|
|
In his fascinating book How the Irish Saved
Civilization Thomas Cahill looks back to the last time our culture
was faced with collapse - the barbarian invasions that ended the
western Roman empire and the "dark ages" that followed. His focus
is on the amazing story of the Irish monks, who wandered all over
Europe setting up their communities, and so serving as "salt" in
the decay of their day - keeping alive the best of spiritual and
cultural life, and building a base for its resurgence. I do recommend
the book. It paints a vivid picture of what can still be done when
the world seems to be falling down around you. And it sharply raises
the question of strategy, as our culture seems in freefall and its
Judeo-Christian defaults are steadily being re-set.
The mission of these
monastic communities was defiantly "countercultural." They were
not simply wagon-circled camps of fundamentalist withdrawal. Their
goal was both to preserve and nourish the old, and to penetrate
the darkness around them. And they met remarkable success.
As we take further uncertain steps into the third millenium AD (interesting,
isn't it, that even the most secular of us still number our days
from Jesus' presumed birthday?), we need a model for Christian testimony,
for what it means to take up the salt-and-light role in the 21st
century. For we are called to be countercultural in every generation,
though its demands and its cost are higher than ever if the culture
is consciously turning its back on its Christian-influenced past.
And like the amazing monks of the 7th and 8th centuries, our task
is to build communities - countercultural in orientation, focused
on the gospel and its implications, beacons of light in gathering
darkness and salt-sprinkling shakers that refuse to let the culture
go.
That's the CounterCulture
vision - to focus the Christian mind for the 21st century; to reassert
the "cultural commission" to have dominion over all that God has
made (Gen. 1:26); to rally, connect, and inform Christians in an
increasingly unbelieving society. We hope you will join us.
Nigel Cameron
|
|
Nigel is Senior Fellow and chairs the International Advisory
Board for The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity. Dr.
Cameron serves as Director of the Council on Biotechnology
Policy, Dean of the Wilberforce Forum and is president of
Strategic Futures Group, LLC, which specializes in higher
education consulting in the areas of strategic planning and
institutional change.
Former provost and distinguished professor
at Trinity International University, he has written widely
on issues of bioethics. He served as founding editor of the
international journal, Ethics & Medicine: An International
Journal of Bioethics, and his books include The New Medicine:
Life and Death After Hippocrates (1992).
|
|
A frequent guest commentator on network
television, he has appeared on ABC Nightline, PBS Frontline,
CNN, as well as the BBC. He testified at the congressional
hearings on human cloning.
Dr. Cameron divides his time between the United States and
London, England, where he serves as Executive Chairman of
the Center for Bioethics and Public Policy. He lives in Deerfield,
Illinois; He and his wife Shenach have five children.
|
|
|
Claire is Managing Editor of CounterCulture,
and contributes to the design, writing, commissioning and
editing of the site. Claire is also News Editor for The Church
of England Newspaper (www.churchnewspaper.com),
where she has spent three years interviewing Bishops, quizzing
authors and questioning MPs including Clare Short, William
Hague and Charles Kennedy.
In 1999 Claire visited Tanzania to report on the role the
Anglican Church played in distributing food to famine victims,
and in November 2001 spent a week in Southern India with Christian
Aid for a joint Christmas Appeal.
Her work has also been published in
The Tablet and The Sunday Times.
|
|
