Interpreting Your World: Five Lenses for Discerning Culture | Justin Ariel Bailey
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
— James 1:19-21
What do you think of when you hear the word "culture"?
What do you think when you hear the words "interpreting culture"?
We wouldn't be surprised if most of you just lost interest after those questions. But don't click away!
Conversations about culture and how we interpret our world are not exclusively had by super intellectual people who write super intellectual books. Our job at Jubilee is to find people who take complex topics, discern where they see our Creator God in them, and then joyfully invite others into that conversation.
Enter: Justin Ariel Bailey. He is a college professor who is an expert at making these conversations accessible to everyone, but especially college students.
All of us interpret our world. God created us as beings who have emotions, desires and thoughts. And we're also here, on this earth, constantly trying to make sense how we live.
Thinking about culture is important. We need to consider who we are, whose we are, and what kind of world we are walking through in our earthly bodies. But where do we start?
“We can’t help but interpret the world, but we can get better at it.” — Justin Ariel Bailey, Jubilee 2023
Let's work to get better at it together.
At Jubilee 2023, Justin Ariel Bailey told a story about a former student who decided to throw a bunch of his CDs over a bridge so he could follow Jesus more closely. But do we all really have to do that? At his workshop, he walks through why he doesn't think we all need to. But at the same time, some of us may still choose to do that. Give his workshop a listen to consider this for your own life!
also available on Spotify, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen!
WHERE TO NEXT?
Learn more about Justin at his website: www.pjustin.com
Grab a copy of the book he mentioned in his session: Interpreting Your World: Five Lenses for Engaging Theology and Culture
Follow Justin on Twitter
As we were putting together this email, it hit us all over again how often we put our trust in the things of this world instead of the One who created it all to begin with.
None of these earthly things will last forever. But God is steadfast.
As Justin said in his workshop, “faith is a fundamental posture of trust in the One who is faithful.”
We'll see you soon with more ways to #LiveJubilee
— The Jubilee Team