Culture Care – Reconnecting with Beauty for Our Common Life

Can’t particularly recommend this. I was really excited for it but didn’t even end up finishing it, and then I donated it. I appreciate the effort and where he was trying to go with it, but I just couldn’t find it interesting enough.

It seems that the church in America has missed out on the beauty of the arts and that is possibly what prompted Makoto Fujimura to write Culture Care. In this refreshing read we are invited to think about caring for culture through the lens of an artist. For those who don’t consider themselves an artist, this book will offer new insights to ponder. Fujimura shares his journey as an artist, into the Christian faith, while maintaining his love for the arts. Throughout the book we are evoked to slow down, see, and experience the beauty in our everyday life. In the invitation to this journey the author shares an example from his personal life where he missed the opportunity to celebrate beauty when his wife brought home flowers to their financially struggling family (page 16). His harsh response and her gentle reminder seem to have prompted this reminder to see beauty.Culture Care is broken into nineteen, bite-sized, chapters that gradually and creatively build on themselves. The book feels like a meandering river that combines stories, Scripture, and real life experiences to bring the reader to places they may have never ventured before. Fujimura reminds us that we are to care for the culture God has created for us to enjoy. One example of this comes as we learn about the pollution of the Hudson River and how in the 1900’s the river turned black as a polluted ecosystem. We are confronted with the reality of the pollution in the Hudson as an illustration of what has taken place in the rivers of our culture. The arts have been exploited for commercial interest and dominated by toxic products to make an earning (page 30).All this translates to a culture that is not life-giving for those who are impacted by this toxic mess but there is hope; the story isn’t over and as bleak as it might feel. Fujimura shares several historical examples of artists who impacted the world as we know it. He creatively reminds us of: Martin Luther King, Harper Lee, Vincent Van Gough, and Emily Dickinson to illustrate our need to care for culture. MLK had a written speech in front of him but was encouraged to tell the people about his dream. Harper Lee addressed the hatred of racism in a culture that was slowly building to a breaking point. Van Gough was misunderstood and couldn’t find a place in the church. Dickenson wrote during a time that wasn’t ready for her impact. All of these stories remind the reader not to give up on the culture around them but to keep pressing forward to use their creative gifting to shape the culture. Sometimes the world around us can’t recognize the beauty of God contained within us.As we come to the end of the book, the reader is presented with several options for life application. One point of application is the reminder that God does not promise an easy path for those who follow Christ but He does give us an abundant path (page 122). Our art can be used to show our love for our neighbors in a world that is filled with anxiety (page 129). The worry of our culture is looking for something the world can’t offer but Christians can be those who bring beauty into the world. Finally we are invited to new vocabulary that writes new stories in our world (chapter 18). Our new vocabulary can be thoughtful, mindful, and meaningful as a new way to state old truths. The basic idea of this book is to bring beauty into the culture God has placed us.

Refreshing and inspiring!