Why The World Hopes You Stop Thinking for Yourself
The profane, the sacred, and the lost art of thinking
*Note: this email was scheduled to go out yesterday, but because of some technical difficulties, I had to postpone the delivery. My apologies. I hope you enjoy it!
We need to bring back the art of thinking.
And by saying that, I do not mean to imply that I am an artist in thinking. I am, however, an admirer of thinking and do my best to, well, think.
Thinking requires time. And to give such an activity time feels tedious. And it is. It is tiresome, it takes too long. And yet thinkings great reward is the ability to see.
Thoughts for Reflection
Do you believe we’ve lost our collective mind in modern culture? Why do you think that is? What can we do to bring thinking back?
In a society that rewards immediacy, how can we be people of deep thought and measured action, while also being people of levity and joy?
As you continue to read, think about how thinking and seeing are related. What do you think is their connection?
How We Corrupt the Sacred with Our Langauge
Last week, I took my daughters on a date to our favourite restaurant. We ate and chatted for three hours. On the way home, the topic of reasonable thinking came up.
And like all beautiful conversations with children, the dialogue meandered from the original question of vulgar language to the improbable place of right thinking. For children, subtle connections in thought make sense because innocence guides their curiosity while in adults curiosity is the slave to whatever is vogue.
Children can skip down a line of thought and visit all kinds of interesting side trails, while adults have a hard time just paying attention.
Our conversation about “thinking” started in a most unusual place: profanity. Here’s how it went.
When my daughters asked about the origin of profanity and why people used it, I told them that the profane in life is a corruption of the sacred.
So, when we use profanity, we bend or corrupt or profane the sacred in our language.
Some people defend the use of profane language because it is “authentic” to life experience. It’s real. Life is messy, we like to say. It’s full of muck, and profanity expresses this muck.
Even if that idea is true, which it’s not, God calls Christians towards a unique existence. And by unique, I mean holy: a life distinguished by moral and natural excellency—the excellency of God himself.
Of course, we cannot be holy/distinguished as God is, but this is the journey to which he calls us.1
And think about this journey. What marks the Christian journey?
Joy marks the Christian journey. And joy signals life. And life is the sacred tapestry God bestows.
“Eh, but Tim,” you say, “isn’t the profane in life and in language something that just is there, something we must deal with. Why make a big deal out of it?”
“Ah yes,” I reply. “I believe the muck of life acts as a contrast to the light of life. The light draws us to its source. The muck can either suck us in whole or divert us from the holy pathway. altogether.”
“Profane language,” I told my girls, “reveals what is in the heart. Jesus himself reminded his disciples that out of the heart the mouth speaks.2 And how is the heart shaped?"
It is shaped by what goes into our eyes and ears. Our heart is shaped by the imagination. And the modern world’s clear task, as evidenced by their own admission,3 is to overwhelm and control our imaginations.
The imagination works with our rational minds to make sense of the world.
You can tell a dull imagination by the use of the profane and by the shallowness of thought and nearsightedness of vision. I think of Quentin Tarantino’s work as an example of someone who champions the profane and thoughtlessness in his film work.4
But I can also think of myself as someone who loses their reasonable mind when stress or anxiety controls my imagination. My actions follow, and a mess blows up in my face. Can you relate?
So, we all of us hover somewhere between the holy and profane. When we stay in the profane, however, our discourse suffers. We rely on shallowness and vulgarity that opposes a gospel presence in the world if you catch my meaning.
The conversation with my daughters ended with me explaining how you can always tell when people corrupt language or thought because they use unreasonable discourse.
I gave them examples of the news media, how pundits don’t use thoughtful discourse. Instead, they employ ad hominem arguments or red herrings to divert their opponent. I told them that if we cannot engage in honest discourse, where participants exchange thoughtful views with humility and respect, then the division in our country will continue to widen.
The world and its elite players bank on the masses not thinking. They expect everyone to follow the trends, to jump on board with what’s fashionable. It’s the thinking people that pose a problem to the world’s desire to manipulate and control for the end game of money and power.
But the Beauty Chasers of the world, those living in rebellion to thoughtlessness and the profane, pose a threat to the status quo because they live as resident aliens in a place that doesn’t hold ultimate peace.
You and I, we must persevere and be pursuers of the holy; never content to allow the profane to guide our thoughts and language.
In his book Heretics, G.K. Chesterton explains what it means to take God’s name in vain. He was chastised by members of the clergy who thought that because Chesterton used God’s name in the context of humour that he was taking God’s name in vain. But Chesterton retorts that to take something in vain “is to use it with no use,”5 and that humour is indeed a very good and useful thing.
Chesterton’s definition of the vain—even though he is using it as it relates to using God’s name in vain—helps us see that if our language does not hold to an anchor of good and beautiful use, it will devolve into baseness.
Like it or not, our language and our reasonableness reflect the depth of our spiritual lives.
If you read C.S. Lewis's collection of essays God In The Dock you'll find Lewis's final interview conducted in 1963 at Magdalene College, Cambridge University with Mr. Wirt from the Billy Graham Association.6
These exchanges stuck out to me with regard to our conversation here:
Mr. Wirt: What is your opinion of the kind of writing being done within the Christian church today?
Lewis: A great deal of what is being published by writers in the religious tradition is a scandal and is actually turning people away from the church. The liberal writers who are continually accommodating and whittling down the truth of the Gospel are responsible.
