The Life of the Mind (RenewedMinds)

A Christian Perspective

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2002
• ISBN:
  9781441206794
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Christliche Theologie

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.

ONE

WHY DO WE LIKE TO THINK?

PEOPLE WHO ENGAGE in the life of the mind—those who think and learn—read, visit libraries, buy books, explore new topics, talk to others about what they are thinking, listen to lectures, and join discussion groups. They like ideas. And they like talking about ideas. What fascinates them is a new discovery, an old classic, the thoughts of an astute observer of human nature, or research into how things work. They like to learn, and they like being with others who like to learn.

Christians who think and learn participate in these same activities and have these same interests. They, too, read and explore. They want knowledge, both of topics that are directly connected to Christian concerns and those that are not. And they like talking with others about what they learn. If you were to ask them what their life passions are, they would mention reading, thinking, and talking about ideas, including Christian ideas.

Of course, these Christians have other life passions as well, and they pursue many other interests besides reading and talking about ideas. Nor is their entire identity wrapped up in books. As far as they are able, they live a balanced life. One part of that life, though, is a fervor for matters of the mind, which is evident in their conversations, their spare-time activities, and the way they approach life as a whole.

Why do they have this fervor? Why do people like to think and learn? A number of motivations lie behind the life of the mind, many of which go beyond the desire to obtain skills and to enhance job prospects.

KNOWING THE WAY THINGS ARE

“Everything holds treasures,” A. G. Sertillanges declared, and those who engage in the life of the mind want to find these treasures.1 They want to know how things work and why things happen as they do. They are endlessly curious about patterns of activity in nature, society, and their own bodies. It is not enough for them to eat, sleep, and work; they must also know.

Imagine a child who is out for a walk with his parents. They are strolling casually through their neighborhood. Sometimes the child lingers behind, glancing at small objects that lie beside the sidewalk. Sometimes he darts ahead, as if to explore uncharted territory. Then he stops at a tree that stands between the sidewalk and the street. He looks up into the tree, then inspects the ground at its base. There he finds a rock, and in an instant he tries to turn it over. He cannot. His look of anguish prompts his mother to reach for the rock. The two hands, one big and one little, turn over the rock together.

Underneath are little crawling things. The child surveys them with delight. He tries to pick one up, his mother scarcely stifling a reprimand. The child rubs his hand along the pockmarked dirt where the rock had lain, then does the same to the bottom and sides of the rock. Before leaving, the same two hands replace the rock.

Those who like to think and learn hunt for new objects to turn over and look under. They cannot imagine themselves not doing so. Their passion for knowledge matches the ceaseless energy of a child who darts to and fro on a sidewalk. They feel restless when weeks pass and they do not encounter a fresh insight into the workings of life and nature.

Those who find astronomy engaging illustrate these points. Like the darting child who finds it fascinating to discover small bugs and big bugs, short ones and long ones, these people are excited about learning that some galaxies are spiral and some elliptical, that of the spiral ones, some are tightly wound and some are loosely wound. Both bugs and galaxies contain treasures that those who like to explore exult in finding.

MAKING BELIEFS COHERENT

We do not like our beliefs to contradict each other. If we suspect that they do, we feel unsettled and try to figure out how to reconcile them. When someone claims we are being inconsistent, we try to show that we are not. When we cannot do so, we give up one of the offending beliefs or set the matter aside for later consideration. The one thing we do not say is, “Contradictions do not bother me. I willingly embrace them.”

I am not here referring to paradoxical truths—statements that appear to contradict each other but in fact complement each other, such as, “People are intractably selfish” and “Everyone possesses moral beauty.” Nor am I referring to oppositions that dissolve when they are properly qualified, such as Solomon’s declarations in Ecclesiastes: “All is vanity” (1:2) and “Fear God, and keep his commandments; for that is the whole duty of everyone” (12:13). I am referring to statements that cannot both be true and cannot both be false, such as, “A loving God would not allow gratuitous torture” and “A loving God would allow gratuitous torture.” It is pairs of statements such as these that we cannot accommodate in our belief systems.

