A mind is a terrible thing to waste

Yesterday, Carla brought up some good points about intellectualism and anti-intellectualism. Her comments had some good points, too. As often happens with Carla and me, this was a topic I had been thinking about as well. It came to my mind when I heard someone say recently that a certain pastor of his acquaintance was “too educated.” I don’t know if this means that the individual felt that the pastor used words that were unclear, referred to issues and principles that were obscure to the average person, or what. All I know is that this person didn’t think that the pastor’s education really made a difference in his ability to preach God’s word effectively. This got me thinking about anti-intellectualism.

The word itself is made up of three words, anti, intellectual, and ism.

Anti is from Greek, meaning opposed to, against, preventing or opposite of. For all you science types, in the world of Physics, it means: “antiparticle of a specific particle.” Got that? We all recognize what anti means. It’s a well used word. Biblically speaking, it has a richer meaning. According to Zodihates, it means: “both equivalence and exchange, in our stead. Christ died anti, in our stead.” We see this prefix used with the word antichrist which means instead of or against.

Intellectual is the adjective form of intellect. Intellect is the faculty of reasoning, knowing and thinking, distinct from feeling. It is our understanding, our mental powers. Intellectual is that which relates to the intellect. It also means possessing a high level of understanding.

Ism is a suffix which has a few meanings. It can mean an action or result, as in baptism; it can mean a system, principle or ideological system such as feminism or Socialism; it can also mean a state or quality like heroism. It can mean a prejudice or discrimination against, like racism; a peculiarity in language, i.e. Canadianism. It can also mean a pathological condition like alchoholism. I guess we could apply many of these definitions to the word intellectualism, depending on who we are. There may be some who do think it is discriminatory to say that one is an intellectual. Some may see it as a pathological condition, or an ideology. I think those are all extreme views of the word.

According to the Oxford English Reference Dictionary, the word intellectualism means: “the exercise, esp. when excessive, of the intellect at the expense of emotion.”

That actually doesn’t sound entirelly good, does it? This definition uses words like “excessive” and “at the expense of.” It sounds, from this definition, as if intellectualism could very well be one of those pathological conditions. If the exercise of my intellect means I have to abandon my emotion then maybe I am an anti-intellectual, because putting that prefix before the word intellectualism means I am against that. I’m against mental exercise to the exclusion of emotion. I think a good mind recognizes that the mind and heart work together. Personally, I don’t think anyone can entirely separate himself from his emotions even in a very rational, academic exercise, like solving a Calculus problem (that anger and frustration and those tears I experienced over not understanding it in university is testimony to my inability to do so!). We are emotional creatures by nature; I think some are just better at dividing the mind and the heart.

Unfortunately, words are not always understood according to their dictionary definitions. Words and how we use them change over time. They are different according to who uses them. Today, in many Christian circles, anti-intellectualism seems to mean a suspicion of the pursuit of higher education. I would go so as far to say that many disdsain education outside the bounds of Christian institutions. I think that this aversion to higher learning comes from the trend in post-secondary institutions to adopt an entirely secular humanist worldview. In order to protect themselves from that worldview, many Christians simply shun those kinds of institutions, and blame the effects of that institution on the pursuit of higher learning in general. Rather than looking at the worldview of the school, some have tarred all higher learning with the same brush: intellectual pursuits rob you of your faith.

My husband experienced this in high school. As a young Christian man, he was told that if he pursued education in a scientific field, he would “lose his religion.” Not a nice thing to tell a young man who clearly had an affinity and desire to study science after high school. He opted for math. I recently shared with my husband that there is indeed a more “secular” way of looking at math. Our worldview affects every thing, even how we view disciplines in school.

While not all Christians need or want to pursue their education to the same extent, we are told in scripture that paying attention to our minds is necessary. Paul reminds us in Romans 12:1-2 to transform our minds. Some of the greatest minds were great men of God. Jonathon Edwards is reputed to have been an extremely brilliant man, and he was a passionate follower of God. Education of the common people grew out of the availability of the bible, and the Reformation principle that everyone should read the bible. People often learned to read using the Bible as their “textbook.” It was the one book many families owned. Today, however, as Christians struggle to find a way to live in the world without being of the world, there are those who don’t think that higher education contributes to an individual’s spiritual life. As long as we know the bible, can apply it to our lives, and make a living without tainting ourselves with too much education, we’re okay. However, as I have been discovering lately, the church of Jesus Christ will never have an impact on its culture if it doesn’t find the ability to address the culture in which it lives. That does not mean adopting its worldview. That’s the mistake I think some people make; they believe that being intellectual, pursuing the things of the mind, is tantamount to adopting it. Better to be a bricklayer and stay pure. I think that’s a flawed way of thinking. There’s nothing more interesting to me than meeting a bricklayer who likes to read Augustine or Calvin. Making a living with one’s hands does not exclude one from having a fabulous, keen mind. A rejection of “fancy book learnin’” doesn’t indicate that someone is more godly.

So, what do I think anti-intellectualism means? I think it means lots of things, but I think the over-riding thought behind it is that a strong, well-trained mind is not necessary for one to be a good Christian, and indeed, may be detrimental to being a good Christian. Faith is a matter of the heart, who needs the head, right? I’m of the opinion that if the Church is to have an influence on the world around us, we need to recognize the value of both.