--- title: "1 Recognize Cultural Quotes By John H. Walton" description: "1 Recognize Cultural quotes by John H. Walton. Plus more from John H. Walton and more Recognize Cultural sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7e2/john-h-walton-28906_analogy_though-we-recognize-distinct-cultural-di_1571539.jpg" --- > [“Though we recognize distinct cultural differences across time and place, the commonalities warrant our attention. To think about how these ancient commonalities need to be differentiated from our modern ways of thinking, we can use the metaphor of a cultural…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-h-walton/though-we-recognize-distinct-cultural-differences-across-time-and/) [John H. Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-h-walton/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7e2/john-h-walton-28906_analogy_though-we-recognize-distinct-cultural-di_1571539.jpg) ## More by John H. Walton > [“THERE IS GOOD REASON why Christian theologians consider theodicy the unsolvable theological issue. The reason is this: It is unsolvable.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-h-walton/there-is-good-reason-why-christian-theologians-consider-theodicy-the/) [John H. Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-h-walton/) > [“Though we cannot expect to be able to think like they thought, or read their minds, or penetrate very deeply into so much that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-h-walton/though-we-cannot-expect-to-be-able-to-think-like-they-thought-or-read/) [John H. Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-h-walton/) > [“If we follow the sense of the literature and its ideas of creation, we find that people in the ancient Near East did not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-h-walton/if-we-follow-the-sense-of-the-literature-and-its-ideas-of-creation-we/) [John H. Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-h-walton/) > [Our point, however, is not to worship the Bible; we worship the God of the Bible.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-h-walton/our-point-however-is-not-to-worship-the-bible-we-worship-the-god-of/) [John H. Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-h-walton/) > [The most central truth to the creation account is that this world is a place for God's presence.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-h-walton/the-most-central-truth-to-the-creation-account-is-that-this-world-is/) [John H. Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-h-walton/) > [“The Bible's message must not be subjected to cultural imperialism. Its message transcends the culture in which it originated, but the form in which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-h-walton/the-bible-s-message-must-not-be-subjected-to-cultural-imperialism-its/) [John H. Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-h-walton/) > [“The Old World science found in the Bible would not be considered “wrong” or “false” as much as it would just offer a perspective…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-h-walton/the-old-world-science-found-in-the-bible-would-not-be-considered/) [John H. Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-h-walton/) > [“In response, God appears to Job and compels him to live in mystery, not giving an answer to his suffering but asserting his own…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-h-walton/in-response-god-appears-to-job-and-compels-him-to-live-in-mystery-not/) [John H. Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-h-walton/) > [“Art that is based on scenes from the Bible is not better than art that is based on scenes from, say, Shakespeare or Homer…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-h-walton/art-that-is-based-on-scenes-from-the-bible-is-not-better-than-art/) [John H. Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-h-walton/) > [“impose our own cultural ideas on the text without thinking. The Bible’s message must not be subjected to cultural imperialism. Its message transcends the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-h-walton/impose-our-own-cultural-ideas-on-the-text-without-thinking-the-bible/) [John H. Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-h-walton/) > [Since all people are in the image of God, all deserve to be treated with the dignity the image affords.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-h-walton/since-all-people-are-in-the-image-of-god-all-deserve-to-be-treated/) [John H. Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-h-walton/) > [“We cannot have all the answers, Job; we don’t even know all the questions.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-h-walton/we-cannot-have-all-the-answers-job-we-don-t-even-know-all-the/) [John H. Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-h-walton/) > [“Though we recognize distinct cultural differences across time and place, the commonalities warrant our attention. To think about how these ancient commonalities need to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-h-walton/though-we-recognize-distinct-cultural-differences-across-time-and/) [John H. Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-h-walton/) > [“God’s wisdom, not God’s justice, forms the basis of God’s activity in the world. Faith trusts that God is wise and that therefore his…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-h-walton/god-s-wisdom-not-god-s-justice-forms-the-basis-of-god-s-activity-in/) [John H. Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-h-walton/) > [“THE RETRIBUTION PRINCIPLE (RP) is the conviction that the righteous will prosper and the wicked will suffer, both in proportion to their respective righteousness…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-h-walton/the-retribution-principle-rp-is-the-conviction-that-the-righteous/) [John H. Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-h-walton/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/recognize-cultural/john-h-walton/#itemlist", "name": "1 Recognize Cultural Quotes By John H. Walton", "numberOfItems": 1, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Though we recognize distinct cultural differences across time and place, the commonalities warrant our attention. To think about how these ancient commonalities need to be differentiated from our modern ways of thinking, we can use the metaphor of a cultural river, where the currents represent ideas and conventional ways of thinking. Among the currents in our modern cultural context we would find fundamentals such as rights, privacy, freedom, capitalism, consumerism, democracy, individualism, globalism, social media, market economy, scientific naturalism, an expanding universe, empiricism, and natural laws, just to name a few. As familiar as these are to us, such ways of thinking were unknown in the ancient world. Conversely, the ancient cultural river had among their shared ideas currents that are totally foreign to us. Included in the list we would find fundamental concepts such as community identity, the comprehensive and ubiquitous control of the gods, the role of kingship, divination, the centrality of the temple, the mediatory role of images, and the reality of the spirit world and magic. It is not easy for us to grasp their shape or rationale, and we often find their expression in texts impenetrable. In today’s world people may find that they dislike some of the currents in our cultural river and wish to resist them. Such resistance is not easy, but even when we might occasionally succeed, we are still in the cultural river—even though we may be swimming upstream rather than floating comfortably on the currents. This was also true in the ancient world. When we read the Old Testament, we may find reason to believe that the Israelites were supposed to resist some of the currents in their cultural river. Be that as it may (and the nuances are not always easy to work with), they remain in that ancient cultural river. We dare not allow ourselves to think that just because the Israelites believed themselves to be distinctive among their neighbors that they thought in the terms of our cultural river (including the dimensions of our theology). We need to read the Old Testament in the context of its own cultural river. We cannot afford to read instinctively because that only results in reading the text through our own cultural lenses. No one reads the Bible free of cultural bias, but we seek to replace our cultural lenses with theirs. Sometimes the best we can do is recognize that we have cultural lenses and try to take them off even if we cannot reconstruct ancient lenses. When we consider similarities and differences between the ancient cultural river and our own, we must be alert to the dangers of maintaining an elevated view of our own superiority or sophistication as a contrast to the naïveté or primitiveness of others. Identification of differences should not imply ancient inferiority. Our rationality may not be their rationality, but that does not mean that they were irrational. Their ways of thinking should not be thought of as primitive or prehistorical. 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