the calling of christian postgraduate students and academics ard louis g

The Calling of Christian

Postgraduate Students and

Academics

Ard Louiswww.oxfordchristianmin

d.org

Biological self-assembly

http://www.npn.jst.go.jp/ Keiichi Namba, Osaka

• Biological systems self-assemble and evolve (they make themselves)

• Can we understand?• Can we emulate? (Nanotechnology)

Self-assembly with legos?

Science is fun!

Physics and biological complexity

We share 15% of our genes with E. coli

“ “ 25% “ “ “ “ yeast

“ “ 50% “ “ “ “ flies

“ “ 70% “ “ “ “ frogs

“ “ 98% “ “ “ “ chimps

what makes us different?

Ard Louis research group at play

Molecular gastronomy dinner

OUTLINE

Academic pursuits as a Godly vocation?• Could God call you to the life of the mind?

The scandal of the evangelical mind?

Odium theologicum and other pitfalls

Academic pursuits as a Godly vocation?• Could God call you to the life of the mind?

The scandal of the evangelical mind?

Odium theologicum and other pitfalls

Christ as creator and sustainer

• 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Col 1:15-20

• 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Col 1:15-20

no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: 'Mine!

Abraham Kuyper(1837-1920)

Christian vocation

Christian vocation (Ephesians 4:1) “Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called” (Eph. 4:1). The entire life of the Christian—not just on Sunday and not just church life—is a divine vocation, a response to God’s call to follow Christ. In a world where all things hold together in Christ, Christians offer every part of their lives—their time, their work, their giftedness, their creativity, their wealth, their recreation—to God as an offering of thanksgiving and obedience

“Being Reformed” – Calvin College

Christian vocation (Ephesians 4:1) “Lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called” (Eph. 4:1). The entire life of the Christian—not just on Sunday and not just church life—is a divine vocation, a response to God’s call to follow Christ. In a world where all things hold together in Christ, Christians offer every part of their lives—their time, their work, their giftedness, their creativity, their wealth, their recreation—to God as an offering of thanksgiving and obedience

“Being Reformed” – Calvin College

All your mind

• ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’.

Mark 12

• Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12

• ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’.

Mark 12

• Do not be conformed any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12

-- see D. Hay “On being a Christian Academic”, available on www.oxfordchristianmind.org-- see D. Hay “On being a Christian Academic”, available on www.oxfordchristianmind.org

The point is to praise God with the mind

“The point of Christian scholarship is not recognition by standards established in the wider culture. The point is to praise God with the mind. Such efforts will lead to a kind of intellectual integrity that sometimes receives recognition. But for the Christian that recognition is only a fairly inconsequential by-product. The real point is valuing what God has made, believing that the creation is as 'good' as he said it was, and exploring the fullest dimensions of what it meant for the Son of God to 'become flesh and dwell among us.' Ultimately, intellectual work of this sort is its own reward, because it is focused on the only One whose recognition is important, the One before whom all hearts are open.” 

“The point of Christian scholarship is not recognition by standards established in the wider culture. The point is to praise God with the mind. Such efforts will lead to a kind of intellectual integrity that sometimes receives recognition. But for the Christian that recognition is only a fairly inconsequential by-product. The real point is valuing what God has made, believing that the creation is as 'good' as he said it was, and exploring the fullest dimensions of what it meant for the Son of God to 'become flesh and dwell among us.' Ultimately, intellectual work of this sort is its own reward, because it is focused on the only One whose recognition is important, the One before whom all hearts are open.” 1994

Academic pursuits as a Godly vocation?

• Could you be called to a life of the mind?• Now!• Longer term?

• If you were given a choice between a job in Christian ministry or and academic job, what would you do? & why?

• Could you be called to a life of the mind?• Now!• Longer term?

• If you were given a choice between a job in Christian ministry or and academic job, what would you do? & why?

Language about the future

• “All our language about the future … is like a set of signposts pointing into a bright mist.”

• This brings us back to I Cor 15:58 once more: what you do in the Lord is not in vain. You are not oiling the wheels of a machine that’s about to roll over a cliff… You are – strange as it may seem.. – accomplishing everything that will become in due course part of God’s kingdom. Every act of love, gratitude, and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation; …… all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation that God will one day make. That is the logic of the mission of God. N.T. Wright, SBH, p 208

• “All our language about the future … is like a set of signposts pointing into a bright mist.”

