Toby Lucas

If you asked me what recent film or programme deserves to be considered a classic (dare I say masterpiece?), I would nominate HBO’s Chernobyl (2019). Watch it! This five-episode miniseries tells the story of Soviet physicists containing the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The tragedy revealed the lies and façade of the Soviet Union and, according to Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, catalysed its eventual collapse. Director Johan Renck conveys the stakes of Chernobyl masterfully, unravelling two main tensions throughout the series. The first is the race against time to stop nuclear meltdown, and the second is the search for what caused the disaster. The USSR is adamant that Soviet reactors do not explode, that it must be human error, but the scientists are determined to find the truth and stop something like this from happening again. In a regime where information is tightly controlled, the hunt for the truth is a dangerous one. Renck recreates a KGB-controlled Soviet world with ha

This is the first in a three-part series on Culture in the Christian Worldview, outlining the framework for what I hope this blog will do; connecting faith and art, and engaging critically with what we read and watch. Part I: The Creation of Culture  turns to Genesis, looking at where culture has come from. Part II: The Current State of Culture   considers the place of culture after the Fall, in our own day. Part III: The Christian and Culture   unpacks why and how Christians might engage with culture.

  Part II: The Current State of Culture This is Part II in a three-part series on Culture in the Christian Worldview. Click here to read Part I . Cast out of Eden The Christian worldview would be incomplete if it didn’t incorporate the Fall. After all, we are not still living in Eden. To understand the current state of culture, then, we must consider Adam and Eve’s rebellion in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve reject God’s order in favour of their own constructions of good and evil. They sin and introduce shame and barriers in their relationship between each other and with God. This is symbolized in the first thing man makes apart from God: ‘Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.’ (Gen. 3:7) This is a paltry and feeble construction, but it demonstrates how we may turn to culture (the things we’ve made) to put distance between each other and God. This separation caused by sin is consolida

  Part III: The Christian and Culture This is Part III in a three-part series on Culture in the Christian Worldview.  Click here to read Part I and here to read Part II . So far, we’ve looked at where culture comes from and a framework we could use to consider it. What remains is to answer the questions of why and how Christians should engage with culture. Daniel Strange’s book Plugged In (see Resources ) makes similar points (and in a much more persuasive way), so I thoroughly recommend that to any Christian reader. The Why It’s Everywhere Culture is everywhere. The reason I have used the word ‘culture’ in these articles is because it is so broad, encompassing what we read (on paper or online), what we watch (big screen or small), what we listen to (music or words) and more. All human efforts communicate something of our values, either explicitly or implicitly, and we are wired to understand these messages, sometimes without realizing. Culture is so inescapable it’s easy

Hi there! Welcome to my blog. It's still a work in progress, so I apologize if it's a little rough around the edges. Over the next few weeks and months, I'll start populating this with posts and thoughts to kickstart some conversations about faith and culture, and we'll see where it goes. I'm currently studying a PhD in English Literature in the UK. Academia, perhaps especially the humanities, can be an ivory tower that seems aloof and exclusive, only making a splash when a controversial rock has been thrown into the water.  Everyone, academic or not, engages with culture. Maybe you're a cinema buff, or maybe you just binge whatever's on Netflix. Perhaps you're thumbing your way through the great classics of literature, or perhaps you're speed-listening through whatever's hot on Audible. We all listen, read and watch. We all, then, have something to say about it, some perspective about what the purpose of art and culture is - and we should all ha