Culture Care and the Kingdom of God

As part of the University Reading Groups this semester, I am reading Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for Our Common Life by Mokota Fujimura. He is encouraging “generative thinking” which contributes to our life and a thriving culture. This type of thinking “recognizes, produces, or catalyzes beauty, goodness, and flourishing (p. 24).” The themes leading to this kind of culture are creativity, beauty, generosity, generational thinking, and stewardship. The term generative itself comes from Genesis where God creates the world and humanity.

This got me thinking about the culture of the Kingdom of God and how this "culture care" really comes from bringing the Kingdom of God to earth – Just as Jesus stated in the Lord’s Prayer, “May your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10)!” Jesus taught about the Kingdom in parables and through key moments throughout His ministry. We have learned that the Kingdom of God consists of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). In the Kingdom, the least is the greatest (Luke 7:28), the poor are blessed (Luke 6:20), and the children of God will inherit it (Mark 10:14). As Christians, we are called to be stewards of the gifts and things God has placed in our charge (Luke 12:34-36, and Luke 16; 1 Corinthians 4:1; Ephesians 3:2; 1 Peter 4:10). This includes the beautiful world God made for us, which also includes the culture around us.

Fujimura discusses the concern for our culture after coming out of Modernization and the current culture wars! The struggle for finding efficiency took over the concepts of beauty and thriving to focus on surviving – explaining the focus on abstract art showing emotions of anger and strife coming out of the struggles. The newer art seems to attempt more political statements and we lose a sense of beauty and art for the sake of decoration and enjoyment. Currently, we are dealing with the aftermath of Covid and Russia invading Ukraine. People are still in survival mode and do not know how to socialize and thrive! Fujimura’s response to this is to bring beauty into our world and allow it to start the soul inner- healing needed – to realize why we want to thrive in this world!

Beauty is the quality connected with those things that are in themselves appealing and desirable. Beautiful things are a delight to the senses, a pleasure to the mind, and a refreshment for the spirit. Beauty invites us in, capturing our attention and making us want to linger. Beautiful things are worth our scrutiny, rewarding to contemplate, deserving of pursuit (p. 50).

It is important for us to find the beauty in life and share it with family and friends and those around us! It is time to return to fellowship - living life together (koinonia) – and bringing joy and beauty to others to help restore our souls and thrive in life! So, take off the masks and start living! Look for beauty in the world God created – stop and ponder His creativity and beauty! Restore the arts, good music, and any community activity where we can share and shape culture! “Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” – it is time to thrive!