It is often wrongly supposed that Faith means operating contrary to the mind, believing in something you know is really not true. Faith, in the New Testament context, actually means operating consistently with your mind, especially when doing so is difficult. It means holding on to what has been revealed to you, when the reminders of that revelation have grown distant.
The Greek word for Mind is 'nous', and this has crept into a dialect word for common sense in today's language.
The key emphasis I want to make is that Christianity promotes the use of the Mind, the intellect, and not the reverse.
The very beginning of Mark's gospel (ch.1 v.14-15) records as follows:
After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. "The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news."
When you look at the Greek word translated 'repent' you find that it literally means 'get a new mind' or 'change your thinking'.
Throughout his ministry Jesus was to challenge much of the thinking of his contemporaries. He criticised the legalism of the traditionalists. He befriended the social outcast, the weak, the unrepresented. He was admired, and feared, for the sharpness of his mind, his skill in disputation against the scholars of his day. Just read the gospels and this theme will be crystal clear. They record the many times when he bettered those who sought to trap him in debate.
The sermon on the mount (Matthew ch.5-7) is one of the strongest exhibitions of revolutionary thinking ever recorded, and it was spoken and recorded nearly 2000 years ago. It is more intellectually challenging than anything equally old. In my opinion nothing, not the writings of Plato and Aristotle (a few centuries before) nor any since, is more intellectually challenging, than the teaching of Jesus. Just read those three chapters as a sample. And then read more.
Jesus was a true intellectual as well as a revolutionary. He was condemned to death for the words he had spoken, because of the affront they were to the orthodoxy of the day.
My own experience after an adult conversion to Christianity was a sharpening of intellectual capacity, and I still today, after 40 years of believing, regard fitness of mind as an important part of the balance of my life. My mind needs exercise as my body does.
It is a parody of Christianity to suppose that believing the good news means intellectual suicide. Just the reverse, in my experience.
So much of what passes for smartness these days is much more a denial by the intellect of what is known to be true. All the evidence points to the harm that drug-taking causes, but it is on the increase. All the evidence points to the conclusion that continual self-indulgence is counterproductive to happiness, but it is almost universally ignored. The ability of politicians to make decisions that have an effect exactly the opposite of what they intended is well known. 'The March of Folly' is the title of a book containing many notable historical examples. The newspapers chronicle many of the contemporary examples.
Sickness of the mind is truly a sad thing. Senile dementia is always distressing to those who suffer from it, and to the relatives and carers of the sufferer. I pray for the gift of a clear mind, the ability to go on being rational to the end of my days on this earth. I trust I will never willingly let anything reduce my clarity of thinking. I pray, dear reader, that you will embrace this challenge too.
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