Reviewed by Garrett Trott
Librarian
Who was the smartest individual who has ever lived? Socrates, Augustine, or perhaps Einstein? While all of these individuals were notable thinkers, James Sire, in his work, Habits of the Mind, suggests that perhaps the smartest individual who has ever lived was Jesus Christ.
While at first, one does not consider Jesus Christ to be an intellectual, Sire’s work assists any reader in connecting the dots between intellectualism and being Christ-like. Sire begins his work by dismantling some of the assumptions that Christians have towards intellectualism. For example, some argue that passages like 1 Corinthians 8:1-2, which state, “…this ‘knowledge’ puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know,” promote anti-intellectualism among Christians. Sire disassembles these ideas and convincingly argues that an element of Christianity, and a critical element at that, is the intellect.
Sire closes his first chapter by providing an excellent definition of an intellectual:
An intellectual is one who loves ideas, is dedicated to clarifying them, developing them, criticizing them, turning them over and over, seeing their implications, stacking them atop one another, arranging them, sitting silent while new ideas pop up and old ones seem to rearrange themselves, playing with them, punning with their terminology, laughing at them, watching them clash, picking up the pieces, starting over, judging them, withholding judgment about them, changing them, bringing them into contact with their counterparts in other systems of thought, inviting them to dine and have a ball but also suiting them for service in workaday life (pp.27-8).
Sire continues his discussion of the intellectual life as a Christian calling by using John Henry Newman as an exemplar. John Henry Newman led a very full life beginning in the Anglican Church and eventually transitioning to become a Catholic priest. The Catholic Church approached Newman in 1854 to be the founding rector of the Catholic University in Ireland. In so doing, Newman composed lectures that were compiled as published as “The Idea of a University.” In this work, Newman, provides an ideology of what a university is supposed to do: integrating truth into the world.
Sire uses Newman’s ideology as a foundational element for the Christian’s intellectual life. While Sire has defined “intellectual,” what does it mean to be a “Christian intellectual”? Are there any distinctions? Sire answers this question with a resounding “yes.” While in many facets a non-Christian and Christian intellectual are similar, Sire notes one outstanding distinction: “A Christian intellectual is everything an intellectual proper is but to the glory of God” (p.88).
This distinction sets the tone for the rest of Sire’s work when he discusses intellectual virtues and intellectual disciplines. Sire suggests four categories of virtues: passion for the truth, passion for holiness, passion for consistency, and compassion for others. He argues that a proper tone for intellectual stimulation comes about when a passion for the truth is coupled with a passion for holiness set in the framework of humility. Sire provides an excellent framework in which a Christian intellectual can flourish, yet be distinct from their non-Christian colleagues.
Sire does not let his work rest by simply providing a picture of how things should be or could be. His work would not be complete without his closing chapter where he discusses the responsibilities of a Christian intellectual. He begins this chapter by noting a key element, which he alludes to throughout his book: “no one is called to be a sloppy thinker!” (p.205) He states, “Being an intellectual is after all no big deal, nothing to particularly admire or condemn. Why? Because all Christians are called to be as intellectual as befits their abilities and the work they have been called to do” (p.205). Sire moves on and suggests that for a Christian to be an intellectual they must live in truth. He breaks this idea into two critical elements: learning the truth and telling the truth. Two very simple ideas with profound implication.
Sire argues that the smartest man who ever lived was Jesus Christ. This is because he was fervent to learn the truth and impassioned to tell the truth. As followers of Jesus Christ, Sire convincingly argues, that Christians have a responsibility to pursue intellectual growth, but to pursue it in order that God may be glorified.
