"The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship"

It's been way too long since I did some blogging, but seeing as the madness of my fourth term of Honours has passed and some big ideas have started rolling back to me, I thought this would be the perfect time to revive the habit.

For the last couple of weeks, I've been thinking about what kind of Master's thesis I'd like to do next year. Ideas have come and gone, but I'm firmly decided on one thing: I can only do a Master's thesis grounded on something I believe in. Enter some big ideas about Christian scholarship. After all, we have feminist scholarship, postmodern scholarship, Marxist scholarship. Why can't we actually study the world from a point of view that actually has real solutions, like God's?

Then on Saturday night, just before I went to bed, I idly decided to Google Scholar the string "Christian scholarship" and see what came up. And lo and behold, first on the list was a book with the most exciting title I've seen in a long time: "The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship". Unfortunately I've not been able to read more than the cover blurb so I don't know how good the book is, but I think the author (and I) may be on to something.

The scary thing is that in today's academic environment, the idea of Christian scholarship is completely outrageous. There are two possible reasons for this. Either it's acceptable to inject just about any ideology but Christianity into one's work. You can be a Christian in your own time, but heaven (or The Universe, or whatever folks believe in) forbid that you openly take a Christian viewpoint in your work. You can draw on any number of amorphous spiritualities, African or Eastern, but don't dare look at the cross. Or – and this is even more scary – very few of us have actually even tried to view their studies from a Christian perspective.

But the exciting thing is that the time may just be ripe for a revival of Christian scholarship. Western Christians are discovering that their faith has implications for broader society beyond the usual wedge issues of abortion and gay marriage, as Jim Wallis is fond of pointing out. Here in South Africa, the National Initiative for Reformation in South Africa is getting some Christians thinking about the power of the Good News to transform society. And that, for me, is a huge breath of fresh air when the only academics talking about societal transformation seem to be steeped in Marxist ideology.

And also, postmodernism might just provide the right climate for Christian scholarship to be revived in secular universities. These days we as Humanities students are encouraged,, to confess our ideological commitments and unashamedly consider their implications for our analyses, and rightly so. What better opportunity is there to confess Christ as Lord of our work? It's time that we called the postmodernists' bluff: if they're going to be open to everyone's ideologies, well, they're going to have to be open to ours as well.

But first, as Harry Blamires says in The Christian Mind, we're going to have to learn to think like Christians. The key verse for us must be Romans 12:1: "Don't copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think." We've got a lot of listening and learning to do, letting God's Word and Spirit be our lecturers. Fortunately, we've got the work of some brave thinkers to help us, legends of a previous generation like C.S. Lewis and Francis Schaeffer, and new visionaries like Landa Cope. But there's a lot more thinking that needs to be done.

I don't know about you, but I'm keen for the challenge. Let's ask our friend the Holy Spirit to teach us, and then give us strength to withstand the flak when it comes. Let's be outrageous!