In addition to consistency, we also want our beliefs to be unified, that is, to be focused on a central idea. We do not like jumbles, either in our rooms or in our minds. We like to weave our thoughts around a central theme, exhibiting to ourselves how they hang together. When we encounter a new idea that does not quite fit with our current stock of beliefs, we are uneasy until we get it to fit.

These two desires—for consistency and for unity—are what constitute the desire for coherence. Christians who like to think and learn possess this desire to an especially high degree. They want to avoid inconsistencies that seep into their thinking due to immersion in a secular culture. And they want to connect what they know to the basic truths of Christianity—that God created everything, that humans have sinned against God, and that God has provided a way to be redeemed from sin. They do not want to be schizophrenic in their thinking; rather, they want their whole mind to revolve around their Christian beliefs.

This drive for coherence is what motivates one to form a world-view. A worldview is a set of concepts that assembles everything else we believe into a coherent whole. This set of concepts constitutes the glasses through which we see life. All that we observe or take in comes through these glasses, unifying everything around a dominant idea. This dominant idea is, in a way, one’s primary stance in life—the rock-bottom perspective one takes toward life as a whole.

Consider, as an example, the claim that we possess an unconscious mind containing thoughts, motives, and desires of which we are not aware. This idea surfaced now and then before the twentieth century, but it was Sigmund Freud in the early part of that century who brought it to prominence. Perhaps it was because Freud, an avowed atheist, made so much of it that Christians have not easily embraced it. Yet there is good evidence for the existence of an unconscious mind, evidence that does not depend on atheism for its force. Unless Christians have even stronger reasons to reject the evidence, therefore, those in whom the desire for coherence is prominent will want to come to grips with the claim.

Doing this, unfortunately, is not easy. For one thing, there is the question of how much influence unconscious motives have on our actions. Though there are numerous indications that unconscious motives play a large role in our lives, Christians may be troubled with the loss of responsibility that this appears to entail. For another thing, there is the question of whether unconscious motives are always harmful or sinful. Freudian psychology, with its concepts of unconscious defense mechanisms and repression of painful memories, suggests that they are always troublesome. Christians, though, may want to entertain the hypothesis that God works in our lives through positive unconscious desires.

Because of these uncertainties, it is tempting simply to let the idea of unconscious influence exist side by side in our minds with our Christian beliefs without attempting an accord. Doing this, though, is likely to bring about a bit of consternation from time to time. This disturbing feeling, unfortunately, may well be one of the prices that those who desire coherence have to pay. In any case, they will attempt to work the idea into their worldview, even if they are not entirely sure how to do so.

Consider another example: the big bang theory. This theory states that the universe originated with an explosion of unimaginable speed from an extraordinarily hot and dense mass, “an undifferentiated soup of matter and radiation.”2 As the universe expanded and cooled, atoms formed, then molecules, and much later galaxies and solar systems. The big bang theory is made plausible by two independent discoveries made in the last half of the twentieth century. First, stars and galaxies are moving away from each other at specifiable speeds, which is inferable from the “red shift” in the light spectrum of distant stars and galaxies. Second, there is a cosmic background radiation with a temperature of roughly 3°K (Kelvin), which is just a bit above absolute zero. This background radiation appears to be left over from the original explosion, and the cool temperature (roughly 3°K) is what one would expect from an initial temperature of more than 100,000 million degrees K and years of cooling. Nearly all astrophysicists now regard the big bang theory as the likeliest account of the origin of the universe.3

The first reaction Christians should have to the big bang theory is that, if it is true, it describes something that God did. A central tenet of Christianity is that God is Creator of the physical universe; therefore, if the universe began with a massive explosion, then God is responsible for it. Beyond this, however, there is some flexibility. The big bang theory does not say whether the explosion was the very first event in the history of the universe or whether it was preceded by a cosmic implosion. Both of these possibilities are consistent with the theory and with the Christian claim that God is Creator. If the explosion were the first event, then Christians, in order to harmonize the big bang theory with the doctrine of creation ex nihilo, would say that at that point God created everything out of nothing. If the explosion were the result of a prior implosion, then Christians would say that the explosion was an instance of God’s continuing creative activity. Either way, coherence is achieved.

