Culture Making : Recovering Our Creative Calling

Introduction
Part 1: Culture
1. The Horizons Of The Possible
2. Cultural Worlds
3. Teardowns, Technology And Change
4. Cultivation And Creation
5. Gestures And Postures

Part 2: Gospel
6. The Garden And The CityInterlude: The Primordial Story
7. The Least Of The Nations
8. Jesus As Culture Maker
9. From Pentecost . . .
10. . . . To Revelation
11. The Glorious Impossible

Part 3: Calling
12. Why We Can’t Change The World
13. The Traces Of God
14. Power
15. Community
16. Grace Postscript: Artist In His Studio
Acknowledgments
Notes And Further Reading
Index
About Andy Crouch

Additional Info
2009 Christianity Today Book Award winner! Named one of Publishers Weekly’s best books of 2008 (religion category) It is not enough to condemn culture. Nor is it sufficient merely to critique culture or to copy culture. Most of the time, we just consume culture. But the only way to change culture is to create culture. Andy Crouch unleashes a stirring manifesto calling Christians to be culture makers. For too long, Christians have had an insufficient view of culture and have waged misguided “culture wars.” But we must reclaim the cultural mandate to be the creative cultivators that God designed us to be. Culture is what we make of the world, both in creating cultural artifacts as well as in making sense of the world around us. By making chairs and omelets, languages and laws, we participate in the good work of culture making. Crouch unpacks the complexities of how culture works and gives us tools for cultivating and creating culture. He navigates the dynamics of cultural change and probes the role and efficacy of our various cultural gestures and postures. Keen biblical exposition demonstrates that creating culture is central to the whole scriptural narrative, the ministry of Jesus and the call to the church. He guards against naive assumptions about “changing the world,” but points us to hopeful examples from church history and contemporary society of how culture is made and shaped. Ultimately, our culture making is done in partnership with God’s own making and transforming of culture. A model of his premise, this landmark book is sure to be a rallying cry for a new generation of culturally creative Christians. Discover your calling and join the culture makers.