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1. Understanding the role of the mind in spiritual growth (Romans 12:1,2)

The mind is at the center of spiritual warfare

Active mind is required to avoid deception

"We assume beliefs are under conscious control at all times. But beliefs can be created merely by passively accepting information without attempting to analyze it… In other words, when distractions derailed their train of thought, volunteers [in psychological experiments] who had been given reason to doubt false information nevertheless tended to accept that information as true." Bruce Bower, Science News

Entertainment focus of mass media subverts critical thinking.

E.g.: news media

"Used in one way, the press, the radio and the cinema are indispensable to the survival of democracy. Used in another way, they are among the most powerful weapons in the dictator's armory...In regard to propaganda the early advocates of universal literacy and a free press envisaged only two possibilities: the propaganda might be true, or it might be false. They did not foresee what in fact has happened, above all in our Western capitalist democracies--the development of a vast mass communications industry, concerned in the main neither with the true nor the false, but with the unreal, the more or less totally irrelevant. In a word, they failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions...Only the vigilant can maintain their liberties, and only those who are constantly and intelligently on the spot can hope to govern themselves effectively by democratic procedures." Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited

Result: Few people know how to think rigorously about things.

Tools of critical reasoning are essential to constructively handle doubts.

 

 

 

Greater capacity to plumb the depths of God (Matthew 22:37).

 

 

2. Tools to analyze literature, including the Bible (2 Timothy 2:15).

We need to understand the structure or thought process of the author.

 

3. Critical assessment of secular culture (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

Who we are and how we think is tied to our culture.

 

Two key issues

i. Developing discernment—the eyes to see the ideas that lay beneath culture.

 

 

ii. Relevant Christian witness.

 

 

 

4. Well reasoned case for the gospel (1 Peter 3:15).

Imperative for all Christians to present a compelling, reasonable case for why others should become Christians.

The example of Paul (Acts 14:15-17; 17:2,4,17-31; 18:4; 19:8)

 

We don’t need to be experts, but faithful to the gospel

Consider what too often is communicated in evangelism: Jesus is there to meet your felt needs

 

Peril of "god of the gaps" Christianity

1. Intellectual life in the early church

Arguing from scripture and general revelation (Rom. 1:18ff; Acts 17:16ff)

 

Doctrinal test for prophets and teachers (1 Corinthians 14:29)

 

Worship that emphasized content (1 Corinthians 14:19)

 

Ongoing vitality of the early church depended on Christians who were:

Confident enough in their understanding to withstand slander and intense persecution (see Tacitus, Annals XV,44).

 

Provide a reasoned critique of gentile paganism and Judaism.

 

2. Medieval "analogy of faith" (350—1500)

Two deadly developments in the post-apostolic era:

Orthodoxy was maintained by power, not persuasion

 

Analogical method of interpretation became the standard—an uncritical fusion of Christianity with Greek philosophy.

 

 

 

"If we wish to be sure that we are right in all things, we should always be ready to accept this principle: I will believe that the white that I see is black, if the hierarchical Church so defines it." Ignatius Loyola, Spiritual Exercises

3. Renaissance humanism and the Reformation

Intellectual life developed outside official Catholic circles

Techniques of literary analysis played a key role:

Lorenzo Valla’s, The Donation of Constantine

Erasmus’ work on the New Testament

Protestant Reformation, "sola scriptura"

Each person is responsible for their own faith commitments

4. Enlightenment and the assault on religion (1700—1850):

Birth of secular culture

Authority of reason alone

 

 

Naturalism’s assault on miracles based on the "clockwork universe" model

 

 

Utopian view of human history.

 

 

5. Late 19^th and early 20^th century developments

Three decisive elements that continue to have substantial impact on how people think about faith and reason:

Evolutionary theory.

 

 

Freudian psychoanalysis.

 

 

Higher criticism.

 

Bible can’t be true because it attests to the supernatural

Bible is a compilation of myths and legends that lack historical reality

Bible must be assumed to be myth unless it can be proven by evidence from ancient history

 

Two key implications:

These ideas came to dominate intellectual life due largely to the fact that Christians failed to do significant scholarly work

 

Christianity for the thinking person had simply become implausible.

 

"It is difficult to document such a thing as the general attitude of a profession. But the hostility of most psychologists to Christianity is very real. For years I was part of that sentiment; today it still surrounds me. It is a curious hostility, for most psychologists are not aware of it. Their lack of awareness is due mostly to sheer ignorance of what Christianity is--for that matter, of what any religion is. The universities are so secularized that most academics can no longer articulate why they are opposed to Christianity. They merely assume that for all rational people the question of being a Christian was settled--negatively--at some time in the past." Paul Vitz

 

6. Contemporary "postmodern" culture

A fusion of Enlightenment thinking with some significant alterations

Optimistic hope in a utopian future dashed on the rocks of 20^th century history

 

 

 

Rejection of rationalism in our day. The "certainties" of rationalism have collapsed.

General assault on "objectivity"

Truth is defined from within the beliefs of the culture—constructivism

Truth is relative to the culture—paradigm

 

There are many "truths" and no one is to be "privileged"

Rejection of universe as a "clockwork"

 

Western cultural imperialism replaced with "pluralism"

 

Two key implications:

Spirituality is "in" again.

 

Where rationalists resolved the faith vs. reason split by rejecting faith, postmodernists resolve the split by rejecting reason.

 

William Willimon, "Jesus’ Peculiar Truth"

 

 

1. Everyone has "basic beliefs" whether they are consciously aware of it or not.

 

2. Our basic beliefs are developed within our culture often without much conscious reflection

Taken together, a set of basic beliefs is a world view: Reality, humanity, values, truth

Most people’s basic beliefs are incoherent—they contradict one another

Intellectual maturity involves conscious reflection on these beliefs and the willingness to work toward coherence

Spiritual authenticity demands that we examine what we believe

 

3. The adequacy of our basic beliefs (that they correspond to reality) will determine the quality of our lives

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock. And the rains descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock. And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall." Matthew 7:24-27

Unbiblical basic beliefs don’t correspond to reality as God has made it and cannot be consistently lived out

We have a basis to critically interact with secular thinking

 

We have an obligation as ambassadors of Christ to interact with secular thinking for the sake of the lost

 

Careful students of culture will observe how these world views are lived out

 

Careful students of culture will be able to critically interact with these "fortresses" and lead people to entertain Christianity as a plausible option

 

 

"Borrowed capital"

 

1. What assertion is being made about reality, humanity, truth or values?

Identify phrases and terms

What world view is being expressed?

2. What must be assumed for key statements to make sense?

What world view is assumed?

 

3. Identify any reasons or evidence given in support of assertions

Are these reasons or evidence adequate? (next week)

 

Note: This may seem self-evident or mechanical, but the discipline of reading and listening this way is the starting point for gaining critical insight into how people think. If it’s a bit confusing to you now, that’s okay—as we apply these concepts over the next few weeks, it will sink in!

Exercise: Pamela McCorduck, "An Introduction to the Humanities with Professor Ptolemy"

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