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Christendom. When it refuses to be co-opted into rationalizing violent coercion, the church
retains its integrity and maintains a distance from the state sufficient to keep its own separate
identity from being absorbed into that of the state. Engaging culture is not a bad thing; but
becoming worldly is. So the question is: How can the church influence culture avoid becoming
violent? How can the church be in, but not of, the world?
The new typology introduced here distinguishes between Christendom and non-
Christendom types of solutions to the problem of Christ and culture by drawing a line between
three types to the left of the center dividing line, which accept the necessity of the church
endorsing, requesting or joining in violent coercion, and three types to the right of the center
dividing line, which do not. Types 1-3 are Christendom types and types 4-6 are non-
Christendom types. This way of looking at the problem avoids forcing all of the people and
movements who reject violence into one straightjacket and shows that such approaches can be as
transformational as ones, which employ or sanction violence.