Jim Taylor’s Spring 2012 Sabbatical Leave Report
a. Period of sabbatical leave: spring semester 2012
b. Title of project: Learning, Wisdom, and the Good Life: A Philosophical
Introduction to the Christian Liberal Arts
c. Name of the sabbatical leave recipient: Jim Taylor
d. One or two sentences summarizing my activities: During my sabbatical I
wrote a book entitled, Learning, Wisdom, and the Good Life: A Philosophical
Introduction to the Christian Liberal Arts and I spent two weeks in Santa Fe,
New Mexico so that I could learn more about the liberal arts program at St.
John’s College there. I also attended three professional conferences (the 2012
meeting of the Mountain-Pacific Division of the Society of Christian
Philosophers at Westmont, the 2012 meeting of the Central Division of the
American Philosophical Association Conference in Chicago, and the 2012
Association of Core Texts and Courses annual conference in Milwaukee.
e. Full description of project activity: (Please see the book proposal that
accompanies this report.)
f. Assessment of if/how the original project objectives were met: In my original
proposal I stated that, “My plan is to write a book that covers the material
included in a standard introduction to philosophy but in such a way as to
include a section in each chapter that discusses connections between the
philosophical issues addressed and the broader Christian liberal arts
education the student is receiving.” However, instead of writing an
introduction to philosophy designed to show students the relationship
between philosophy and the Christian liberal arts in general, I ended up
writing a philosophical introduction to the Christian liberal arts. As a result,
the standard philosophical issues took a backseat to a philosophical defense
of the possibility and value of the Christian liberal arts by means of a
discussion of the nature and purpose of the Christian liberal arts.
g. List of specific outcomes/achievements: In addition to the book, I also wrote a
paper entitled, “Are Academic Disciplinary Distinctions Natural, Conventional,
or Both?” (which I wrote to present at the Society of Christian Philosophers
meeting here but ended up not doing so) and a paper entitled, “Can Theology
Still be Queen?: Newman’s University in Today’s World” (which I presented at
the annual conference of the Association of Core Texts and Courses). I also
wrote 59 100-word essays on various topics related to the Christian liberal
arts on my blog. All of these written works are available on request.
h. Suggested time and format for a report to the faculty: I would be happy to
report on my sabbatical to the faculty at any upcoming faculty forum.
BOOK PROPOSAL
Learning, Wisdom, and the Good Life:
A Philosophical Introduction to the Christian Liberal Arts
James E. Taylor
Westmont College
The Book’s Purpose: The purpose of this book is to help students at Christian liberal arts
colleges and universities understand and appreciate the nature and purpose of a Christian
liberal arts education. Many students who attend these institutions fail to grasp and value
the distinctive characteristics and goals of Christian liberal learning. As a result, they are
not able to take full advantage of the kind of education offered to them in these learning
communities.
Moreover, students often have two main concerns about the idea of a Christian approach to
the liberal arts. The first concern is that a Christian liberal arts education is not desirable.
This view frequently stems from a preference for vocational over liberal education. The
second concern is that a Christian liberal arts education is not possible. This worry is based
on the assumption that the goals of the Christian faith and liberal learning are
incompatible.
The thesis of this book is that a Christian liberal arts education is both valuable and
possible. My defense of this claim will be based on a discussion of the nature and goals of
both liberal learning and Christian discipleship. An immediate goal of both of these
activities is the cultivation of wisdom - a “renewal of mind” (Romans 12:2). Moreover, for
both, this wisdom is meant to lead to individual and societal flourishing. So a Christian
liberal arts education has worthwhile goals.
But there are also tensions between liberal learning in some of its manifestations and
Christian discipleship as it is portrayed in the Bible. I use Tertullian’s question about the
relationship between Jerusalem and Athens to highlight three of these conflicts: (1) A
liberal arts education emphasizes critical inquiry, open-mindedness, and academic
freedom; Christian living emphasizes confident faith, commitment, and submission to God.
(2) Liberal learners achieve human wisdom on the basis of natural reason; Christian
disciples receive divine wisdom on the basis of supernatural faith. (3) A liberal education
requires mastery of a set of academic disciplines; Christian devotion requires being
mastered by the Holy Spirit through the practice of spiritual disciplines. I draw on the
thought of St. Augustine to show students how these tensions can be resolved.
The book encourages students to think philosophically, comprehensively, and
systematically about the Christian liberal arts. It aims to help students transcend the
limitations of narrow, specialized, and compartmentalized disciplinary thinking to see the
Christian liberal arts as an integrated interdisciplinary pursuit of truth, goodness, and
beauty in the service of and to the glory of God. My main goal in writing this book is to
provide readers with a perspective that will ease their concerns about and strengthen their
enthusiasms for Christian liberal learning.
Though there are other books that cover some of the same ground (see below for a list and
discussion of a few of them), there is need at present for a new emphasis. I believe
attention to the virtue of wisdom can be a valuable way to meet that need. A number of
recent Christian authors have called us to rethink both the academic vocation and the
mission of the church in the midst of intellectual and cultural trends these writers argue
have gotten us off track. Mark R. Schwehn, in Exiles from Eden: Religion and the Academic
Vocation in America, encourages academics to resist the forces of modernism and to
recover the centrality of teaching, community, and virtue in the academic vocation. James K.
