Graduate 113: Philosophy vs. Christianity
Occasionally I get asked what it's like being a Christian in a graduate philosophy program. Am I facing any opposition to my faith or values? Is the Church frequently a target of attack? Is it hard to be studying and immersed in so many philosophical ideas, outlooks, and ideologies that are contrary and opposed to Christianity?
They are good questions--important questions that need to be taken seriously. Reflection and introspection are very much appropriate, as it is easy to just get swept along by the coursework and lose sight of how it's really affecting me.
But as I think about it, to those who have asked, I might want to ask these questions:
What's it like being a Christian in the place that you live and work? Are you facing any opposition to your faith or values? Is the Church frequently a target of attack? Is it hard to be living amidst and immersed in so many ideas, outlooks, and ideologies that are contrary and opposed to Christianity?
They are good question, I think--important questions that need to be taken seriously. Reflection and introspection are very much appropriate, as it is easy to just get swept along by the day-to-day and lose sight of how it's really affecting you.
--
Now I am not posing a "look-to-the-plank-in-your-own-eye" sort of critique, at all. And I'm not critiquing the motivations or consciences of any actual person who has spoken to me about my studies. I just want to offer a little food for thought.
The challenges to my basic values that come from my philosophical studies are many (I realize as I think about it more) and often very subtle. One example comes to mind from a recent conversation I had with another first-year student who has done some work in Medieval philosophy and especially the work of Thomas Aquinas. He has recently become interested in the work of St. Bernard of Clairvaux on love. St. Bernard identifies four levels of love between the self and God--loving the self for the self's sake, loving God for the self's sake, loving God for God's sake, and loving the self for God's sake. This grad student is wondering whether Bernard's view can be incorporated into St. Thomas' philosophical system; the challenge comes in connecting St. Bernard's decidedly God-focused outlook and the St. Thomas' more self-centered eudaemonism.
Eudaemonism refers to an ethical system that is grounded in the pursuit of happiness. (eudaimon: Gk. 'happy') This approach to ethics goes back to Aristotle who judged happiness to be the proper end (or goal) of human life. Now there is a long and rich history of the fruitful development of eudaemonism in Christian thought (and nothing said here should cause one to doubt that St. Thomas was a devout Christian and a pivotal character in Church history), but one might still feel that there is a fundamental opposition between the pursuit of happiness and the ideal of loving the self for God's sake. Indeed, given how self-centered our culture is generally, it is probably not clear to most at the first glance just how one could love one's self for God's sake. What would that even look like?
How many world philosophies and value-systems are fundamentally eudaemonistic? To what degree is that an unquestioned assumption in our ethical thinking and practical reasoning? If I am constantly forcing my thought into this mold and mode of thought, how will it affect my thinking the rest of the time? How will it affect my openness and freedom and ability to love God and to love myself and to love others for God's sake?
--
This is just one example of the kind of challenge that I face. It is, in some respects, more subtle then you might think. It's fairly unlikely that I will read some argument for the non-existence of God, become convinced of its irrefutability, and become a professing atheist. But it is very likely (which is why I must guard against it) that I will come to rely on my own ability and intellect to sort through the various challenges that I face; and in relying on my own ability, I will come to rely on the Holy Spirit less. That is the greater threat to a close and abiding walk with God.
Now what about in your case? What do you need to more-carefully scrutinize about the pattern of your day-to-day life? What do you accept uncritically and assimilate automatically into your way of thinking about and approaching the world? How much is your way of approaching your life conditioned by the messages that you receive from this world and not from what God has revealed about the true reality of things?
I'm not talking about the obvious stuff. It's fairly unlikely that you will read some view expressed in Time magazine refuting the existence of God, become convinced of its irrefutability, and become a professing atheist. Seeing sex in a movie or violence on a television show will not make you lascivious or thuggish. Seeing an ad on the Internet will not automatically compel you to buy that product or service. The true danger is far more subtle.
Are you dissatisfied with your life? Are you unhappy about how you look, about your job situation, about the amount of money you have, about where you live, about what you have? Do you feel threatened by people? Are you in competition with other people for positions at work? Are you always working really hard to impress people? Would embarrassment or humiliation be the worst thing that could possibly happen to you? Do you dread the thought that someone doesn't like you or does the thought that someone doesn't respect you make you angry? If it's going to get done correctly, does it have to be you that does it? Do you have enough time? Is there always somewhere else that you need to be? Is there never time for you to take a break? Are you able to sit down and enjoy a meal? Do you feel inadequate? Are you worried about the future? Are you haunted by the fear that you won't be able to handle what life sends your way? Or have you poured enormous amounts of time and energy and money into building a protective hedge around yourself? Are you comfortable in your own skin? Or do you constantly feel awkward and out of place? Are you afraid of failing? What would happen if you didn't succeed in the ways you hoped?
