The Gospel for Academics
I play many roles, but one of them is as an academic. As I've written elsewhere, I think the academic culture and lifestyle is a barrier to hearing the gospel. I'm not sure it should be, but it is.
The good part of academia is that we value work ethic and the culture is a meritocracy. We are protective of our disciplines and view ourselves as gatekeepers even if we wouldn't say it that way. We also know we are smart, well-read, aware. Knowledge is our job. Being smart is our job and our identity.
On the negative side is that our knowledge is very discipline-specific, usually, but we forget that and think we know a lot about other fields. And because we are smart, and have obviously come to our conclusions through rigor, anything that counters our conclusions must be wrong.
And because of the above, we are self-contained. We are able to handle things; we don't need help.
It might be concluded that the primary barrier for academics in regard to the gospel is intellectual, that academics have investigated the Christian faith and found it lacking from some intellectual, scientific, critical thinking or rational standard. Well, that may be true at times, but not always. I would argue that academic mindset says, "I don't need" and that leads to a dismissal of the gospel a priori. A classism is involved, as well. People of the academic class don't fall for faith, for religion, like those other people do. We are spiritual, aware of transcendence, but not interested in conformity to an authority.
(By the way, I think some who say they are "spiritual but not religious" may be saying they don't want to be part of a community of faith and want to chart their own path.)
A professor I know was sounding off on FB that his/her vote was not worth what another person's was because of the electoral college. That viewpoint is uninformed, based on a mistaken idea of what our form of government is. This person is a natural scientist, not a political scientist. Yet he/she would consider this viewpoint of more value than a noneducated person.
What I see in academics is lack of awareness of need. This need should arise from sense of sin. They are not inclined to see themselves as sinners.
Academia can be an echo chamber.
The good part of academia is that we value work ethic and the culture is a meritocracy. We are protective of our disciplines and view ourselves as gatekeepers even if we wouldn't say it that way. We also know we are smart, well-read, aware. Knowledge is our job. Being smart is our job and our identity.
On the negative side is that our knowledge is very discipline-specific, usually, but we forget that and think we know a lot about other fields. And because we are smart, and have obviously come to our conclusions through rigor, anything that counters our conclusions must be wrong.
And because of the above, we are self-contained. We are able to handle things; we don't need help.
It might be concluded that the primary barrier for academics in regard to the gospel is intellectual, that academics have investigated the Christian faith and found it lacking from some intellectual, scientific, critical thinking or rational standard. Well, that may be true at times, but not always. I would argue that academic mindset says, "I don't need" and that leads to a dismissal of the gospel a priori. A classism is involved, as well. People of the academic class don't fall for faith, for religion, like those other people do. We are spiritual, aware of transcendence, but not interested in conformity to an authority.
(By the way, I think some who say they are "spiritual but not religious" may be saying they don't want to be part of a community of faith and want to chart their own path.)
A professor I know was sounding off on FB that his/her vote was not worth what another person's was because of the electoral college. That viewpoint is uninformed, based on a mistaken idea of what our form of government is. This person is a natural scientist, not a political scientist. Yet he/she would consider this viewpoint of more value than a noneducated person.
What I see in academics is lack of awareness of need. This need should arise from sense of sin. They are not inclined to see themselves as sinners.
Academia can be an echo chamber.
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