Christianity Can Be the Safest Space for Truth-Seeking Intellectuals
There are few safe havens for thoughtful people in today’s world; few forums where curious folks and creative thinkers feel comfortable enough voicing certain questions or contrarian thoughts. Church, let’s seize this opportunity, inviting our secular neighbors into what once was, and can be again, the world’s most electrifying intellectual community.
Free thinking, fearlessly open dialogue, a willingness to voice unpopular ideas: these are increasingly endangered species in a society ever more surveilled by Orwellian thought police. A new, fundamentalistic secular religion has emerged, with tenets that demand total adherence. To question the logic of any aspect of this secular creed—for example, a statement like “transgender women are women”—is to be branded a hateful heretic. Books that logically challenge prevailing orthodoxies are being banned by Amazon. There are countless more examples.
You know it’s bad when atheist hero Richard Dawkins is disowned by an atheist organization (which explicitly defines its purpose as including advocacy for “freethinkers”) over a tweet where he (very cogently) questioned the new orthodoxy on transgenderism. Rather than engaging Dawkins’s entirely reasonable tweet on its own terms, the American Humanist Association saw it as grounds for retroactive cancellation. Nothing says “advocacy for freethinkers” like canceling someone for a thought that goes against the grain.
In a strange twist, Christianity—long accused of being narrow-minded, anti-intellectual, and afraid of difficult questions—has the potential to fill a growing void in Western culture. In a world where we increasingly walk on eggshells—unsure when, if, and how we’re allowed to speak publicly on contested issues—Christianity can become a grace-filled haven for curious questioners, doubting dissidents, and anyone seeking truth in a world where partisan narratives take precedence.
In short, Christianity has an opportunity to again become the most fertile intellectual ground—as it was for most of the last 2,000 years (until fairly recently). Why? Because a truly fruitful intellectual culture must be built on unshakeable, transcendent foundations—which Christianity has in God’s Word. Without this, all discourse about “truth” is arbitrary and devolves into power struggles. All claims become mere ammo for inflicting injury on one identity or another, rather than bricks for building in a shared intellectual project.
Scriptural Foundation Should Inspire Intellectual Curiosity
The secular approach to discourse results only in deconstruction—as we’re seeing. With no ability to gain consensus on truth, secularism can only cancel, condemn, ban, silence. It’s fundamentally destructive. But the Christian approach can be constructive because there’s a solid foundation on which to build. This is why, in my “Wisdom Pyramid” rubric, Scripture is the foundation. God’s infallible Word functions both as a horizontal, “solid ground” foundation and as vertical scaffolding, keeping the structures above it rightly ordered. We can build knowledge using all sorts of materials—books, the arts, nature/science, reason, community, lived experience—but none of it will be structurally sound, in the end, unless it is built on an unshakable foundation.
God’s objective, transcendent, true-for-everyone Truth is not a constricting, check-your-brain-at-the-door truth. It’s a liberating, world-expanding, galvanizing, purposeful truth that gives a common vocabulary and telos for intellectual pursuits. As Jesus says, it’s the truth that “will set you free” (John 8:32). This liberating truth is what inspired the founding and flourishing of Oxford, Harvard, and most of the great universities. It’s the truth that undergirded the world-changing discoveries and revolutionary ideas of Johannes Kepler, Nicholas Copernicus, Blaise Pascal, Isaac Newton, and many others. It’s the truth that, for countless artists, writers, and philosophers, provided life-giving illumination and impetus to explore.
As C. S. Lewis famously said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the Sun has risen, not only because I see it but because by it, I see everything else.”
God’s Word is the settled truth that unsettles our intellectual complacency and compels us to plumb the world’s mysterious depths. It’s a framework through which we can read and study widely and know how to evaluate the relative merits of an idea. It gives us bearings to navigate a fallen world glutted with ideas—some true, some false—in a way that doesn’t turn into a nomadic, frustrating wander.
Challenges for the Church
In recent history, though, many Christians have failed to see Scripture as the catalyst it should be for profound intellectual energy and curiosity—and that’s a scandal.
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Envy and the Abandonment of God’s Love
The more we consider the nature of the wealth of our identity in Christ the less and less will we either worry or be anxious about the temporary accumulation of things which our neighbor has. Our envy is born out of not being thankful, taking our eyes off the glory of the cross and the empty tomb, and in some ways more importantly the bounty of our Lord’s reigning as the king of kings. Time spent in the Bible is a vital way to encourage the heart of our soul to be grounded in this peace.
