''A Peculiar People: The Church as Culture in a Post-Christian Society'' (1996) is a book by Rodney Clapp discussing the Christian church's witness in contemporary culture. In the book Clapp explores the changing role of the

Christian church In ecclesiology, the Christian Church is what different Christian denominations conceive of as being the true body of Christians or the original institution established by Jesus Christ. "Christian Church" has also been used in academia as a syn ...

in light of a changing North American culture. Clapp argues against a church that has been co-opted by the larger culture. As such he argues that the church should stand as a unique or peculiar culture that can then critique the larger culture. A contingent aspect of this that Clapp argues for is the notion that the church needs to shift its understand of itself from a collection of

individual An individual is one that exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of living as an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) as a person unique from other people and possessing one's own needs or g ...

s each with their own understanding, ideas, and values. For the church to be culture it must be understood as

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

. Clapp argues that the church should be transformative in the world via living as an alternative culture rather than through political means. In essence his position is that by living a unique form of life in the world the church can bear witness to another way, and in bearing witness it can bring positive change to the larger culture.

References

1996 non-fiction books Books about Christianity {{Christian-book-stub