25 October 2007

Heart Knowledge is Better than Head Knowledge?

Although it's an amalgam of several different sources, the post on Anti-Intellectualism in Christianity over at Beyond Rivalry really spoke to me on a number of levels.

Not that I consider myself an 'intellectual', but I sometimes feel that we in the Methodist Church particularly value the question: 'How can I use this idea within the next twenty four hours to achieve some kind of concrete result?' There is certainly nothing wrong with this kind of pragmatic focus, but I do sometimes wonder whether we have also devalued the exercise of stepping back and actually thinking or praying about whether our actions are oriented toward God, our Christian values or our identity.

I also do worry that we (I'm speaking of the British Methodist Church here) by and large think that faithful academic theology is useless. We seem to think that unless immediate theological reflection can be done which results in a thought I can use in the next twenty-four hours, that studying theology is a waste of time. I don't think most of us are in the camp of thinking that theology ruins one's faith, but I'm not sure that collectively as a church we value theological study.

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not an academic but I've found that the theology I've read just for pleasure has served me well over the long term. I don't always have immediate 'use' for it, but I do feel that it's given me a good foundation both for preaching and for my own faith. John Stott seems to think so too and he can hardly be accused of being a liberal.

6 comments:

Sally said...

Pam this is a very good question... although I may have framed it a little differently- I am very much a heart knowledge biased person but find that theology feeds my heart as well as my head and that thinking it through is essential!
As far as anti-intellectualism goes yes I think there is a level of that, and an over use or Methodisms pragmatic nature as an excuse just to dive in and do....
I guess I want to ask if theology is head knoweldge or whether it sits somewhere between the heart and head feeding both and enabling us to reflect and act differently?
Bottom line we need both!
now I am rambling- but you've got me thinking!!!

PamBG said...

I am very much a heart knowledge biased person but find that theology feeds my heart as well as my head and that thinking it through is essential!

I think I'd probably say the same thing about myself and I agree that we need both. I guess what I'm saying there is that I think we're so biased toward 'doing things' that we often don't understand the value of thinking things through.

At the risk of sounding like I'm complaining, as an example, I'd like to do a paper on non-violent atonement for my Probationer's paper. The Chair of my District thought this was exciting but no-one else on the Probationer's committee does, including my tutor. 'Link it in to something practical' is the cry. OK, fine, if I were doing a sermon, everyone in the pews needs to understand how this theology applies to them. But it's NOT a sermon; it's supposed to be a paper born out of the fruits of an exercise (Probationer's study day) that is set up to encourage ministers toward life-long learning. Or so they say. But the learning isn't valued unless it can be immediately linked to 'something practical'.

Sandalstraps said...

We seem to think that unless immediate theological reflection can be done which results in a thought I can use in the next twenty-four hours, that studying theology is a waste of time.

I don't think that line describes just British Methodists. It describes this side of the pond, too.

I find that mode of thinking most apparent in MDiv students in seminary with me, who upon encountering a complicated argument from, say, Paul Tillic, will toss up their hands and scream:

How will THIS preach?!?

without bothering to first ask something more like:

What does this MEAN?

PamBG said...

How will THIS preach?!?

I wonder if we're confusing preaching with studying theology?

Olive Morgan said...

At our first session of the course entitled 'The Heart of the Divine' at Sarum Theological College, Salisbury, it was emphasised that the danger of any course is that it remains 'head knowledge' and therefore makes no difference to our lives. We were told that there is a connection between the ear and the heart and urges to use this channel so that what we learn is not only 'head knowlege' but becomes 'heart knowlege', part of us and changing us. No connection was made with preaching.

This same point is made in the material supplied for leaders of the CPAS course 'Lost for Words' and we are asked to encourage our people to make sure that what we teach becomes 'heart knowledge' before they take the Good News to their contact people.

PamBG said...

Olive, I'm not trying to denigrate heart knowledge. I'm trying to defend the study of theology in a context where I don't think it's actually valued very much.

The extreme scenario, which I fear we may be travelling toward, is members and ministers who don't know either the bible very well nor Christian tradition very well.

In terms of moving head knowledge to heart knowledge, I think that's best done by a regular personal prayer time, by seeing a loving Christian life modelled and by meeting in a loving, forgiving, praying and supportive small group. The latter is something most people don't seem to want to do in my experience.