Academic & Spiritual Disciplines in Augustine's "Confessions"

Augustine’s Confessions consists in a blend of honest personal narrative, serious intellectual inquiry, and heartfelt devotional prayer. From the first to the last line of this classic work, he addresses himself to God. The entire book, in which Augustine tells the story of his conversion to Christ and engages in profound and extensive theological and philosophical reflection, takes the form of a prayer to his Lord. Augustine believed the study of academic disciplines can be regularly, deliberately, and explicitly combined with the practice of the spiritual discipline of prayer. As a result, both his mind and his heart are transformed.

Why Bodies are Good Things

Though we can survive without our bodies, we cannot thrive in a disembodied state. Assuming we can have memories without brains, we can think as mere minds or souls and we can pray, but we cannot sense and we cannot perform actions that require a physical means; we are unable to see without eyes and we need legs in order to dance. Though bodiless communication with other humans might be possible through telepathy, we would not be able to see, hear, or embrace each other. In sum, without bodies we would be crippled. Embodiment is a wonderful gift from God.

Organizing the Library

In Reading the Map of Knowledge: The Art of Being a Librarian, Peter Briscoe provides an “epistemically dynamic” way of representing a library’s collection. He recommends conceiving of it as organized into four concentric rings. At the center is the Index, which consists of works such as catalogs that identify and locate other works. Next is the Encyclopedia, which is comprised by reference works that summarize other works. The Canon is next. It is made up of the works that contain the current state of knowledge. The outer and largest ring is the Archive, which includes all the other works.

Avoiding Economic Extremes

One of the claims for which Daniel Altman argues in Outrageous Fortunes is that neither a purely capitalist nor a completely communist economic system is sustainable in the long term. Among other problems, unrestricted capitalism tends to result in market failures that create inequality and in opportunities taken by people with more resources rather than by people with more talent. And uncompromised communism tends to fail due to isolation from wider markets and the difficulty of central planning. What is needed is an appropriate balance between control and regulation on the one hand and freedom and privatization on the other.

Stewarding Our Sexuality

In Homosexuality and the Christian, Mark Yarhouse advocates that Christians “steward” their sexuality. Just as we don’t own our money or other "possessions," we aren’t the owners of our bodies (First Corinthians 6:19-20). Instead, God owns these things and he has entrusted them to us to use them wisely for his purposes. Stewarding our sexuality means behaving sexually in ways that serve others, further God’s Kingdom, and bring honor and glory to God. Both Christians who struggle with a homosexual orientation and unmarried heterosexual Christians have a special burden to bear in this area. For them, sexual stewardship means celibacy.

Apologetics & Anthropology

Dave Tetrick, a former student of mine who is with the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso, told me he values his Westmont education now because of how it has enabled him to learn how to understand those he has been called to serve. He said his philosophy course on “The New Atheists” provided an opportunity to understand and appreciate those with whom he doesn’t agree. When I discuss the New Atheists with students, my emphasis is on an apologetical defense of belief in God. What Dave told me convinces me that an “anthropological” understanding of unbelievers would also be valuable.

Getting the Hay to the Goats

In a recent talk to Presbyterian ministers, John Ortberg borrowed Garrison Keillor’s criticism of a Lake Woebegone minister whose sermons did not “put the hay where the goats could get it.” Ortberg said many Christian churches know how to reach the “goats” but don’t have any “hay” for them and many other churches have the “hay” but don’t know how to reach the “goats.” He put his Presbyterian denomination in the latter category and urged his audience to look for a movement of God’s Spirit that would enable their church to equip disciples to be effective teachers of the nations.

Knowing a God Who is Worthy of Worship

Recently I attended a talk by philosopher Paul Moser about his latest book, The Evidence for God: Religious Knowledge Reexamined. In this book he argues that traditional philosophical arguments for God’s existence (ontological, cosmological, teleological) fail to justify belief in a God who is worthy of worship. He contends that we acquire adequate reasons to believe in such a God by means of an ongoing experience of interacting personally with God as God discloses himself to us and we submit our wills to his transforming love. Moser says we can know God only as participants and not as mere spectators.

Work: Job, Career, or Vocation?

How should we think about our work? At the “microscopic” level, it is a series of actions ordered to a particular end. This definition applies to the simple tasks we perform during our workday. But these tasks add up to a project and a series of projects can constitute a job. We think of a job primarily as a means of making money. When a job is a career, we consider it as a more permanent and more meaningful mode of employment. But when our career becomes a means of fulfilling our vocation, it becomes a way to serve God.

Non-Rational Atheism

Carl Sagan created a TV series about the universe entitled “Cosmos.” He later wrote a book with the same title based on the series. The premise of both the TV show and the book is Sagan’s pronouncement that “The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.” The unmistakable implication of this quasi-religious slogan is that there is no supernatural God. The book Cosmology: A Very Short Introduction begins with a similar presumption. The author defines “cosmology” as the study of everything but he never mentions God. In both cases, atheism is simply presupposed without argument.

