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?
