CCP73: On Becoming a Student of Culture
In this week’s conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they take a break from discussing what’s happening in culture to talk about how to become a student of culture. While Dr. White touched on this briefly in the podcast’s inaugural episode CCP1: Welcome to the C&C Podcast, this episode really dives down into his practices for staying on top of what’s happening in our world and how the church should respond and engage.
Episode Links
Being a student of culture is something Dr. White considers vital to his role in the church. He has a daily practice of reviewing more than 15 periodicals to see how they are engaging the news. The three he suggests to be most helpful for a true exploration of cultural events are: The Atlantic, National Public Radio, and The Washington Post. And for those in the Christian world he recommends: Christianity Today Magazine, UVA’s Hedgehog Review, and Q from Gabe Lyons. Don’t have time to read through multiple articles looking for important cultural trends? That’s why Dr. White selects the four most relevant stories and posts these each day at churchandculture.org on our Daily Headline News.
He often uses these cultural stories and findings as the source of inspiration for topics for his twice-weekly Church & Culture blog, which you can subscribe to for free on the Church & Culture website. Once you subscribe, you’ll receive the blog delivered straight to your inbox every Monday and Thursday.
Dr. White also uses his extensive research and study of culture to pour into the many books that he has written. There were five books specifically mentioned in this episode that are particularly relevant for the understanding of today’s culture: Serious Times: Making Your Life Matter in an Urgent Day on understanding history as it relates to today’s culture; A Mind for God which is extremely important for developing and maintaining a Christian mind and worldview; The Rise of the Nones: Understanding and Reaching the Religiously Unaffiliated to understand the alarming rise in those who claim no religious affiliation whatsoever; Meet Generation Z to grasp what makes this generation particularly unique and a primary mission field for the church; and finally his latest release, Hybrid Church: Rethinking the Church for a Post-Christian Digital Age looking at the digital revolution that has taken place in our day and the need for the church to adapt. Also, for help with how to quickly and efficiently read a book, Dr. White recommended “How to Read a Book” by Mortimer Adler.
Finally, the concern with people creating a “Daily Me” was brought up during today’s conversation. This is the idea that people tend to cultivate their news feed through social media to only show them stories that align with their political and ideological beliefs. You can listen to the recent podcast episode CCP71: On Social Media and Mental Health for a deeper look into this topic.