Idolatry and Salvation

Idolatry involves putting something that is not God in the place of God. An alternative god is whatever we value most. Since we tend to esteem most what we believe will satisfy us best, our idols are those non-God things we turn to most often for fulfillment. And our fulfillment requires not only getting more of what we need but also getting rid of what prevents us from wholeness. If we are unable to free ourselves from such obstacles, we need a savior. So idolaters will usually seek salvation apart from God. But salvation is found only in Jesus Christ.

Magisterial vs. Ministerial Uses of Reason

Martin Luther said human reason should be “ministerial” rather than “magisterial” in its theological uses. A magisterial use of reason in theology would involve employing it like a magistrate standing in judgment over the Christian gospel to determine whether or not it is true apart from dependence on the Bible and the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, human reason is ministerial when it is guided by and in service of God’s wisdom (made available to us in his Word and through his Spirit). So for Luther, as for Aquinas, theology is the queen and philosophy is the queen’s handmaiden.

Science as Religion

The “New Atheists” (Harris, Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens, and others) think religious believers are irrational and religion is dangerous. They contend we would be better off without it. What do they recommend instead? Harris proposes a science-based spirituality of meditation, Dawkins extols empowerment from scientific knowledge of the natural world, Dennett affirms a sense of humble selflessness caused by awareness of the universe’s complexity, and Hitchens values unrestricted scientific inquiry leading to human enlightenment and liberation. Clearly, each of them desires an experience of transcendence through science. It appears that rather than replacing religion with science they are making science religion.

Multiversities & Christian Liberal Arts Colleges

In The Uses of the University, former University of California president Clark Kerr wrote that though the university started as a single community, the large American university had become instead (in 1963) a collection of communities. He also claimed that the liberal arts student-centered university Newman promoted (in The Idea of a University in 1873) had been replaced by the science-based research-oriented university described by Flexnor as “The Idea of a Modern University” (in 1930). Kerr believed all these models had been superseded in his day by what he called a “multiversity.” But there are still Christian liberal arts colleges.

Home is Where the Lord Is

In In the House of the Lord, Henri Nouwen writes, “Prayer is the most concrete way to make our home in God.” The more we practice the discipline of prayer, the more we experience our home as being in God and with God. If we pray regularly and deeply we will never really be homeless, and we will always be at home wherever we are. This ubiquity of our divine home is due, not only to God’s omnipresence, but also to God’s Son, Immanuel, having pitched his tent with us and having prepared an eternal place for us with God.

Conservatives, Liberals, & Demonization

In The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion, Jonathan Haidt discusses how conservatives and liberals in the U.S. have become polarized – to the detriment of the common good. He says his social psychological research shows both groups sacralize different values (conservatives personal responsibility and liberals compassion for others) and so are at odds over taxation for welfare. And because politics has thus become religion, the groups demonize rather than try to understand and work with each other. Haidt hopes we can eventually adopt norms discouraging demonization just as we came to disapprove of sexual harassment.

How Did God Create?

All Christians agree God created the universe and everything in it. So all Christians are “Creationists” in a broad sense. But Christians disagree about how God created. At one extreme, Young Earth Creationists believe God created the universe, life, and every species directly and supernaturally. At the other extreme, Theistic Evolutionists (or better, “Evolutionary Creationists”) believe God created all these things indirectly and naturally. Old Earth Creationists think God created the universe by means of a natural process (the “Big Bang”) but humans by means of a supernatural process (special creation). The Bible won’t settle this debate; only science can.

Jesus Feeds 9000

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus feeds two large groups, first 5000 (chapter 6) and then 4000 (chapter 8). Plausibly, the first represents Jesus' provision for the Jews and the second his caring for the Gentiles (in chapter 7 he moves into Gentile territory). Together, these feedings symbolize God's salvation in Christ for all humanity. ‘5’ in 5000 could represent the Old Covenant people (think Pentateuch) and ‘4’ in 4000 the rest of humanity (think four corners of the earth). Multiples of 1000 signify the comprehensive nature of Jesus' work on behalf of these two groups (and thus all people).

Production and Reproduction

In Aristotle for Everybody, Adler says we don’t talk about producing or creating when we discuss childbirth. Instead, we speak of reproducing and procreating. So though people who have sex to have children are deliberately doing something for a purpose, they aren’t making or producing something together but instead procreating and reproducing. Hence, sex for conception is not a productive art. Is it a cooperative art (analogous to farming)? It seems not. The contribution of the couple to the outcome is minimal compared to the natural process involved. Successful farming requires more skill and more intervention than successful procreating does.