Recently, I have been reading what I believe I must now classify as one of my top favorite books; this is
The Calvinistic Concept of Culture by Henry R. Van Til. I don't know how many of you are familiar with this work but I suspect many of you may be, or at least familiar with the quote often attributed to him: "Culture is religion externalized" (though, interestingly, this is only a paraphrase of him, as he never says this word for word in the book).
At any rate, for those of you who make have even the slightest curiosity into why our culture has developed the way that it has, I think you would be hard pressed to find a more thoughtful and enlightening book on the subject since the modern era began. The most refreshing thing about this book is its unashamed and honest Kuyperian worldview:
Quote:
The radical, totalitarian character of religion is such, then, that it determines both man's cultus and his culture. That is to say, the conscious of unconscious relationship to God in a man's heart determines all of his activities, whether theoretical or practical. This is true of philosophy, which is based upon non-theoretical, religious presuppositions. Thus man's morality and economics, his jurisprudence and his aesthetics, are all religiously oriented and determined.
-Henry. R. Van Til. The Calvinistic Concept of Culture. Pg 42
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Though some of you are opposed to "presuppositionalism" as an apologetic method, it would be hard to find biblical grounds to deny most of his observations.
So basically, for both of you who care for such things, this is a great book to read.
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