Thursday, October 13, 2005

The Pastoral Philosopher

I especially appreciated Mark Talbot's address--for which he received a standing ovation.

During a section of the paper where he was explaining the differences between compatibilistic and libertarian freedom--which can be difficult intellectual terrain--Dr. Talbot empathetically paused to acknowledge the mind-stretching material and what his listeners should do about it. It was a unique moment, for few philosophers pause to be pastoral in their presentations! I told him afterward that I thought it was one of the best excurses I'd ever heard. He's graciously typed up his extemporaneous aside and given me permission to post it here:

Now let me pause here for a minute. We’re dealing with some really, really difficult stuff here. But I’m asking you to love God with your whole minds. We are commanded to do that. Jesus commanded us in the Great Command. Paul made a very similar appeal and exhortation in Romans 12:1 and 2. You find the same sort of thing happening in Proverbs 2 and 4, where we’re told we are to seek wisdom as we would seek silver and gold. And then, interestingly enough, the Old Testament, in Job 28, tells us about ancient mining techniques; and, boy!, the people who were seeking silver and gold in ancient times were doing a really difficult thing. Job 28 talks about them going to the ends of the earth, to desolate places where there are no animals, tunneling underground, hanging upside down, and chipping away at the rock. We are supposed to love God with our minds like that. And, while I know this happens at John’s church, it happens in very few places in the United States, where we are challenged to love God with our whole minds. I tell my students regularly, “A good reader is a confused reader. A good reader is a confused reader. The more questions you have in reading a page of material, the better a reader you are.” And a good listener is a confused listener. You can’t understand all of what I am saying today as I say it. If you want to see some more of this, look at my piece on “True Freedom” in Beyond the Bounds because in fact it deals with a lot of today’s topic. But the business here to learn to kind of hang on for the ride, knowing that God wants us to understand these things so that we can give him adequate glory.