Mark Driscoll with a good post on why Christians should study. He writes:
In following Jesus’ command to love God with “all our mind,” the Christian life is supposed to include regular times of study and learning. The goal of such study is to have what Paul called “the mind of Christ” so that we can live the life of Christ by the power of the Spirit of Christ. Therefore, this month we will examine the contemplative spiritual discipline of study and the correlating active spiritual discipline of obedience.Read the whole post.
5 comments:
Very thought-provoking, but I don't think Driscoll goes far enough. It's definitely good to study the Bible, but the spiritual life of the mind is often enriched by broadening the scope - modern and historical writings on Scripture, comparative religion or mythology, etc. The common proviso would be that the Christian must be able to discern God's truth within such writings.
Remember this in light of the fact that Paul's primary philosophical influence was not the Jewish religious tradition with which he grew up, but rather the contemporaneously popular modes of Platonism through which he discerned God's truth. Same with Augustine and Plato (via Plotinus), Aquinas and Aristotle. In fact, Augustine's inexorable momentum toward coming to be in Christ began with the life of the mind (aided by the voice in the garden of "Take, read" which could be caused by the Spirit alone).
Ray,
Paul discerned God's truth through "popular modes of Platonism"? I can definitely see that with Aquinas, and to a degree, Augustine, but the apostle Paul? I know that the development of Catholic theology is very bound up with Plato and Aristotle, but I'd like to hear more about Paul in this regard. I guess that I think more in terms of him discerning God's truth through the Holy Spirit than through Platonism-- and I sincerely don't mean that sarcastically.
Could you please explain your thoughts on this issue further, because I'm truly interested to know. I minored in Philosophy and Religion in college, so I love thinking and talking about these things. Of course, being a Christian only makes me more interested and personally invested! :-)
Sorry, that's me above-- I meant to sign my name!
Oops, I wrote too late at night - I meant to apply that to the Johannine writings (John and 1, 2, 3 John). The logos hymn, for example reflects a Platonic description of "the One" with a twist of a more personal and less removed deity than that of Plato's. Much of 1 John is also concerned with a perception of God as Truth and Light, which are ideals in Plato. Let me say that I am no expert in Plato and am not familiar enough with his work to demonstrate concrete examples.
I would not underplay by any means the influence of Plato via Plotinus in Augustine. A decent edition of Confessions ought to outline the innumerable references to Plotinus.
We as Christians ought not be afraid of what are seen as "secular" philosophies. If we are stable in our foundational belief in God, philosophies can provide us with a fresh insight into our own faith tradition as it did with many of the early church fathers. Many NT writers emphasize the importance of speaking the audience's language; explaining our faith in relation to a secular philosophy then is not dangerous but rather a means of evangelism.
Take for example Nietzsche: As often as he is demonized by Christians (particularly for that whole "God is dead" thing), his critiques of Christianity and highly heterodox views can help to bring true faith better into focus.
P.S. If I can better substantiation for what I have posted, I will try to this weekend. The curse of being a music student is little spare time... :-)
I definitely agree with you about Christians not being afraid of "secular" philosophies. I read a bit of Nietzsche in college, and I think that Christians would do well to engage his claims and try to answer them, both philosophically and also actively, in living everyday life.
With Augustine's Confessions, I do remember there being influences of pre-Christian thinkers. I need to go back and actually finish that book!
I'll be interested to hear more about Platonism in John's thinking. The one thing that I would not want to say, at least without clarification, is that John discerned God's truth *via Plato.* He might have used some Platonic concepts in his thinking and writing, possibly to write in terms of ideas that pagans could understand. I trust that his *discerning* of God's truth, though, came through Jesus, and later, the Holy Spirit.
Secular philosophies can definitely help to clarify aspects of our Christian faith. There is something helpful, at times, about setting light and darkness side by side for examination and comparison. Lest that sound too simplistic, I will say that certain secular philosophies do have more "light" in them than others-- but they are all only bits of light, useful, but only bits, as compared to the blazing sun of Biblical revelation.
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