Martyrs, Mendicants, Masterpieces, and Reforms
Culture is a multidimensional sphere within the human world. It is the "total process of human activity and the total result of such activity" (Niebuhr, Christ and Culture, 32). Culture encompasses a variety of characteristics and components that come together to generate a spectacular combination of values, ideals, beliefs, customs, and traditions, which are received and transmitted throughout time, due to a "social heritage" that remains present as a legacy, as an example, and as a revival of a stupendous past.
According to Niebuhr in Christ and Culture, culture is always social, represents human achievement, involves an entire world of values, embodies the values of the good for man, is concerned with the material and temporal realization of values, is founded on the pluralism of values and goods, and involves the conservation of values.
According to Niebuhr in Christ and Culture, culture is always social, represents human achievement, involves an entire world of values, embodies the values of the good for man, is concerned with the material and temporal realization of values, is founded on the pluralism of values and goods, and involves the conservation of values.
Christian identity throughout time has been uniquely shaped, altered, and influenced by the interaction among complementary and contradictory cultural values, ideals, and beliefs. By digging into the history of a stupendous Christian past, it is possible to discover a spectacular social heritage that has allowed humanity to authentically encounter the roots of an exceptional Christian tradition. The different time periods in Christian history, including the Ancient Period (Martyrs), the Medieval Period (Mendicants), the Renaissance Period (Masterpieces), and the Counter-Reformation (Baroque), were founded on a combination of ambiguous ideals and harmonizing values; they impacted an entire Christian culture that gradually developed and went through a genuine process of transformation of identity, in order to emerge in the revival, preservation, and origination of Christian values within today's human community.