Friday, December 14, 2007
I Think It Is Called Discipleship
Douglas Groothuis laments the state of education today, and in so doing speaks wisdom:
Analogously, he also described precisely what is happening in the church as well - services offered and received instead of the discipleship it is meant to be.
Information can be commodified. It is just facts. But information is not transformative. We use information, it does not change us. I am sure we all know people that can tell us the doctrines of Christianity, but they are decidedly not Christian.
Knowledge is information that transforms. Knowledge is a part of us in a way that information cannot be. Knowledge guides our decision making instead of justifies is.
Wisdom is the result of our transformation. Wisdom is what we, as transformed people do, based on the knowledge we have gained.
The essential question is, how does information become knowledge? As Groothuis points out - it cannot happen in a vacuum. It takes other people. Gaining knowledge requires accountability, it requires interaction.
Christianity requires relationship.
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Personality is the fundamental fact of existence. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God" (John 1:1-2). God is a personal being; in fact, God is tri-personal without being three gods. This God breathed on the earth and created human beings in God's image and likeness, built for relationships with the Creator and the creation. Of course, the fall marred all of this by introducing a futile attempt to escape from God, resulting in the alienation from self, others, and nature. Nevertheless, "the Word became flesh and lived among us, full of grace and truth" (John 1:14), that human persons might be restored by the divine personhood of God, that the healing of relationships would break out everywhere, and truth be restored to the earth.In his post, Groothuis, an educator, is bemoaning the commodification of education, that a simple passing on of information and a meter of the receipt of that education has replaced genuine teaching.
This theological prologue should inform and inspire our educational endeavors: our learning, teaching, studying, and writing. Education is meant to bring restoration of persons by persons, whereby knowledge is communicated in life-shaping ways. [emphasis added]
Analogously, he also described precisely what is happening in the church as well - services offered and received instead of the discipleship it is meant to be.
Information can be commodified. It is just facts. But information is not transformative. We use information, it does not change us. I am sure we all know people that can tell us the doctrines of Christianity, but they are decidedly not Christian.
Knowledge is information that transforms. Knowledge is a part of us in a way that information cannot be. Knowledge guides our decision making instead of justifies is.
Wisdom is the result of our transformation. Wisdom is what we, as transformed people do, based on the knowledge we have gained.
The essential question is, how does information become knowledge? As Groothuis points out - it cannot happen in a vacuum. It takes other people. Gaining knowledge requires accountability, it requires interaction.
Christianity requires relationship.
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