A good discussion of how the core credal Christian beliefs provide a firm foundation for scholarship in every field. ( )

In this book, author Mark A. Noll offers a follow-up to his much discussed The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. He examines the problems that keep many Evangelicals from being more scholarship-minded, the progress made in recent years, and offers a critique of Peter Enns' book Inspiration and Incarnation. Noll's book is both readable and engaging, but persons who are not familiar with the other books mentioned should probably take a look at these before reading this one. ( )

LibraryThing, Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind 12.21.12

Reviewed by Nicholas Wolterstorff in 9-10 Books and Culture, Christology, Christian Learning, and Christian Formation, author Mark Noll, p.22

Mark Noll's project in Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind is to make a case for Christian’s engaging in serious learning and to offer some guidelines for how they should think and act when they do. His discussion is ecumenical; but he indicates that it is especially evangelicals that he has in mind.

Noll turns for his interpretation to the classic Christological statements to be found in the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene… His book consists, at its core, of teasing out the implications of these statements, and of their biblical background, for Christians engaging in serious learning and for how they should think and act when they do.

The declaration that Christ our Savior is the one through whom all things were created carries, says Noll, “the strongest possible implications for intellectual life. Put most simply, for believers to be studying created things is to be studying the works of Christ.”

Noll does not claim that a Christological case for Christians engaging in serious learning is the only sort of case that could be made.

Of course, from the fact that Christians should engage in what Noll calls “serious learning” it does not follow that they should engage in learning as it is practiced in the contemporary academy [or in any institutional setting]. … it is not so misguided that Christians must, in good conscience, pull out. I agree with him on that. [See RJR’s Philosophy of Christian Curriculum!]

[Here the reviewer inserts his own theory of how Christians best engage in serious learning, what he terms “valorizing,” by which I think that he means that we develop our own categories (or constructs or really, ultimate principles) by which we can then evaluate our experiences. I think that this is what we do automatically if not consciously, probably not consciously (very often). Each of us must develop his own formations, to some degree→rather, creeds are formations, did the reviewer see this? He (Nicholas) illustrates his idea of “formations” with music “formation.”]

… Christians have acquired a Christian way of interpreting and valorizing what we experience, our experience itself, and reality more generally. We have acquired a Christian formation. Such a formation includes doctrines, principles, views…

Then one day my Christian formation intruded. The question arose in my mind: is it really true that engaging works of art liturgically is inferior to engaging them as objects of disinterested contemplation? I concluded almost immediately that I could not; praising God by singing a hymn is not inferior to listening to a piano sonata.

My notes on this book 7/2/13

Thesis: historic Christianity as framed in the creeds is a good (the best?) and motivating framework for scholarship

“Christianity is defined by the person and work of Jesus Christ. The doctrinal truths supporting this assertion—as set out in Scripture and summarized in the major Christian creeds—provide a compelling reason for pursuing Christian learning. At the same time, they also offer strong protection against the abuses of human learning.” “The person of Christ and the work of Christ must, however, be considered in the fullness of Christian faith. The trinity—Father, Son, and Spirit in the unity of the Godhead—provides the essential, if also mysterious, starting point. Other aspects of Christian faith also play a part in human learning: for example, the divine creation of the world, the fact of human sinfulness, God’s merciful resolve to rescue sinners, the convicting work of the Holy Spirit, and the providential oversight, of everything that ever takes place. Yet intrinsic to all such Christian realities are the person of Christ, and the meaning of his work for all humanity in all human history. To understand that person and to fathom that work is to approach the center of Christianity itself.

“My contention in this book is that coming to know Christ provides the most basic possible motive for pursuing the tasks of human learning.

