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    The Life of the Mind (RenewedMinds): A Christian Perspective
    The Life of the Mind (RenewedMinds): A Christian Perspective
    The Life of the Mind (RenewedMinds): A Christian Perspective
    Ebook125 pages1 hour

    The Life of the Mind (RenewedMinds): A Christian Perspective

    By Clifford Williams

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    About this ebook

    What purpose do purely intellectual pursuits have in the lives of Christians? Why should Christians study subjects that have little bearing on their future careers and ministry? In a style reminiscent of the work of Arthur Holmes and Harry Blamires, veteran professor of philosophy Clifford Williams addresses these issues and more in this succinct and accessible examination of the life of the mind.
    Christians cultivating the life of the mind actively pursue situations and discussions that require experimentation, reflection, and perseverance. They are interested in the acquisition of knowledge that is both unrelated and directly related to their faith. Williams answers common Christian objections to such activities, describes the virtues of the person who engages in the life of the mind, and asserts that the life of the mind is justifiably a Christian calling.
    The Life of the Mind is directed toward college students contemplating the importance of college and intellectual activity in general, but it will be enjoyed by all committed to developing a Christian mind.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBaker Publishing Group
    Release dateMar 1, 2002
    ISBN9781441206794
    The Life of the Mind (RenewedMinds): A Christian Perspective

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      Book preview

      The Life of the Mind (RenewedMinds) - Clifford Williams

      THE LIFE OF THE MIND

      RenewedMinds

      RenewedMinds, an imprint of

      Baker Academic in partnership

      with the Council for Christian

      Colleges & Universities, publishes

      quality textbooks and

      academic resources to guide

      readers in reflecting critically

      on contemporary issues of faith

      and learning. While focused

      on the needs of a Christian

      higher-education curriculum,

      RenewedMinds resources will

      engage and benefit all thoughtful readers.

      The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities is an association of more than ninety-five member colleges and universities, each of which has a curriculum rooted in the arts and sciences and is committed to the integration of biblical faith, scholarship, and service. More than thirty Christian denominations, committed to a variety of theological traditions and perspectives, are represented by these member institutions. The views expressed in these volumes are primarily those of the author(s) and are not intended to serve as a position statement of the Council membership.

      For more information, please use one of the following addresses:

      www.cccu.org

      [email protected]

      The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities

      321 Eighth Street N.E.

      Washington, D.C. 20002-6518

      THE LIFE OF THE MIND

      A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE

      CLIFFORD WILLIAMS

      © 2002 by Clifford Williams

      Published by Baker Academic

      a division of Baker Publishing Group

      P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

      www.bakeracademic.com

      Sixth printing, July 2008

      Printed in the United States of America

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Williams, Clifford, 1943–

      The life of the mind : a Christian perspective / Clifford Williams.

      p. cm.

      Includes bibliographical references.

      ISBN 10: 0-8010-2336-X (pbk.)

      ISBN 978-0-8010-2336-1 (pbk.)

      1. Faith and reason—Christianity. 2. Christians—Intellectual life.

      I. Title.

      BT50.W475 2002

      261.5—dc21

      2001043377

      Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission.

      Our danger has not been too much thinking, but not enough.

      NATHAN HATCH

      CONTENTS

      Preface

      Acknowledgments

      1 Why Do We Like to Think?

      2 Is Thinking Good for Its Own Sake?

      3 The Effects of Thinking

      4 Tensions between the Life of the Mind and Christian Faith

      5 Is the Life of the Mind at Odds with Culture?

      6 The Crowd and the Community

      7 The Hermit and the Explorer

      Appendix: Questions for Reflection

      Notes

      Further Reading

      PREFACE

      CHRISTIANS HAVE MIXED FEELINGS about purely intellectual pursuits. On the one hand, many believe that thinking and learning can enrich faith and devotion. Those who believe this support Christian colleges and want to see a higher intellectual level among Christians.

      Other Christians, however, are suspicious of too much thinking and learning and even more so of a life devoted to them. Those who hold this opinion are convinced not only that thinking and learning are useless to faith and devotion but that they are likely to undermine faith and devotion. To these Christians, being a thinker does not comport well with being a Christian.

      But is the life of the mind at odds with Christian faith? Let’s begin this discussion by examining characteristics of faith that appear to be in tension with intellectual pursuits.