• This brings us back to I Cor 15:58 once more: what you do in the Lord is not in vain. You are not oiling the wheels of a machine that’s about to roll over a cliff… You are – strange as it may seem.. – accomplishing everything that will become in due course part of God’s kingdom. Every act of love, gratitude, and kindness; every work of art or music inspired by the love of God and delight in the beauty of his creation; …… all of this will find its way, through the resurrecting power of God, into the new creation that God will one day make. That is the logic of the mission of God. N.T. Wright, SBH, p 208

Christian academic as a dual missionary

Unmasking IdolatryFor the church?For the world?

Seek the welfare of the university

• 4 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5….. 7 Also, seek the peace and prosperity [shalom] of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.

• Jeremiah 29:4-7

• “This is an admonition for the faithful to see themselves as a counter-culture for the common good.” says Tim Keller. In essence, it is an exhortation to work for the collective benefit of the culture around you, even if society’s norms and mores are as different from those of the faith community as they were for the Israelites living in Babylon – Michael Lindsay. “A MIGHTY FORTRESS: RELIGIOUS COMMITMENT AND LEADING FOR THE COMMON GOOD”

• Academic life as servanthood.• Exile? (are there other images you can think of?)

• How can we have constructive engagement to seek the Shalom of your field.

Why does the life of the mind matter?

• To honour God• To serve humanity and his creation• To serve the church

OUTLINE

• Academic pursuits as a Godly vocation?

• The scandal of the evangelical mind?• Cultural barriers to a life of the mind

• Odium theologicum and other pitfalls

• Academic pursuits as a Godly vocation?

• The scandal of the evangelical mind?• Cultural barriers to a life of the mind

• Odium theologicum and other pitfalls

Scandal of the Evangelical Mind?

• Taken together, …. evangelicals display many virtues and do many things well, but built-in barriers to careful and constructive thinking remain substantial.

• Taken together, …. evangelicals display many virtues and do many things well, but built-in barriers to careful and constructive thinking remain substantial.

1994

Not all doom and gloom:“The Opening of the Evangelical Mind” –P. Berger“Emerging Evangelical Intelligentsia Project”

Not all doom and gloom:“The Opening of the Evangelical Mind” –P. Berger“Emerging Evangelical Intelligentsia Project”

• These barriers include an immediatism that insists on action, decision, and even perfection right now, a populism that confuses winning supporters with mastering actually existing situations, an anti-traditionalism that privileges one’s own current judgments on biblical, theological, and ethical issues (however hastily formed) over insight from the past (however hard won and carefully stated), and a nearly gnostic dualism that rushes to spiritualize all manner of bodily, terrestrial, physical, and material realities (despite the origin and providential maintenance of these realities in God). In addition, we evangelicals as a rule still prefer to put our money into programs offering immediate results, whether evangelistic or humanitarian, instead of into institutions promoting intellectual development over the long term.

• These barriers include an immediatism that insists on action, decision, and even perfection right now, a populism that confuses winning supporters with mastering actually existing situations, an anti-traditionalism that privileges one’s own current judgments on biblical, theological, and ethical issues (however hastily formed) over insight from the past (however hard won and carefully stated), and a nearly gnostic dualism that rushes to spiritualize all manner of bodily, terrestrial, physical, and material realities (despite the origin and providential maintenance of these realities in God). In addition, we evangelicals as a rule still prefer to put our money into programs offering immediate results, whether evangelistic or humanitarian, instead of into institutions promoting intellectual development over the long term.

Scandal of the Evangelical Mind?

• a Scandal because "If evangelicals are the ones who insist most

aggressively that they believe in sola scriptura, and if evangelicals are the ones who assert most vigorously the transforming work of Jesus Christ, then it is reasonable to hope that what the Scriptures teach about the origin of creation in Christ, the sustaining of all things in Christ, and the dignity of all creation in Christ-about, in other words, the subjects of learning -- will be a spur for evangelicals to a deeper and richer intellectual life: "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:15-17)."

