Reflections on Loving God with Our Minds: Part 5

In the last post of this series I want to say a few things about academics and the command to love God and others with our minds. Too often in Christian circles (predominantly, but not exclusively, evangelical ones), there is great suspicion, if not downright fear and contempt, for serious academics. For many Christians, serious academic study and intellectual development are seen as dangerous and somehow opposed to vibrant faith in Jesus. In my experience, nothing could be further from the truth. I think many people’s faith is stagnant because they do not engage their minds with their faith. The problem with Christianity today is not that there is too much thinking and intellectual work going on, but that there is nowhere near enough. And when this happens, we fail to obey God’s desire that we love him and our neighbor with our minds. Don’t let some Christians’ sour attitudes about academics and intellectual development keep you from heeding the “Great Commandment.”

In times past, Christians were frequently the ones who were recognized as the leading thinkers in various disciplines across the academic spectrum. Today this is rare (one positive example is in the area of philosophy where Christians such as Alvin Plantinga, Dallas Willard, Keith Yandell, William Lane Craig, and J. P. Moreland are well respected in the philosophical community). The Church is looking for a generation of women and men who will take up the challenge to love God and neighbor with their minds by engaging in serious academic study. Can you imagine a society in which Christian thinkers were shaping economics, astrophysics, history, medicine, cinematography, law, ecology, literature, politics, etc.? God would certainly be honored and his image-bearers would be greatly benefited. Or, to be more specific, take our current issue of health care reform. What would it be like if Christian thinkers worked out a health care system that provided quality health care which was financially sustainable, affordable for as many people as possible, and included at least minimum care for those who could not afford any care at all?

Though all Christians are under the command to love God and neighbor with their minds, some have a special calling in this area. Perhaps you are one of them. If you are a student (at any level), I encourage you to apply yourself to your academic work. Your diligence in your class work is not only an expression of your love for God and neighbor, but might be something that God uses to propel you to a life using you intellectual capacities in service to him. Don’t look at your education as merely a means to a job, or meeting the expectations of parents, etc. Consider it intellectual development that will prepare you to make a significant impact for God’s kingdom. If God has called you to the life of the mind, being a top notch mechanical engineer, philosopher, journalist, CEO, teacher, or poet is every bit as important as being a pastor or a missionary.

I would like to end with a prayer penned by Church of England Bishop, H. G. C. Moule. This prayer sustained me through times of intense intellectual work while in graduate school. For high school, college, and graduate school students, may it be your prayer as well as you seek to love the only wise God with your minds.

Lord and Savior, true and kind,
be the master of my mind;
Bless and guide and strengthen still,
all my powers of thought and will.
While I ply the scholar’s task,
Jesus Christ be near, I ask;
Help the memory, clear the brain,
knowledge still to seek and gain.