Culture and Anarchy
by Matthew Arnold (1869)
http://www.authorama.com/culture-and-anarchy-1.html
Arnold's essay is as an attack on the Non-conformist wing of the Church in 19th century England. He believed that perfection was possible by remaining in the offical Church body.
"...culture being a pursuit of our total perfection by means of getting to know, on all the matters which most concern us, the best which has been thought and said in the world, and, through this knowledge, turning a stream of fresh and free thought upon our stock notions and habits."
"It is not fatal to the Nonconformists to remain with their separated churches; but it is fatal to them to be told by their flatterers, and to believe, that theirs is the one pure and Christ-ordained way of worshipping God, that provincialism and loss of totality have not come to them from following it, or that provincialism and loss of totality are not evils."
Culture and Society
Raymond Wiliams (1958)
http://www.ucalgary.ca-rseiler/williams.htm
Williams refused to adhere to Arnold's view of culture as experienced by a priveleged element of society, elevating them through knowledge and art. He believed that culture was part of everyday life expressed by every sector of society.
"... I celebrate culture as
(a) a form of (spontaneous as well as deliberate) expression and
(b) what is common to the people of a community (or a region) as opposed to what divides them."
"every society has its own shape, purposes, meanings. Every society expresses these via its institutions, arts, and learning. Making a society means finding common meanings and directions."
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