Home » Academics » Truth Lab

Have Christians Lost Their Minds? (Part 2)

Get Your Head in the Game

In part one we talked about loving God with our minds and how evangelical Christians, for the most part, are failing to do that. Our churches have become anti-intellectual and fewer and fewer students are going into academic areas like philosophy and biblical criticism. Those who do go into those areas of study often end up adopting a low view of scripture.

In this article, I'd like to discuss (with a little help from fellow TrueU author J.P. Moreland and his book Love the Lord Your God with All Your Mind) what happens when Christians lose ground in the intellectual arena — five results in particular.¹

Easy as One, Two, Three (Four, Five)

First is a separation of faith and reason. When we downplay intellectual things, our experience-based faith trumps the life of the mind. The head and heart are both intertwined; one cannot exist wholly without the other. As C.S. Lewis said, "The heart never takes the place of the head; but it can, and should obey it."²

The second result is a false distinction between secular and sacred. This kind of compartmentalization is one of the most dangerous pitfalls of the contemporary Christian. As Christian colleges and universities have grown in number over the latter part of the 20^th century, so too has this secular/sacred dichotomy. Students are putting their faith on one side of their life and their academic pursuits on the other: "I am going to be an accountant," says one student, "but I also will happen to be a Christian." No! You are a Christian who also will do accounting as a vocation. (The Lord knows we need ethical accountants right now…).

Jesus came to show us that our lives were one totality. "I surrender all" doesn't refer only to those things we might call "spiritual" or "religious" — it refers to every part of our being. When we use our minds, as we're supposed to, every part of our lives constitutes worship — not just the "sacred" parts.

The third result from a loss of the Christian mind is weakened missions. We are not able to show a thoughtful world a thoughtful God. If we are to take the message of the gospel into the entire world, then we have to take the complete message of the gospel. Sure, we might do a great job teaching people to worship God with their hearts and their souls, but when we leave out the mind we discredit our own message. We don't fulfill the Great Commandment.

I've observed that missions have been weakened in some very tangible ways. In some cases, very well-meaning missionaries have imposed Western farming practices on the developing-world people they're trying to reach. Sometimes Western techniques just don't fit the lifestyles of the people or the land they live on. And in some cases Western crop breeds don't work either. These sorts of actions show the missionaries' intellectual arrogance, but not critical thinking skills the Great Commandment tells us to use.

Fourth, the gospel becomes irrelevant. How ironic that, in a society that has depended on reason and rationale for much of its existence, the Christian faith seems to be devoid of reason. To a lot of people, Christianity seems like nothing more than an emotional experience. They see an ad on TV for the latest compilation of praise and worship "hits" and they see people with their eyes closed and hands raised. They hear about Christian books that talk only of "feeling" God's presence. They see prominent Christians who refuse (or are unable) to clearly articulate their views on social issues.

To the outside observer, the Christian faith seems to be only of the heart and not at all of the head. With this perception out goes the power of the gospel message. In simple terms, the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ's birth, life, death and resurrection — a message of hope for the hopeless. There are reasons people feel hopeless in this culture. There are also very compelling reasons for the Christ to fill that void. We cannot allow the gospel message to be watered down by our inability to articulate it intelligently.

The final result is a loss of boldness in spreading the gospel. I have heard a number of times, "I'm just not gifted in the area of evangelism," or, "I'm not bold like you are." God does give people different gifts, but I think we have totally marginalized evangelism. It has these horrible connotations of Tuesday night door-to-door visits where we are supposed to do "cold calling" evangelism. There are those who are called to that type of ministry. They are gifted in those abilities and desires. However, we can't leave evangelism in the hands of just a few "gifted" people.

For many of you, the context may be different, but you are called to be bold in your own way and in your own setting. Too often we allow ourselves to believe that if we live a good life that reflects God's love, that's enough. It usually is enough on a day-to-day basis, but God will put in front of you opportunities to be bold and step out on His behalf. When you are called to be bold, will you?

In recent years I have become much more aware of the pro-life movement and some of the powerful ways that the pro-life stance is articulated. I have also become painfully aware of some of the horrible ways in which pro-lifers speak on behalf of their cause. Several of our Focus Institute students have had a chance to attend campus events sponsored by Justice for All (a pro-life ministry effort that takes large displays to campuses to spark discussion). The students merely stand around the display and strike up conversations with those who stop to browse. Simple questions like, "What do you think of all this?" begin some amazing conversations and build some powerful relationships — ones that have helped some very hurting people who have been wrapped up in the abortion culture. In each case the students find that there is a point at which they have to step outside of their comfort zones to strike up these conversations.

Where is your comfort zone keeping you? Does a loss of boldness dominate your discussions at school, work, with neighbors and family?

Fit Bodies, Fat Minds

Os Guiness, in Fit Bodies, Fat Minds, sums these results up well:

"Anti-intellectualism is a disposition to discount the importance of truth and the life of the mind. Living in a sensuous culture and an increasingly emotional democracy, American evangelicals in the last generation have simultaneously toned up their bodies and dumbed down their minds. The result? Many suffer from a modern form of what the ancient stoics called 'mental hedonism' — having fit bodies but fat minds."³

C O F F E E  S H O P

---

What can Christians do to "re-enter the intellectual fray"?

Join the discussion!

When we get "fat minds," we begin to remove ourselves from the activity of the rest of the culture. We get lazy in the ways we think and we find ourselves losing definition and tone as far as our beliefs go. Arthur Holmes reflects on this result: "In a word, if she is to act creatively and to speak with cogency and clarity to the minds of her fellows, the educated Christian must be at home in the world of ideas and people. Christians, unfortunately, often talk to themselves. We think in ruts, and express ourselves in a familiar kind of family jargon."⁴

I think you will agree that it's time to get back into training. We need to firm up our minds and put them to use for God's work. We must re-enter the intellectual fray.