Head, Heart & Hands: Distortions of the Head

Along with significant ways in which our mind has been part of coming to Christ, growing in faith, and engaging the world, Distortions of the Head* also come quickly to our thoughts when considering loving God with our mind.

• What Distortions of the Head have been particularly difficult for you and the communities in which you are involved?
• How have you (and the communities in which you are involved) sought to address these issues in relationship to loving God?

Below is some material on the topic in outline form, feel free to interact with it and/or share some of your own thoughts.

Distortions

• Neglect:   too little attention to the mind
  • Symptoms of neglect
    • Feelings-driven faith
    • Spiritual experiences are guided from within, i.e., outside or external influences are ignored
    • Disparaging the mind leads away from orthodoxy and towards heresy
  • Inability to engage the world as salt and light
    • Acquiescence, i.e., borrowing the thinking of the world
    • Attempts to control the world
  • Brief response: The admonition of Matthew 22:7 is to love God with all our mind.   To fail to do so, will mean our faith comes up short.
• Overemphasis: too much reliance on the mind
  • Symptoms of superiority of the mind:
    • Cold-hearted faith which fails to grasp the need for heart and hands
    • Denigration of heart and hands
    • Intellectual snobbery and pride, i.e., a “puffed up” perspective
    • Hiding from the truth through firm beliefs

Principles for a Healthy Head: Avoiding the Distortions of the Head

• Studying scripture and biblical literacy
  • Personal and corporate
  • Exegesis and applications for life
• Integrating faith and learning
  • Study of scripture is not just for theologians.
  • Developing a Christian worldview
• Integrating faith and one’s work
  • Being a scholar who is a Christian vs. being a Christian scholar
• Using the mind for God’s glory, i.e., good thought-work honors God and it is what God wants for us

Examples from Jesus and Paul

Meet those who you talk to with your mind ’ and a heart for their lives

• The woman at the well (John 4:4-26)
• The adulteress who was to be stoned (John 8:1-11)
• The rich young ruler (Mark 10: 17-22)
• Respect for brothers and sisters in Jesus
  • “Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” – I Corinthians 8:1.
• What other texts “come to mind” as illustrations of meeting those who you talk to with your mind ’ and a heart for their lives. Do you have a story from your own life to share (on the giving and/or receiving end)?

Questions

In case you haven’t already done such, please let us know what “comes to mind” as

• Distortions of the Head which have been particularly difficult for you and the communities in which you are involved.
• You (and the communities in which you are involved) have sought to address these issues in relationship to loving God.

Next in series: Christian Faith and the Heart.

*Drawn from an adult elective based upon Dennis Hollinger‘s “Head, Heart & Hands: Bringing Together Christian Thought, Passion and Action” (InterVarsity Press, 2005). Kevin Milligan facilitated the class at Elizabethtown Brethren in Christ Church. Note: See the first post in the series for more on the genesis of this study guide as part of a local Emerging Scholars Network partnership (South Central Scholars Network PA FB and Christian Scholar Series).