The Lost Christian Mind

I haven't written a "book report" in say, 20 years or so, but here goes. I finished reading "Love Your God with All Your Mind" by J.P. Moreland last month -- the first blow through. Now I'm going back through, marking it up, and deciding what I do and don't agree with (there's some of each!).

Chapter One is great -- it's called "How We Lost the Christian Mind and Why We Must Recover It". Here's my summary (I never was good with "summarize in five sentences" assignments):

Anti-intellectualism in the church has contributed to the marginalization of Christianity in society -- and has actually been a cause (not just a result) of the shift of our society's worldview from a Judeo-Christian one to a secular.

When our country was established, Pilgrims and Puritans were definitely what we would term "intellectuals". They highly prized education (not just Biblical education, but deep study of all the humanities). A prominent Puritan was quoted as stating, "Ignorance is the Mother not of Devotion but of HERESY."

However, the so-called "Great Awakenings" in the church and other mid-1800s revival movements changed the American church's focus. Instead of teaching a detailed, doctrinally precise view of Christianity that was accepted after a period of study and reflection -- the focus turned to simple, emotional preaching and an emphasis on immediate conversion based on personal feelings and ideas. It is interesting to learn that the area of the country where this form of revivalism was most prevalent became grounds for both the Mormon and Jehovah Witness faith in the same century. People without a well thought out grasp of doctrine were easily led.

The growing anti-intellectualism of the church caused it to be ill prepared for the onslaught of the late 1800s. The ideas of Kant and Hume shook people’s conception of the Christian faith as a rational proposition and encouraged them to think of Scripture as merely an ethical/spiritual resource. German higher criticism of the Bible made people question the validity of historical and grammatical study and caused them to overemphasize the Holy Spirit's role in helping us understand the Bible (without any serious study on our part). Finally, Darwinism caused people to question their assumptions about God and Scripture even further.

Since most Christians no longer had been trained to have well reasoned intellectual responses to the issues of the day, many withdrew from the intellectual battle of ideas. Expectations in the Christian community changed and the focus of preaching, small group study, missions, and ministries continued down the path of popular, emotional outreach, not down the path of serious debate and discussion. People began to understand faith as a blind decision instead of a trust in what reason supports to be true. They began to focus on "how does this verse make me feel?" instead of first ensuring through language study, concordances, etc. that their understanding of the verse is indeed correct.

As a result, we have allowed ourselves to believe that secular life (our job, our education, public life) requires use of our intellect, whereas sacred life (religious teaching and practice) requires us to set aside our intellect and focus on just the heart. This affects not only our ability to impact the culture with our faith, but also our ability to allow our faith to inform the specific details of our daily vocations.

Our lack of Christian intellectuals has ensured that there are very few Christian thinkers in higher echelons of education. It has also made it very easy for atheistic college professors to shred the faith of our students, who have spent years studying "discipleship" but have little grounding in intellectual arguments and reason-based discussion about their faith. Indeed, theological liberals have grasped the need for intellectualism more than theological conservatives -- and we see the fruits of that in their impact on many denominations.

Our lack of intellectual arguments (the kind of arguments Paul utilized in Acts 17-20) have made the gospel seem irrelevant to thinking people who see our feelings-based appeals and answer, "sorry, but I don't have a need for the emotional crutch." And our lack in training Christians intellectually leaves us either intimidated by the idea of witnessing or defensive and shallow in our arguments. As in any field of knowledge (a profession, a hobby, an understanding of fitness, etc.) -- people don't have any problem calmly and boldly explaining their views to those who disagree when they feel certain about what they believe and why.

As a result of the withdrawal of the Christian voice from the intellectual community, secularists have redefined what "the good life" means. For millennia (even in pagan Greece) it has meant a life of virtue -- with an understanding that "happiness" often involved suffering and endurance in an effort to uphold virtue and duty. With today's secular worldview, focused only on a narrow understanding of science, even human nature itself is in question -- if we evolved from animals, there is no "human nature" that means anything more than testable characteristics. There is no basis for ethics other than not harming someone else. No best, no right, no truth, no duty, no virtue -- as these are not scientifically testable.

As Christians we are instructed to become spiritually mature -- and the Bible indicates that this involves wisdom. Wisdom comes from a life of study and a developed mind. As Christians, we need to become a studying, learning community if our impact on the culture can become commensurate with our numbers. As Christ taught, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

So there it is. Good stuff, huh? It makes me think of great thinkers like Augustine (or C.S.Lewis in the modern age) who were only converted to Christianity after struggling with carefully reasoned arguments that had been presented to them. We can do better than bumper sticker evangelism. Certainly the Church will always be attacked by Satan and this world will always criticize us. But we have to ask ourselves if at least some of the impressions the greater culture has regarding "uneducated" and "easily led" Christians should not give us some food for thought. Reason and logic and the mind are blessings from God for people made in His image -- and should not be ignored by those of us who want to serve his purposes. 150 years ago this would have been considered a totally obvious statement -- but I am glad J.P. Moreland and countless others are starting to say it again.

It is encouraging to see Classical Christian schools begin to reappear (albeit slowly) throughout this country. But for most of us, Christian intellectual training will have to begin in depth in our homes and in our churches. Let us not allow our focus on seeking the lost to cause us to forget that we have Christians (who have sat in our pews for decades!) who have never gained the means to make a well-reasoned argument about their faith and the issues of the day. If we do forget -- we will be seeking their children and grandchildren among the lost. What a responsibility we bear for our own children!