I will not lie: I bought this book because of the plug by N. T. Wright on the cover. The fact that Brian McLaren and Martin Marty also recommended it didn't hurt either. And though the book starts off strong, I feel that it ultimately fails in its attempt to create a culturally savvy Christian. Staub defines a culturally savvy Christian as one who is "serious about the centrality of the faith in their lives, savvy about both faith and culture, and skilled in relating the two" (ix). He decries the superficiality of popular culture and its Christian parallel while applauding the depth, rigor, and excellence of works by C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.
Clearly, evangelicals can hardly be described as an intellectual and artistic force in the broader culture. Those evangelicals who choose not to completely withdraw from culture, or to combat culture, usually end up influenced by popular culture more than influencing it. Witness the "intellectually and aesthetically vacuous parallel culture" created by Christians as an alternative to the world and this becomes obvious. It seems that, like popular culture, Christians are more intent on making a buck then pursuing excellence.
British artist Richard Hamilton describes pop art as "mass-produced, low-cost, young, sexy, witty, transient, glamorous, gimmicky, expendable and popular" (6). Marketers have created a superficial, disposable culture committed to larger-than-life personalities and endless self-indulgence. Sadly, much Christian counter-culture is a parallel of this with a few scripture verses thrown in for good measure. Such art dehumanizes and debases us.
Staub calls us to recognize the reality that fuels our culture: "The largest companies in the world are hiring smart people and spending billions of dollars to drive a diversionary, mindless, celebrity-fueled popular culture down the highway of new technologies and into our lives in order to sell us stuff we don't want or need. They don't care about us, what we believe, or how we want to live.... They are unconcerned with what is in our best interests spiritually or intellectually, and in fact, it is in their best interest to keep us spiritually desensitized and dumb. They play to our unhappiness, magnifying our feeling that we are missing something essential and that if we had this something they offer, we would be fulfilled" (26-27). Surely, Christian culture should not reflect this, but provide an humanizing alternative - something different from the superficial celebrity culture sustained by marketing and technology. And this must be something more than "safe" and "inoffensive" material. Staub demonstrates ways in which this includes deep and profound art that takes the human situation seriously. Quoting Orson Scott Card: "any depiction of life without evil is a lie" (190).
The first half of Staub's book is great in its analysis. His section on what it means to be fully human is very helpful (52-58). But ultimately, his argument sounds a little too much like advocacy for "high art" and disdain for "pop art." But, in spite of its failings, the book provides a helpful basis for discussing the Christian's relationship to culture.
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