Wisdom

One of our family practices is eating breakfast together and beginning the day with Scripture and prayer. Recently we have begun working through the book of Proverbs. The other day we came to the following section.

Wisdom cries aloud in the street,
    in the markets she raises her voice;
 at the head of the noisy streets she cries out;
    at the entrance of the city gates she speaks

Proverbs 1:20-21

It’s a verse we’ve come across before, but this time I paid more attention. I thought about the way wisdom is something that deals with the practicalities of life. Wisdom is about applying the Lordship of Christ to mundane and earthy things. Thus, it is interesting that wisdom cries out in the street, the market and at the city gates. These are the places where business, politics and justice are conducted.

Christianity is not a faith that remains a personal matter. It is not just about you and your quiet time with Jesus. It’s not just about a wonderful experience on Sunday in corporate worship. These things are important. But we are also called to live out this faith as we exercise dominion under the King of kings and Lord of Lords. That means our faith informs our everyday business and political life which sometimes concerns those of a more pietistic faith. A focus on the right doctrine and a personal faith in Christ is all very well and good, but if our private and public worship does not lead to wisdom in the mundane practicalities of life in God’s world, there is a problem.

Do Facts Get in the Way of Critical Thinking?

Like many of my readers, I have enjoyed the work of Dr Guy Hatchard throughout the Covid debacle. He has demonstrated himself to be a non-conformist and a man who can think outside the government constructed ideological box. That being said, I want to disagree with Dr Hatchard on a post he wrote recently entitled ‘The Pandemic was Yesterday Today we have a Serious Problem‘.

In the article, Hatchard points out that non-conformists are often the creatives that drive progress. I think we all know this from experience to be the truth. However, where he goes wrong is when he explores how the New Zealand education system is leading to fewer non-conformists and creatives.

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The Besetting Sins of Intellectuals

One of the besetting sins of professional intellectuals as a class is believing that, because they have a particular depth of knowledge or strong ability in a given area, they can then generalize their narrow knowledge and ability into the notion of their own superior wisdom and judgement for life in general. Frequently disregarding the everyday, non-theoretical and mundane knowledge of ordinary people in the real world, central socio-political planning is taken on by the ‘experts’ – a particular kind of intellectual – as part of a broader intelligentsia who believe they alone are qualified to guide and shape society.

from “Ruler of Kings: Toward a Christian Vision of Government” by Joseph Boot