And the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. . . . They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. But nothing unclean will ever enter it. Revelation 21:24-27
God put culture-making deep into us. And he doesn’t intend to delete the artifacts of human culture we have come up with; he intends to redeem them.
I see in my theological imagination a parade. The kings of the earth – culture-shapers – parading into the Holy City, bringing to the King the treasures of their domains, for his glory – the literature, the music, the clothing, the foods, the humor, the languages and accents, the customs, and so forth. Modernity homogenizes and flattens us out. Eternity will preserve us and what we create and enjoy – but purified (“nothing unclean”) and consecrated to Christ forever.
When Jani and I were in Beijing several years ago and had dinner at a traditional Chinese restaurant – complete with deer afterbirth on the menu – with traditional Chinese costume and music, we were not seeing a fading memory of lost glory. We were seeing previews of coming attractions. But in heaven, even better, indeed perfected.