Framing and Painting:
Christian Theology among Academic Disciplines

Westmont College Monroe Scholars' Weekend
February 7, 2015
Telford Work, Religious Studies

Exercise. Lesson: Ephesians 3:7-12.

I. Some Models of Relating Various Disciplines, Including Theology

Domination:

Warfare: Disciplines strictly compete for legitimacy (Fundamentalist Christianity v. psychology and evolutionary biology; 'the New Atheists' v. theology).
Imperialism: One field governs the others as a castle governs a realm (ecclesiasticism; secularism).
Reductionism: A discipline is a local dialect of a universal language (Gordon Kaufman, E.O. Wilson).
Fusion: Disciplinary boundaries become trivial or dissolve in some visionary's grand synthesis ('cultural studies').

Detente:

Fragmentation: A DMZ, compartmentalizing and neglecting what is outside one's disciplinary territory (Stephen Jay Gould's 'non-overlapping magisteria').
Collaboration: Disciplines work together ad hoc for reasons of their own.

Domestication:

Sphere sovereignty: Disciplines are coherent but autonomous, with different domains (Abraham Kuyper and Dutch 'pillarization').
Pragmatism: Fields are appropriated eclectically, for some purpose marginal to all (Constantinianism, HERI survey of students' goals, Franklin Pierce College).
Cynicism: Anti-intellectualism, uncritical skepticism, apathy towards all fields of learning (Homer Simpson, Kymer Rouge).

A sub-text: Power relationships proliferate,

with no stable outcome and no particular pattern.

II. Two Kinds of Knowledge

general revelation (e.g., 1 Kings 4:29-33)	special revelation (e.g., Jonah 1:1-2)
e.g., Solomon's ordinary discoverable knowledge	e.g., Jonah's received apocalyptic knowledge

Education in these disciplines forms good judgment, awakens receptivity to wisdom,
and qualifies practitioners for spiritual discernment (Matt 12:42).

III. 'Lesser' and 'Greater' Knowledge

"Something greater than" both arrives with Jesus (Matt 12:41):

"The signs of the times" (Matt 16:1-3) display the Kingdom's in-breaking on the missional frontiers of both kinds of knowledge.
Failures to discern are due to the inadequacy of disciples, not their disciplines (Matt 16:4).

So: The Kingdom of God is an obscure framework, of the eschatologically new becoming present in the realms of the old.

the old:	the new:
'lesser': penultimate	'greater': ultimate
blatant; familiar	obscure and mysterious; news
indirect rule through natural/social powers (Matt 12:22-24)	God's direct Kingdom rule (Matt 12:28-32)
consistent? formative; 'wisdom'	surprising? transformative; 'foolishness'
Academic fields, including religion, 'paint' or 'flesh out' whatever they are suited to exploring.	Christian theology 'frames' other disciplines in faithful discernment of the Kingdom of God.

Righteous power relationships among the disciplines resemble Ephesians 5:21's 'mutual submission.'
Ephesians 3:7-12 describes Paul's evangelizing of "the boundless riches of Christ."

IV. Implications of Relating the Disciplines

Jesus, Matthew, and Paul see the connections we develop among disciplines definitively shaping persons and generations.

How are these fields and relationships envisioned in a given setting (whether Christian or secular)?

How might your setting be shaping you and your community

as learners?
as disciples?
as church members?

Some autobiographical answers:

interdisciplinary 'prayerful theology',
science and the Spirit,
moral/spiritual theology and social sciences and scientific professions,
ethics and literature/arts.

A question for you: Which schools, faculties, curricula, and student bodies are healthy contexts for your collegiate formation and transformation?