Zeitgeist

From Neoredemptive

German for "spirit of the time(s)". The thoughts, tastes, preferences, styles, language, outlook, fascinations, and other facets particular to a time and place.

There is a nasty recurring habit in the Christian world to interpret the gospel through the lens of the zeitgeist, to try to make Jesus Christ make sense in terms of the categories, trends, whims, and philosophical fads that surround us. To do so is to approach the gospel precisely backwards; it is the redeeming work of the Cross that is the lens through which we can make sense of, critique, and bring wisdom and healing to bear upon the zeitgeist.

Case in point, much of theological liberalism is an attempt to hold secular concepts of knowledge, science, rationality, evidence, sociology, and psychology as fixed constants and treat God as the great unknown variable that must be solved for in their midst. Such a variable may indeed be "the spirit of this world" (1 Corinthians 2), but it is certainly not a God worthy of the name.

It is also worth pointing out that many "theologically conservative" movements are equally guilty of whole-heartedly buying into trendy concepts in marketing, group dynamics, branding, merchandising, organizational theory, and other accoutrements of the consumerist zeitgeist.

We're not saying there's nothing to be learned from the world. But the premise, subject, and actor in redemption must always and only be God As He Is, not our vain philosophies and shreds of passing-away wisdom.