Cultural Christianity: Fake Christians and the Jesus of History

On the eighth installment of The Weekly, Ryan distinguishes between cultural Christianity—American or Western Christianity—and real Christianity, displaying some of the key differences between Western Christians and the Jesus of history.

Cultural Christianity: Fake Christians and the Jesus of History

Sometimes people claim something as their own or identify themselves with something without much knowledge or understanding of the thing in question. This happens in the sporting world and sports fandom quite a bit. For instance, you might be having a conversation about the sports you played as a child with some friends, talking about your experience in tee-ball when you were a kid. As you are talking about the game of baseball, one of your friends might jump in and state that he is a big fan of the St. Louis Cardinals. In response, another one of your friends might ask him who his favorite players are, but, as he struggles to come up with more than one name on the roster, you realize that his personal identification as a “big fan” was a bit of an exaggeration—and that maybe he isn’t much of a fan at all. This kind of phenomenon isn’t at all unique to the world of sports; it happens in the religious world as well.

•   Personal experience:

—I have known many Christians throughout my life, and I have met many people during my life who would identify themselves as Christians. But, I am not sure the majority of these people really knew what Christianity was and really understood who their Christ was. It is alleged that Gandhi once stated: "I like your Christ, but not your Christianity…." "I believe in the teachings of Christ, but you on the other side of the world do not, I read the Bible faithfully and see little in Christendom that those who profess faith pretend to see.”

—Universal Examples: many of those who rushed the Capitol would probably identify themselves as Christians. Many of those who owned slaves in this country identified themselves as Christians. Many of those who hurl insults and demonize others on social media identify themselves as Christians. Many who believe things and promote ideas that directly contradict the way of Christ identify themselves as Christians.

—Personal Examples: I have met many Christians who are unable to forgive. I have met many Christians who don’t understand what unconditional love is. Many American Christians, unfortunately, don’t know how to read Scripture, don’t properly understand Scripture, and thus don’t have a sound grasp of who their professed Christ was and is!

—As I have gotten older, my view of and approach to Scripture has actually inched closer and closer to the Roman Catholic understanding. The Bible is a dangerous book in the wrong hands; it is a book that is so often abused, misused, and misappropriated. Was the ancient Catholic Church on to something when they limited the handling of the text to the clergy, to those who had the proper training and expertise—those who had been educated in the original languages, ancient history, ancient literature, and hermeneutics? As a Protestant, I can’t actually go that far, but I do think that education and training is extremely important.

—But the big questions for today’s podcast are as follows: What is Christianity? Who is Jesus Christ? And what is the relationship between the two?  These are the tough questions that we will be tackling, in a very broad and general manner, on this week’s episode.

Who Was Jesus?

•   This might seem obvious to some, but, first and foremost, knowledge of Jesus of Nazareth is a pre-condition of Christianity.

—One who takes a hyper-critical view towards the Gospels—questioning their ability to give us dependable knowledge as historical sources—or an agnostic view towards the person of Jesus can’t really be a Christian in the proper sense.

—This is because such views sever the inseparable connection between subject and object:

• The Christian as subject; Christ as object
• A Christian as subject is one who seeks to emulate her object of faith – Christ. How can the subject do this without knowledge of her object? How can I properly emulate a person that I don’t know?
• This would be like an actress tasked with the responsibility of playing the role of Juliet in the famous Shakespeare play without any knowledge of her character or her lines.

What is Christianity & What is a Christian?

•   Etymology: the Greek word Χριστιανός (Christianos), meaning "follower of Christ," comes from Χριστός (Christos), meaning "anointed one."

•   "Christians," aptly named, are simply those who try to follow the way of Jesus Christ—the anointed one of God, or the Messiah of God.

•   Basic NT understanding: another way of saying this is that Christians are those who confess Jesus as Lord. For Christians, Jesus is “Lord” in terms of both faith and praxis—in terms of belief, knowledge, and truth, on one hand, and in terms of behavior, morality, and action, on the other.

—Jesus is the master, leader, teacher, trainer, authority

—The Christian is the pupil, disciple, trainee, emulator, follower

•   Summary: (1) Christians are those who have a knowledge of Jesus; (2) they recognize both the words and deeds of Jesus as being authoritative for all faith and praxis; (3) in this way, Jesus is their criterion for all truth; (4) because of this, they seek to follow & emulate the way of Christ by living into and living out this truth.

