Session 1-Dr. Brad Green (Union University)
Thursday Morning
206R “The Gospel and The Intellectual Life I: Why Should Christians Care About Academics?”
Helped start Augustan School in Jackson, TN
Why is it the case that wherever the cross is planted the academy follows? Wherever the gospel has gone, the academy follows.
We have lost some of the connections between the gospel and learning.
Work out relationships between theological realities and intellectual ramifications.
As the gospel loses sway in the West, we shouldn’t be surprised to see confusion about intellectual life. The Christian life provides the necessary substructure for a meaningful intellectual life, actually any knowledge whatsoever.
1. Creation
a. Christians-God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth
b. World is created by a good God, therefore, a good world
c. “Creatoexnilio”-Creation out of nothing
d. can get sidelined by questions about the age of the earth, cyclical age, etc.
e. What does it mean that God spoke the world into being?
i. There is something there to be known that impinges upon you.
ii. Nietsche-reason is worthwhile, there is an order to things,
iii. Kareem Rasheed, creator “I didn’t like nature because it was already done.”
2. Sin
a. Sin affects every part of us including our intellectual life and minds
b. GK Chesterton “If you took all the devils and put them into school, you would not end up with angels, but instead educated devils.”
c. Colossians 1:20-21
d. Implications for how we view the cross
e. Romans 8:5-6 “Noahetic affects of sin”
f. Romans 1:18…God has revealed himelf to everyone who has lived and everyone has suppressed that knowledge. That means that they are storing up the wrath of God.
g. C.S. Lewis “every act of knowledge makes a statement about your faith”
3. Redemption
a. Boatheus “Without Christ, our minds are like a drunkard that cannot find his way home”
b. No understanding without the cross
c. Augustan’s Work on the Trinity (New City Press)
Resources:
Learning in Wartime by C.S. Lewis
Reading of Old Books by C.S. Lewis
Shaping a Christian Worldview by Thornberry/Dockery