Week 3 – Bevans Chapter 3

One of the first classes I took in seminary was Mouw’s Christ and Culture class, in which our first text was Niebuhr’s Christ and Culture.  It’s interesting that this book was brought up here, since the topics discussed are relevant for the analysis in Cobb’s book on Tertullian and Augustine.  What I find interesting is that while I was reading Neibhur, I found the division into the five models to be confusing and pragmatically difficult.  In hindsight, however, it does seem that the model approach did much to clarify the dominant issues in my own mind and thus has, in fact, influenced my own perspective on the Christ and culture debate.  I think the challenge, of course, to models was clearly emphasized by Bevans: one must always anticipate and bear in mind the limitations of one’s model.