• a Scandal because "If evangelicals are the ones who insist most

aggressively that they believe in sola scriptura, and if evangelicals are the ones who assert most vigorously the transforming work of Jesus Christ, then it is reasonable to hope that what the Scriptures teach about the origin of creation in Christ, the sustaining of all things in Christ, and the dignity of all creation in Christ-about, in other words, the subjects of learning -- will be a spur for evangelicals to a deeper and richer intellectual life: "He is before all things, and in him all things hold together" (Colossians 1:15-17)."

Scandal of the Evangelical Mind

Scandal of the Evangelical Mind?

• What about the UK? or Europe? or Africa/Asia/South America?

• “Scandal” is really a description of popular thinking ....

• Barriers to thinking Christianly about science

• Immediatism • Anti-traditionalism• Populism• Gnostic dualism

• What about the UK? or Europe? or Africa/Asia/South America?

• “Scandal” is really a description of popular thinking ....

• Barriers to thinking Christianly about science

• Immediatism • Anti-traditionalism• Populism• Gnostic dualism

Immediatism: Newton and the planets

Immediatism: Leibnitz objects

“For, as Leibnitz objected, if God had to remedy the defects of his creation, this was surely to demean his craftmanship”

“For, as Leibnitz objected, if God had to remedy the defects of his creation, this was surely to demean his craftmanship”

Immediatism: Leibnitz objects

•And I hold, that when God works miracles, he does not do it in order to supply the wants of nature, but those of grace. Whoever thinks otherwise, must needs have a very mean notion of the wisdom and power of God”

•And I hold, that when God works miracles, he does not do it in order to supply the wants of nature, but those of grace. Whoever thinks otherwise, must needs have a very mean notion of the wisdom and power of God”

Immediatism:Laplace and Napoleon

• Mécanique Céleste (1799-1825)

• Napoleon: Why have you not mentioned the creator?

• Laplace: "Je n'avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là.”

• Mécanique Céleste (1799-1825)

• Napoleon: Why have you not mentioned the creator?

• Laplace: "Je n'avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là.”

Immediatism: Chaos and the planets

• Our understanding of the Solar System has been revolutionized over the past decade by the finding that the orbits of the planets are inherently chaotic. In extreme cases, chaotic motions can change the relative positions of the planets around stars, and even eject a planet from a system.

• The role of chaotic resonances in the Solar System, N. Murray and M. Holman, Nature 410, 773-779 (12 April 2001)

• Our understanding of the Solar System has been revolutionized over the past decade by the finding that the orbits of the planets are inherently chaotic. In extreme cases, chaotic motions can change the relative positions of the planets around stars, and even eject a planet from a system.

• The role of chaotic resonances in the Solar System, N. Murray and M. Holman, Nature 410, 773-779 (12 April 2001)

30 years of thinking?

http://www.oxfordchristianmind.org/2011/02/nigel-biggar-what-are-universities-for/

Nigel Biggar

Scandal of the Evangelical Mind?

• Immediatism • Anti-traditionalism

• that privileges one’s own current judgments on biblical, theological, and ethical issues (however hastily formed) over insight from the past (however hard won and carefully stated)

• Populism• Gnostic dualism

• Immediatism • Anti-traditionalism

• that privileges one’s own current judgments on biblical, theological, and ethical issues (however hastily formed) over insight from the past (however hard won and carefully stated)

• Populism• Gnostic dualism

Community of Scholars?

•When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.

• -- A. A. Milne, •“The House at Pooh Corner”

•When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.

• -- A. A. Milne, •“The House at Pooh Corner”

The fall, research & community of scholars

“what we find people like Boyle advocating is that we manipulate the natural world, that under special conditions we observe what’s going on, and it’s only under these contrived conditions that we actually see, or get insight into, the various processes. This involves communal observation, it involves accumulation of all sorts of observations under different conditions. Eventually, we come to some conditional conclusions on the basis of this long complicated experimental process. This is a radically new approach to observation.”

