Why is it that bestselling Christian books are generally light and fluffy self-help manuals, and rarely thoughtful presentations of theology or apologetics?
" In other words, more than anything, deep sustained attention is required for the higher sciences, such as philosophy or theology. But who among us has the time in today’s world for this kind of rigorous thinking? The very idea of meditating upon some abstract and invisible idea, without regard for its practical use or function, requires a kind of stillness and rest that is rarely found outside of the aristocratic leisure class. In democratic societies..."
There's an interesting counter to this -- it also counters the notion that accepts (due in large part to the above quote's implications) that the elite will get "eliter" in their wisdom, while the working man will be too busy to contemplate the deeper things.
William James (whom you mentioned) coined the term "Effortless Custody of Automatism" which, simplified, posited that the body industriously engaged in repetitive manual labor actually becomes (ironically) freer to contemplate deeper things. It's sort of the converse (if you will) to "The idle brain is the Devil's playground". It in part explains why you just might be engaging in a philosophical debate with a farmer at your own peril. Time in the field is time to think. And, on the other hand, it's painfully easy to note the academic decline in the Ivy League among the "time-to-think" crowd.
I like to say I made millions as a potter, hundreds as a guitarist, and though I only made hundreds as a writer, nevertheless I made thousands because I wrote. And I was (and perhaps still am since, though I had to give up my life as a potter, I nevertheless still write WHILE I am working) the living example of that "effortless custody of automatism". While my hands were engaged in the repetitive work at the wheel, my mind was freed to think and to write. Of course at some point I had wipe the clay off my hands and walk over to the keypad, but that's not where I did my writing.
I guess I didn't bloviate all the above to rebut your central point -- modern Christianity is perhaps overly concerned with utility and wouldn't be if it took the words of the New Testament seriously.
Still, I might push back a little. Not to defend where we've gotten to, but maybe so as to not pendulum swing in an opposite direction:
The Christian life isn't a choice between theology and the practical as if (as I often hear it argued) the Bible is either Law or the Gospel. The Bible is also Wisdom literature -- not law, but you ignore it at your peril. And not the Gospel, but a gift for hope of surviving as well as we can in a fallen world. There's no guarantee of a "best life now" in the wisdom literature. The wisdom isn't a guarantee of a good outcome in a fallen world. But it was a grace that it was included to help us.
"Strive to live quietly, to attend to your own affairs, and to work with your hands"
" In other words, more than anything, deep sustained attention is required for the higher sciences, such as philosophy or theology. But who among us has the time in today’s world for this kind of rigorous thinking? The very idea of meditating upon some abstract and invisible idea, without regard for its practical use or function, requires a kind of stillness and rest that is rarely found outside of the aristocratic leisure class. In democratic societies..."
There's an interesting counter to this -- it also counters the notion that accepts (due in large part to the above quote's implications) that the elite will get "eliter" in their wisdom, while the working man will be too busy to contemplate the deeper things.
William James (whom you mentioned) coined the term "Effortless Custody of Automatism" which, simplified, posited that the body industriously engaged in repetitive manual labor actually becomes (ironically) freer to contemplate deeper things. It's sort of the converse (if you will) to "The idle brain is the Devil's playground". It in part explains why you just might be engaging in a philosophical debate with a farmer at your own peril. Time in the field is time to think. And, on the other hand, it's painfully easy to note the academic decline in the Ivy League among the "time-to-think" crowd.
I like to say I made millions as a potter, hundreds as a guitarist, and though I only made hundreds as a writer, nevertheless I made thousands because I wrote. And I was (and perhaps still am since, though I had to give up my life as a potter, I nevertheless still write WHILE I am working) the living example of that "effortless custody of automatism". While my hands were engaged in the repetitive work at the wheel, my mind was freed to think and to write. Of course at some point I had wipe the clay off my hands and walk over to the keypad, but that's not where I did my writing.
I guess I didn't bloviate all the above to rebut your central point -- modern Christianity is perhaps overly concerned with utility and wouldn't be if it took the words of the New Testament seriously.
Still, I might push back a little. Not to defend where we've gotten to, but maybe so as to not pendulum swing in an opposite direction:
The Christian life isn't a choice between theology and the practical as if (as I often hear it argued) the Bible is either Law or the Gospel. The Bible is also Wisdom literature -- not law, but you ignore it at your peril. And not the Gospel, but a gift for hope of surviving as well as we can in a fallen world. There's no guarantee of a "best life now" in the wisdom literature. The wisdom isn't a guarantee of a good outcome in a fallen world. But it was a grace that it was included to help us.
"Strive to live quietly, to attend to your own affairs, and to work with your hands"