In my writing, I purpose to remind us that we are all part of the True Story of the Whole World. I use the phrase the true story of the whole world (TSWW) to reinforce the fact that the metanarrative of Scripture is neither a myth nor a fable, nor simply a better religious story that competes with other religious stories. We believe that the sixty-six-book canon of Scripture tells the true story of the whole world—it is universal truth, historically embedded, and provides framework of meaning for all of history and for your life and mine. The fact that the story is true is significant in a secularized culture where truth is whatever you decide it to be. The TSWW permeate all of life and gives us confidence in the public square—in our families, neighborhoods, workplaces, and cities.

Inherent in my claim is the assumption that there are other stories at work out there in our culture and society that look and even feel true and challenge the fidelity of the TSWW. Sometimes these false claims are immediately obvious, brazen, and offensive. Other times, these subtle and alluring forgeries tempt us to believe a divergent narrative.

In previous posts I draw from Charles Taylor’s definition for secularization as not the absence but the presence of belief. He posits that, while secularization exists within an “immanent frame”[1] in which theistic belief has been displaced from the default position, secularization also creates a new set of faith assumptions or conditions of belief about history, identity, morality, society, and rationality. We see evidence of this today, for example, in society’s preoccupation with deconstruction and resultant cancel culture.

I am increasingly convinced that we must heighten our awareness of the ways these counterfeit claims stand in contrast to the TSWW and affect our understanding of God and the gospel. At the same time, I am intrigued by the opportunities our secularized society provides for engaging in meaningful gospel conversations. In today’s post, I highlight the first of four cultural fables, a small sampling of the super nova of faith options at work in our secular age.

Ariana Grande’s God is a woman

Ulta Beauty is an American chain store that carries perfumes, cosmetics, hair and nail bath and body products all under one roof. I shop at Ulta once every few months for my beauty necessities and receive their monthly ad magazine that often includes three or four fragrance samples. Recently, a little perfume square floated from the magazine down to my counter promoting a new fragrance developed by pop-artist Ariana Grande, “God is a woman [sic].” I’m not too familiar with Grande’s music or artistry, but “God is a woman” caught my eye, so I decided to do a little research.

First, I learned that the bold assertion, “God is a woman” is borrowed from Grande’s 2018 hit single with the same title. While the music video and lyrics are way too steamy for me, I was interested to learn that Grande’s same-titled music video, in which she appears as various deities, pays tribute to Greek mythology, the female body, Romulus and Remus from Roman mythology, Michelangelo’s fresco, The Creation of Adam. Added to her depiction of “god” are references to the Day of the Lord featuring Madonna’s voice-over reciting a girl-power version of Ezekiel 25:17, “I will strike down upon thee, with great vengeance and furious anger, those who attempt to poison and destroy my sisters, and you will know my name is the Lord, when I lay my vengeance upon you.” Grande, aware that the assertion “God is a woman [sic]” might stir some controversy, insists that her music is a work of art whether people understand or agree with what she creates or not. This spiritual palooza and fallacious understanding of the Day of the Lord provides for us an excellent example of Taylor’s galloping pluralism on a spiritual plane.

Contrast in Context: Secularization & Expressive Individualism

My intention here is not to lambast Grande for her assumptions, but instead to highlight a pop-culture counter-narrative and to consider the opportunity. What does her choice of words and imagery teach us about the cultural narratives of our secular age and how does this particular fable shed light on our need to reimagine meaningful gospel conversations?  Furthermore, how does this story line up with the TSWW?

First, as followers of Jesus we must embrace the fact that our cultural context is no longer predominantly Christian but secularized and considers belief in God implausible, objectionable, even unimaginable. In a previous post, I compared the religious context of mid-twentieth-century America with that of the twenty-first century. For example, the 1940 US Census indicates that 90 percent of the US population claimed belief in God and had an affiliation with church and 66 percent of the population affiliated with the Protestant church and 24 percent affiliated with the Catholic church.

In contrast, today’s twenty-first century secularized context has created a new set of faith assumptions or conditions of belief about history, identity, morality, society, and rationality. Here, Christianity competes with myriad religions, philosophies, takes or “spins”[2] on life that, in large part, consider belief in God as implausible, objectionable, even unimaginable. Here we might conclude that Grande’s art reveals secularized faith assumptions.

Second, our secular age also gives rise to a prominent ideology called expressive individualism, prevalent in the undertone of Grande’s lyrics. Bruce Ashford sheds light on expressive individualism in a recent article and describes it as an ideology, centuries in the making, that claims that the whole point of a person’s existence is to be authentic in such a way that aligns with a person’s deepest desires, and this expression must be accepted by society because it is authentic. Therefore, according to this ideology, we must accept Grande’s depiction of god because, most of all, it reveals something of her authentic self.

God and The True Story of the Whole World

As followers of Jesus, we not only need to cultivate cultural awareness, but we must regularly remind ourselves that God is not surprised by or thrown off-guard by secularization or expressive individualism. The TSWW underscores God’s comprehensive rule and reign over all things and is rife with God’s encounters with false gods and idolatry. What stands out in these confrontations is God’s repeated assertion, “I am God and there is no other.” In Psalm 82 God, the righteous Judge, takes his place at the table of the gods and holds thunderous judgment, “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked.” Elsewhere, the psalms resound, “For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens” (Psa. 96:4–5).

God declares to the prophet Isaiah, “For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he establishes it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): I am the Lord, and there is no other” (Isa. 45:18).

The incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension provide us with monumental examples of God’s power and might exercised in unconventional and startling ways. Lesslie Newbigin reminds us, “The power that controls all the visible world, and the power at work in the human soul, is one with the man who went his way from Bethlehem to Calvary,”[3] and then, triumphantly, from Calvary to King—Jesus, the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of the new creation. “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created for him and through him…” (Col. 1:15–16).

The Bible reminds us that no matter how convincing the counter-narrative, the God of the TSWW reigns over all things. The more confident we are in God the more courageously we can enter conversations with people who, like us, are looking for meaning and a much deeper sense of authenticity than they will ever find within themselves.

So, we must remember in this post-Christian era, like every other era in history, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Like millions who have gone before us, we were lost but now we are found! God first chose and then transformed us to be salt and light, witnesses and ambassadors, ministers and worshippers, servants and children, in the midst of our secular age. I am convinced that a growing and ever-deepening understanding of the grandeur and love of God fuels our witness especially in our secular age.

Up next: Cultural Fables: The Universe Has Your Back, Part 2.

[1] Taylor, in Secular, 542, defines “immanent frame” as a constructed social space that holds instrumental rationality as a key value, where time is secular (this world). The immanent frame “constitutes a ‘natural’ order, to be contrasted to a ‘supernatural’ one, an ‘immanent’ world, over against a possible ‘transcendent’ one.”

[2] Taylor, in Secular, 550, uses this term to describes a particular way of looking at and understanding immanence or secularism, for example, “as a way of convincing oneself that one’s reading is obvious, compelling, allowing of no cavil or demurral.” James K. A. Smith, in How Not to be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004), 96, provides helpful definitions and descriptions for Taylor’s concepts. Here Smith describes the secularist “spin” as “the denial of contestability [and] the refusal to recognize secularity3. Secularist spin fails to honor and recognize the cross-pressure that inhabitants of our secular age sense.”

[3] Lesslie Newbigin, Truth to Tell: The Gospel as Public Truth (London: SPCK, 1991), 37.