Come now, let us reason together - Isaiah 1:18a
I have encountered something kind of odd in my Christian experience recently, something like an “anti-intellectual” approach to Christianity. What’s particularly odd about to me is that most of these sentiments have been expressed by people who I would deem to be very intelligent, thoughtful, and (mostly) well-informed. A little background...
My Own Personal Love For Learning
In 10th grade, my high school English teacher introduced me to the book Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. I had grown up reading the Chronicles of Narnia, but had never known about his other non-fiction works. After Mere Christianity, I devoured everything by Lewis I could get my hands on: Miracles, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, The Problem of Pain, among many others. I also loved the story of Lewis himself, an atheist who became a Christian due to the overwhelming evidence in support of the truth of the Christian story. Ever since 10th grade, I have basically camped in the “Christian non-fiction” section of the book store.
The last two years have seen a major uptick in my desire to study and learn. Thanks to iTunes U, in the last 18 months I’ve devoured literally hundreds of hours of seminary chapel services and classroom lectures. I have listened to various sermons by Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Presbyterians, Open-Theists, Baptists, and Reformed preachers, teachers and theologians. I have even spent some time watching classroom sessions on New Testament Greek. I have intentionally pursued books that force me to think and wrestle with my faith, from a wide-range of authors like John Piper, Rob Bell, Alister McGrath, St. Augustine, Wayne Grudem, Lee Strobel, Martin Luther, Martin Luther King Jr., G.K. Chesterton, and (a bunch of) N.T. Wright. The purpose was to not read or listen to a bunch of stuff that merely reinforces my own perspective, but to gain some understanding on the depth and width of the Christian tradition.
The Reaction
I have grown up primarily in a Charismatic/non-denominational/American/Evangelical church setting. There are some amazing things about the Charismatic tradition that I believe in with all my heart, such as the miraculous working of the Holy Spirit. Certain beliefs and practices of this church I will defend until my last breath. That said, I have encountered recently what seems to be an “anti-intellectual” strain within the Evangelical church. There has been an attitude communicated to me by a few people that study, information, and knowledge are inherently dangerous in and of themselves, as if I was to study too much I will have a prideful, dry, stale, anti-Holy Spirit, heartless and *religious Christianity. I know that this is painting with a broad brush, but this has been my experience.
Let me qualify where I am going with this. I do know that there are professors, academic types who could put most of us to shame with their knowledge of the Bible, but don’t actually have any belief or saving faith in what they espouse. There are people like that in our pews, in our theatre seating, even in our pulpits. Please know that I am in no way advocating that as a way to approach studying. That, to me, misses the entire point. Here’s what I am advocating (I work really well from bullet points, so please indulge me...)
1. As Christians, we have been called to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
Each one of these aspects have their strengths and their weaknesses. My heart (emotions) can lie to me; have you ever laughed/cried/been scared because of a fictional movie or book? My mind can believe all sorts of things that aren’t true. My soul can believe lies about God and myself at the very core of my being. My strength is quite limited (I primarily think of “strength” in this context as perseverance). I think that Jesus’ intent was that we would follow Him with every aspect of our lives, which provides a tremendous balance and safeguard against burnout.
2. Some people tend more towards the “heart” or the “head”.
Neither one of these proclivities is wrong. I do think, however, that in general, our American society is heading way off into “heart-land” and abandoning the more intellectual pursuits. We watch movies, not books. We read Tweets, not news articles. We listen to 3 minute pop songs, not 45 minute symphonies. I know that this may be asking to have my cake and eat it too, but I believe we as humans are at our best when we have both our hearts and our minds engaged. Like I said, some will lean one direction or the other, but we should strive for balance in our communities as well as within ourselves.
3. Jesus himself demonstrated an amazing grasp of scripture, history, and theology.
As a young boy, the scriptures record Jesus being in the temple, conversing with the rabbis. It says that they were not just amazed by his questions, but by “his answers.” Whenever I get into these kinds of discussions about knowledge and intellect with people, it seems that they often pull the “Pharisee card.” Just because the Pharisees were well-studied (albeit misguided) doesn’t mean that we should “throw the baby out with the bath water.” I want to follow the example of Jesus, who listened to the voice of the Holy Spirit, loved people genuinely, and, yes, diligently studied the scripture and doctrine.
4. There will ALWAYS be an element of “Faith” involved.
Just because I love to study and learn does not mean that I think that I am going to completely figure out and understand God. As one Orthodox theologian put it, “With theology, we can set a fence around the mystery, but we will not be able to exhaustively explain it.” Paul said that we see through a glass darkly. This is where faith comes in: the evidence is pointing in a certain direction, so I am going to have faith to take that next step into the unknown. To me, faith is coming to grips that I am a fallible, broken, human being. If we weren’t fallen, we would have no need for faith. Until that day arrives, there are just some things I may never know. However...
5. I want to embrace mystery for itself, not merely as a cop-out for laziness.
As the noted physicist and atheist Richard Dawkins wrote, “one of the truly bad effects of religion is that it teaches us that it is a virtue to be satisfied with not understanding.” That sentence pains me greatly, because I believe it to be a misrepresentation of what God has asked of us. In a book I read by Dan Kimball, he describes people who belittle and look down upon the American church because, as non-Christians, they have a better understanding of the Christian faith, beliefs, and practices than all of the Christians that they know. May this not be true about me. There are so many evidences that support the faith that I hold. Again, there will always be elements of faith, mystery and paradox in my belief in God, but I don’t want to use those as a crutch for not at least investigating the issue.
6. Please don’t ever use the “I don’t want to know about God, I just want to know God!” line.
This to me is silly because the two are inseparable. What if I said this about my wife? Granted, if all I did was read books about her and never spend time talking with her and kissing her, that would be a lame relationship. Conversely, if all I ever did was make out with her, but didn’t know her likes, dislikes, eye color, or birthday, I am heading for certain disaster (in 13 years, I have not forgotten a birthday or an anniversary yet. Hallelujah!) I believe that the same is true of God. I want to spend time praying (2-way conversation, by the way) and singing and soaking in His presence. I also want to spend time learning who He is, what he likes and dislikes, how he operates.
* On a related note, I view the study of Church history like studying one’s family history, yet another thing we Americans are tragically disconnected from.
7. We need the Holy Spirit in both our heart and our mind.
Let me conclude with an analogy from preaching. I have watched pastors get up and use the “God told me to throw away this sermon” line as another cop-out for a lack of studying and preparation. I have also seen it used (and used it myself!) when there was a genuine calling from the Holy Spirit to move in a direction that was not planned or prepared for. That said, the Bible teaches that God is not a God of chaos, and I believe that the Holy Spirit absolutely can be present in the preparation of a teaching. In the same way, the Holy Spirit can be just as present in someone having an intellectual awakening as in someone having a physical miraculous healing.
Whether we lean more towards the “head” side of things or the “heart”, He must be in both, or else what we have will be empty anyways. I'm grateful that I can worship God with my mind, emotions, soul, and strength. I believe that God created me to be the kind of person who always advocates moving towards a place of balance.
