The State of the Evangelical Mind by Todd C. ream

Author:Todd C. ream
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: evangelicalism;intellectual life;evangelical;intellectual;intellectual Christian;Christian intellect;institutions;Christian institutions;evangelical mind;intellectual engagement;state of the evangelical mind;Richard J. Mouw;Mark A. Noll;Anne Lyon;David C. Mahan;C. Donald Smedley;Timothy Larsen;Lauren Winner;James K. A. Smith;Mark Galli
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2018-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

THE INHERENT WORTH OF OBTAINING SUBSTANTIAL KNOWLEDGE

There is such a thing as trivial rather than substantial knowledge. One could gain much substantial knowledge by reading books in the college library. If, however, one decided that what one wanted to learn was what the seventh word on the thirty-eighth page is in as many books in the college library as possible, then—having successfully pursued this quest over hundreds of volumes—one would have gained knowledge that was only trivial rather than substantial, more pointless than profound. All substantial knowledge, however, is not narrowly utilitarian—it is not purely practical knowledge calculated directly to explain to someone how to undertake the duties of a particular job in full-time, paid employment. Newman is aware that this is the only kind of knowledge some people seem to value: “And now the question is asked me, What is the use of it?”4 He put the word use in italics in order to indicate that his questioner has a narrow and specific meaning of useful knowledge—namely, its utility in terms of vocation, career, and monetary gain. As he will later affirm, “a liberal education is truly and fully a useful” education (117). But when it comes to the question, “What is the use of it?” the way the questioner means it, Newman’s retort is, “Knowledge is capable of being its own end” (78).

Part of the nature of our species includes being rational creatures who take delight in learning. I have developed my own somewhat playful or provocative definition of a liberal arts education. It goes like this: a liberal arts education is the pursuit and cultivation of those noble activities that distinguish human beings from the lower animals. As there is trivial rather than substantial knowledge, so there are ignoble activities that distinguish human beings from other animals—we, for example, are set apart from birds and dogs by our ability to break promises. A liberal arts education is about what makes us noble rather than ignoble as a species. My definition is meant to be a kind of thought experiment that pushes back at the ruthless utilitarian drive that can relentlessly hum in our heads on incessant loop: how do these college courses train me to make money in a well-paying career? The quest for food, water, shelter, and a mate are precisely those goals that we share with fruit bats and raccoons and all the other lower animals. These are necessary and honorable pursuits, but are they an exhaustive list? In other words, do human beings have no higher ends than rodents?

I submit to you that we do, and that a liberal arts education is a precious time in one’s life when one can also attend to those more elevated ends. Newman observes that we think of having a healthy, fit body as a good in itself rather than just as a means to an end: “Cultivation of the mind,” he reflects, “is surely worth seeking for its own sake” as well (85). For “if a healthy body is a good in itself, why is not a healthy intellect?” (115).

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