Interpreting Your World

Man is a social animal where we divide ourselves into groups or communities that are typically determined by something we call “culture.” In fact, culture plays an outsized role in determining our identity, purpose and “tribe.” Some philosophers argue that the very nature of self can only develop within and without other people … for it is be such comparisons and contrasts that we find out what makes us different and what makes us the same (e.g. the boundaries of self and the collective and of the other). Culture is such a ubiquitous part of out psychology that it is actually difficult to define it distinctly … so it is more of a recognition when you see it (a sort of this are my people and these are not division of the world) … Much like the author I find that I “gravitate to spaces in which I am comfortable, where I know what will be asked of me, spaces where I have some measure of power, influence , and control.” And yet, isolation is Not the Call of the Christian. And so while I bring my own culture into the world, conflict in inevitable when I encounter other cultures … some marked different than my own. How should I “interpret” and “differentiate” myself unless and can understand how culture drives my won motivations and that of others?

This book gives us 5 “lenses” by which we can better understand what culture is and how it works in our communities and weaves that into the generally call by Christ to love [our enemies] and what that means. Each lens highlights an aspect of culture that should ultimately be viewed together as a whole. Each lens is introduced with a bit of an explanation of why that particular metaphor works (for example … Jonathan Haidt is used to introduce a Moral Foundations Theory that explores sin (6) [paired] innate moral intuitions and the tension within each pair in terms of resonance and resistance). Also within each, the author proposed several theological threads exploring the intersection of culture and theology (the point of the book). The sections each end was a series of questions to reflect on or discuss. Over all, this was an quick and easy read without any of the “big” words or ideas often found within a theology piece, so I would recommend that book for any inquirer interested in a culture and how such interacts with [christian] theology (in both directions).

Introduction: Is There Anything to Say?

1. The Meaning Dimension: Culture as Immune System
2. The Power Dimension: Culture as Power Play
3. The Ethical Dimension: Culture as Moral Boundary
4. The Religious Dimension: Culture as Sacred Experience
5. The Aesthetic Dimension: Culture as Poetic Project

Conclusion: The Lived Dimension</Spoiler>

I was given this free advance review copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#InterpretingYourWorld #NetGalley.

Justin Bailey is an assistant professor at Dordt College. This is a book about culture and theology, a lived-out everyday life. He wrote this book in part “in part because I am troubled by the dismissive tone with which many of my fellow Christians (and particularly my fellow Calvinists) approach culture”.
Karl Marx’s eleventh of his Theses on Feuerbach is: “Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.” Here Bailey writes on ways to interpret the world but as Marx observes interpretation must move on to engagement and where needed transformation. But then before transformation must come interpretation.

Culture is an elastic term. Bailey is rightly concerned that we do not adopt a thin view of culture or a reductive view of culture. To avoid that he discusses five lenses or “penta-focal lenses” through which culture can be observed and interpreted. He doesn’t define exactly what he means by culture – perhaps that is deliberate? One of the best definitions is that of Christian philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd – who is surprisingly absent from Bailey’s writings. Dooyeweerd in his Roots of Western Culture describes culture as “… the term culture refers to whatever owes its existence to human formation in contrast to whatever develops in ‘nature’.

Bailey’s five lenses are:

1. The Meaning Dimension: Culture as Immune System

2. The Power Dimension: Culture as Power Play

3. The Ethical Dimension: Culture as Moral Boundary

4. The Religious Dimension: Culture as Sacred Experience

5. The Aesthetic Dimension: Culture as Poetic Project



For each of the dimensions, he identifies a practice. For the meaning dimension the practice is hosting; for the power dimension the practice is iconoclasm; for the ethical dimension the practice is servant hood; for the religious dimension the practice is discernment; and for the aesthetic dimension the practice is making. These provide constructive and interesting insights into how we respond to, approach, and shape culture.

He correctly realises that cultural participation must go beyond resistance and critique. It also needs to include the cultivation of beautiful things. And helpfully identifies some “characteristic flaws” in Christians’ approach to culture:

intellectualism (overreliance on analysis), triumphalism (overestimation of our ability to “transform the culture”), and parochialism (underappreciation of the gifts on the outside).
Sadly, these have often marred a distinctly Christian approach. Hopefully, Bailey’s book will go towards helping alleviate these unbiblical traits.

Bailey notes that



I was attracted to the Dutch “Reformational” tradition because of the way it trained me to recognize the multifaceted glory of creation and the beauty of ordinary life. This tradition has trained me to oppose reductionism at every turn.

And there are obvious echoes of this tradition in what Bailey writes, but, surprisingly, there is no interaction with Dooyeweerd – though Kuyper, Herman and J.H. Bavinck do get some mentions. Dooyeweerd identifies fifteen different modal aspects, and it would have been good to see all of these aspects explored concerning culture.

The book is well written and provides some excellent questions for reflection and discussion at the end of each chapter. The appendix also has a set of thought-provoking questions. Even though this book doesn’t have all the answers to Christian cultural interaction it does pose important questions and offers some wisdom into how we approach culture.



My thanks to Baker Academic for supplying an ARC.