Cultural Christianity, Fake Christianity, Western Christianity 

•   Many "Christians" don’t actually know their Christ, and therefore they don’t properly emulate their Christ.

•   The main tendency & approach: setting aside the thorny issues of hermeneutics, historical & biblical criticism, and the immense difficulty of understanding the meaning of a piece of ancient literature written by a ton of different authors over hundreds and even thousands of years in languages that are no longer extant, most people tend to make Jesus into their own image (here we find the confusion of subject & object!).

•   We naturally view Jesus through a subjective and biased lens // Jesus as a self-projection and a product of wish fulfillment (similar to Freud and Feuerbach’s theories of God & religion).

•   Examples: Jesus becomes the "right wing Jesus," or the "liberal Jesus," or the “agreeable and all-accepting Jesus," or the "gun-loving Jesus," or the "hippy Jesus," or the “American Jesus,” or the “woke Jesus,” or the “white Jesus.”

•   This is why there are people who are trained in OT and NT history, the various original languages, biblical criticism, the search for the historical Jesus, hermeneutics, and theology.

•   Many Christians not only don't know how to accurately interpret the text in question, but they are also biblically illiterate! How many Christians actually read their sacred piece of literature on a regular basis?

•   But the main point is this: how can anyone say what Christianity is—whether Christian or not—when they don’t know who Jesus of Nazareth was and what he stood for and believed in. Christianity becomes more and more inauthentic the further away it moves from its source material.

•   As Christianity moves away from its source material, it turns into what I like to call, "cultural Christianity," a Christianity that reflects the values of its culture more than the values of its Christ.

•   Example: this is kind of like Americanized ethnic foods. From what I hear, Chinese food is a really good example of this. Chinese food in the United States is nothing like Chinese food in China. In the US, this food has been modified to satisfy American preferences and tastes to such an extent that it may be unrecognizable to people in China. American Chinese food, at least in my understanding, is inauthentic Chinese food. In the same way, much of American Christianity is inauthentic Christianity.

The Christ of Faith vs. The Jesus of History

•   For now, I will narrow my discussion to three very general items:

1. Christianity is not an American or national religion but a global religion. It started in the Middle East, moved Westward to Europe, and today is larger in Africa and Latin America than it is in the United States. Jesus was of course not American; he was Palestinian or Jewish, and therefore he embodied presuppositions, customs, and mores common to his ethnicity and his Ancient Near-Eastern heritage and setting—rather than the ideals, sentiments, and cultural customs common to a modern Western or American context.

2. Christianity is not a political phenomenon or movement. Though Jesus of Nazareth did not shy away from political critique when necessary, partly because politics and religion were fused together in his particular historical-cultural context, Christ did not attempt to establish a governmental system or a political philosophy, but a community defined by love & truth and justice & mercy that could thrive under any government and any political system.

3. Christianity is not primarily a cultural thing, but a Christ thing! Christianity becomes tainted over time as it diverges from its Christ and becomes more geographical, political, or cultural in nature.

Fake Christianity vs. Real Christianity

•  On top of identifying Jesus as Lord, there are two main qualities or attributes that sum up the Christian life, which are a part of viewing Jesus as Lord:

Additional Links & Sources

• "Cultural Christianity" on Google Podcasts
• "Cultural Christianity" on Apple Podcasts

• "Cultural Christianity" on Spotify

• "Nominal Christian," Wikipedia
  
• "Are You a Nominal Christian? A Diagnostic Test," The Gospel Coalition
• On Being a Christian, Hans Kung
• The Historical Figure of Jesus, E. P. Sanders
• "Quest for the Historical Jesus," Wikipedia
• "The Wright Quest for the Historical Jesus," Ben Witherington III
• "The Historical Jesus and Christian Theology," N.T. Wright
• "The Almost Christian," Christian History Institute
• "America’s New Religion: Fake Christianity," The Washington Times
• The Unsaved Christian, Dean Inserra
• "The Message: The Danger of Cultural Christianity," Watertown Public Opinion
• "What Are the Signs of Cultural Christianity?" Christianity.com
• "Cultural Christians," Wikipedia