Further in the conversation, Mr. Wirt asks Lewis about the use of the profane within writing as a means to make writing seem more authentic.
Mr. Wirt: Do you think filth and obscenity is necessary in order to establish a realistic atmosphere in contemporary literature?
Lewis: I do not. I treat this development as a symptom, a sign of a culture that has lost its faith. Moral collapse follows upon spiritual collapse. I look upon the immediate future with great apprehension.
I am not training my daughters to be prudes. But I am training them to understand the value of language and discourse which I believe are tied to the art of thinking.
Thoughts for Reflection:
What is your own view of the profane in this world? Why is it opposed to the Gospel living?
Do you agree with Lewis, that not only has our culture lost its faith, but that moral collapse follows upon spiritual collapse? Why or why not?
Has the Church allowed the profane to rule over the church with a spirit of sacrilege? And how does the profane in the church affect beauty, worship, and wonder?
If you are enjoying this newsletter, consider taking things to the next level. Something fun and interesting is coming for the Rebels of this email list, those who have daringly moved to become Paid Subscribers. When you move to “paid,” you join the cultural rebellion. You are saying, “I don’t want to miss out on being part of the crew that will bring some wonder back to the world.” If this is you, welcome to the rebellion. And, stay tuned.
*I made a mistake in the header to this newsletter and kept the copy promoting our one week discount but didn’t give a button for the offer. So, due to my mistake, I’m keeping the discount on until Friday. My mistake. Your benefit! :)
We Need to Have a Think
But what does a thinker look like and act like?
In his book, The Art of Thinking (1961), Ernest Dimnet characterizes a thinker as, firstly, a person of vision.7 Several of Dimnet’s observations are worth noting. I’ll highlight them here for us:
“The thinker is preeminently a man who sees where others do not. The novelty of what he says, its character as a sort of revelation, the charm that attaches to it all come from the fact that he sees.
“He seems to be head and shoulders above the crowd, or to be walking on the ridge-way while others trudge at the bottom.
“Independence is the word which describes the moral aspect of this capacity for vision.
“Nothing is more striking than the absence of intellectual independence in most human beings: they conform in opinion, as they do in manner, and are perfectly content with repeating formulas.
“While they do so, the thinker calmly looks around, giving full play to his mental freedom. He may agree with the consensus known as public opinion, but it will not be because it is universal opinion.”
Dimnet further suggests that thinkers, being people of vision, will see the truth when others will not. And sometimes this can make the thinker look dictatorial. But at their heart, the thinker is preeminently a teacher …
“and it is to the credit of most of them that they devote their lives to preaching the truth they see. Some of them do so in admirable speeches or books, others in the picturesque language of the artist, but whatever the vehicle, the devotion to truth remains visible.”
Within Dimnet’s description of a thinker lies a profile worth emulating. The person who thinks before she speaks is wise and also a thinker. The person who considers both sides of a debate or argument thoughtfully is wise and also a thinker. The person who sees when the world goes blind in their rage and sacrilege is wise and also a thinker.
I finished by telling my daughters how Scripture reminds us in several places how wisdom lies in silence, in the considered word, in patience, in the holy.8 I enjoy those kinds of talks with girls because they serve to remind me to course-correct if need to, or to continue on the path seeking the Holy One.
That pathway is not always easy. It’s carved into some rough terrain. But the narrow way was never promised to be easy. Where it leads, however, is Joy itself. And I’ll hold my tongue and my thoughts for the kind of peace.
Thoughts for Reflection:
What do you think of Dimnet’s description of a thinker? Where do you see this kind of profile today in the culture? Is it the church? Your community? Or is this kind of profile lacking in most places?
How can we build a love for holiness back into our families and faith communities?
How are you leading out in the culture with your wise and beautiful and holy words?
Thinking of the Holidays
Some years ago I wrote a Christmas story for children. I did Kickstarter and self-published it. Then, I produced an audiobook for it. If you want something to play for your kiddos on the commute or at night during bedtime, consider downloading it today.
Notes
The Hebrew word for “to be holy” is quadash. Our understanding from this word comes from the root, qad, which means “to separate.” The New Testament equivalent is hagiazo and hagio. The main idea of the word in the New Testament centers on the relationship of God and a person or thing. See Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology (Louisville, Ky: GLH Publishing, 2017), 50. See also Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Reprinted from the ed. originally publ. by Eerdmans [Grand Rapids, 1952]. (Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson, 2003), 413-415. For more on the nature of God’s holiness and how it relates to the beautiful see Gerhard von Rad, Old Testament Theology Vol. 2, Vol. 2, (Louisville [Ky.: Westminster John Knox, 1965), 204-207; 365-369.
Luke 6:45 - “A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.” (NLT)
See my earlier article in which I explore Facebook’s admission that they know how Instagram negatively affects young women and girls’ body image but do nothing about it.
See my upcoming book, due out April 2022, where I detail more of Tarantino’s work and his attack on the imagination.
“Gilbert Keith Chesterton: Heretics - Christian Classics Ethereal Library,” accessed October 25, 2021, https://www.ccel.org/ccel/chesterton/heretics.xvi.html.
C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock (Eerdmans, 2014).
Ernest Dimnet, The Art of Thinking (S.l.: Dead Authors Society, 2017).
Proverbs 29:11; James 3:7; Proverbs 12:15; Proverbs 1:7; Ephesians 4:29; James 3:13-18 et al.