The Love of Learning
An Address by Dr. Gordon Wilson
Fellow of Natural Philosophy
at the College's Seventh Commencement
May 12, 2004
Other Commencement 2004 Addresses
Mr. Josiah Helsel, B.A. Summa Cum Laude, 2004: "Life at New Saint Andrews: A Different Sort of Story"
Dr. Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Emory University (in absentia): "The Freedom of the Academy: Cui Bono?"
Dr. Peter Leithart, Senior Fellow of Theology and Literature: "Enemies"
Dr. Roy Atwood, Dean and Senior Fellow of Humanities: "A Final Charge to the Graduates"
Graduation Photo Album click here.
Graduates, faculty, staff, family, and friends; greetings,
When you arrived here some four years ago, you may not have had a deep love of learning. But you learned anyway. We faculty led you to the fountain of knowledge and made you drink. In fact, we have designed our pedagogical knowledge fountain into a sort of fire hose. The idea is that the longer you drink out of our fire hose the thirstier you grow. To a large degree, this methodology works. I have heard reliable rumors that NSA students when on fall and spring break actually read substantive books voluntarily like Calvin . . . and Hobbes. It may have developed into a mild addiction even to the point of experiencing withdrawal symptoms like cold clammy skin or the shakes if deprived of reading material. It may even get to the point of responding to Dad’s greeting the first day of break with, “current”, but probably not. Nevertheless, because we have heartily emphasized the benefits of classical education almost to the point that your life depended on it, you may be leaving here as a lean, mean, learning machine with little regard for the underlying motivation, i.e. the Glory of God.
What does it mean “to take ever thought captive to make it obedient to Christ” in our daily pursuit of knowledge? I hope to answer that question but I also want to briefly address some very real pitfalls in the pursuit of knowledge that can derail you from walking humbly before God. The first is actually a problem having to do with a distaste of learning. This reveals itself with a strong desire to spit upon all the books that caused your pain during your tenure at NSA. I won’t belabor this problem because it is so very short-lived. It is remedied by confession of bitterness (toward faculty who put force fed you all these books) and several good nights sleep. Breathing exercises may also help. It is basically the same as one’s negative attitude toward food after having overeaten at a big feast. When the stomach empties, a healthy appetite soon returns. And I am confident that your appetite for books will return soon if it hasn’t already.
Another pitfall is a fleshly desire to be puffed up with knowledge. The motivation is vainglory. The goal is to climb the academic ladder to bask in the praise of students and colleagues. You may harbor secret hopes that students one day will gape in admiration as you saunter into class and ‘shoot from the hip’ some powerful and profound lecture sprinkled with humorous anecdotes and quotes from great poets and authors. Your insidious hubris is also silently musing to yourself how your colleagues must be writhing in envy at your scholarship, teaching style, credentials, and report with the students. This is an exaggerated version of very real thoughts and temptations that can easily creep in and replace a humble and sincere devotion to Christ and can tragically be the undoing of very gifted scholars. The Bible is clear about people like this. They would rather receive praise from men than praise from God. It is not wrong to climb the ladder, receive degrees, and praise from men. It is almost inescapable for competent, hardworking people to avoid. But it must not be the goal or driving motivation. If it is, then learning is a means to glorify oneself rather than a means to glorify God. Guard yourself against this. Pride is subtle and can be cloaked in a veneer of false humility to deceive others and even yourself.
Selfish ambition or vainglory may not be your besetting sin, but you may be a creature of habit. This rigorous classical education may have produced in you a mindless obsession to perpetually learn. It is so ingrained that you must learn, like a marine addicted to PT. There is little or no joy in it, no curiosity, no gratefulness to God for giving you a mind and giving you this vast store house of knowledge that you can explore at will with wonder and delight. Rather, learning is done to assuage guilt. It’s some sort of academic penance for the sins of omission and laziness of your undergrad years. Learning is done to keep up with the Jones’ literally and figuratively. This is not love of learning; it is a miserable treadmill motivated by false guilt and an abiding insecurity fostered by the real or imagined expectations of the community. If you haven’t fallen in to one of these camps beware of still another pitfall. You may say, “I’m humble and I love to learn”, (and let’s grant that it’s true). You’re a sponge for knowledge and can’t seem to get enough. Well if this is the case, make sure you keep your guard up. We hope that you have internalized a biblical worldview, knowing the lordship of Christ in every facet of creation. This is not just a proposition to be thought; it is to be lived out. “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” 2 Corinthians 10:5, and “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ” Colossians 2:8. If we forget to critically examine everything through the lens of scripture we become vulnerable to destructive teachings and philosophies. You may have, through your voluminous reading, safely navigated through dangerous ideological waters, but the faculty was usually at your side pointing out the rocks, shoals, currents, and sea monsters that could potentially shipwreck your faith. Thankfully your faith may be solid and intact now but don’t get cocky. Many brilliant sincere Christians have strayed from orthodoxy because they, in pride or carelessness, indiscriminately imbibed all sorts of clever deceptions. Protecting yourself is not merely an academic exercise. Cling to Christ in childlike faith, pray for wisdom, love the saints, keep a clear conscience in all humility and never, ever exalt the ideas of man over the word of God.
Another pitfall is finding your academic niche and pursuing it with selfish, individualistic abandon. You love to learn the same way a glutton loves to eat. It’s a ‘just me and books’ approach to learning with little regard for anything or anybody else. As long as there is a one-way data flow from the book into your head, life is good. Heaven forbid! Knowledge is to be joyfully shared, not hoarded. It should be passed on. If your pursuit of knowledge is not motivated out of a love for God or His church; if it is not arising from a desire to think God’s thoughts after him, or to edify yourself or others in some way, then your love of learning is set on a rotten foundation. Godly learning should have a Trinitarian life of unity and diversity; of fellowship and community. If what you’re learning is glorifying to God then it should spill over with joyful enthusiasm. This does not mean you should force feed your newly acquired knowledge onto some hapless bystander. But it does mean that what you learn should directly or indirectly edify the saints, even if there is no data transfer from your head to another’s. In the same way, you can have rich table fellowship with other saints without everybody spoon feeding each other from off their own plates. Conversely, someone who is completely engrossed in his own eating experience and is oblivious to those eating around him cannot partake of the joys of table fellowship even though he is physically present.
If you want those around you to love learning and be edified in those areas you hold dear, especially your present or future household, you must not ‘hole up’ like a miserly hermit in your own little academic world. Instead, let your joy and enthusiasm overflow to the glory of God whether it is Hebrew, History, or Herpetology. If this is done humbly before God and with wisdom, your learning will not be a burden or a source of irritation to others. Rather, it will remain a joyful and contagious blessing for you, your household, and the saints of God.
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