Christian discernment of culture

Discernment is a way of interpreting experiences and of making choices in the light of faith. In other words it is a specifically spiritual and Christian way of reading reality. It seeks to recognize the presence of the Spirit within the human. It enlarges the method of viewing a culture from description of outer factors to reflection on the deeper attitudes or dispositions of people. If the Spirit is at work, then the fruits will show themselves. Towards what are our hearts moving? That is the key question for spiritual discernment. It asks about the directional flow of our lives: is the culture leading towards what is profoundly humanizing and creative of love, or pushing us towards what is imprisoning, destructive, and closed to compassion? The first movement (call it consolation) is an experience of being-in-tune-with-Christ. The contrary movement (call it desolation) experiences disharmony, disconnection, distance, distrust of everything and everyone, perhaps even of oneself.

Discernment is not just about evaluating outer pressures. It requires a freedom within the person seeking to discern. There can be no real discernment of culture without a certain consolation as a basic attitude - as a tone of trust that liberates out disposition to understand the culture in the light of God. Consolation, in this sense, does not mean rose-tinted optimism. In fact it involves a double expectation: there will be conflict, ambiguity, anti-values lurking in any culture. But there will also be signs of hope and fruits of the Spirit. No culture is beyond redemption. Judge we must but in a spirit of real understanding, never in a tone of dismissiveness.

Discernment of culture, then, hinges on one's own spiritual state. If desolation rules, a kind of blanket moaning about reality can take over. If consolation is arrived at, critique of the falsities of the culture will be expressed in concrete ways, accompanied by a trust that these shadows are never the whole story. Consolation breaks the negative magnifying glass that can see only decadence or disaster. There are authentic values within the culture which need liberating from the deceptions. Discernment means recognizing the genuine as distinct from the trivial, and knowing them by their long-term impact on the human heart. Ultimately it means being able to interpret smoke signals of hope rising from what may at first seem like a burnt-out desert.

Adapted from Clashing Symbols: an introduction to faith-and-culture (Darton, Longman and Todd, London, 1997 and Paulist Press, Mahwah, 1998).

Chapter headings of the book Clashing Symbols

1. Introduction: Culture as Cinderella
2. Clarifying the concept of culture
3. Three theorists of chance
4. A major theme of Vatican II
5. Catholic developments since 1965
6. The World Council of Churches: a different approach
7. Incoming tides of modernity
8. Religious responses to modernity
9. The Postmodern Situation - friend or foe?
10. Horizons of inculturation
11. Cultural discernment
12. Cultural consciousness in ministry
13. Towards a spirituality of culture
14. Personal epilogue: roots and horizons

The full title of this book is Clashing Symbols: an introduction to faith-and-culture (Darton, Longman and Todd, London, 1997 and Paulist Press, Mahwah, 1998).