Nathan Murillo
Dr. Myers
Honors Critical Skills L18
28 September 2018
Created For Community
In Genesis 1:27 it says “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created them, male and female He created them.” Redundant perhaps, but with such great meaning that the importance of this verse cannot be overstated. Humanity was created in the image of God. Not as demigods, or as small pets for the amusement of a higher power, but rather, we are made “according to His likeness” (Genesis 1:26 HCSV). From the beginning we were made in the image of the almighty, omniscient, omnipresent Lord of the Universe. With this, certain traits were born into mankind. As Adam and Eve walked in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day with God, one of the foundational reasons for the creation of mankind was born: man was created for community. The fall of man caused a rift between man and God that mankind today longs to fill. It is ingrained within the very molecules of the mind of man to wish to become close to God once more. The Christian intellectual tradition is the concept Christ followers have formed to educate themselves in order to attempt to recreate the community man was made for with the omniscient God.
It cannot be overstated, however, that the Christian intellectual tradition is not an innate lust for knowledge. It is an ordered state of acquiring greater knowledge in the pursuit of the glory of God, and, fundamentally, attempting in some fashion to restore the perfect relationship prior to the fall of man. As “Learning in Wartime” states it, “all our merely natural activities will be accepted, if they are offered to God, even the humblest, and all of them, even the noblest, will be sinful if they are not” (Lewis 6). It cannot be clearer, then, that thirst for knowledge is not by nature holy, but rather, the motivation behind such accumulation is holy. This is, of course, the result of the longing for community with God that is ingrained in all mankind. Much like dominos falling one after the other, the desire for community leads to a longing to learn to be as the omniscient One. This results in the construction of education within society, which then leads to the learning about the world, which in turn, as Augustine mentions, glorifies God. Every part of the concept that creates education begins and ends with God.
Beyond community with the Almighty, the Christian intellectual tradition shows even greater evidence of being the result of this fundamental reason for creation by the very nature that education takes in society, which has no better example than the university. “A university is a society for the pursuit of learning” (Lewis 1). This “society” in pursuit of learning has been with the same basic structure since the dawn of its creation. The teacher, well learned in a certain field, teaches a student or students about that specific field in order to increase their knowledge. From Plato and Aristotle to Obi-wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, the concept of the more learned teaching the less learned is the basis of all education. This relationship boils down to a fundamental bond: community. The community between teacher and student or students is a byproduct of the idea of education, but, be it secular or biblically based education, community does arise. The university is the worldly replacement for the lack of intimate community with God.This can only be because education is the concept that man has created to attempt to become closer to God, and this is reinforced by the Christian intellectual tradition.
It is important to note that despite the “teacher-student” relationship that exists within any community of education, to call this relationship a “master-student” relationship would be a misnomer, given that no human can every truly master a discipline. Despite the human nature to desire to be like God in knowing and understanding as much as can be acquired, it is impossible for humanity, limited by the constrains of mortality and sin, know even a fraction of what God knows. No matter how long one may study and research, there is still more to learn. Science is the prime example of this. In the early 1900’s, physicists declared that there was no more to learn, that the atom was the smallest possible particle, and that science was better off simply studying what had already been discovered. Even in saying there was no more to discover, to suggest that what had already been discovered was not fully understood. However, a century later, scientists around the globe have gone even further beyond, to subatomic particles, to quarks, to Higgs particle (Millikan 5). No matter what man may claim, there cannot be a full grasp of the information of creation. Thus, there will never be a “master” only a teacher, one who is still studying and learning.
Even further beyond the community created between teacher and student is the community created by education itself. This is evidenced at any university campus in the world. School pride oozes from the pores of the university, students chant, scream, and cheer that their specific university is the greatest. Great rivalries erupt between schools claiming to be better than the other. The community found through the unity of education is unmatched, and for good reason. The Christian intellectual tradition of learning for the glory of God unites Christ followers under a single banner, following the fundamental reason for creation. It is beyond human ability to suggest that God desired community with lesser beings, but it cannot be denied that this was the great product of the creation of mankind. This great circle of the Christian life, beginning with community with man, moving to education, in conjunction with the tradition of Christian thinking, to the praising of God through learning, and finally back to community with God is the ultimate goal of the true Christ follower.
The great underlying truth to education spawning from community with God is that knowledge without godliness and biblical foundation is useless. Despite such positive effects of education, the truly good products only come from the motivation to praise God, something that society as a whole in current age has pushed to the back of its collective mind. “Divorced from the biblical narrative, a purely abstract knowledge becomes not only self-referential but also self-defeating, fatuous, and sterile” (Dockery & George 62). Without God, there is no reason to study, no reason to learn, no point to placing any effort in increasing one’s knowledge because there is hypothetically no void in a man’s heart from the lack of true community with God. It is for this reason that students who lack the desire to praise God with their learning also lack a fundamental purpose. There is little understanding of the true purpose of education, to repair the rift that was created when sin entered the world, to praise God in the study of His creation, and to have community with the Almighty. There is only, in the society of the modern age, the desire of the flesh, of money, to live in comfort here on earth while giving no thought to what should happen after death. It is the unfortunate reality that too many of the more brilliant minds of the world are lost to the things of the world, and not to study for the glory of God.