Our last foray into the Ten Commandments specifically ends with a word on a subject we are all ate up with, if we are honest: envy. It stalks our heart, our soul, and our mind. In some sense it is the motivation for the breaking of all of the laws of God. We want what we don’t have and we are jealous of those who do. This is especially the case when our eyes turn toward the wicked. How is it if we are the chosen people do men who are reprobates seem to have so much and do so well in this life? As we know this was a common lament of the Psalmist, yet as David usually does he reminds us of the vanity of it all. There is a saying which I hear from time-to-time that if you are living your best life now, than there is a problem. Central to our keeping of the Tenth commandment is remembering the simple truth of the value and worth of Jehovah, and in a very real sense, our value to Him. Any attempts of the evil one to move our conscience to quibble or complain is quickly defeated, or at least should be, by meditating on the goodness of God to sinners in Christ.
However, getting to that point can be a difficult climb. That’s why it is helpful in our fight against the old man to heed the challenges presented by our fallenness. There is a reason why when the writers of the Catechism put it together they follow the pattern of the law, its requirements, and ways we break it. All in order to point us to the one who has kept it perfectly on our behalf and calls us likewise to love Him and rest in Him in our keeping of His law.
Here’s this week’s Q/A:
Q. 148: What are the sins forbidden in the tenth commandment?
A. The sins forbidden in the tenth commandment are, discontentment with our own estate; envying and grieving at the good of our neighbour, together with all inordinate motions and affections to any thing that is his.
Taking a positive spin on the warnings we first hear the testimony that in breaking the tenth commandment we show a discontentment with our own condition (that’s what estate means). We’ve talked before about how in the Christian faith what separates us from the Pagan world is this idea that the substance of the love of Jesus for His covenant people, which we experience in our spiritual union with Him, through which flows the benefits born through redemption is our true hope. It is wrong though to think about this in a way where we imagine the goodness of God comes only in the future. You may not be a baseball fan, but there is much hullaballoo right now over Shohei Ohtani’s 10 year contract for $700 million.
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When Yellow and Blue Make Brown
In heaven every single time you paint with yellow and blue you get green. But that doesn’t always happen on earth. This side of the new heaven and new earth, Psalm 1 isn’t like a painting formula. It’s a general principle. It’s an echo of heaven. It’s the way that things are supposed to be. But things are broken a bit. And so sometimes on earth we paint with the colors we are supposed to and end up with a sloppy mess.
If you combine yellow and blue, you get green. Almost immediately. And though there are varying shades pending on the amount of yellow and blue, those two colors combined always make green.
Psalm 1 says that when you mix not sitting with scoffers with meditating on God’s law, you get bountiful fruit. Thriving. Mix those colors and you get beauty and blessing.
Enter Jeremiah.
Jeremiah, through much pain, tells God that he did not sit in the “company of revelers” (15:18) but instead God’s words became “the delight of my heart” (15:16). Jeremiah combined the yellow of good company with the blue of delighting in God’s law.
He circles back around to this sentiment in Jeremiah 17. Many scholars think that this chapter is the prophet’s miscellaneous file with a few random thoughts combined around the theme of “the heart”. I disagree. I think it’s all driving to Jeremiah’s prayer in 17:14-18.
17:5-6 is Jeremiah painting his canvas with a bit of yellow. Cursed are those who trust in man instead of Yahweh. Jeremiah 17:9-10 is Jeremiah painting with a bit of blue. The heart is deceitful but our anchor is the word of God. Delight in God, don’t delight in man. That’s the theme. And in the middle of that sandwich is Jeremiah’s version of Psalm 1 (17:7-8).
When you combine yellow and blue. You get green. That is what verses 5-13 are telling us. Now listen to Jeremiah’s prayer…
When Blue and Yellow Don’t Make Green
In verses 14-15 Jeremiah is positioning himself under God’s mercy. He knows that if healing is to happen it will come from the Lord. But in verse 15 he shares his ache. His words haven’t come true, yet.
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God Cares for Every Christian More Than You Know
In a world that excludes people because they are not fashionable, or because they are difficult, or because they struggle with mental health or messy relationships, Matthew 18 is refreshing. Jesus cares deeply for his people, whoever they might be.
Matthew 18 is a chapter with a theme: Jesus is speaking about what the Christian community should be like. And the fundamental thing we have to understand is that our stance should be one of humility. When we think of others in the Christian community, we are to realise that we are like little children. We are all dependant on God for our salvation. Even the most capable and respected among us are forgiven sinners, so we need to view others in the church as our brothers and sisters, our equals in God’s sight.
A little later on in the chapter we come across this verse:
See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. (Matt. 18:10 ESV)
This verse is made up of a command and an explanation. The command bit is straight-forward: do not despise one of these little ones. By ‘little ones’, Jesus means any Christian, especially Christians who are weak and insignificant in the eyes of the world. We must not despise, or look down upon, any other Christian. There should be no ranking of importance or feelings of superiority in the church.
Well, you might wonder, why not? Are not some more gifted, or some more useful for the kingdom? Jesus’ explanation does not rank people based on their usefulness but on how God sees them.
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