Taking every thought captive for obedience to Christ (2 Cor. 10.5)

Disciplines
Vision
The scientific community prides itself on being open-minded. Science is a question-asking enterprise. It is not bounded by fixed truths, except insofar as any “truths” may be considered sufficiently “fixed” to be reliable for use in seeking other “truths.”

The scientific community further recognizes that it must always be open to correction, even if that correction comes from those “outside” the disciplines, institutions, and collegial circles of science – a point Thomas Kuhn argued in his landmark book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

As an outsider to the world of science, I commend the community’s question-asking mindset and willingness to be corrected. And therefore, in the spirit of science, I want to suggest one area where science, having settled on a certain view of “truth,” is failing to ask a question that could greatly enhance its enterprise.

Here’s the question: Why has religion today – specifically, Christianity – failed to yield the kind of advances, innovations, and lasting successes, across the broad spectrum of human interests, such as it provided in the past? What’s gone wrong? And what can we learn about the state of Christianity today to help us get it back on its track of social and cultural fecundity?

Scientists don’t ask this question because they have settled on the “truth” that all things “supernatural” or “superstitious” (the preferred terms of the scientific community) are irrelevant to science and the pursuit of truth. God and spiritual things either do not exist or, if they do, they are irrelevant to the question-asking, problem-solving disciplines and protocols of science.

However, but for the Christian worldview, there might not be a modern scientific enterprise. Or higher education. Or free enterprise, democratic government, civil rights, widespread literacy, and much more, including examples of art, music, literature, and poetry which are universally recognized as “masterpieces.”

So what’s gone wrong with Christianity, that Christians not only are not pioneering helpful innovations in these and many other fields, but as a community, either we don’t seem to be particularly interested in such matters, or we don’t know how to think about them in the ways our Christian forebears did?

This, it seems to me, is an important question, one we might expect to see eagerly explored by members of the scientific community.

Given the unlikely prospects of that, however, perhaps it’s a question we as Christians might want to consider. Given the fact that our Christian past features a vast heritage of significant social, cultural, and institutional achievements, why is the Christian movement today not continuing the pattern and following the path of our forebears?

I encourage you to raise this question with some fellow believers, or your pastor or some leaders in your church. Bring it up in your Bible study or fellowship group. What has changed in the way Christians view the world that has made the Christian community marginal to matters of culture and society rather than central, as it was for nearly 2,000 years? What are we not learning or failing to do which our forebears in the faith succeeded at so marvelously?

If the scientific community won’t take up this question – and they won’t – surely it is one that we as Christians must not avoid.

For reflection
1.  Have you ever thought about this question before? Do you agree it’s an important one?

2.  Who are some people with whom you might discuss this question?

3.  Do you have any preliminary thoughts suggesting an answer to this question?

Talk with some of your Christian friends about this question.

T. M. Moore

Stretch your vision of Christ and His Kingdom by ordering a copy of T. M.’s book, The Kingship of Jesus, from our online store (click here).

The Week features insights from a wide range of topics and issues, with a view to equipping the followers of Christ to take every thought captive for Jesus. Please prayerfully consider supporting The Fellowship of Ailbe by sending a gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, 19 Tyler Drive, Essex Junction, VT 05452.