These are but a small fraction of the questions that we might consider. I expect your answers to these and others like them will reveal how much you have been influenced by the world.
The world constantly presents itself to us as a threatening place--as one that needs to be managed. It's dangerous to trust people; they may let you down and even betray you. It's hard to succeed; you have to work day and night in order to do so. You don't measure up as you are; you need to change if you're going to be 'acceptable'. The messages are spread across television shows and movies, in advertising and the evening news, they fill the Internet, newspapers and magazines. They are woven into the stories that we read, the songs we listen to, and the conversations we have. They are not as blatant as, "BUY THIS NOW!" but they are constantly presenting themselves to us, nonetheless.
I hope that no one will think that I'm being unreasonable in what I'm saying. It is not my intention to be reactionary or extremist in my critique. My point is just that the challenges that I face as a graduate philosophy student, at one level, really are not that different from the challenges that you face in your job and home and neighborhood. I am tempted to rely on my own intellect, my own subtlety and wisdom and ability, to accomplish my work--and so are you.
Just compare a world in which you need to manage your life and relationships, in which people can be allies or enemies, in which success depends upon you and what you accomplish, in which happiness is one more purchase away, in which the future is something that is fearful and to be guarded against--just compare that with the world that Jesus describes in Matthew 6:25-34. Compare it to the world that David inhabits in Psalm 23. Compare it to the world in which Paul finds himself in Philippians 4.
--
I'm a Christian in a graduate philosophy program, and I find my faith being challenged constantly. You are also a Christian in the world; and, whether or not you realize it, your faith is being challenged constantly too. Really, we're not so different. And the remedies are not so different either.
Am I anchored in the Word? Am I communing with God in prayer? Am I fellowshipping with other believers? Am I relying on the sufficiency of God's grace to sustain me in the day-to-day? Am I setting my heart on things above and not on things below? Are you? The strategy works well for graduate philosophy students and for other kinds of people as well. Have you applied it recently?
--
God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.
They are good questions--important questions that need to be taken seriously. Reflection and introspection are very much appropriate, as it is easy to just get swept along by the coursework and lose sight of how it's really affecting me.
But as I think about it, to those who have asked, I might want to ask these questions:
What's it like being a Christian in the place that you live and work? Are you facing any opposition to your faith or values? Is the Church frequently a target of attack? Is it hard to be living amidst and immersed in so many ideas, outlooks, and ideologies that are contrary and opposed to Christianity?
They are good question, I think--important questions that need to be taken seriously. Reflection and introspection are very much appropriate, as it is easy to just get swept along by the day-to-day and lose sight of how it's really affecting you.
--
Now I am not posing a "look-to-the-plank-in-your-own-eye" sort of critique, at all. And I'm not critiquing the motivations or consciences of any actual person who has spoken to me about my studies. I just want to offer a little food for thought.
The challenges to my basic values that come from my philosophical studies are many (I realize as I think about it more) and often very subtle. One example comes to mind from a recent conversation I had with another first-year student who has done some work in Medieval philosophy and especially the work of Thomas Aquinas. He has recently become interested in the work of St. Bernard of Clairvaux on love. St. Bernard identifies four levels of love between the self and God--loving the self for the self's sake, loving God for the self's sake, loving God for God's sake, and loving the self for God's sake. This grad student is wondering whether Bernard's view can be incorporated into St. Thomas' philosophical system; the challenge comes in connecting St. Bernard's decidedly God-focused outlook and the St. Thomas' more self-centered eudaemonism.
Eudaemonism refers to an ethical system that is grounded in the pursuit of happiness. (eudaimon: Gk. 'happy') This approach to ethics goes back to Aristotle who judged happiness to be the proper end (or goal) of human life. Now there is a long and rich history of the fruitful development of eudaemonism in Christian thought (and nothing said here should cause one to doubt that St. Thomas was a devout Christian and a pivotal character in Church history), but one might still feel that there is a fundamental opposition between the pursuit of happiness and the ideal of loving the self for God's sake. Indeed, given how self-centered our culture is generally, it is probably not clear to most at the first glance just how one could love one's self for God's sake. What would that even look like?
