Paradox and the Calling of the Christian Scholar

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1 A series of posts from Richard T. Hughes on Emerging Scholars Network blog ( post 1 Paradox and the Calling of the Christian Scholar I am delighted to introduce a new series today from Dr. Richard T. Hughes, Distinguished Professor of Religion and Director of the Sider Institute for Anabaptist, Pietist, and Wesleyan Studies at Messiah College. Tom spoke with Richard at the Forgiveness Conference at Elizabethtown College this past September, and he agreed to contribute this guest series for the New Year to offer advice to students or young faculty at the beginning of their academic careers. Some of the posts in this series, including the one below, are adapted from his book, The Vocation of a Christian Scholar: How Christian Faith Can Sustain the Life of the Mind (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005). Thank you, Dr. Hughes! ~ Mike I have a confession to make. I am not nearly so concerned to produce Christian scholarship as I am to make certain that I function as a scholar who is also a Christian, and a Christian who is also a scholar, whose scholarship is informed by my Christian commitments and whose Christian faith is enhanced by serious scholarship. Serving as a Christian Scholar In fact, it is not always clear to me what might qualify as Christian scholarship. But it is clear to me what it means to serve as a Christian scholar. Professor Paul Griffiths of the University of Chicago Divinity School 1 once remarked that [O]ne is a Christian scholar if one understands one s work to be based upon and framed by and always in the service of one s identity as a Christian. In the same vein, Madeleine L Engle once told a student who wished to become a Christian writer that [I]f she is truly and deeply a Christian, what she writes is going to be Christian, whether she mentions Jesus or not. And if she is not, in the most profound sense, Christian, then what she writes is not going to be Christian, no matter how many times she invokes the name of the Lord. The fundamental question implicit in both these quotes is that of vocation, for the question of vocation is finally a question of who we are, really, deep down inside the point at which we find our deepest meaning, our deepest gladness, and our deepest joy. And for this reason, the question of the vocation of the Christian scholar always takes 1

2 precedence over the question of Christian scholarship. The Paradox of the Christian Scholar The question of vocation is simply this: do we have an identity that stands at the core of our being, an identity that informs every other aspect of our lives and around which every other aspect of our lives can be integrated? But in the case of Christian scholars, the task of realizing our vocation is never easy, for those of us who are both Christians and scholars will inevitably live in the midst of a deep and inescapable paradox. As Christians, we are committed to a highly particularistic tradition. Yet, as scholars, we are also committed to a radical search for truth that simultaneously embraces particularity and ambiguity, knowing and not knowing, affirmation and investigation. We are called to honor our Christian faith, but we are also called to take seriously the diversity of perspectives that abound in the modern academy. It is not our job to trump those perspectives with our Christian convictions. Instead, we are called to engage those perspectives, really engage them, and bring them into dialogue with the Christian faith. It seems obvious, then, that if we seek to integrate every aspect of our lives around a core identity that stands at the center of our self-understanding, that core identity must itself be framed by a paradoxical vision. To make this point another way, the vocation of the Christian scholar must itself be built on paradox, simply because we cannot escape the paradox that frames our work and our calling. The Paradox of the Gospel The truth is, the Christian scholar can find the basis for a paradoxical self-understanding very near at hand since the notion of paradox stands at the core of the Christian message. We find paradox, for example, in the idea of the incarnation the infinite God of the universe who takes on the form of human flesh and who enters this world amidst cows and pigs in a lowly manger. And paradox literally defines the gospel we are inescapably sinners from first to last, but at the very same time, God calls us righteous, leading Luther to exclaim, simul justus et peccator! simultaneously justified and a sinner. And the notion of paradox runs through virtually all the teachings of Jesus. We must lose ourselves to find ourselves, he says. We must die in order to live. And we can only be first by being last. And so I close this brief reflection with a question: How can you, the reader, tap into the Christian gospel to frame your own sense of vocation, and can you do so in ways that are faithful to the gospel, on the one hand, and faithful to your calling as a scholar, on the other? 1. Now with Duke Divinity School. We highly recommend Griffiths essay on Christian scholarship From Curiosity to Studiousness: Catechizing the Appetite for Learning 2

