Wednesday, October 11, 2006

The Evangelical Mind Revisited

I, together with my colleagues at Regent University, am meeting Professor Alan Wolfe, later today, to discuss his opinion article entitled; "The Evangelical Mind Revisited."Alan Wolfe is a professor of political science and director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College.

Professor Wolfe writes:
"One other significant challenge faces evangelical institutions determined to take seriously the life of the mind: they have to make a decision about truth. This ought not to be a problem for them, since serious Christians do not think that their views about God's existence are just matters of opinion. They are convinced that claims of faith are truth claims. Indeed, one of the main gripes conservative Christians have about secularists is their presumed moral relativism, their unwillingness to say flat out that certain things are true (or good or just), and other things are not."

I welcome the oppertunity to enter into discussion with Professor Wolfe and others on these thoughts. I am convinced that a strong, vibrant faith is marked by the willingness to enter into honest, humble and yet rigorous debate about what we perceive to be [T]rue. Truth, if it indeed is true, can hold its own ground.

I am reminded of the words of Caleb Colton (writing of the Biblical devotional discipline of study):
“He that studies only men, will get the body of knowledge without the soul; and he that studies only books, the soul without the body. He that, to what he sees, adds observation, and to what he reads, reflection, is in the right road to knowledge, provided that in scrutinizing the hearts of others, he neglects not his own...”

May our pursuit of understanding reality and He who is "ultimate Real" lead us to the scrutiny of our own hearts and renew our commitment to follow Him, who is the Way, the Truth and the Life (see John 14:6).

Here is a link to Professor Wolfe's article:
http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/change/sub.asp?key=98&subkey=1119