“In the chapters that follow the truly essential points come from the general storehouse of classical doctrine that has been appropriated by believers in all Christian traditions.” ix-x

“Since the reality of Jesus Christ sustains the world and all that is in it, so too, should the reality of Jesus Christ sustain the most wholehearted, unabashed, and unembarrassed efforts to understand the world and all that is in it. The Light of the World, the Word of God, the Son of Man, the True Vine, the Bread of Life, the Bright and Morning Star—for believers, this One is the Savior, but also the Paradigm. Whatever is true of the world in general must also be true for those parts of the world that emphasize intellectual life. The light of Christ illuminates the laboratory, his speech is the fount of communication, he makes possible the study of humans in their interactions, he is the source of all life, he provides the wherewithal for every achievement of human civilization, he is the telos of all that is beautiful. He is, among his many other titles, the Christ of the Academic Road.” 22

“In 1960 Jaroslav Pelikan described ‘the virtues of the Christian intellectual’ in Trinitarian terms that parallel the arguments advanced here. In his rendering, those virtues included ‘a passion for being because the Father is the Creator and Source of all being; a reverence for language because Jesus Christ is the Word and Mind of the Father; an enthusiasm for history because the Holy Spirit works through history to produce variety and to unite all men to himself.’ In a simpler, more directly christological approach, I am pointing to the same conclusions.” 24

“[Colossians 1:13-20; 2:1-3] explicitly exalts the person and work of Christ as the key to human salvation; implicitly it affirms that salvation is the overwhelmingly central concern of human existence. To be rescued from darkness and transferred to the kingdom of God’s Son is what it means for the Son to provide redemption, the forgiveness of sin. Such a rescue by such a Savior deserves to be the most important concern of all humans everywhere and in all times.” 27

“...the reality of [Christ’s incarnation] points, not simply to an engagement with the world, but to an engagement marked by delight, exuberance, and the aesthetic possibility of redemption.” 35

“Aesthetically this depiction of Christ suggests that he is the summit of all that is beautiful. Where proportion, harmony, fittingness, excellence, and balance exist in this world, they reflect in human measure what appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration without reserve.” 39

“For I so not seek to understand, in order that I may believe; but I believe that I may understand.” 47-Anselm

“From one angle therefore, an Enlightenment-friendly conclusion seems like a Christian conclusion...” 81

“So long as Christian communities thought it was a straightforward task to harmonize what Scriptures seemed to communicate about the natural world and what observing nature or reflecting on nature seemed to communicate, the discussion was contained.” 100

“Ockham’s famous ‘razor’ held that the simplest explanation was always the best explanation (‘do not multiply entities unnecessarily’).” 106

“In [Warfield’s] eyes, physical healing through medicine and the agency of physicians was as much a result of God’s action (if through secondary causes) as the cures claimed as a direct result of divine intervention.” 114

“On the one hand, [Enns] does not want evangelicals today bound completely to grammatical-historical interpretation, since he argues that this practice heeds intellectual modernism as much as it heeds the NT.” 140

“And so for scholarship that is Christian the essential ingredients are the same as for family life, politics, community service, economic activity, medical care, or any other activity that would be Christian. Those ingredients are prayer..., service..., Bible reading..., sacraments that instantiate the presence of Christ, fellowship..., singing..., sympathy..., and meditation...” 148

“As a force in Christian history, evangelicalism has been a movement whose great strengths also define significant weaknesses... Yet these commendable traits pose problems for intellectual life, since serious thinking takes a lot of time, must honor the contributions of past generations, and often relies on the special insights of intellectual elites.” 152

“The goals in view can be simply stated: (*) to promote careful study of Scripture that stresses the life-altering glories of Jesus Christ, rather than the whims of private eurekas; (*) to promote thoughtful Christian reflection that comes from theology based on the whole of Scripture and infused with insights from Christian tradition, rather than marred by sloganeering and proof texting; (*) to promote thoughtful approaches to the problems of life that are heavy on analysis but light on ideology and simplification; (*) to promote effective communication in forms appropriate for both Christian communities and modern pluralistic culture, instead of resorting to demagoguery and mindless grandstanding; and (*) to promote broad engagement with the world that includes knowledgeable awareness of science, balanced approaches to politics, and active support for the arts, instead of reacting with fear and suspicion to the enterprises of intellectual culture.” 167