English professor at the University of California Berkley, Carolyn Kane wrote an article for Newsweek about the general lack of important thinking in modern American culture. After the posed question she revealed her answer in front of both God and the audience of Newsweek: “But how do we revive interest in the art of thinking? The best place to start would be in the homes and churches of our land.” She did not appeal to government, or for an increase in money for public school systems or for more adequate college faculties. Professor Kane realized that the church was meant to be, and when we look back at history can see has been, the instrument for reason in society. So what happened? Why did this jettisoning of reason take place? America met its breaking point with reason during the Counter-Cultural Movement of the 1960’s. By reason I mean the process used to gain knowledge in order to justify beliefs. Several sub movements defined the Counter-Cultural Movement of the 1960’s:
- Psychology – Situation Ethics
- Philosophy – God is Dead Movement
- Theology – Neo-orthodoxy
- Arts – Theatre of the Absurd
These sub movements helped influence postmodernism, the sexual revolution, and misrepresentations of the God of the Bible. Outside of prestigious universities “intellectuals” smoked pot and experimentation became emphasized. Everything that was once held to be sacred and private became open and free. Homosexuality and abortion became accepted and intolerance became the only evil. The Counter-Cultural Movement of the 1960’s was truly a Anti-intellectual Movement because there was total abandonment of reason. Men and women thought and believed in nothing and those who were the rebels then are the professors, educators, and people in power today. The culture and mind of America has changed and is yet to recover. So how do we fix it? To answer that, we need to take a step back because anti-intellectualism didn’t just simultaneously combust in the 60’s. No, it came long before that. It came with the theory of evolution. Science originated in Christian Europe and was studied for the main purpose of learning about God; so when new science claimed an alternate to God and denied his existence the church was left speechless. With the church not having any intellectual arguments against the theory many Christians left the faith and science gained the credibility that Christianity “lost”. People than began to believe that things were only true and reasonable if they could be tested using the five senses; hearing, smelling, seeing, tasting, and feeling. Thus making faith unreasonable and false because it cannot be truly tested. What both science and the church failed to realize though was that science only studies nature and that God, by definition, is supernatural (outside of nature). My point is that if the church had had an intellectual argument for the scientific revolution than the church would not have lost its place as the “instrument of reason in society”. Instead it gave secularism the power for a revolution that we (Christians) are not likely going to see an end to unless we make a radical effort for revival and promptly at that! The main cause for lack of revival in America is the lack of intellectualism and knowledge of apologetic arguments for the church. Theologian and pastor R.C. Sproul said “We live in the most anti-intellectual period in the history of all Western civilization… We must have passion-indeed hearts on fire for the things of God. But that passion must resist with intensity the anti-intellectual spirit of the world.” Five things need to change if we want revival and intellectualism to take over the church:
- Faith and reason need to be equally as strong as one another.
- There can be no separation between sacred and secular things.
- Live largely on mission.
- Don’t make the Gospel relevant. Show the relevance of the Gospel.
- Be bold, confront, and witness.
G. K. Chesterton wrote, “Once people stop believing in God the problem is not that they will believe nothing, rather it is that they will believe anything.” If we can spark intellectualism and knowledge of apologetics in the christian church, than we can spark revival. Once revival happens in the church, the judgment seat will be able to retake its throne as the instrument of reason in society. Amen.
ryanwortman 