Van Til on Culture and Religion II
What is the difference between culture and civilization?
Van Til says all civilizations have a culture but not all cultures mount the pinacle of civilization. Civilization is culture advanced, matured, well-aged.
Van Til uses the idea of culture to attack those who call man an "animal." Why? Because even though man has a physical body that resembles an animal's there is still a fundamental distinction between man and beast. Men think and will; beasts act by instinct. An animal never developed a culture, much less a civilization. Bees make the same hives, however intricate and well-planned, year after year.
Animals are defined by their biological wants and needs whereas man transcends his different constitute parts. No one aspect of man can define man for that one aspect comes from man.
Van Til argues that culture is always social. It "takes in the whole man, not merely as an individual, but as a member of the human organism, and therefore, in his various relationships to other men, and in the different instiutions that are thus called into existence, the institution of the home, of society, with its relationship between employer and employee, capital and labor, commerce and industry, education and science, politics and government" (32).
Man, as a social creature, takes nature and tranforms it into culture: "A river is nature, but a canal is culture. speech is nature, but a Shakespearian drama is culture; a horse is nature, but a five-gaited trotter is culture" (32).
But what about culture and individual freedom? Does culture determine what we are? Van Til likens culture to a river. The river carries you along but you can also swim in the stream and influence the stream because you are a moral agent (33).
The problem with apostate culture is that it is too conernend with the temporal and the material (33). Culture is for man's fulfillment and his fulfillment alone. The best culture will be the one in which man is the least and God the most. The most beautiful culture is when man serves the Lord who made him. If culture expresses religion then the best culture will be the true religion truly lived.
Van Til says all civilizations have a culture but not all cultures mount the pinacle of civilization. Civilization is culture advanced, matured, well-aged.
Van Til uses the idea of culture to attack those who call man an "animal." Why? Because even though man has a physical body that resembles an animal's there is still a fundamental distinction between man and beast. Men think and will; beasts act by instinct. An animal never developed a culture, much less a civilization. Bees make the same hives, however intricate and well-planned, year after year.
Animals are defined by their biological wants and needs whereas man transcends his different constitute parts. No one aspect of man can define man for that one aspect comes from man.
Van Til argues that culture is always social. It "takes in the whole man, not merely as an individual, but as a member of the human organism, and therefore, in his various relationships to other men, and in the different instiutions that are thus called into existence, the institution of the home, of society, with its relationship between employer and employee, capital and labor, commerce and industry, education and science, politics and government" (32).
Man, as a social creature, takes nature and tranforms it into culture: "A river is nature, but a canal is culture. speech is nature, but a Shakespearian drama is culture; a horse is nature, but a five-gaited trotter is culture" (32).
But what about culture and individual freedom? Does culture determine what we are? Van Til likens culture to a river. The river carries you along but you can also swim in the stream and influence the stream because you are a moral agent (33).
The problem with apostate culture is that it is too conernend with the temporal and the material (33). Culture is for man's fulfillment and his fulfillment alone. The best culture will be the one in which man is the least and God the most. The most beautiful culture is when man serves the Lord who made him. If culture expresses religion then the best culture will be the true religion truly lived.
posted by T. Chris at Saturday, December 09, 2006
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