      One of the most evident characteristics of faith is that it is stable and enduring. It does not change with passing whims, intellectual fads, or the advent of new theories. It remains steady through personal trials and cultural deterioration. It has the innocence and directness of a child’s trust in her parents. In addition, faith focuses on one object: God. It does not go off in different directions, pursuing one then another object of devotion.

      Thinkers, though, have drives that do not fit well with these characteristics of faith. They are impulsively inquisitive, which means they go wherever the paths they are on take them. They do not like to stay in one spot; doing so would be stagnation and intellectual death. Their inquisitiveness makes them restless, curious to find something new. When they come to the end of an inquiry, they hold the beliefs they have acquired with varying degrees of tentativeness. Though they are confident about some of them, they are willing to give up others should a further consideration come to light. It seems difficult, then, for the inquisitive person to have stable trust or unwandering devotion to God. There may be no logical inconsistency between thinking and faith, but each has an ethos that is alien to the other.

      Thinkers are also imaginative. They create new possibilities and ask, What if .-.-.? What if we looked at the matter from a different angle? What if we let go of that assumption? They are not content to accept the old just because it is old. They want to discover new perspectives.

      Christianity, however, is an orthodoxy. To be a Christian is to accept long-established doctrines, which means that those who are inventive and innovative may feel constricted. This is true of any system of beliefs that has a history, such as Marxism or Freudianism. An imaginative person may experience a fair amount of unease in any of these settings.

      There is also a social angle to the tension between imaginativeness and Christianity. A chief feature of nearly every group of people is pressure to conform to the standards and expectations of the group. Without conformity, the cohesiveness of the group is lost, and individuals in the group feel disconnected from each other.

      The imaginative person, however, is not bound by pressure to conform. Her imaginativeness continually resists this pressure. She becomes wary of others in a cohesive group and acts with reserve and caution. Others become uncomfortable in her presence, if not outrightly suspicious. Again, two alien sentiments emerge.

      These sentiments become especially intense when the pressure to conform takes on a conscious authoritarian air. In such an atmosphere, one is overtly expected to believe what the group believes or what a leader of the group declares. The natural consequence of this condition is that intellectual exploration and thinking for oneself are cowed. One cannot be inquisitive or imaginative without risking not just suspicion but ostracism.

      Christian churches and colleges are not immune to the pressure to conform or to an authoritarian air. It sometimes seems, in fact, as if institutional Christianity prizes conformity and engenders authoritarian individuals. Since the very identity of a Christian assemblage is threatened if its members are not Christian, conforming to certain standards becomes essential. This creates a breeding ground for exercising authority and public disapproval. It is difficult to imagine thinking Christians remaining long in such a condition.

      Faith possesses two other characteristics that may create tension with genuine thinking. One is its apparent disconnection with reason, and the other is its direct experiential nature. Many Christians think faith goes beyond reason. In other words, faith is not the sort of thing for which evidence can be given. If evidence for it could be given, it would not be faith but knowledge. Faith has no rational foundation, these Christians say; it is a direct and personal experience of the living God.

      Not all Christians think of faith in these ways, to be sure, but those who do are less likely to value thinking, at least with respect to faith itself. They may respect the use of reason in other arenas, but if they believe that reason cannot touch faith, then they will resist applying it to faith. Doing so would undermine faith’s direct, experiential nature and turn it into impersonal concepts.

      A further source of tension between intellectual pursuits and Christian faith is the conviction that intellectual activity is unimportant compared to living the Christian life. If loving God is central to the Christian life, then poking around in libraries or laboratories pales in comparison. And if developing Christian virtues is of paramount importance, we need to interact with others, not just bury ourselves in books. The same tension results from the belief that focusing our attention on God and on the ways of God has eternal significance, whereas directing our concerns to creaturely affairs has only temporal significance. Clearly, we should concentrate on the former and not on the latter.

      Central, too, to Christianity is the division between those who align themselves with Christianity and those who do not, between the saved and the unsaved, the sheep and the goats. This theme gives rise to an us versus them mentality. We are good and they are not; we are in God’s favor and they are not. Frequently, the they are intellectuals: professors who ridicule the faith of their students, biologists who promulgate evolution, authors who have little awareness of Christian values, judges who rule without regard for historic Christian standards, and academics who promulgate postmodernism, relativism, and unbridled freedom. Due to these considerations, numerous Christians distrust the intellectual life.

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