The Christian Imagination

Paste Magazine is one of the fastest growing entertainment publications in the US. Based in Decatur, Georgia, the magazine was founded as a quarterly in July 2002 by Josh Jackson, Nick Purdy, and Tim Porter. The magazine’s mission is to discover and champion Signs of Life in Music, Film & Culture, introducing its readers to inspired and inspiring music, books, film, games and other art forms. In 2005, Paste was listed at #21 on The Chicago Tribune’s list of “50 Best Magazines.” It was also named Magazine of the Year by the PLUG Independent Music Awards in both 2006 and 2007.

Paste Magazine is available nationwide, including every Borders and Tower in North America. They even followed in the steps of Radiohead and let readers choose their own price for a limited period of time. It’s primary focus is on music, most noteably adult-album-alternative, Americana and indie rock.

One Paste writer, Andy Whitman, had this to say about Paste:

A few months later the first issue of Paste Magazine showed up in my mailbox…It was a slick, professional-looking magazine, printed on nice paper, with color photos and an eye-catching layout, and a bunch of genuinely well-written articles on music, film, books, and popular culture….

They had a vision for something a lot better than a photocopied fanzine, and a vision for engaging the culture as Christians. They didn’t put out a “Christian” magazine. That was never their intention. But they put out a magazine that was true to its tagline: “Signs of Life in Music, Film, and Culture.” By focusing on what was excellent, creative, thought-provoking, beautiful, challenging — wherever it might be found — they tried to raise the level of general cultural discourse.

Paste Magazine. Quality publication. Founded by Christians. Part of the conversation with the culture at large.

The Aesthetic Elevator has a post referencing this Wall Street Journal article. It’s a condensed version of a commencement speech by Dana Gioia titled The Impoverishment of American Culture: And the need for better art education. Gioia is Chairman of the NEA and an internationally known poet.

Gioia makes the case that American culture used to place more emphasis on a broad range of the arts, both in mass media and in education. Now, she contends, the emphasis is on pop culture with a strong alignment towards entertainment and money.

The quotes I like:

The loss of recognition for artists, thinkers and scientists has impoverished our culture in innumerable ways, but let me mention one. When virtually all of a culture’s celebrated figures are in sports or entertainment, how few possible role models we offer the young. There are so many other ways to lead a successful and meaningful life that are not denominated by money or fame. Adult life begins in a child’s imagination, and we’ve relinquished that imagination to the marketplace.

But we must remember that the marketplace does only one thing–it puts a price on everything. The role of culture, however, must go beyond economics. It is not focused on the price of things, but on their value. And, above all, culture should tell us what is beyond price, including what does not belong in the marketplace. A culture should also provide some cogent view of the good life beyond mass accumulation. In this respect, our culture is failing us.

Most American artists, intellectuals and academics have lost their ability to converse with the rest of society. We have become wonderfully expert in talking to one another, but we have become almost invisible and inaudible in the general culture.

I love the second quote above. I once heard a talk by Dr. Elaine Storkey that sounded very similar. This is from the chairperson of the NEA! As a Christian, I thoroughly agree, we need to resist our culture’s determination to put a price on everything and put everything into a nice little box where we can understand it and control it. Consumerism and Materialism are gods we like to pretend don’t exist. It becomes all the more difficult when so much of American Christianity has aligned itself so directly with Capitalism and the so-called Free Market. The problem isn’t with the systems, but rather, how much we identify with the systems. Sometimes we end up shaping our theology around our culture, rather than the other way around.

Gioia also says we need to do more to develop student imagination and creativity within our educational system. Absolutely.

After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion, a book by Princetown sociologist Robert Wuthnow, explores how today’s generation, labeled Generation Y, compares with the Baby Boomer generation. It is complete with statistics and analysis.

According to Wuthnow, today’s generation is “spending more time in school, remaining financially independent on their parents longer, marrying later in life, having kids later (and fewer of them) and changing jobs more often.” The post on Reveries.com further states:

One upside of these differences is that, because of this “extended adolescence … divorce is less common.” He says they see marriage more as a “capstone” than a “starting” event. He also says that this slower path to adulthood gives them “more of a chance to finish their education and … if they’re middle class, a chance to decide from experience what kind of career they want.” One downside, he says, is that they are sometimes “paralyzed” by “all these choices — whom to marry, what kind of education to get, what kind of career to pursue.” Another is a “dependency” on parents for such a long period of time.

I’m from Gen X, but I relate to all the above. I can say from experience that analysis paralysis when trying to make choices can be challenging, especially if we’re sold false life formulas about how to make life work. Some bloggers I’ve read really dislike these trends, such as the so-called ‘extended adolescence.’ Sounds like an interesting book.

The Pew Forum on Religion and American Life just released survey results that are being widely discussed in newspapers and the blogsphere. Of everything that follows, it is ‘according to that report.’

Time Magazine has an article titled: America’s Unfaithful Faithful.

For the first time, a large-scale study has quantified what many experts suspect: there is a constant membership turnover among most American faiths….According to Pew, 28% of American adults have left the faith of their childhood for another one. And that does not even include those who switched from one Protestant denomination to another; if it did, the number would jump to 44%.

Gene Edward Veith has a blog post titled, Protest numbers slide, where he references US News and the Washington Post. Protestants are on the verge of dropping below 50% in the US. There doesn’t appear to be much loyalty across the board, as people switch churches AND religions, or simply choose to be unaffiliated.

USA Today has an interactive app called Topography of Faith which gives a state-by-state religious breakdown.

Stats, of course, can be interpreted in a number of ways. Most people still refer to themselves as Christians, even if we are not all that committed. Really, though, I think being committed to a flavor of Christianity is less important than being committed to a local church. While I haven’t read the entire survey, I don’t think it measures that stat…