Sunday, March 25, 2012

Knowledge Gained; Knowledge Lost

A purpose of theological education is to keep the historic Christian confessions alive from one generation to another. How important it is to have people to keep it in his/her own generation and pass it on to the next generation with clarity, depth, and generosity. 2 Timothy 2:2 is a key passage for it (It is one of my key passages for discipleship): “What you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” Timothy learned from Paul in a community of faith. Timothy was expected to educate faithful women and men who would also be able to pass it on to others.

In Culture Counts: Faith and Feeling in a World Besieged (New York: Encounter Books, 2007), Roger Scruton says:

When we say that Mary knows something, we imply that her way of thinking and acting is responsive to the way things are, so that her judgment is reliable and her actions blessed with success. Thus if I say, “She really knows this stuff,” patting a book of physics, you can take it that Mary is someone who could tell you the facts about physics. Likewise, when I point to her in the dressage arena and say, “She really knows what she is doing,” you will infer that, if you follow her example, you too will ride a horse. The topic of knowledge is hotly disputed among philosophers, but that much at least is agreed. And it explains why knowledge is important, and why human beings have developed procedures and institutions for acquiring it and passing it on. Knowledge gained is a gain for all of us; knowledge lost, a loss that all must bear. It does not matter who possesses the knowledge: the important thing is that it should be there, publicly available, and that human beings should know how to recuperate it from the common fund. That is what education does for us: it keeps knowledge alive, by endowing people with the ability to summon it…But without Mary and people like her this knowledge will be lost—and may be lost forever. You and I have a key to that knowledge, which is: “Ask Mary.” (pp. 30-31, emphasis mine)

The knowledge of the Bible and theology ought to be publicly available in the church. “Knowledge gained is a gain for all of us; knowledge lost, a loss that all must bear.” Every Christian is called to protect this knowledge from being lost by learning it, internalizing it, applying it, and educating it to others. It does not matter who possesses this knowledge. But we have to have Marys among us. We have to have keys to that knowledge. We are not only serious about the knowledge of God (theology), but also about passing on this knowledge to others (education). “We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deed of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done” (Ps. 78:4).


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