Unbiblical: The Heart vs. Mind Dichotomy (Miniblog #110)

How many times have I been told that I need to lower my (mental) standards for church settings? This doesn’t make the least bit of sense to me. Why is it that even smart Christians act as though you’re suppose to turn off, or at the every least dial down, your brain at church or when you’re around the church community? Even among christian academics, how many of them think it’s OK to utilize the full critical thinking they use in their coursework/scholarship while listening to a sermon or discussing something in a small group?¹1.For that matter, how many of them don’t compartmentalize their professional and spiritual lives? Faith should inform scholarship and scholarship should inform faith. Why is that so hard to see, or live? Not gonna lie: I can’t stand this cultural assumption; it’s one of the main reasons I want to plant a church. I guess this all goes back to how I frame the faith. Namely, I fundamentally disagree with the bifurcation between heart and mind upon which most of our American church culture seems to be premised. Christ told us to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. In avoiding an extended exegetical treatment, I think the point Jesus was driving home is that we’re to love God with the entirety of our being, which will inevitably manifest itself in genuine love for our neighbor. I believe that all of those elements that collectively comprise humanity are to be drawn inward, toward one another, as a centripetal force until they merge, become indistinguishable, and ultimately become one in the same. This is why I get frustrated when people pit heart against mind. If ya love God with your mind but it doesn’t lead to his or her heart, people absolutely wig out–calling it dead religion and all that. And they should!²2.That’s a good and healthy response. Somethin’ is broken there and must be corrected. I wholeheartedly agree. Yet where’s the outcry in the opposite direction? That is, if people love God with their heart but it doesn’t lead to their mind, why is it ya don’t ya don’t hear a peep about it? I genuinely believe this is hypocritical behavior that contradicts the teaching that our Lord describe as “the greatest commandment.”³3.I’ve no difficult grasping why we don’t live this out perfectly as we ought. Welcome to life in a fallen world. What I don’t get is why so few notice, let alone seem bothered by, this short in our human wiring.