In my experience, most Christian intellectuals treat Pragmatism--the approach to life that values practical action particularly highly--is a philosophy to be named, criticised, and rejected. Christians who defend the life of the mind (like Mark Noll) lament that evangelicals have given so little value to thinking and understanding the world deeply, and have instead concerned themselves with activism. Christianity is captive product of pragmatism. Christian philosophers, such as Peter Kreeft, confidently refute Marx's call to action by appeal back to Socrates who could reject pragmatism and declare that the purpose of life was to pursue wisdom and truth.
But I am not convinced. Is pragmatism really a foreign value to Christianity? More to the point of Kreeft, does Christianity promote a life of reflection and the pursuit of wisdom? I cant help but see that the "Christian as philosopher" (the notion that chief end of man is to pursue wisdom and truth through reflection) is not the vision of the Christian life set forth in scripture. To Noll's point, does Scripture summon Christians to be people who have a unique and substantively Christians understanding of history, economics, politics and linguistics? Again, I don't see this in scripture.
The scriptures which most directly address the Christian--the epistles--do these encourage a life of reflection in pursuit of truth? Does it tell Christians they need a solid grounding in Christian liberal arts? NO! It assumes that Christians meet together, that they worship, that they seek to love one another through the daily task of life, that they seek to remain faithful and hopeful as they suffer for their faith, that they continue to hold on to their faith in Christ, that they pray for one another, etc. The Christian is not called to a life of reflection. And certainly, I have a hard time thinking that the early Christians--mostly farmers, slaves, artisans and merchants--would have felt that they were called to understand the nature, society, and human nature. The Bible does not call us to a life of contemplation or reflection. I think CS Lewis spoke of contemplation as one mode of existence, and experience as another. My understanding is that the Bible assumes most people will live in the experiential mode, but they are to supplement it with the contemplation of the gospel, and that that contemplation is to then vitalize and direct their experience / action in the world.
What I do see is that the Christian is summoned to faith, and their is a content to faith--an that understanding meant something for the nature of history, of the person, of the state, etc. But these were all theological matters, and they we simply to be believed as part of the gospel and the larger story of God and his work in the world. (and it was not as if the Christian's calling to simply try to study this; if anything, study is a means to the end of knowing, and it is necessary because what we should believe is unclear--the apostles did not see the task of believing or knowing this way). In other words, the Christians was called to faith in the gospel, not to some humanistic understanding of all of life. The Christian is called to a robust faith, but not to be or pursue a humanities or liberal arts major. (Again, I think my concern is that people who are passionate about humanities and liberal arts will see their specific endeavour -studying these things as people who believe in the gospel--and make it somehow the task of the Christian more generally, or of all church leaders.). The scandal of the evangelical mind is not that we don't have a Christian account of the humanities, but that we no longer have a substantive account of what makes us Christian--the gospel.
So the life of reflection and understanding is typically opposed to pragmatism, and some of our Christian leaders (who just happen to be university professors devoted to contemplation, surrounding themselves with students devoted to contemplation) --some of our leaders tell us that Christianity is in desperate need of us embracing the former and not the latter. But I think our Christian theology itself pushes us to pragmatism, to be concerned with common actions of daily work and life. People matter. People die. People will spend eternity somewhere. People need. And God cares passionately about all these things. Now we see through a glass darkly. If I remember correctly, that is said in a particular context...about loving ones neighbour .. Are we supposed to be spending all our time trying to clarify our Christian vision, or acting based on what we've seen clearly so far? Is action-rooted-in-faith or contemplation-rooted-in-faith a more faithful mode of Christian living?
But I am not convinced. Is pragmatism really a foreign value to Christianity? More to the point of Kreeft, does Christianity promote a life of reflection and the pursuit of wisdom? I cant help but see that the "Christian as philosopher" (the notion that chief end of man is to pursue wisdom and truth through reflection) is not the vision of the Christian life set forth in scripture. To Noll's point, does Scripture summon Christians to be people who have a unique and substantively Christians understanding of history, economics, politics and linguistics? Again, I don't see this in scripture.
The scriptures which most directly address the Christian--the epistles--do these encourage a life of reflection in pursuit of truth? Does it tell Christians they need a solid grounding in Christian liberal arts? NO! It assumes that Christians meet together, that they worship, that they seek to love one another through the daily task of life, that they seek to remain faithful and hopeful as they suffer for their faith, that they continue to hold on to their faith in Christ, that they pray for one another, etc. The Christian is not called to a life of reflection. And certainly, I have a hard time thinking that the early Christians--mostly farmers, slaves, artisans and merchants--would have felt that they were called to understand the nature, society, and human nature. The Bible does not call us to a life of contemplation or reflection. I think CS Lewis spoke of contemplation as one mode of existence, and experience as another. My understanding is that the Bible assumes most people will live in the experiential mode, but they are to supplement it with the contemplation of the gospel, and that that contemplation is to then vitalize and direct their experience / action in the world.
What I do see is that the Christian is summoned to faith, and their is a content to faith--an that understanding meant something for the nature of history, of the person, of the state, etc. But these were all theological matters, and they we simply to be believed as part of the gospel and the larger story of God and his work in the world. (and it was not as if the Christian's calling to simply try to study this; if anything, study is a means to the end of knowing, and it is necessary because what we should believe is unclear--the apostles did not see the task of believing or knowing this way). In other words, the Christians was called to faith in the gospel, not to some humanistic understanding of all of life. The Christian is called to a robust faith, but not to be or pursue a humanities or liberal arts major. (Again, I think my concern is that people who are passionate about humanities and liberal arts will see their specific endeavour -studying these things as people who believe in the gospel--and make it somehow the task of the Christian more generally, or of all church leaders.). The scandal of the evangelical mind is not that we don't have a Christian account of the humanities, but that we no longer have a substantive account of what makes us Christian--the gospel.
So the life of reflection and understanding is typically opposed to pragmatism, and some of our Christian leaders (who just happen to be university professors devoted to contemplation, surrounding themselves with students devoted to contemplation) --some of our leaders tell us that Christianity is in desperate need of us embracing the former and not the latter. But I think our Christian theology itself pushes us to pragmatism, to be concerned with common actions of daily work and life. People matter. People die. People will spend eternity somewhere. People need. And God cares passionately about all these things. Now we see through a glass darkly. If I remember correctly, that is said in a particular context...about loving ones neighbour .. Are we supposed to be spending all our time trying to clarify our Christian vision, or acting based on what we've seen clearly so far? Is action-rooted-in-faith or contemplation-rooted-in-faith a more faithful mode of Christian living?
