Agree or disagree? The following is an excerpt from Pascal’s Penses:
Man is only a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed. There is no need for the whole universe to take up arms to crush him: a vapor, a drop of water is enough to kill him. But even if the universe were to crush him, man would still be nobler than his slayer, because he knows that he is dying and the advantage the universe has over him. The universe knows none of this.
Thus all our dignity consists in thought. It is on thought that we must depend for our recovery, not on space and time, which we could never fill. Let us then strive to think well; that is the basic principle of morality.
I find myself only partially agreeing with this comment. My evangelical (even Baptist) upbringing screams for me to agree with this. Sola Scriptura. Get your Theology straight and everything will fall in line. These are perspectives to which I wholeheartedly subscribe. However, is “thinking well” really our main objective? For good or for ill it happens to be my objective, but what if Pascal and I are wrong? What if God intended far greater things than good Theology?
If Jesus were so convinced that proper Theology was the objective, then he would have had far more “Sermon on the Mounts.” Instead he spent his time healing people, loving the unlovable, eating with sinners, partying and praying. Except for the Sermon on the Mount, he very rarely taught in plain language – instead he taught in parables. (Mark 4:10-12) He didn’t seem too intent on making clear thinkers. Even his disciples were confused half the time.
Then James comes along and says: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” – James 1:27 (NIV)
And perhaps the greatest of all arguments: Jesus, Himself, said that the greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Okay so maybe good Theology takes a close second? Nope. The second is to “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
So is thinking well the basic principle of morality? It wouldn’t seem so by Scripture. It seems as though caring for the marginalized and loving our God wholeheartedly is the basic principle of morality. BUT, you must have proper Theology in order to have these priorities. So maybe your Theology is the #1 priority and then proper Theology will tell you that Theology is not the #1 priority. ;)
So what’s the balance? Whatever it is I am quite sure I lean entirely too much toward the cerebral and much less toward impacting the world.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Thinking Well
Posted by Josh at 11:26 AM
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2 comments:
I would equate good theology to "loving God with all your mind."
I think you are right--without good theology, we will only impact the world positively by accident. Good theology also keeps us from negatively impacting the world (as an example, I would bring your attention to the health-and-wealth crowd, or perhaps anti-homosexual activist Fred Phelps).
I suppose in the end I would not recognize such a large dichotomy between thoughts and deeds. (As an aside, I am beginning to despise the ever-present dichotomies I find in the postmodern culture. I believe we are holistic creatures living in a holistic world.) After all, what have you ever done without thinking about it first? (I am not talking about habitual routines, etc, but rather acts falling under the category of loving God and one's neighbor.)
One last thought--God has revealed Himself to us in a book. That book is also where we learn that we should love our neighbors. We have to learn that by using our minds to comprehend the words we read. If we comprehend it and do nothing, then we may as well not think at all. Good theology (just like faith), I would argue, leads to good works. There is no separating the two.
Jon,
Thanks for the good feedback. I have forestalled my reply as I've wanted to think more clearly about my own opinions on the matter. I believe that your final paragraph is, on an ideal level, correct. Good theology must lead to good works or else we gain nothing. However, if I am honest enough with myself, I realize that my life does not always follow the ideal model. If I make proper theology and right thinking my priority - I still may or may not follow through with proper action.
The scary part for me is that I believe God will hold me accountable much more for my action vs. inaction than my stance on Calvinism vs. Armenianism.
We agree that it takes right thinking to effect right behavior, but I suspect it doesn't take a lot of thinking in order to get there. The only things that we need to know in order to act upon the Word of God is that He loves us, died for us, rose again, and is here to preach good news to the poor, proclaim freedom to the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
We could do a powerful work in this world even if that's all we knew.
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