Mission of the Mind: David Bunce
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“Aren't you worried that you are going to lose your faith?” This is a question which I occasionally get asked. The questioner is normally wearing a concerned frown, and the question is accompanied by furtive eye movements, searching for physiological signs that, Martyn Joseph-esque, I have begun swearing like a trooper and drinking like a bum. The reason for the concern? The discovery that I study theology (at a very-low-not-very-good sort of level) in a secular university rather than in a seminary or a Bible college. There is a keen and important pastoral concern behind this question and I don't want to knock that. Many people have gone to University (not just to study theology) and lost their childhood faith upon discovering higher criticism or serious philosophical arguments against theism, or having seen that beliefs they hold might not be particularly warranted in the face of evidence. But the flip side of this concern also demonstrates the need for a “mission of the mind”. There are morally and intellectually rigorous arguments against faith (and then there is Richard Dawkins), and sticking our heads in the sand isn't going to make them go away. Therefore, it is important the Church has the grammar to articulate a reason for the hope we have within us, to borrow the language of 1 Peter. I believe passionately that an evangelical, bold articulation of the gospel on its own terms is possible. But to do that, we need to set people apart in order that they might think deeply and carefully about the claims of the Christian faith. The mission of the mind is not only an external one - it is also a ministry directed inwards to the Church. The temptation to slip back into self-sufficiency and idolatry is constant. Such is human nature. The Church consequently needs thinkers theologians and teachers to faithfully re-proclaim the gospel and to rip down the false gods that we continually build up. Paul's language about “taking captive every thought” (2 Corinthians 10:5) evokes the image of a difficult struggle which demands the best from the believer. And that's what the mission of the mind is about - a determined, daily effort to bring every thought into the light of gospel and there discover it judged and reformulated. I look forward to Catalyst Live's contribution to this mission.
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