Will pop culture be the end of historic Christianity?

I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.

1 Corinthians 9.23

In Plato’s parable of the cave prisoners kept all their lives in a cave, contemplating the shadows on the wall, come to believe that this is all the reality there is. Then one escapes and discovers the outside world and, realizing there is more of color, vastness, wonder, and beauty than watching one’s own shadows bouncing in firelight against a cave wall, he returns to the cave to liberate his fellow captives into real life. Philosopher William Irwin thinks something like this needs to happen if philosophy is ever to capture the attention of more than just an elite group of sympathizers.

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Writing in a recent issue of Philosophy Now magazine, Irwin calls on philosophers to don the forms of pop culture in order to reach people trapped in that make-believe world and lift them out to a larger world of ideas and serious intellectual reflection. He doesn’t want philosophy to become pop culture, nor even to capitulate to its many fleeting forms. Rather, he simply urges philosophers to consider ways they might engage those who are trapped in the cave of pop culture on their own terms, so that they can be helped to discover that there is more to life than mere entertainment.

He writes, “Popular culture and philosophy is akin to a philharmonic orchestra performing Beatles songs. People will come to the philharmonic who might not otherwise: they’ll enjoy it; and some, who would not have done so otherwise, will come back to hear Beethoven.” He continues, “It is not just that we can or may, but that we should and must bring philosophy to the public in terms they will know and find attractive and interesting – not for the sake of joining the crowd in the cave, but for the sake of showing them the way out.”

There’s some real wisdom here, wisdom that might have helped thousands of American churches make a proper use of pop culture in their outreach to the entertainment age.

But many churches, rather than enter the cave of pop culture in order to lead its prisoners out into the brighter, more wondrous world of the grand tradition of Christian life, liturgy, and learning, have simply settled into the cave, chained themselves to the fleeting forms of pop culture, and concluded that this, after all, is the only reality that matters.

Irwin writes, “Those who criticize people for being immersed in popular culture but show them no way out and provide no motivation to seek one, are like escaped prisoners who simply sneer at those still stuck in the cave, haranguing and ridiculing them.” And if that’s not bad enough, to simply “cave in” to the allure of pop and turn our churches over to the spiritus mundi, is to leave little room for the Spirit of God to do the transforming work of the Kingdom of heaven.

The end of human life is not pop culture. The high water mark of the Gospel and the work of building Christ’s Church does not consist in the latest and slickest forms of pop culture. And while driving beats, electrified music, contemporary lyrics, sophisticated programs, sprawling mall-like campuses, and efficient organizational structures may have a role in helping the church to reach the prisoners in the cave of modernity and pop, they must not become the final forms to which we aspire as the fullest realization of the Body of Christ.

The grand tradition of the Church – in liturgy, learning, and life – is far more profound, beautiful, mysterious, and fraught with wonder than the fleeting forms of pop culture can ever contain.

For more information on this topic, read the book, Eyes Wide Open, by William D. Romanowski, from our online store. Or read the article, “Liberating Pop Culture,” by T. M. Moore.