Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Counter Culture
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lilBuddha
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# 14333
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by Anglican_Brat: The problem with "countercultural" is that there are multiple cultures within a society.
Yes and no. There is often a dominant thread running though and defining what it means to be British, American or Canadian.¹ It has variations and subcultures, but there is most often a dominant theme(s).
¹Canada seems to have two, and there are other countries with large, semi-seperate cultures. But counter-culture exists inside those, not between them.
quote:
For example, take the perceived left-wing cultures of major universities in North America. The left-wing cultures of university may view themselves as "countercultural" because they are going against the perceived conservative tenor of North American society. But right-wing activists within those universities may perceive themselves as "countercultural" because they are resisting the dominant left-wing university discourse.
What one is countering is the dominant culture, not merely anything that is different. The right-wing students represented the mainstream culture. quote:
Kwok Pui-Lan, post-colonial theologian at EDS, once came to my neck of the woods in BC. She spoke that it is an illusion to think that there is a "pure Christianity" that exists prior to entanglement with empire. From her teaching, one could say that it is impossible to imagine Christianity as countercultural if one understands this idea to mean a "pure" Christianity that exists prior to culture.
Again, this misses the point of what counter-culture is. The argument is, IMO, whether Christianity represented a culture prior to its forcible adoption into Roman culture.
-------------------- I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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HCH
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# 14313
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Posted
Somehow all of this discussion seems to ignore many centuries in which "the church" was the dominant culture, at least in most of Europe. Sometimes the counter-cultural actions and feelings are directed against the institutional church. I imagine St. Francis would agree, and so might Martin Luther. It may be that Christianity must have such rebellions whenever the church sits back in comfort and thinks of itself as good.
Posts: 1540 | From: Illinois, USA | Registered: Nov 2008
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lilBuddha
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# 14333
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Posted
quote: Originally posted by HCH: Somehow all of this discussion seems to ignore many centuries in which "the church" was the dominant culture, at least in most of Europe.
Seriously, WTF?! That has been my point from the beginning. quote:
Sometimes the counter-cultural actions and feelings are directed against the institutional church. I imagine St. Francis would agree, and so might Martin Luther. It may be that Christianity must have such rebellions whenever the church sits back in comfort and thinks of itself as good.
This point has also been made.
-------------------- I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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Gramps49
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# 16378
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Posted
Can the church be counter-cultural?
Ask Pope Francis.
Posts: 2193 | From: Pullman WA | Registered: Apr 2011
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Kwesi
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# 10274
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Posted
I guess the concept of Grace rather than Law and Custom is counter-cultural. For example, those who worked an hour not only receiving the same as those who toiled all day but also being paid first!
Posts: 1641 | From: South Ofankor | Registered: Sep 2005
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