3 in the recent collection Teaching and Christian Practices, ed. David I. Smith and James K. A. Smith. Ed. post 2 Can Christian Faith Sustain the Life of the Mind? We continue our guest series from Richard Hughes on the vocation of Christian scholars. The following post is adapted from Richard s book, The Vocation of a Christian Scholar: How Christian Faith Can Sustain the Life of the Mind (Eerdmans, 2005). In the first post of this series, I made the point that those of us who are both Christians and scholars will inevitably live in the midst of a deep and inescapable paradox. The paradox is this that as Christians, we are committed to a highly particularistic notion of truth while, as scholars, we are committed to the life of the mind which calls us to pursue truth wherever it may lead. So our question today is this: can Christians serve as serious scholars? Put another way, can Christian faith equip us for the life of the mind? Can Christian faith equip us to pursue truth wherever that pursuit may lead? And can Christian faith empower us to engage in a serious way a wide range of conversation partners, even when those partners hold positions that may threaten our most cherished beliefs? How we answer those questions depends upon two things: 1. How we understand the Christian faith, and 2. How we understand the nature of the biblical text. What About Christian Faith? From the outset, we must admit that Christian faith will invariably stand at odds with the life of the mind if we envision both our faith and the Bible in terms of absolutistic principles, sterile legal codes, or moral imperatives that require from us no reflection, no creativity, and no imagination. But dynamic Christian faith the kind of faith that can sustain the life of the mind requires us to embrace the theme of paradox that stands at the heart of the Christian gospel a theme we explored in the first post of this series. Dynamic Christian faith demands that we make connections connections that can open up dialogue between our faith and the world in which we live. And dynamic Christian faith requires that we ask about the meaning of our faith in relation to human culture. The crucial words and phrases in the previous paragraph are these connections, dialogue, and meaning in relation to. Those words and phrases are crucial since, if we hope to serve as faithful Christian scholars, we must ask, for example, about the meaning of God s sovereignty in relation to politics and education, about the meaning of God s love in relation to human relationships, about the meaning of God s wrath in relation to peace and justice, about the meaning of creation in relation to the environment, about the meaning of the cross in relation to materialism and poverty, and on and on we could go. 3

4 In a word, dynamic Christian faith requires that we learn to make connections and to think creatively about the meaning of what we believe. We call this kind of thinking, theology, and if we have any hope that Christian faith might sustain the life of the mind, every Christian scholar must learn to work as a theologian in his or her own right. Theological work, however, is not the same as Bible study. One can study the Bible simply to learn biblical facts and never embrace theological work at all. We do theology only when we begin to reflect creatively on the meaning of the biblical text. And it is only when we ask in creative and imaginative ways about the relation of the biblical message to the world in which we live it is only then that Christian faith can sustain the life of the mind. What About the Bible? In order to reflect creatively on the meaning of the biblical text, however, we must first be clear on what kind of book the Bible really is. If we conceive of the Bible as nothing more than a rule book, or a scientific manual, or a legal code, or a divinely-authored constitution whose contents we can master with sufficient diligence, then there is very little room for creative reflection on the meaning of the biblical text. In fact, there is very little room for interpretive work at all. For in this scenario, the Bible simply means what it says and says what it means with clarity and scientific precision. If we view the Bible in these terms, then we can only view as perverse those who disagree with our particular reading of the biblical text or those who disagree with our understanding of the world in which we live. Indeed, if we view the Bible in these terms, there can be no disciplined search for truth, for truth has already been defined. There can be no serious conversation with people who represent a diversity of cultural and religious perspectives, since we know in advance that people who hold perspectives different from our own have nothing to contribute to the conversation in any event. Critical thinking that discriminates between competing worldviews and perspectives is finally pointless since we have rejected competing worldviews and perspectives from the outset. And creativity falls by the wayside as well, since creativity is nurtured by imaginative inquiry, not by codified legal constraints. But the Bible is not primarily a rule book, a scientific manual, a legal code, or a divinelyauthored constitution. Rather, the Bible is chiefly a theological text, that is, a book whose subject is God. Accordingly, the Bible invites each of us to reflect on the meaning of that which transcends our understanding the infinite Lord of the universe. Precisely because the subject of the Bible the living God transcends our poor ability to understand, it calls on each of us to respond with wonder, creative imagination, and rational inquiry. Two points flow from this conception of the biblical text. First, if the Bible is, indeed, the sort of text we have described, then it must be obvious that the Bible requires interpretation and that no one can legitimately claim a corner on the market of God s truth. And second, if the Bible is a theological text a book about God it calls on every Christian to serve as a theologian, that is, one who thinks deeply about the meaning of God and the meaning of the Christian faith. What About Christian Scholars? Unfortunately, however, many Christian scholars have never learned to think theologically about the meaning of the Christian faith. Though highly educated in narrow specialties, many Christian scholars essentially remain at a Sunday school level of theological literacy. That is one reason why Christianity and the life of the mind so often seem at odds, even 4

