The pastor-theologian as ship's first-mate in heavy cultural seas

Asked by Justin Taylor about navigating between cultural withdrawal and cultural accommodation, Kevin Vanhoozer replied with the following helpful illustration:

The most important thing is to be aware that culture is always, already there–something in which we live and move and have our historical being–and that it is always actively cultivating, always forming habits of the heart and habits of perception. Of course, it also helps when the first mate–one’s pastor theologian–is a competent seahand. “Competence” here means knowing both one’s ship (the church) and the sea (the world). The image of the church as maritime vessel is a good one. Throughout Scriptures, water is often a symbol for powers that can engulf us. But the church should not be wholly anti-world either, for the sea, as part of the created order, is in another sense what sustains us. Ultimately it is the wind–the breath of the word-ministering Spirit–that allows the church to be counter-cultural and to set her course against the prevailing intellectual currents.