Monday, June 25, 2007
Thinking
A while back, I wrote about information technology and the Christian experience. In that post I said:
Please recall that I said I had my deepest transformational experiences is a "sort of" absence of intellectual activity. Maybe it is not true for everybody, but I find it extremely difficult to separate my ego from my intellect. When I think about Jesus, it is just too easy to think about Him like I want Him to be as opposed to how He really is. To genuinely get to know Christ, I must put aside my thoughts of Him and simply see Him. That is a sort of intellectual activity, but it is very different from what is commonly referred to as "reason." I will admit we have wandered far from the classical understanding of reason, and were that classical definition even remotely functional in common discourse, we could talk about this differently, but alas.
The key is, I think, the difference between "discovering" and "finding." We find what we are looking for, we discover what we are not. The true nature of Christ cannot be found, it can only be discovered. Too often we treat the Christian life as an organized search when we should treat it as a mapless journey.
It is also important to note that the kind of tranformational experience I am discussing is not the totality of the Christian experience, it is but one aspect of it. It is the deepest experience, it is motivational, but there are some parts of the Christian experience that cannot be handled in this way.
For example, a stance of stem cell research is entirely a stance drawn from classical reason. That said; however, it is the kind of transformational experience I am discussing that first of all gives me the strength to hold the presumptions, or corrollaries, I hold for that exercise in reason and that gives me the energy to not just have the stance but to fight for it. I do not here propose with doing away with reason, but simply giving it a proper place. Reason and faith are not in opposition as is so often said, they are complimentary.
Related Tags: find, discover, intellect, faith, Jesus, Christianity, thinking
I don't think so, the transformation offered by Christ is a spiritual one at base. My closest encouters with Christ, and therefore definitionally the most transformative experiences I have had, have come when I was able to reach a sort of absence of intellectual activity.The resulted in some interesting comments from a friend of mine, the most pertinent of which is:
This would argue in favor of the transformation being intellectual. I would argue that a transformative spiritual experience in the absence of intellectual activity is a form of Modalism, which, in the end, denies the incarnation.I thought of all of this when I read this post at Reformation Theology called "Thoughts on Thinking". There is a lot in that post, but let me hit the highlights, with some added emphasis:
13. Therefore, the only way to eternal happiness is through the pursuit of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.That's a lot of set-up for just a couple of comments. First, happiness comes not through pursuing knowledge of Jesus Christ, but through pursuing Jesus Himself. I am not going to break that down just now because it should be come clear in my next point.
14. Christ may not be seen in his beauty by unaided human reason, any more than a traveler may walk to Mars with his feet. An outside helper is necessary for the seeking thinker.
15. God has provided the necessary outside help, first, by the scriptures which declare Christ; and second, by his Spirit who illumines the human mind. No one may find eternal happiness without these necessary means.
Please recall that I said I had my deepest transformational experiences is a "sort of" absence of intellectual activity. Maybe it is not true for everybody, but I find it extremely difficult to separate my ego from my intellect. When I think about Jesus, it is just too easy to think about Him like I want Him to be as opposed to how He really is. To genuinely get to know Christ, I must put aside my thoughts of Him and simply see Him. That is a sort of intellectual activity, but it is very different from what is commonly referred to as "reason." I will admit we have wandered far from the classical understanding of reason, and were that classical definition even remotely functional in common discourse, we could talk about this differently, but alas.
The key is, I think, the difference between "discovering" and "finding." We find what we are looking for, we discover what we are not. The true nature of Christ cannot be found, it can only be discovered. Too often we treat the Christian life as an organized search when we should treat it as a mapless journey.
It is also important to note that the kind of tranformational experience I am discussing is not the totality of the Christian experience, it is but one aspect of it. It is the deepest experience, it is motivational, but there are some parts of the Christian experience that cannot be handled in this way.
For example, a stance of stem cell research is entirely a stance drawn from classical reason. That said; however, it is the kind of transformational experience I am discussing that first of all gives me the strength to hold the presumptions, or corrollaries, I hold for that exercise in reason and that gives me the energy to not just have the stance but to fight for it. I do not here propose with doing away with reason, but simply giving it a proper place. Reason and faith are not in opposition as is so often said, they are complimentary.
Related Tags: find, discover, intellect, faith, Jesus, Christianity, thinking