How many world philosophies and value-systems are fundamentally eudaemonistic? To what degree is that an unquestioned assumption in our ethical thinking and practical reasoning? If I am constantly forcing my thought into this mold and mode of thought, how will it affect my thinking the rest of the time? How will it affect my openness and freedom and ability to love God and to love myself and to love others for God's sake?
--
This is just one example of the kind of challenge that I face. It is, in some respects, more subtle then you might think. It's fairly unlikely that I will read some argument for the non-existence of God, become convinced of its irrefutability, and become a professing atheist. But it is very likely (which is why I must guard against it) that I will come to rely on my own ability and intellect to sort through the various challenges that I face; and in relying on my own ability, I will come to rely on the Holy Spirit less. That is the greater threat to a close and abiding walk with God.
Now what about in your case? What do you need to more-carefully scrutinize about the pattern of your day-to-day life? What do you accept uncritically and assimilate automatically into your way of thinking about and approaching the world? How much is your way of approaching your life conditioned by the messages that you receive from this world and not from what God has revealed about the true reality of things?
I'm not talking about the obvious stuff. It's fairly unlikely that you will read some view expressed in Time magazine refuting the existence of God, become convinced of its irrefutability, and become a professing atheist. Seeing sex in a movie or violence on a television show will not make you lascivious or thuggish. Seeing an ad on the Internet will not automatically compel you to buy that product or service. The true danger is far more subtle.
Are you dissatisfied with your life? Are you unhappy about how you look, about your job situation, about the amount of money you have, about where you live, about what you have? Do you feel threatened by people? Are you in competition with other people for positions at work? Are you always working really hard to impress people? Would embarrassment or humiliation be the worst thing that could possibly happen to you? Do you dread the thought that someone doesn't like you or does the thought that someone doesn't respect you make you angry? If it's going to get done correctly, does it have to be you that does it? Do you have enough time? Is there always somewhere else that you need to be? Is there never time for you to take a break? Are you able to sit down and enjoy a meal? Do you feel inadequate? Are you worried about the future? Are you haunted by the fear that you won't be able to handle what life sends your way? Or have you poured enormous amounts of time and energy and money into building a protective hedge around yourself? Are you comfortable in your own skin? Or do you constantly feel awkward and out of place? Are you afraid of failing? What would happen if you didn't succeed in the ways you hoped?
These are but a small fraction of the questions that we might consider. I expect your answers to these and others like them will reveal how much you have been influenced by the world.
The world constantly presents itself to us as a threatening place--as one that needs to be managed. It's dangerous to trust people; they may let you down and even betray you. It's hard to succeed; you have to work day and night in order to do so. You don't measure up as you are; you need to change if you're going to be 'acceptable'. The messages are spread across television shows and movies, in advertising and the evening news, they fill the Internet, newspapers and magazines. They are woven into the stories that we read, the songs we listen to, and the conversations we have. They are not as blatant as, "BUY THIS NOW!" but they are constantly presenting themselves to us, nonetheless.
I hope that no one will think that I'm being unreasonable in what I'm saying. It is not my intention to be reactionary or extremist in my critique. My point is just that the challenges that I face as a graduate philosophy student, at one level, really are not that different from the challenges that you face in your job and home and neighborhood. I am tempted to rely on my own intellect, my own subtlety and wisdom and ability, to accomplish my work--and so are you.
Just compare a world in which you need to manage your life and relationships, in which people can be allies or enemies, in which success depends upon you and what you accomplish, in which happiness is one more purchase away, in which the future is something that is fearful and to be guarded against--just compare that with the world that Jesus describes in Matthew 6:25-34. Compare it to the world that David inhabits in Psalm 23. Compare it to the world in which Paul finds himself in Philippians 4.
--
I'm a Christian in a graduate philosophy program, and I find my faith being challenged constantly. You are also a Christian in the world; and, whether or not you realize it, your faith is being challenged constantly too. Really, we're not so different. And the remedies are not so different either.
Am I anchored in the Word? Am I communing with God in prayer? Am I fellowshipping with other believers? Am I relying on the sufficiency of God's grace to sustain me in the day-to-day? Am I setting my heart on things above and not on things below? Are you? The strategy works well for graduate philosophy students and for other kinds of people as well. Have you applied it recently?
--
God is in this place,
And that reality, seen and understood by the grace of God in Christ Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit, makes all the difference in the world.
posted by Metaphysician_delta | 7:16 PM
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