“The idea that culture is embodied religion runs through Dawson’s writings. According to this view, every culture in its origins has religion at its center, and we may speak of culture as a kind of enfleshment of religion over time. Culture is the sum of ways in which some religion becomes embodied in material forms and patterns of life.”
Christopher Dawson
The Crisis of Western Education
Introduction – Glen W. Olsen
1.) Those who desire to champion two Kingdom thinking can never understand this truth because for them religion/theology belongs in a very circumscribed realm. For two Kingdom chaps religion/theology is one thing while politics, education, arts, family life, philosophy, etc. are all quite different things. Indeed, the two kingdom chaps insist that religion/theology must stay out of these other areas that are the very marrow of culture. Dawson (and Henry Van Til, and all worldview thinkers protested vehemently.
2.) For those with eyes to see all of life, not least of which includes culture, is a window into the soul of those moving through life. From the way a man dresses to the way that they speak to the way that they drive to the foods that they eat are all contributory expressions of the religion/theology they embrace and so animates them. Habits, as well as culture, are the movie screen on which the theology of people(s) is cast.
3.) Because this is true understanding culture grants one the prophetic/predictive ability of what people will do next. This is because people act consistent with their culture/habits. Because that is true one can build on the ability of understanding people by understanding their culture (religion).
4.) This also explains why parents must be careful about the education of their children. The role of the educator is to catechize the student into the religion/theology that is the driving of the curriculum being used. There is no curriculum, nor study, nor textbook that isn’t at the same time inculcating some religion/theology. We would also add that this explains why parents should be careful with the friends they allow their children to make. All potential friends are theology containers. Are those potential friends of your children carriers of the theology/religion that you, as a parent, desire your children to be influenced by?
5.) I note all this fully understanding that Dawson himself believed that Christian culture had a kind of dualism at heart. At this point I believe Dawson was inconsistent with his own project. All of culture is religiously/theologically integrated so as to from one expression of the same religion/theology.
