Loving God with All Your Mind - Thinking as a Christian in the Postmodern World

Christians should use and develop their minds. The mental faculties of the human mind—the power to think, to discover, to wonder, and to imagine—are precious gifts of God. The Christian who pursues knowledge, seeks education, and explores even the most “secular” subjects is fulfilling a Christian vocation that is pleasing to God and of great importance to the Church. The Bible, by precept and example, affirms this and opens up the whole realm of human knowledge to the Christian. This is my main thesis.

When Christians do pursue the whole realm of human knowledge, however, they often run into some obstacles. This is especially so today. Christian assumptions are not generally recognized in academia or in our culture in general. Christians often find their faith challenged when they become involved in the arts, the sciences, the social sciences, and other professions. Christianity is clearly not in vogue with the “intellectual establishment.”

When Christians realize that there are some basic discrepancies between their faith and contemporary thought, they often do one of two things: They withdraw or they compromise. Christian students who go to a secular university are often shocked and disoriented when they discover that their professors, textbooks, and classmates do not share their faith. Some of them, not knowing how to deal with the difficult issues they are facing, quit school. Others, tragically, abandon their faith. Overwhelmed by the power and prestige of secularist academia, and being unable to draw on the intellectual resources of the Christian faith, they drift away from Christ.

Another common option is to compromise, to reinterpret Christian doctrine according to the ways of thinking currently in vogue. This is the way of theological liberalism. It is possible to become so enraptured by one’s academic discipline that its answers to problems start to seem more authoritative than the Bible’s. Those who crave academic respectability and acceptance by peers and colleagues may not be willing to abandon Christianity entirely; instead they often reinterpret it according to contemporary fashions and values. In doing so, the hard-edged faith that has always been a scandal and a stumbling-block to the world is changed into something less.

This book argues that it is possible for Christians to engage the contemporary intellectual world without weakening or compromising their faith. Christians in fact need to do so, both for the sake of the Church and for the sake of a world that is starving for the truth of the gospel.

Christians need to be aware, though, of the contours of contemporary thought. They need to know what to expect and how to deal with some of the challenges to the Christian faith that they will encounter. They also need to know the positive side, how Christian truth genuinely opens up the mind, providing a framework that embraces all knowledge and that gives a basis for curiosity, creativity, and all the energy of learning.

What I have to say will apply to the whole climate of contemporary thought as it appears almost everywhere in our culture, but my focus will be on the secular university. This is where that thought is engendered and nourished, and it is the point of encounter for most Christians. Although this book is intended mainly as an exposition and application of Scripture, it also draws on my own experiences. As an undergraduate I made many of the mistakes that I will be counseling others to avoid. When I was a graduate student, drawing on the power of the Bible and the support of fellow-Christians, I began to see the strength of the Christian perspective in modern academia. Today I am a professor. Having taught English in both secular and Christian colleges, and having become a small part of the “intellectual establishment” in my own research and in dealing with colleagues and students, I make bold here to offer an insider’s view of academia and today’s intellectual world.

This book is divided into three parts. The first section presents the biblical case for “secular learning.” It argues that the life of the mind—the process of learning and pursuing knowledge of every kind—is a legitimate, God-pleasing calling for a Christian. It focuses upon the particular example of Daniel as a biblical model of a believer pursuing knowledge in an unbelieving world.

The second section provides an overview of the contemporary mind, describing the assumptions and characteristics of the current intellectual establishment as seen especially in today’s academic climate. That section will examine the various attacks and temptations that Christians will face from that quarter, but it will not be totally negative. Christians can contribute to contemporary thought in some important ways and can flourish even in an environment that seems hostile.

The third section describes “the Christian mind.” In it I argue that Christianity provides an intellectual framework that is actually superior to any other worldview for the pursuit of knowledge. Looking at history and at the current intellectual roadblocks that secularist thinkers are experiencing, I suggest that only Christianity can account for the complexity and the open-endedness required for true learning. Christianity gives a conceptual foundation for creativity, discovery, and mystery so that the pursuit of all truth can be energized by the love of God.

The new student trying to understand and cope with university life, the scholar seriously trying to reconcile the demands of an academic career with the demands of the Christian faith, Christian teachers in public schools, pastors trying to minister to a contemporary congregation, Christian psychologists, journalists, scientists, artists, lawyers, and certainly parents—nearly all Christians today will face the conflicts and the possibilities that I will be describing. I offer here a map of the modern and postmodern intellectual world that might prove helpful to a Christian trying to navigate its sometimes troubled waters. I also wish to show that Christians do not need to be afraid to think, that Christians in fact have advantages over non-Christians when it comes to using their minds. Just as Jesus Christ commands us to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, our soul, and our strength, He also commands us to love Him with all of our mind (Mark 12:30). This book tries to explore what that can mean and where it can lead.