In the past, it was a reasonably effective way to become a Christian (or a better Christian) to learn and practice Christian knowledge systems - such as theology, the history of Christianity, the Bible, doctrines, rituals etc.
In other words, once upon a time, some generations ago; knowing-about and talking-about Christianity had some relationship to being a Christian; some correlation to the reality of actual Christian experience.
Not any more.
Because of changes in human consciousness; the world of knowledge systems has become detached from actual experience. Knowledge systems are now wholly abstract - that is, when they are not merely subordinated components of the over-arching totalitarian-bureaucratic system.
As of here-and-now; it does not help At All for a Christian to be knowledgeable about The Bible, theology, or history of the church - or any other knowledge system*.
Indeed, the most knowledgeable and expert in such fields are often not-Christian or anti-Christian - and it would probably be a true generalization to state that the more adept someone is in Christian knowledge-systems, the less likely they are to be a Christian.
That this detachment or inversion of the role of knowledge-systems is ultimately caused by changes in human consciousness, in the way that people think and behave - is evident from the fact that it affects every domain of human activity, every knowledge system.
"Expertise" nowadays has a zero or reversed relationship with the true and original functionality of systems:
In medicine, the higher up the ladder of expertise and status and power; the less likely it is that the person will be motivated by real-life, inter-personal, medical considerations - and at the highest levels of the medial profession, it is very probable that the net-motivation is anti-health, anti-well-being, anti-human.
In science; the real scientific attitude (which is itself very rare) is found only at lower levels or among amateurs; and is rigorously excluded-from (or stamped-out in) professional researchers as they ascend the ladder of expertise in knowledge systems.
This applies across the board in modern society: the most senior and expert lawyers main activity is to subvert justice; the leading journalists and media people are almost full-time engaged in manipulation and systematic dishonesty rather than informing; the highest level people in the arts subsidise and reward anti-art and calculated ugliness etc. etc.
The fact that people spend much of their lives thinking-about, communicating about symbolic-knowledge of some particular sort; does not lead-to - does not even correlate with - genuine motivation and experience of the underlying reality to which these symbol-systems supposedly refer.
Always we find that any formerly-existing broad relationship between knowledge-about and practice-of, has now been severed.
The knowledge-system expertise is therefore a distraction at best, and actively misleading more often.
But recognizing the absolute detachment of knowledge-systems from the real thing is probably of the greatest significance in respect to Christianity; because that is the most important subject in the world.
* This is how we typically find that priests are less good Christians than laity and Bishops worse than priests; why the most experts Biblical scholars - including the ordained - are the most distorted in interpretation, the most worldly, and subversive to faith... and so forth.
3 comments:
"This applies across the board in modern society: the most senior and expert lawyers main activity is to subvert justice; the leading journalists and media people are almost full-time engaged in manipulation and systematic dishonesty rather than informing; the highest level people in the arts subsidise and reward anti-art and calculated ugliness etc. etc."
This is so true . It's a real Kali Yuga/ End times phenomenon, the perversion of an institution or function to work against its original purpose.
I don't think getting into a debate would be very productive, but I must admit a claim like this is staggering to me!
@William and Mal - The change has been incremental, and at different rates in different institutions.
I noticed as soon as I started to work in the NHS, mid 1980s, that nurses were becoming very managerial. Science began a few years later, with more and more bureaucracy related to grants and inspections. Academia in general became more and more clogged with paperwork, then through the 1990s the administration began to work for the government - rather than for the university - at first with research funding and inspections; then in the 2000s management took over all functions including teaching and pastoral work. Less and less teaching and research were done, and the path to career success was via becoming a manager - including that high level science became full-time research/ project management.
In the later years before I retired, there were *many* very senior "academics" (i.e. professorial rank and higher) with teams doing completely new and invented jobs - i.e. nothing to do with the core university functions of teaching and scholarship - in generic global-totalitarian projects such as diversity, outreach, inclusion, equality, antiracism, womens'-stuff, environmental impact, regionalism and so forth.
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