“... there is a fundamental difference between the Aristotelian assumption that our sensory and cognitive apparatus are designed in such a way that they’ll give us a veridical account of nature, and a Calvinist view that says our cognitive apparatus and our faculties of observation are fallen, imperfect, that they give us the wrong knowledge, they persistently mislead us, ...Peter Harrison (Cambridge 2005) http://www.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/cis/Harrison/Peter%20Harrison%20-%20index.htm

We see through a glass darkly (I Cor 13)

33

Community of Scholars

• The first principle is that you must not fool yourself--and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that. After you've not fooled yourself, it's easy not to fool other scientists. You just have to be honest in a conventional way after that. -- R.P. Feynman, “Cargo Cult Science” (1974)• http://www.physics.brocku.ca/etc/cargo_cult_science.html

• The first principle is that you must not fool yourself--and you are the easiest person to fool. So you have to be very careful about that. After you've not fooled yourself, it's easy not to fool other scientists. You just have to be honest in a conventional way after that. -- R.P. Feynman, “Cargo Cult Science” (1974)• http://www.physics.brocku.ca/etc/cargo_cult_science.html

Scandal of the Evangelical Mind?

• Immediatism • Anti-traditionalism• Populism

• that confuses winning supporters with mastering actually existing situations

• Gnostic dualism

• Immediatism • Anti-traditionalism• Populism

• that confuses winning supporters with mastering actually existing situations

• Gnostic dualism

Populism

• Who does the church turn to on multi-disciplinary issues like creation/evolution?• Some justified skepticism of Academia:

• One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.

• George Orwell, Notes on Nationalism – 1945

• A Magesterium?

• Obtaining reliable knowledge is hard

• Who does the church turn to on multi-disciplinary issues like creation/evolution?• Some justified skepticism of Academia:

• One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.

• George Orwell, Notes on Nationalism – 1945

• A Magesterium?

• Obtaining reliable knowledge is hard

OUTLINE

• Academic pursuits as a Godly vocation?

• The scandal of the evangelical mind?

• Odium theologicum and other pitfalls• Common traps we can fall into

• Academic pursuits as a Godly vocation?

• The scandal of the evangelical mind?

• Odium theologicum and other pitfalls• Common traps we can fall into

Potential personal pitfalls

• Pride• Isolation• Compromis

e

• Pride• Isolation• Compromis

e

Pride

• "Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” - 1 Peter 5:5

• It is possible -- and laymen have a very exact perception in regard to this -- that theology makes the young theologian vain and so kindles in him something like gnostic pride. The chief reason for this is that in us men truth and love are seldom combined.

--- Helmut Thielicke

• "Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” - 1 Peter 5:5

• It is possible -- and laymen have a very exact perception in regard to this -- that theology makes the young theologian vain and so kindles in him something like gnostic pride. The chief reason for this is that in us men truth and love are seldom combined.

--- Helmut Thielicke

Odium Theologicum

• Majoring in minors (odium theologicum), the pettiness of little men who care too much about big issues)

• “Exploring ideas” – abstractions• Talking about things that really matter

as if they don’t touch you

critical minds, not critical spirits

• Pride can lead to isolation

• Majoring in minors (odium theologicum), the pettiness of little men who care too much about big issues)

• “Exploring ideas” – abstractions• Talking about things that really matter

as if they don’t touch you

critical minds, not critical spirits

• Pride can lead to isolation

Isolation

• There is perhaps hardly a theological student who has not been earnestly and emphatically warned by some pious soul …. against casting himself into the arms of that omnivorous octopus, the unbelieving professor• Helmut Thielicke

• You may wonder why is what I do of any use? Others may wonder that too …..

• There is perhaps hardly a theological student who has not been earnestly and emphatically warned by some pious soul …. against casting himself into the arms of that omnivorous octopus, the unbelieving professor• Helmut Thielicke

• You may wonder why is what I do of any use? Others may wonder that too …..

