Critical Thinking: Why It Matters

Whether you realize it or not, every piece of popular culture you read, watch or hear weaves lessons and values throughout its text. Entertainment and education go hand-in-hand, so we must understand how those two interact. Can you identify the theology and ethical systems of what you’re absorbing?

Interpreting and responding with a biblical worldview toward popular culture enables believers to engage with culture without conformity. When we engage with popular culture, we need to know how to view, interpret, and respond with a biblical worldview. All content contains a messy mixture of grace and idolatry, and you need tools to dissect the messages and worldviews communicated by popular culture. By filtering everything through our Christian understanding, we can develop critical thinking that equips us to enter popular culture dialogue and disperses truth with sensitivity, insight, and grace.

“Over time, without critical engagement, popular culture can even change our very character, shaping the habits of our heart” (Popologetics, 27).

Critically thinking about popular culture and its worldviews allows us to reflect on God’s grace, expose idolatry, and show the relevance and beauty of the Gospel. We can have the foresight to use everything as a powerful illustration of Christian themes. How is what you’re watching, reading, or hearing resonating with the Christian understanding of life? Where is it verging and differing from what the Bible tells us?

Even when we try our hardest to approach something from a neutral stance, our beliefs will still slip in and influence what we create or observe. This is true even of the most objective producer or artist. Even if they aren’t knowingly adding a subliminal message into their content, their worldview will still find cracks to peek through. This is why everything around us contains various “levels” of particular belief systems. Some popular culture is a little more obvious than others, but if you dig deep enough, you can find the underlying worldview of anything you engage with.

“The way to resist conforming to the pattern of this world is by engaging and wrestling with the voices, images, and stories that make up the pattern of this world. You read and respond to them with a Spirit-guided, Christian-critical imagination.” (Popologetics, 214).

Just like Paul in Acts 17, we must be aware of the idols and other beliefs infused in everything we encounter. Without actively searching for this knowledge, we open the door for little pieces of lies and sin to grow within us. (This is also extremely applicable when raising children.) What impact is popular culture having on your virtues and view of the world?

Today’s Challenge: See if you can notice various worldviews in varying types of popular culture you partake in: songs on the radio on your drive home, the content of your favorite social media influencer, various characters in your favorite TV show, or even the agenda behind the evening news anchor.