5 at many Christian institutions of higher learning. And that is one reason why so many Christian scholars, even those who want to integrate Christian faith and scholarship in meaningful and productive ways, find it difficult to do so. The truth is, the successful integration of faith and learning demands a certain level of theological literacy and expertise. Otherwise, all our attempts to relate faith to learning will inevitably prove abortive. In our next two posts, we will consider how some of the great theological motifs in the Bible can both equip and liberate Christian scholars to embrace the life of the mind, to make important connections between their faith and the world in which they live, and to dialogue with those with whom they may disagree. As Christian scholars, we can aspire to nothing less. post 3 Why Christians Must Embrace the Life of the Mind In the second post of this series, I promised to consider some of the great biblical motifs that can both equip and liberate Christian scholars to embrace the life of the mind, to make important connections between their faith and the world in which they live, and to dialogue with those with whom they may disagree. I want to mention four great biblical themes that can help us achieve those objectives and, significantly, each of those four themes stands at the heart of the Christian gospel. God is Infinite The notion of an infinite God is perhaps the most important theme in the biblical text, for every other biblical motif builds on that proposition. But what do we mean when we speak of God as infinite? First, when we say that God is infinite, we confess that God simply defies my comprehension. This is why every adjective we might use to describe God is at best a poor approximation. If we say, for example, that God is good, we surely don t mean that God is good in the same way that human beings might be good, for God s goodness is infinite goodness. But infinite goodness is a quality we simply cannot understand. We are Finite Further, if we say that God is infinite, and if we confess that we cannot grasp what infinity might mean, we have thereby confessed the truth of the second great biblical theme that human beings are finite. 5

6 Simply put, my finitude means that I am constrained by extraordinary limitations limitations that God completely transcends. I am constrained, for example, by the time frame (e.g., 21st century), the geographical boundaries (e.g., the U.S.), and the cultural milieu in which I live. But finitude means something even more basic than that. Finitude means that I cannot consistently do what is right, in spite of my best intentions. And finitude means that I suffer in body, mind, and spirit, and eventually die. God, on the other hand, is subject to none of those constraints. So what do these twin propositions that God is infinite while we are finite have to do with the life of the mind? Just this that there is much that I do not know and much I do not comprehend. That, of course, is the message of the book of Job. These propositions form the foundation for the life of the mind, for my ignorance compels me to search for truth, even though I understand that, as a finite mortal, my understanding will never be complete. Justified by Grace But if God is God and I am not, what gives me the license to search for truth? Here I want to invoke the third great biblical truth justification by grace through faith. This profoundly biblical doctrine means that I am not justified before God by good works and by extension, by my knowledge or my comprehension but by God s good grace which I receive through faith. And the fact that I am justified by grace through faith frees me to search for truth, so long as I understand that my knowledge will always be partial and my comprehension inevitably incomplete. The Search for Truth Finally, if justification by grace through faith frees me to search for truth, there is one more component in the Christian gospel that requires me to search for truth. No passage in the biblical text states that component more clearly or more starkly than me to search for truth. No passage in the biblical text states that component more clearly or more starkly than I John 3:11 For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 1 John describes our love for others in terms of service Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. (3:18) But we cannot serve others unless we take them seriously as human beings people with their own unique stories, their own histories, their own cultures, and their own religious traditions. How can I serve children, for example, if I isolate myself from their presence? How can I serve 6

