The passionate intellect

Posted by admin on Nov 2, 2006 in Academy | 0 comments

What is the purpose of the university? This is one of the main questions that first year students have grappled with since the inception of IDIS 102. With the recent publication of The Passionate Intellect, co-written by current Trinity Western University professor Dr. Jens Zimmermann, and former TWU professor Dr. Norman Klassen. This material was the foundation of IDIS 102, and is now available. in print.

Recently, Dr. Zimmermann sat down with Mars’ Hill to discuss some of the major themes the book addresses, and offer his insight into the future of the university.

“The purpose [of the book] is to address the current crisis of higher education of both secular and Christian institutions,” Zimmermann says. The crisis of the university results from “our rootlessness, which shows itself in the inability of the administration and the professors to ultimately articulate a vision for the University.”

The Passionate Intellect elaborates on the fragmentation of knowledge: the academic disciplines have become fractured and compartmentalized, each department teaching its own material. The former emphasis on holistic education, that brings together all disciplines in order to create a unified resource of knowledge, has been forgotten.

The book responds to this crisis by recovering the original Christian foundation of the university, as well as emphasizing the positive and negative effects of the Enlightenment and post-modernity.

A central focus of the book is to “retrieve the history of the university.”

The original purpose of the university, was to create spiritually and intellectually fulfilled human beings, than Incarnational humanism becomes the means to “overcome the dualism between learning and spiritual formation.”

“We need to know philosophy and theology in order to understand the university,” says Zimmermann.Learning philosophy provides the bridge of communication and dialogue between Christians and non-Christians. But Zimmermann points out “that in order to give philosophy any heart, we need theology.” Learning theology provides the means to understand the context of our faith, enabling us to realize that “the way we look at Scripture is culturally determined.” Without a firm foundation of understanding, he says, we are liable to become misinformed in our faith.

So where does Zimmermann think university education will go in the future? “It depends on the indicators, or the signs you read,” he says. He points out that there are varying predictions, but an interesting development is a renewed interest in religion as a serious academic research topic.

This is where the books’ focus on incarnational humanism enters into consideration. The incarnation is the intersection of the divine and the temporal in a specific historical time. Zimmermann believes that by emphasizing true humanism and its devotion to self- knowledge as grounded within the incarnation, the university can begin to recover its purpose of uniting all areas of knowledge on the foundation of Christ. Nevertheless, Zimmermann says that “the university is not supposed to be a church.”

The Passionate Intellect emphasizes learning from both Christian and non-Christian thinkers. Thus, learning tradition, Zimmermann says, becomes “a historical reminder of where we come from, with due humility, knowing that common reason is reason for all, and that knowledge is not territory that belongs to Christians alone.”

Zimmermann points out that “the goal is to see why Christ came – not for individual salvation alone but to redeem humanity, to make us most fully human.” To cultivate critical thinking “there should be room [within the Christian university] for diversities to be able to teach and examine.” Exclusivity is not a quality that should be characteristic of a Christian university. Rather, we should respect varying traditions and religions as we share the common ground of reason and the pursuit of learning.

As The Passionate Intellect hits bookshelves, we can expect a strong response to its message of incarnational humanism and critical thinking. In light of the current crisis of the university, Zimmermann believes education should confront and challenge students as they pursue knowledge within an environment that promotes spiritual formation, ultimately “[creating] a society that will allow humanity to flourish.”