Isolation

• Do not quit meeting together, as some people are in the habit of doing Instead, encourage one another even more, since you see the day coming closer. Hebrews 10:25

• Local spiritual community• Global intellectual community

• Do not quit meeting together, as some people are in the habit of doing Instead, encourage one another even more, since you see the day coming closer. Hebrews 10:25

• Local spiritual community• Global intellectual community

Isolation and Compromise• Warping epistemology into ontology

• Underlying presuppositions • Corrosive sub-disciplines• Unquestioned truisms

• Warping epistemology into ontology• Underlying presuppositions • Corrosive sub-disciplines• Unquestioned truisms

First, it isn't just in philosophy that we Christians are heavily influenced by the practice and procedures of our non-Christian peers. …The same holds for nearly any important contemporary intellectual discipline: history, literary and artistic criticism, musicology, and the sciences, both social and natural. In all of these areas there are ways of proceeding, pervasive assumptions about the nature of the discipline (for example, assumptions about the nature of science and its place in our intellectual economy), assumptions about how the discipline should be carried on and what a valuable or worthwhile contribution is like and so on; we imbibe these assumptions, if not with our mother's milk, at any rate in learning to pursue our disciplines. In all these areas we learn how to pursue our disciplines under the direction and influence of our peers.(Plantinga – Advice to Christian Philosophers)

Al Plantinga

Isolation and Compromise

Excellence and second hand arguments Some Christian and Islamic writers seem unwilling to examine deeply held beliefs,

presumably because they are afraid that this kind of thing is bad news for faith. Well, maybe it is -- for intellectually deficient and half-baked ideas. But it doesn’t need to be like this. There are intellectually robust forms of faith -- the kind of thing we find in writers such as Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, and C.S. Lewis. They weren’t afraid to think about their faith, and ask hard questions about its evidential basis, its internal consistency, or the adequacy of its theories

Alister McGrath in Finding Dawkins’ God, Blackwell (2004)

“Quickly, naturalists found themselves a mere bare majority, with many of the leading thinkers in the various disciplines of philosophy, ranging from philosophy of science (e.g., Van Fraassen) to epistemology (e.g., Moser), being theists. The predicament of naturalist philosophers is not just due to the influx of talented theists, but is due to the lack of counter-activity of naturalist philosophers themselves. God is not dead in academia; he returned to life in the late 1960s and is now alive and well in his last academic stronghold, philosophy departments.”

“The justification of most contemporary naturalist views is defeated by contemporary theist

arguments”• The Metaphilosophy of Naturalism, by Quentin Smith, Philo 4, vol 2 (2000)

• Compare this to Dawkins etc... The professional and popular debates are very different

Excellence and second hand arguments Some Christian and Islamic writers seem unwilling to examine deeply held beliefs,

presumably because they are afraid that this kind of thing is bad news for faith. Well, maybe it is -- for intellectually deficient and half-baked ideas. But it doesn’t need to be like this. There are intellectually robust forms of faith -- the kind of thing we find in writers such as Augustine of Hippo, Thomas Aquinas, and C.S. Lewis. They weren’t afraid to think about their faith, and ask hard questions about its evidential basis, its internal consistency, or the adequacy of its theories

Alister McGrath in Finding Dawkins’ God, Blackwell (2004)

“Quickly, naturalists found themselves a mere bare majority, with many of the leading thinkers in the various disciplines of philosophy, ranging from philosophy of science (e.g., Van Fraassen) to epistemology (e.g., Moser), being theists. The predicament of naturalist philosophers is not just due to the influx of talented theists, but is due to the lack of counter-activity of naturalist philosophers themselves. God is not dead in academia; he returned to life in the late 1960s and is now alive and well in his last academic stronghold, philosophy departments.”

“The justification of most contemporary naturalist views is defeated by contemporary theist

arguments”• The Metaphilosophy of Naturalism, by Quentin Smith, Philo 4, vol 2 (2000)

• Compare this to Dawkins etc... The professional and popular debates are very different

Compromise

• Self image and identity• How smart is X?

• e.g. internal academic hierarchies ….

• Where does my value come from?

• Conformity and rewards• Whatever you do, work at it with all

your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

• Colossians 3:23-24:

• Self image and identity• How smart is X?

• e.g. internal academic hierarchies ….

• Where does my value come from?

• Conformity and rewards• Whatever you do, work at it with all

your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

• Colossians 3:23-24:

OUTLINE

• Academic pursuits as a Godly vocation?

• The scandal of the evangelical mind?

• Odium theologicum and other pitfalls

• Academic pursuits as a Godly vocation?

• The scandal of the evangelical mind?

• Odium theologicum and other pitfalls