It is, without doubt, the most difficult conflict within the Christian intellectual tradition to balance the challenge of Christ to spread the good news of salvation with the learning and deeper understanding that comes from education. As C.S. Lewis says “but to a Christian the true tragedy of Nero must be not the he fiddled while the city was on fire but that he fiddled on the brink of hell” (Lewis 1). It is much the same for Christian scholars. The balance lies in understanding the purposes behind study, behind the search for understanding. Augustine is a model of such balance. Well read, studied, and saturated in knowledge, the principals he came up with or better articulated concerning spirituality and salvation are still being studied today, firmly identifying him as the model of the balanced Christian lifestyle. It is the responsibility of those who study in accordance to the Christian intellectual tradition to spread the knowledge that is acquired and the understanding that is formed about God in order to honor the Great Commission found in
Matthew 28:19-20. Here again, the community of education is of vital importance in the spreading of the gospel. As stated previously, no man can know all that there is to know. It is the responsibility of the community to share the good news in relation to all disciplines, to all walks of life. An English professor is not often well versed in physics, nor a nursing professor an expert in philosophy. It is the nature of the community of Christ followers that all must use the knowledge that the individual has learned in order to further the kingdom of God. It is in this that the balance of learning and faith is struck.
In this balance, however, there is an internal conflict of relying on learned knowledge instead of faith, instead of allowing them to be compatible, as they are meant to be. “What is wrong with us? What is this that you have heard? Uneducated people are rising up and capturing heaven and we with our high culture without any heart-see where we roll in the mud of flesh and blood” (Augustine 146). Without the faith backing the search for knowledge, education is pointless. Augustine argues this point in a most vehement way, saying that the uneducated capture heaven while those with education and learning lie on the earth in separation from God. This, of course, is a cultural issue of Augustine’s time, where only the rich had time to learn, and thus were the educated. In Augustine’s eyes, this harkened back to Mark 10:23, where Jesus Himself states “How hard it is for hose who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.” While this is less applicable in the sense of rich and poor in the modern age, it is very much applicable in the sense of the supremely educated person against the less educated person. This is not to say that those with a more intense education cannot enter the kingdom of God, but to say that it is vital to those who strive to educated themselves to be based in the knowledge of Christ. Those who do not have such high education are by nature more inclined to land upon a much firmer faith, while those who are of great knowledge are often more inclined to trust in their own understanding rather than faith, and as a result, not fully trust in God. Proverbs 3:5 fully supports this concept, saying “trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” It is an unfortunate result of great knowledge that pride in the mind takes root, and often causes man to have little faith in all but himself. This is not to say that the knowledgable man has no hope, but rather to say that faith is all the more important when one strives to be educated. In this, the community of education is the support to each member, pressing along toward the goal of praising God through acquiring wisdom.
Here, an importance distinction must be made. Knowledge and wisdom are not at all the same thing, despite the connotation of society often making them as such. Knowledge, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as, “the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association." Wisdom, in contrast, is “ability to discern inner qualities and relationships.” By looking at the definitions, the distinction is clear. Knowledge is simply acquiring what is known about a subject. Wisdom is the ability to apply knowledge into situations that one encounters. In the case of the Christian intellectual tradition, the use of wisdom is being able to put the knowledge learned into use by spreading the good news of salvation. Let it never be mistaken, knowledge can be passed from generation to generation by man, but wisdom can only by granted by the all-knowing God.
Of greatest importance to mankind is not the nature of why someone should acquire knowledge and education, but rather who should study. The answer is perfectly clear. All believers and followers of Christ Jesus should put all possible effort into educating themselves in order to better understand the Word of God, to better understand the creation of the universe, and to become closer to regaining the community lost in the Garden of Eden. It is not only for people of 165 intelligence quotient or with the title “Doctor” in front of their name, but an invitation to all. Be it a bricklayer or a quantum physicist, all are fallen, and all search to regain the community with God. Education is for all men. Ironically, it is Plato that says it best, saying “Come then, and let us pass a leisure hour in storytelling, and our story shall be the education of our heroes” (The Republic). While Platonic teaching has many things contradictory to the teachings of the Bible, this statement is true in all cases, biblical or heretical. Education is simply leisure, a rest from the work that man must do. It is here where all is tied together. As God curses Adam after the fall of man, He says in Genesis 3:17 “The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by the means of painful labor.” Education is a means of rest from the toil that man must do to survive. At the same time, it is education that creates community, both with fellow man and with God. As a result, what became rest from the toil of work as a result of sin is a means of becoming closer to our creator.
Despite sin separating humanity from the all-knowing God, the traditions of intellectual pursuit created by followers of Christ throughout history serve as the bridge to once again create the community that is lacking from the lives of men. By combining faith and education, man can once again form the community that Adam had with God in the Garden of Eden. The Christian intellectual tradition is the outline for the true way to seek understanding, with the motivation of praising the King of All through knowledge of creation and wisdom acquired through the pursuit of godliness.