The Outrageous Idea of the Missional Professor. Paul M. Gould
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God’s larger story. Christian professors who are seeking to be faithful witnesses for Christ within the secular academy face immense challenges.
Faithfulness to Christ in this day and age requires savvy, humility, intention, and the community of believers both within and outside the academy. It requires that we live our lives pursuing God’s purposes. That task is difficult for most Christians and doubly so for academics who live and breathe within an academic structure that encourages self-promotion and personal accomplishment. May we together seek to live our lives for the glory of God and the love of man as Christian scholars. The result will be revolutionary.
A Spiritual Revolution
In his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions,5 Thomas Kuhn describes the history of science in terms of eras of relatively normal science and scientific activities punctuated by paradigm-changing episodes of scientific revolution. A scientific paradigm is “overthrown” when it no longer is able to best accommodate anomalies. Scientific discovery and the uncovering of new phenomena lead to shifts in the way the world is understood: the Ptolemaic paradigm of the universe is overthrown by the heliocentric paradigm; phlogiston theory is abandoned with the discovery of oxygen; caloric theories of heat are replaced with kinetic theories; and so on. As a result, our world (and our view of the world) changes.
Our world has witnessed many revolutions—political, ideological, and religious—over its history. Some revolutions have brought on lasting change while others were short-lived. Some revolutions have had only a local impact while others have been truly global. There is, however, a revolution afoot today that is both global in scope and has the power to change both individual lives as well as society. It is the revolution of the human heart brought on by faith in Jesus. The bent of the human heart is toward self and idolatry. And the only cure for this human condition is Christ. Our world is a world of violence, injustice, and strife. And the only hope for this world is a Savior who redeems and restores. Jesus has called his followers to join with him as agents of change. Imagine a movement of missional professors within every academic discipline and on every secular college and university in the world.
Such a state of affairs would cause, in Kuhn’s terminology, a “crisis” of belief with respect to the two dominant stories within the academy and culture at large: scientific naturalism and postmodernism. Evolutionary explanations for religious belief would appear as they are: ad hoc attempts to avoid a godly explanation for any aspect of reality. Postmodernism (in its most extreme articulation) would be revealed as an unlivable and desperate attempt to find meaning in a world that is meaningless apart from God.
The presence of so many anomalies (in the form of missional professors) would cause non-believing professors and students (and society in general) to examine their own beliefs and hearts in light of the gospel of Christ. Listen to the story told by C. S. Lewis of how God moved into his life:
No sooner had I entered the English School than I went to George Gordon’s discussion class. And there I made a new friend. The very first words he spoke marked him out from the ten or twelve others who were present; a man after my own heart . . . His name was Nevill Coghill. I soon had the shock of discovering that he—clearly the most intelligent and best-informed man in that class—was a Christian and a thoroughgoing supernaturalist . . . Barfield was beginning to overthrow my chronological snobbery; Coghill gave it another blow . . .
These disturbing factors in Coghill ranged themselves with a wider disturbance which was now threatening my whole earlier outlook. All the books were beginning to turn against me . . . George MacDonald had done more to me than any other writer; of course it was a pity he had that bee in his bonnet about Christianity . . . Chesterton had more sense than all the other moderns put together; bating, of course, his Christianity. Johnson was one of the few authors whom I felt I could trust utterly; curiously enough, he had the same kink . . . On the other hand, those writers who did not suffer from religion and with whom in theory my sympathy ought to have been complete—Shaw and Wells and Mill and Gibbon and Voltaire—all seemed a little thin; what as boys we called “tinny” . . . There seemed to be no depth in them. They were too simple. The roughness and density of life did not appear in their books.6
Lewis goes on to describe how everywhere he turned God was pursuing, even haunting, him. The most riveting books were written by Christians or those not beholden to atheism. The Christians he met were not unlearned; rather they were fellow students and professors at prestigious institutions of learning such as Oxford and Cambridge.
Eventually, there were too many anomalies to his naturalistic atheism, and Lewis was forced into a crisis of belief:
All over the board my pieces were in the most disadvantageous positions. Soon I could no longer cherish even the illusion that the initiative lay with me. My Adversary began to make His final moves.7
Finally, in the quiet of his own room at Magdalen College, in 1929, Lewis bent his knee and surrendered his will to God.
It is instructive that Lewis’s own crisis of belief was brought to a head as he was confronted (and confounded) at every turn by faithful Christians and the profundity of the Christian worldview. Christians had a depth and settledness that caused him to question his own sense of security. Christianity had the ring of truth to it in a way that revealed the “tinniness” of his atheism. Lewis’s life was forever changed and the world is different because of it.
The university is one of the most important and influential institutions in our world. As professors, you play an important role in shaping the lives and thoughts of the world’s future business leaders, educators, entertainers, and writers. As a Christian professor, God has called you to be a witness for Christ, bringing your expertise to bear on the needs of the world, pointing students, administrators and colleagues to Christ, and involving others in the only revolution that will truly transform a person and society, the revolution of the human heart brought on by Jesus Christ. Some of you are already living missional lives as professors and need encouragement to “excel still more” (1 Thess 4:10, NASB). Many aren’t living missionally and need a clear vision of such a life and role models to lead the way. We all need God’s grace and mercy as we try to faithfully follow Christ. Will you join with God and others in this spiritual revolution of Jesus? On the pages to follow, we’ll consider what such a life looks like.
Questions for Personal Reflection or Group Discussion
1. Do you agree or disagree with Gould that the idea of a missional professor is outrageous—startling and unusual—within the secular university? Why or why not?
2. Discuss the central outrageous idea of this book: God wants to use professors as professors to reach others, play a role in transforming the academy, and meet the needs of the world. What aspect of this central idea is the most challenging to you? Which is most exciting to you?
3. Consider Stanley Fish’s quote. Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not?
4. Gould states that being a missional professor requires great courage. Why? He also states that the presence of missional professors in the university is rare. Do you agree or disagree? Can you point to any examples of missional professors that have been a source of encouragement to you?
5. Discuss the fictional letter from the apostle Paul. Do you think this letter is at all close to the truth with respect to Christian professors, the university, and the contemporary church? Why or why not?
6. Gould argues that the main challenge for Christian professors today is to live a “joined up life.” Do you struggle with living such a life as a Christian professor? How so? What has been helpful to you?
7. How is the revolution of Jesus different than other revolutions?
8. Share your story of how you came to Christ. What was the role of Christians in your journey? What was the role of Christian academics in your journey?
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