The Virtues of Education

 
September 26th, 2006 by iMonk

Sometimes when I am interacting with other Christians, I’m overwhelmed with the feeling that I’m exchanging ideas with someone very, very different from myself in significant ways. I don’t insist that people be like me, and I don’t want to hold myself hostage for being different from other people. There is one difference, however, that’s becoming increasingly more obvious: a lot of Christians in my circles don’t see the virtues of education.
I started noticing this….right here among my fellow educators. It almost seems that, for some of my fellow teachers, the whole educational enterprise contains a giant contradiction. Scripture is sufficient, they say, and the Christian with a scriptural truth is sufficient to answer anyone, a la Christian Davids felling academic Goliaths with a single verse.
I see this constantly in the realm of science, particularly with theories of origins. Most of my friends are creationists, and they are almost wholeheartedly opposed to the study of evolution. I didn’t say “opposed to evolution.” I said the “STUDY of evolution.”
The idea that we should see a value in the study of scientific origins, Darwinian and otherwise, doesn’t fit in very well in my friends’ ideas of Christian truth. It’s ironic, of course, that these are folks who want SOMEONE to know all about the evolutionary theories of origins, but the idea that a Christian school should try for excellence and mastery in teaching every student theories of origins seems unnecessary, even dangerous.
There’s an obvious inferiority complex (or naive triumphalism) here, but what fascinates me is the loss of the virtue of education itself. I’m not surprised that there are Christians dismissing particular kinds of content, but what happened to the idea of educational excellence as a demonstration of the value of education itself? What happened to the idea of an Augustine or a Luther being an example of educational excellence- outside of expertise in Christian doctrine- simply as a virtuous, important, interesting pursuit that is valuable on its own.
Literature? Math? Sociology? Philosophy? Grammar? Languages? Why aren’t Christians pursuing these things as worthwhile endeavors in excellence? Is the problem the content of those disciplines, or is it education itself? Are Christians failing to study because they believe study is a waste of time?
When was the last time most Christians heard a vigorous defense of the virtues of education? When was the last time a young Christian choose to go to a liberal arts school because they understood what the “liberal” approach to education meant?
In thinking about this, I drew up a short list of what I believe are the virtues of education. It’s an incomplete and overlapping list, if you haven’t thought about it lately, maybe this will help you remember that education ITSELF- no matter the subject- contains virtues, values and benefits that all of us should desire.
1) The virtue of seeing other points of view
2) The virtue of considering other sources of information
3) The virtue of evaluation conclusions, both our own and those of other people
4) The virtue of seeing connections between related areas of knowledge or experience. (Much education is the pursuit of those connections, and much opposition to education comes from fear of those connections.)
5) The virtue of revising and correcting my own conclusions. (A mark of opposition to education itself is the demeaning of persons who change their minds upon examination or further study. It’s almost a hallmark of fundamentalism to vilify this virtue.)
6) The virtue of becoming aware of our own (and others) presuppositions, biases and filters.
7) The virtue of becoming aware of context, particularly historical, sociological and cultural contexts.
The virtue of intellectual humility.
9) The virtue of the habit of intellectual curiosity.
10) The virtue of acquiring skill in research and presentation.
Is anyone else amazed that, in order to be an expert on the emerging church, you need to nothing more than read couple of books by Brian Mclaren? In order to trump the expertise of scholars, you only need a smattering of reading and a confidence in your reading of your English Bible as you currently understand it? In order to talk with authority about history, events, psychology or matters of deepest mystery, all you need is words from your favorite radio preachers?
Right or wrong- and frequently, the ordinary fellow is right- there are virtues in the process of education that are lost in this kind of shallow remake of academic confidence. It’s a regular sport in conservative evangelicalism to make fun of academia, and much of that is deserved. But what if some of it is a cheapening, a diluting of the real value of education so that any preacher with Google considers himself a scholar, and anyone with a blog is able to fake intellectual, educational competence?
I’m not praising the pagan intellectuals for being pagan, but for being studied, qualified scholars who paid the price to talk about literature or philosophy. I’m not praising secularist academics for their secularism, but for seeing the virtues of education.
When I left for college, one of our deacons warned me that college would ruin me by taking away my simple faith in scripture. He wasn’t delusional, but he was missing the possibility that college could make me better. Unfortunately, by the time I learned that, I had already imbibed deeply of the prejudice against academics and education that blights evangelicalism today. (Where is our great evangelical university?)
Consider doing a talk to your college students on the virtues of education, then report back in. I can already anticipate where some of this discussion is going, but we can hope it’s not too late for an awakening.
The world recently lost a great scholar of the Christian faith in Jaroslav Pelikan. Pelikan was the kind of scholar that everyone had to respect. Deeply devoted to languages, ever learning, devoted to his disciplines, humble, encyclopedic, authoritative because he KNEW. He KNEW. Pelikan’s kind is rare in evangelicalism, and part of the reason is our ambiguous relationship with the entire educational adventure. We’re not sure if it’s ground that we can stand on, or if it is the shifting sand that Jesus warned about.
We don’t stand on education for our hope in God, but our hope in God should be greater if our endeavors to know the world, its history and ourselves is seriously rooted in study. Our confidence in truth doesn’t result in fear, but in the confidence to believe that Jesus has, among his followers, scholars that should take no shame in their efforts and contributions.
That starts with the attitude toward education we convey to everyone in our classes, to those who read our blogs and those who hear us preach and teach.

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