OBTAINING SELF-KNOWLEDGE

What would it be like to go through one’s entire life without trying to understand much about who one is? Many do, no doubt. But they are suppressing a fundamental human impulse. If we are sensitive to that impulse, we will acknowledge that we desire to explore a range of concerns about ourselves. We desire to know what kinds of emotions we have and whether they or reason rule us. We want to know how we fit together with others in social structures and how we have gotten to our present stage of history. We want to know about abnormalities, gender differences, ultimate cravings, and the sources of depression. We want to sort through our own desires and find out why we feel as we do.

Christians have these same inclinations, but they also want to know about specifically Christian concerns, such as faith and doubt, forgiveness and guilt, grace and self-justification. Christians want to explore the psychological changes that take place as one’s faith matures. They desire to know how guilt and forgiveness affect personality traits. They investigate ways in which self-justification undermines openness to grace. They wonder whether their faith is real or counterfeit.

Because of these proclivities, Christians often find a number of books dealing with matters of the self to be fertile stimulants to self-knowledge. Blaise Pascal’s Pensées, for example, contains a gold mine of insights about the human condition. His account of diversion reveals the extent to which we go to avoid meeting head-on life’s most significant issues. Our days are filled with “hustle and bustle,” he declares; we would rather be moving than alone and quiet, for then we become aware of our ulterior motives and misdirected cravings, which we desperately do not want to do. Augustine’s Confessions is similarly insightful. In book VIII of the Confessions, he describes the process by which a choice to sin becomes a habit, which then develops into an addiction that binds us as strongly as iron chains. He depicts the way in which we are caught between these chains and our desire to be free from them. Augustine himself agonized over this dividedness, praying at one point about the lust that bound him, “Give me chastity, but not yet.”

In fiction, too, Christians encounter fruitful material for exploring the self. Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment artfully draws the reader into identifying with Raskalnikov’s murderous impulse, then with his fluctuation between self-justifying indifference and debilitating guilt. Lastly, the reader is compelled to identify with Raskalnikov’s rapturous release from tortured emotions when he at last is able to receive the love of Sonya, a prostitute—and Christ figure—who accepts Raskalnikov despite his ruin. In The Death of Ivan Ilych, Leo Tolstoy presents a remarkably picturesque account of the horror of a Russian judge who wriggles and writhes in light of his impending death. Tolstoy displays the sharp disparity between tragedy and beauty by contrasting the agony of the judge with the warm and open response of the judge’s servant to the judge.

Christians are drawn not only to individual self-knowledge but to social and cultural self-knowledge as well, for we are social creatures. We want to know how we interact with others in our own culture, how those in other cultures connect with each other, and how people of one gender or race act toward those of another gender or race. Two particularly poignant examples that illuminate the last category are the slave narratives of the nineteenth century and the black protest literature of the early twentieth century. One of the former, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, vividly depicts the sentiments slaves had toward their owners and the subterfuges in which they engaged to maintain their dignity. Richard Wright’s startling and agonizing stories in Uncle Tom’s Children display similar dispositions and strategies in the American South during the first few decades of the twentieth century. Countless other social memoirs and commentaries also engage those who desire to probe into the human condition.

SORTING THROUGH PUBLIC ISSUES

Many of life’s moral norms are simple and clear-cut: Love is good; people deserve respect regardless of their looks; we should not harm others gratuitously. Often it is evident how to apply these norms in our individual lives. Public life, however, is more complex, and it is less evident how to apply moral norms to it. We do not always know what norms should be applied, especially when they conflict, and sometimes we do not know exactly what certain norms mean in a public setting. Those who like to think and probe take this complexity, conflict, and lack of clarity as an invitation to sort through the issues. Christians who do this are especially interested in how the issues connect with Christian values.

Consider, for example, the concept of justice. The first thought that comes to the mind of most people when they think of justice is due punishment for wrongdoing. This is natural, for the justice sy...