 Exploring Cross-Cultural References
Communication requires mutual understanding, or is perhaps the process of arriving at that understanding. My 8th grade science teacher used to say, “To hear me is to understand me.” One aspect of this shared meaning is cultural reference points, including our story-telling. The New Testament often refers sideways to cultural touch points, particularly agricultural, political and military illusions which may be lost on a modern urban audience. The authors also reach back to the Hebrew Scriptures and other narratives that would have been well known to their contemporary audience but which are increasingly unfamiliar today. In a similar way, we need a shared vocabulary of current pop-culture references – the stories of our own time. Complicating this is that “our time” crosses nearly a century and 6+ generations, and multiple language, ethnicity, race, and gender identity subcultures. Our ability to communicate requires a shared body of narrative references. Toward that end, I’m undertaking a periodic survey of people’s favorite stories, as those are likely the ones that have the greatest potential communicative impact on them. Below is my initial set of questions (and on SurveyMonkey here). I welcome your responses, you’re your suggestions for how to improve this project. NOTE: We will be using this to develop future worship series and other teaching opportunities. POP CULTURE QUIZ – What are the stories of your life?
HEY!!! NOW, you can take the survey on SurveyMonkey here.
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