The Christian church is under constant cultural attack while every other religious persuasion is given a free pass. We feel like we have been good citizens, yet the villagers relentlessly come at us with torches and pitchforks. While others are allowed to meditate, pray and worship, we are told to scold our deity and make Him sit in the corner with an “Unknown God” sign around His neck. Despite all this hostility the church not only survives but also becomes stronger in the process.

What is it about Christianity that allows it to survive every cultural ice age? Why has it not gone the way of the dinosaur? I would argue that Christianity’s remarkable fitness is not due to evolutionary adaptation but rather Divine stability.

“Michelangelo already saw in the stone that lay before him the pure image that, hidden within, was simply waiting to be uncovered…Michelangelo considered the proper activity of the artist to be an act of uncovering, of releasing – not of making” Saint Bonaventure referred to this process of removal as ablatio which slowly revealed the nobilis forma, the noble form beneath. (1)

Michelangelo knew that his David awaited him within the marble slab but it would take a sharp chisel to reveal the beautiful form beneath. I believe that Christianity is no different. The Body of Christ is also being revealed as the unrefined marble of the church is slowly chipped away. While the business end of a cultural spear is often painful, its piercing tip may be the artistic tool necessary to reveal the doctrinal contours of the noblis forma beneath. While our critics may pat themselves on the back for cutting off one more argument from the Christian Hydra, they look on in horror as they see two new and more-powerful ones appear. Maybe we need to rethink our attitude towards criticism. Maybe the burning anger directed at Christianity is actually a refiners fire purifying our faith, degree by cultural degree.

We need not fear cultural change because it doesn’t alter the gospel but rather brings its previously hidden strengths to light. The tragedy of abortion helps us better understand God’s view of the sanctity of life, the confusion over same sex couples has helped us reclaim the Biblical view of marriage, the evolution debate has sharpened our understanding of science and faith, and The DaVinci Code has helped us understand what a Gospel truly is and why we can trust the four in the New Testament. Nuances of our faith that weren’t evident in the past become dramatic new lines on the statue of the emerging church. Culture is not sculpting the Body of Christ into something new but rather giving us new perspectives on something very old. Christianity tends to grow when the church is persecuted so every time we feel the sharp edge of a cultural chisel we need to remember that we are on the cutting edge of Christianity.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8: 37-39)

1. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Called to Communion: Understanding the Church Today.