7 the poor if I am ignorant of who they are, where they come from, what they think, how they feel, and why they suffer from poverty s constraints? How can I prepare to serve people of other ethnic traditions or people in other parts of the world if I know nothing of their histories, their cultural traditions, and their religious commitments? The point is simply this: my finitude compels me to search for truth, God s grace frees me to search for truth, and God s command that I love others requires me to search for truth. For all these reasons, any claim that Christians cannot serve as serious scholars is based on misunderstandings of the Christian faith. Indeed, there can be no more compelling reason to take up the life of the mind than those great and powerful truths that stand at the heart of the Christian gospel. post 4 Lord, I Believe; Help Thou Mine Unbelief: The Meaning of Christian Scholarship Ever since I entered my doctoral program at the University of Iowa in 1967, I have committed myself to serious scholarship. That commitment is so central in my life that some might wonder if perhaps I have conformed my understanding of the Christian faith to the canons of good scholarship rather than the other way around. The truth is, I find myself in the happy position of believing that many of the values that are central to good scholarship are values that also lie at the heart of the Christian faith. Shared Values Take the theme of paradox, for example. Parker Palmer laments the fact that many scholars indeed, most Westerners in general tend to think the world apart into true/false, black/white, good/bad, or sacred/secular. On the other hand, Palmer suggests that serious scholars will hold profound truths in paradoxical tension, even when the pressure is great to think them apart. Happily, the notion of paradox also stands at the core of the Christian gospel a point I developed at some length in the first of these four posts. Or again, good scholarship takes seriously the meaning of human finitude and the reality of human limitations. Good scholars are therefore quick to confess that there is much that we misunderstand and much that we simply don t know. That is precisely why scholars must embrace the search for truth. 7

8 But this conviction, so central to good scholarship, is also fundamental to the Christian faith, since Christian faith proclaims that all men and women have fallen woefully short of the glory of the infinite God. Or again, good scholarship is scholarship placed in the service of humanity, not scholarship that is content to serve its own agenda. Of all people, Christian scholars should have no trouble embracing this understanding of scholarship since we have been taught to give ourselves for the neighbor just as God in Christ has given himself for us. And finally, good scholarship is skeptical scholarship. It raises questions and doubts the legitimacy of easy answers. Skeptical Scholarship Skepticism is a category we have not discussed in previous posts, and precisely at this point, many Christians may find a significant level of tension between scholarship and the Christian faith. After all, does not the Christian faith provide final answers to ultimate questions, answers that must be accepted and embraced? That, of course, is true. But we must also recall that our ability to comprehend final answers to ultimate questions is meager, indeed. That, too, is a fundamental teaching of biblical faith. Precisely for that reason, Christians must embrace doubt as a central dimension of belief. The Spanish philosopher Miguel De Unamuno perhaps put it best when he wrote that [T]hose who believe they believe in God, but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself. It is for this reason that I continue to find central to the task of scholarship the confession made to Jesus by the father of the demon-possessed son: Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. ( (Mark 9:24) This is perhaps the most important paradox that Christian scholars must embrace if they wish to be faithful to the life of the mind and faithful to their Christian convictions, and to honor both sides of this equation simultaneously. Indeed, Christian scholars must search diligently for truth and affirm with conviction those things that can be affirmed. But they must also allow the wonders and mysteries of the Christian faith to inspire doubt and, at certain levels, even skepticism. For skepticism and doubt breed questions, and without questions, there can be no life of the mind at all. Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. 8