Brett McCracken - Hipster Christianity: When Church and Cool Collide

hipster
christianity

WHEN CHURCH AND cool COLLIDE

brett mccracken

2010 by Brett McCracken

Published by Baker Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakerbooks.com

E-book edition created 2010

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

ISBN 978-1-4412-1193-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture is taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked NASB is taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture marked NIV is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION . NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

To J. Wilson McCracken and Sig Schielke
who cared little for anything hipster
but knew what it meant to live Christianly

contents

My family. Dad, Mom, Allison: thank you for all that youve taught me about God, love, truth, and hard work.

Robert Hosack, for believing in this idea and taking a risk with me; and everyone at Baker Books, for making the experience easy for a first-time author.

Dr. Stanley Mattison, Donna McDaniel, and all my friends at the C. S. Lewis Foundation, for involving me in such visionary work and allowing me to live a writers dream at the Kilns!

Larry Eskridge, Laurel Dailey, Tracy Runyon, Albert Rios, Becky Pruitt, Tammy Uzzetta, Joanna Balda, Jim Kermath, and all those who either read through chapters, offered feedback, or contributed important thoughts and considerations to this project.

Others who played crucial roles in the endeavor of writing and marketing this book: Rebecca Ver Straten-McSparran, Kevin Sanner, Theresa Abueg, Adam Ferguson, Jessica Kemp, Jason Newell, Brian Bowman, Ryan Hamm, Tim Dikun, Lee Hough, Reid Boates, and all the pastors, church leaders, and churchgoers who spoke to me during my research. Thank you all!

I have some definite views about the de-Christianizing of the church. I believe that there are many accommodating preachers, and too many practitioners in the church who are not believers. Jesus Christ did not say Go into all the world and tell the world that it is quite right. The Gospel is something completely different. In fact, it is directly opposed to the world.

C. S. Lewis

As I write this, Im sitting at a table in the dining room of the Kilns the home of C. S. Lewis in the outskirts of Oxford, England, where Lewis lived from 1930 until his death in 1963. Ive written a few chapters of this book while staying here, and I offer my deepest gratitude to the C. S. Lewis Foundation for allowing me the opportunity to be a writer in residence here for a time.

C. S. Lewis is a man Ive always admired for many reasons, but perhaps chiefly because he embodies for me the type of Christian writer Ive always aspired to beone that speaks to the culture of the day with both confidence and humility, logical clarity and literary flair, whimsy and gravitas. He was never afraid to tell it like it is, even when this ensured hed have his fair share of critics and naysayers.

The quote I opened withfrom a 1963 interview Lewis did in the final months of his lifereflects exactly the sort of firm, to-the-point rhetoric that makes Lewis so relevant and beloved even today. And its the sort of strong word the church needs more of today, at a time when the one thing most of us agree on is that Christianity is facing something of an identity crisis. Who are we to be to the twenty-first-century world? How should the church position itself in the postmodern culture? Through what cultural languages will the gospel be best communicated in this turbulent time? Is the gospel directly opposed to the world as Lewis declares, and what might this mean for hipster Christianity?

These big, background questions inform the work you have before you. But this book is about a more specific questionthough a crucial, far-reaching questionthat has come up time and time again for the church, especially in recent years. It is the question of cool; of whether or not Christianity can be, should be, or is, in fact, cool. This book is about an emerging category of Christians Ive called Christian hipsters and an analysis of what theyre about, why they exist, and what it all means for Christianity and the question of cool.

The title Hipster Christianity refers to the fact that this is a book about the culture and paradoxes of cool Christianity, but the title is also a slight nod to Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. Lewiss book was about what Christianity is at the corethe meat and potatoes of our faith. It attempted to make the case for Christianity based on rational arguments and substantive insights. By contrast, hipster Christianitywhat Im describing in this bookis a faith more concerned with its image and presentation and ancillary appeal. It assumes that mere Christianity isnt enough or isnt as important as how Christianity looks and is perceived by the outside world.

As I have blogged about the phenomenon of cool Christianity and Christian hipsters, the polarizing nature of this topic has become clear. Whether through the conversations Ive had at the various churches Ive visited throughout the country, on the blog boards that deal with my book topic, or just with my friends with whom Ive talked through these issues, I have become more and more aware that the things Im looking at are extremely complicated and deserve a fair, thoughtful, thorough treatment.

Yes, you heard that right. This is a serious exploration of hipster Christianity. Its not a joke, and though it is humorous at times and occasionally ironic, it is by no means an exercise in sarcasm (as in, say, Robert Lanhams Hipster Handbook).

And this book is not just about hipsters; its not even just about Christian hipsters. Rather, the book explores the whole concept of cool as it pertains to Christianity. It looks at the way thatsince the 1970scontemporary Christianity has prioritized ideas like cool, relevant, and countercultural, largely failing on an institutional level to achieve those things and yet succeeding in pockets and parts via individuals and otherwise organic incarnations of what you might call hip Christianity.

The book is not an advertisement or rallying cry for hip Christianity, nor is it an outright chastisement. Its a critical analysis. Its about the contradictions inherent in the phenomenon of Christian cool and the questions Christians should be asking of themselves if they find themselves within this milieu. Are the purposes and/or effects of cool compatible with those of Christianity? If we assume that cool necessarily connotes the notion of being elite, privileged, and somehow better than the masses, how can we reconcile the idea with that of Christianity, which seems to beckon us away from self-aggrandizement or pride of any kind?

Whatever criticism I end up putting forward in the book, I hope that readers recognize that it is all for the ultimate refinement of the church and its mission in the world.