“The Myth of our Cultural Superiority”

In Christianity in Culture: A Study in Biblical Theologizing in Cross-Cultural Perspective, author Charles Kraft offer a stinging critique of western society:

“When one turns to the weaknesses of our culture, the myth of our cultural superiority falls to pieces. For example, we have poured so much of our resources into technological development that we have created social disorientation and disruption at every level of our society. Many families fall apart because they are unable to compete with our so-called educational system. The latter, for the sake of some imaginary ‘better’ future (defined in technological and materialistic terms) indoctrinates our youth against the past in general and their parents in particular (including any religious commitment they may have). Our quest for freedom and individualism, not to mention our mobility, mitigates against the development of close friendships, strong family ties, neighborliness, and stable marriages. Our extreme competitiveness, expressed interpersonally, intergenerationally, economically, vocationally, politically, and even between churches, is ripping our society apart. The naturalistic worldview at the center of our culture, the depersonalization of our people, the uncontrolled competitiveness between the various segments of our society, the choice usually to value the unknown and untried above the known but imperfect—these and so many other features to our society point not to its superiority but to its sickness.”

I am not one who holds that all creatures are inherently equal, and there are many things about western society that I greatly appreciate, but I think Kraft blows to pieces the perspective of those who hold that it is the pinnacle of everything.