncritically accept with our mother's milk.
Here is one of them:

self 4 God 4 world.

This is the pattern we have been practicing with ever greater refinement and urgency since Descartes first pronounced, "I think, therefore I am." (Of course, now that we are postmoderns, we have shifted into high gear--"hypermodernism"-- and affirm "I feel, therefore I am.")

But this is all very abstract. Let me give you some examples:

1) Self: "I feel that embryonic stem cell research will help me."
2) God: Therefore God must be like this: "God approves of anything that helps people."
3) World: "So, it is right to support embryonic stem cell research.'"

or

1) Self: "I feel that it is ok to miss 17 Sundays a year so that I can play soccer."
2) God: Therefore God must be like this: "God is not a legalistic meanie; he wants me to be happy."
3) World: "Some people go to church, some people go to soccer games; it's all good!"

or

1) Self: "I feel that I am worth this pair of $200 shoes."
2) God: Therefore God must be like this: "Ah, my beloved child, didn't I create you for good things? Enjoy!"
3) World: "Be a good citizen: Consume!"

or

1) Self: "I am what I look like."
2) God: Therefore God must be like this: "If you want to change who you are, first change your appearance."
3) World: "You are what you look like."

Here is another pattern, also typical of our times.

World 4self

This is the one employed by the Dennetts, Dawkins, Hitchens and the Brights http://www.the-brights.net/people/enthusiastic/index4.html around us. It cuts to the chase, and eliminates the middle (God)man.

Or how about this riff?

self 4world

That's a favorite of the Deepak Chopras and the existentially minded.

But I digress. My theme is taken from Eugene Peterson: "We can refuse to permit the culture to dictate the way we go about our lives" (The Jesus Way, page 13). Paul put it a bit differently:

"See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than Christ." (Col. 2:8)

If the above are examples of hollow and deceptive philosophy/patterns of thought, what would a godly, Christian philosophy/pattern of thought look like? Again, taking my clue from Paul and other premoderns, I submit it will look like this:

God 4World 4Human Beings

(Note that "God" here means Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.)

Note also that this is the narrative outline given in Genesis 1 and John 1:

1) God: "In the beginning God..."
2) World "created the heavens and the earth..."
3) Human Beings: "...When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens...the Lord formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being."

or

1) God: "In the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the Word was God..."
2) World: "Through Him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In Him was life..."
3) Human Beings: "And that life was the light of men..."

Finally, note that the notion of "self" doesn't appear in these outlines. Perhaps that is because "self" is a modern concept, insofar as it depends on a nominalist metaphysic that takes individuals as primary, and communities as constructed rather than given.

So. Is our faith countercultural? How can it be, if it apes the culture? We refuse to let the culture dictate our lives whenever we challenge the prevailing thought patterns of our day, replace those counterfeits with the bona fide reality and then live out that reality.

We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.
(2 Cor. 12)

Lord, please give us the mind of Christ.