Different Forms of Culture - Essay Example

It is therefore because of this fact that Historian Dawson claims that “The heart of Western civilization says Historian Dawson, is its Christian culture. By this, he means not the Christian religion but its impact on the social life and institutions of the West. Today that Western heart is not beating at the centre of things, where it belongs, but is fluttering on the fringes, and Western civilization is sick with a bad case of secularism.” Thus there is very strong historical evidence as to how religious values and culture has shaped the overall form of Christianity which is prevalent today. This essay will look into what the culture is and how it presents any challenges or opportunities due to cultural differences besides discussing the argument that is Christianity a religion.

As defined above culture is a set of patterns of an individual’s life that portray the human activity and present a symbolic representation of that person’s or group of persons’ lives. In its essence, culture is a collection of values commonly practised by a large number of people sharing a common heritage. The first definition of the word culture came in 1871 when in his book “Primitive Culture” he defined culture as a “complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, law, morals, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society” (Tylor). Culture is considered therefore as a powerful human tool necessary for the survival of human beings but it is also considered as fragile too as cultural bondages define not only common heritage but common sentiments and emotions too.

It is often believed that there are various layers of the culture also commonly known as subcultures. The first layer is called the cultural traditions which effectively distinguish and specify a society from others whereas the second layer of culture is called subculture which is often considered as the very own identity of the individual.
The third layer of culture is called cultural universals and is considered as shared behaviours that are being used by all humanity across all the geographical regions of the world.

As discussed above culture have three different layers. This very fact clearly suggests that culture is itself diverse in nature. This diversity creates cultural differences between the various societies and within cultures even. These cultural differences can sometimes be the source of great embarrassment for people who are relatively alien to that culture or even present a great opportunity to create an environment where society can be shared by various cultures belonging to different regions etc. Since “Culture is vital because it enables its members to function one with another without the need to negotiate meaning at every moment. Culture is learned and forgotten, so despite its importance, we are generally unconscious of its influence on the manner in which we perceive the world and interact within it. Culture is significant because as we work with others it both enables us and impedes us in our ability to understand and work effectively together.” (Learning). Thus culture presents both opportunities and challenges. If culturally diverse individuals can not co-exist together then there is always a chance of a “Clash of Civilizations” as predicted. Thus this clash of civilizations can be a great source of difficulty as it can practically extinct the whole human race from the face of the earth. However, similarly, cultural differences can also be a great source of enrichment as the same can help to build a society that can be more tolerant and peaceful with the potential to coexist together with peace and harmony among the various cultures and sub-cultures.

This argument is very tricky in nature considering the very fundamental debate that whether culture is shaped by religion or religion is shaped by culture. The primitive principles of Christianity suggest that it outrightly rejected the current norms of culture. Christianity firstly rejected the culture however gradually the opinion changed and it was considered that in order to mould the culture according to the religion, Christianity should adopt the culture. Considering this argument further, it, therefore, can easily be argued that Christianity in its later phases evolved as a layer of culture and not a stand-alone set of moral values. Thus all the subsequent changes that took place like the role of the Church in society, the Church’s role as an institution as well as the status of religious clergy within society. These changes greatly shifted the momentum of the religion and subdued it to the culture. Thus the argument that whether Christianity is a culture or not, we can not be certain of that as it evolved as a separate phenomenon with no or negligible influence of culture on it however gradually it transformed itself more into a culture in order to accommodate in itself the various social changes that took place in modern society. After the Industrial revolution, this change sped up and Christianity soon emerged as a culture.