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

Vision
Lost Our Minds?
In his article, “The Watchmen” (Harper’s, September, 2016), Alan Jacobs addresses the question, “What became of the Christian intellectuals?” His piece is a thoughtful lament for a lost tribe, and provides a disappointing next link in a chain that began with Harry Blamires in 1963 (The Christian Mind) and Mark Noll in 1994 (The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind), each of whom similarly decried the pronounced lack of any truly thoughtful Christianity in America.

The Christian community lacks intellectual leaders to help them understand the times in which we live; so it’s probably no wonder the Church hardly seems to know what to do in advancing the Kingdom of God (1 Chron. 12.32).

Dr. Jacobs describes an intellectual as one whose calling is to dialog with the ideas and intellectual leaders of the day, and to interpret his conclusions to the community he seeks to serve. The Apostle Paul seemed to think that this task falls to each individual believer (2 Cor. 10.3-5); however, in the Christian world, we have tended to leave the thinking to the professionals. We prefer our faith more of the emotive and personal sort than of the thoughtful and cosmic aspect.

Christian intellectuals in America first began to appear after World War II, and promptly gave rise to a far-reaching and variegated evangelical and Catholic sub-culture, which has flourished for over a generation.

But the fact is that, in spite of this flourishing – in churches, para-church movements, publishing, media, and higher education – evangelical (or conservative) Christianity is in decline in America; and it was never able, even during its heyday, to exert much influence over the changing social and cultural agenda of the nation.

Dr. Jacobs’ history of Christian intellectuals in America is selective, but representative and illustrative. He doesn’t mention such widely-recognized (by Christians, that is) thinkers as Carl Henry or Francis Schaeffer, and this is because these men did not fit the definition of intellectual as he pursues it, that is, being thinkers who interface with the culture and its spokespersons, and who contribute to their conversations. Part of the problem is that the increasing secularization of the public square from the 1960s effectively removed a place at the table for Christian thinkers, forcing them to turn inward to their own communities to share their interpretations and advance their ideas in what Dr. Jacobs refers to as “subaltern communities.”

According to Dr. Jacobs, the loss of meaningful intellectual leadership within the Christian community is well-illustrated by the current political campaign, when those Christian leaders who are closest to the flock, as well as those who speak in the name of the flock from high in the ivory tower, have rushed to support a candidate for the presidency whose views, experience, and character they condemned when these were in evidence in another political figure just a few short years ago. A kind of desperation, a last-stand mentality, characterizes this effort, as though the entire wellbeing of the Kingdom project of Jesus Christ depends on defeating the liberal alternative and (it is hoped) preserving the Supreme Court for American traditional values.

On the other hand, one should ask: Are American Christians looking for thoughtful leaders? Are they truly interested in identifying, embracing, and advancing a view of life that intends to oppose the dominant secular, material, and narcissistic agenda, and replace it with a narrative of self-denial, sacrifice, neighbor-love, and holiness? Christian thinkers who plead this message into an audience that finds such talk uninteresting or even discomfiting are not likely to gain many hearers.

It may be that Christians have no intellectual leaders in our day because Christians do not want to be led by ideas. They prefer to be led by feelings, good feelings, feelings of wellbeing and optimism and fun, if only at the personal level. If Christian people do not want to think, they who sense a calling to help them do so are going to have a difficult time.

Dr. Jacobs concludes, “I think that, from the Fifties to the Seventies, American intellectuals as a group lost the ability to hear the music of religious thought and practice. And surely that happened at least in part because we Christian intellectuals ceased to play it for them.”

Is it possible that, as a community, evangelical Christians have lost their minds? Oh, not our ability to engage the world in a thoughtful manner, but our distinctive way of seeing the world, processing the information of the world, evaluating and choosing between ideas, and embracing those perspectives, convictions, and opinions which lead to decidedly Christian and Kingdom action?

The mind of Christ and of His Spirit, that is to say?

Of this, I think, there can be no doubt. As believers in Jesus Christ, we need to recover the understanding that, as John Stott put it in 1973, Your Mind Matters. Without a mind set on Christ (Col. 3.1-3), grounded in God’s Word (Rom. 8.5-9), devoted to loving God and neighbors (Matt. 22.34-40), and committed to bringing the knowledge of the glory of God to light in every area of life (1 Cor. 10.31; Hab. 2.14), we can expect to see our Christian ranks in this society continue to shrink, our influence continue to decline, and our accommodation with the secular, materialist, and narcissistic spirit of the times more rapidly on the increase, with the end result being a near-total loss, not only of our Christian mind, but of our Christian presence as well.

Perhaps it’s time we began to take thinking as Christians rather more seriously?

For reflection
1.      Paul says we have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2.16). What difference should that make in the way we approach our lives?

2.      What does it mean to take ideas, opinions, worldviews, and the like captive, and make them obedient to Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 10.3-5)? In what ways does this feature in your walk with and work for the Lord?

3.      What can you do to help prevent the loss of a Christian mind and Christian presence in our country?

Next steps – Conversation: Talk with some Christian friends about your answers to the three questions “For reflection.” How might you together take up the challenge put forth in question 3?

T. M. Moore

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At The Fellowship
Have you identified your Personal Mission Field? Are you beginning to work it as a citizen and ambassador of the Kingdom of God? Watch the brief video at this link, then download the worksheet and get started working your Personal Mission Field today. Check out our new Mission Partners Outreach by watching this brief video.

ReVision: This week’s ReVision begins a series on The Parameters of Prayer. Let’s face it: We don’t pray as much as we should, and we don’t seem too troubled by that fact. Download the free PDF of this week’s series, The Promise of Prayer, and begin making prayer a more vital part of your walk with and work for the Lord.

Crosfigell: This week in our Crosfigell columnwe challenge you to reflect on the love of God and our Lord Jesus’ mandate to make disciples in our Personal Mission Fields. Helpful worksheets are offered for each of this week’s columns.

Scriptorium: Paul seeks to justify his ministry before an angry Jewish court, but he needs to be rescued by the Romans yet again. But Jesus is at work here, and He lets Paul in on His plan. Be sure to follow each day’s study in the book of Acts.

In the Gates: In our Saturday column we continue looking at what is involved in setting the Law of God firmly in our souls. We’re looking at the role of the conscience in that effort in this part of our series on “The Rule of Law” and at the importance of remembering and keeping the Lord’s Day in order to exercise our souls for holiness.

Voices Together: John Nunnikhoven’s daily meditations can help you in the practical work of prayer and obedience.

In the Bookstore: Order a copy of The Poetry of Prayer from our bookstoreto go along with our new ReVision series of studies on prayer.

Videos: Finally, check out the state of your Christian worldview by watching the video and downloading the Personal Discipleship Inventory, a tool for evaluating your worldview and growing in Kingdom vision, disciplines, and outcomes.

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