Another Practical Guide to the Logic, Philosophy, and Thoughts of Christianity

Section 1 - Article 12

Article 12 – The role of academia in belief

A strong academic foundation is useful in the pursuit of truth. We live in an evidenced based and scientific driven global society with very few exceptions. I am not denying that academia has been often misused to hinder the pursuit of truth, or been used to diminish and down play the supernatural and miracles; as well as used to ''debunk'' God. However, I propose we view academia as a tool for truth. Like any one tool, it can be used for good or evil purposes. A hammer can be used to build a house for the poor, or war machines to kill innocents. So academia, when used for the right purposes, would do great service to the kingdom of God.

Apologetics is one such field where Christians debunk the so-called debunking of Christianity. Many of them do so academically. And it would be good to emphasize that Christianity had been open to academia throughout its development. For example, theology is an academic field. The origins of western schools and universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Harvard, Duke etc, had Church origins. Oxford and Cambridge were only admitting members of the Church of England as late as the early 1900s. The father of genetics Gregor Mendel was a priest. Even earlier, the early Church hubs of philosophical debates were in Alexandria and Greece. Was Christianity fearful of academic debates and approach? Not according to history. In fact, support for Biblical accounts such as the historical Jesus was found by scholars. Josephus, a non-believer historian of Jesus' time had written records that supported the Biblical claims. These were just some examples where academia helped the cause of evidence-based Christianity.

So what is the relevance of academia to Christianity today? Christianity had gone through a long history of philosophical debate and validation over the millenniums. It has survived because it stood robust against the attempts to debunk it all this time. It is important to know and be equipped with the right and true doctrine. Over time, the church had been contaminated with too many wayward doctrines like ''prosperity gospel'' and many of them are simply the same old Enemy tricks over and over again. And these had been corrected way too many times for informed pastors or church leaders to fall into again and again. Therefore a firm foundation in the right teaching is not only necessary for any Christian, but more so for those wanting to teach the Word.