A. Smith, in Desiring the Kingdom: Worship, Worldview, and Cultural Formation, urges us to
replace an overly intellectualistic stress on the education of the mind with an Augustinian
accent on the formation of the heart for a life of love. Dallas Willard, in Knowing Christ
Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge, decries the secularization that has caused
even Christians to become skeptical about the claims of the Christian faith and argues that
moral and theological knowledge is possible. Finally, James Davison Hunter, in To Change
the World: The Irony, Tragedy, & Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World, advises
Christians to resist the current overly optimistic reliance on politics as a tool to change the
world and invites us instead to live lives characterized by faithful presence. As I see it, the
virtue of wisdom is an essential component of an effective response to each of these
recommendations. In the academic context, we need to focus on wisdom as the primary
goal of our learning in order to restore the goal of character formation (virtue and the
heart) to our educational aspirations. In the context of the church in the world, we need
disciples of Jesus whose wisdom and knowledge make them both confident and
authoritative “teachers of the nations” and discerning and faithful “light and salt” in the
world.
Another advantage of the wisdom theme is that it provides a common point of contact
between the biblical tradition and various non-biblical traditions. The Christian liberal arts
tradition in the Western world has already made much of the similarities between GrecoRoman and biblical conceptions of wisdom. I will discuss some of these concordances in the
book. But there are also interesting and exciting prospects for making connections with
ancient Chinese wisdom traditions as well – especially in the philosophy of Confucius but
also in the thought of Lao Tsu. I invite my student readers to explore these traditions from
a Christian standpoint in the Augustinian spirit of “stealing Egyptian gold.” In introducing
my readers to the Greco-Roman, Judeo-Christian, and Chinese wisdom traditions I also
encourage them to become acquainted with the core texts that preserve and convey these
traditions to us. These texts include works by Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas,
Confucius, Lao Tzu, and others.
The primary audience for the book: The main audience for the book is undergraduate
students at Christian liberal arts colleges and universities. The book is intended as a text for
first-year seminars, though it would also be appropriate for senior-level capstone courses.
In addition, it could be used as a supplementary text in introductory humanities courses to
provide students with a larger context within which to situate the main content of the
course. The book can be understood and enjoyed without specialized knowledge or skills;
technical terms are avoided whenever possible and clearly defined when used. Each
chapter will be prefaced by an outline and a list of key terms. There will also be a summary,
discussion questions, and suggestions for further reading at the end of each chapter. In
addition, the book will have a glossary, a bibliography, and an index.
Though the book is written for undergraduate students at Christian liberal arts colleges
and universities, its readership could potentially include anyone who is interested in a
defense of the possibility and value of a Christian liberal arts education. Accordingly, in
addition to teachers and students who use it in a course, it should appeal to many faculty,
administrators, trustees, parents, prospective students, graduate students, and donors.
However, since it is written primarily for a general academic audience, it will likely not
garner much attention from people outside the academy interested in a more popular
treatment of the topics addressed in the book.
I hired one of Westmont’s recent top graduates to read the entire manuscript. She told me
that she thinks the book would be suitable for a first-year seminar at a Christian liberal arts
college like Westmont. She also said that she believes it would provide an accessible,
engaging, informative, and inspiring introduction to the Christian liberal arts that clarifies
the nature, purpose, and value of this sort of education. Moreover, she agreed that my book
would encourage students to begin doing the kind of foundational, interdisciplinary, and
integrative thinking that we encourage them to do in their Christian liberal arts courses.
Finally, she concurred that my book would prepare students to take full advantage of their
Christian liberal arts education so that they would be able to acquire as much wisdom from
it as possible.
I have also been in conversation about my book with Gregg Ten Elshof who chairs the Biola
philosophy department. Gregg told me that their department is planning to revise their
major substantially so as to focus on “wisdom traditions,” and he expressed interest in the
possibility of using a book like mine for some of their courses.
Books with which it will compete. The main recent books with which my book will
compete are single-author texts (rather than anthologies), about the Christian liberal arts
(rather than either the liberal arts in general or Christian higher education in general) that
are written primarily for students (rather than primarily for faculty, parents, administrators,
and/or trustees).
Here are three recent books that satisfy these criteria:
Fant, Jr., Gene C. The Liberal Arts: A Student’s Guide. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books,
forthcoming in May 2012 (128 pp.).
Holmes, Arthur. The Idea of a Christian College, Revised Edition. Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans, 1987 (106 pp.).
Ostrander, Richard. Why College Matters to God: A Student’s Introduction to the Christian
College Experience. Abilene, TX: Abilene Christian University Press, 2009 (128 pp.).
Here are three other recent single-author texts about the Christian liberal arts that are
not written primarily for students:
Dockery, David S. Renewing Minds: Serving Church and Society through Christian Higher
Education. Rev. ed. Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2008 (214 pp.)
Litfin, Duane. Conceiving the Christian College. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2004 (283 pp.).
Mannoia, V. James. Christian Liberal Arts: An Education that Goes Beyond. Lanham, MD:
Rowman & Littlefield, 2000 (241 pp.).
And here are two single-author books about the liberal arts that are written for
students but that are not about the Christian liberal arts:
Schall, James V. A Student’s Guide to Liberal Learning. Wilmington, DE: Intercollegiate
Studies Institute, 2000 (54 pp.).
Roche, Mark William. Why Choose the Liberal Arts? South Bend, IN: University of Notre
Dame Press, 2010 (184 pp.).
Finally, there are a number of anthologies with essays that concern liberal learning,
both Christian and otherwise (only the Stancil volume is written for students):
Davis, Jeffrey C. and Philip Graham Ryken, eds. Liberal Arts for the Christian Life. Wheaton,
IL: Crossway Books, 2012 (320 pp.).
Dockery, David S., ed. Faith and Learning: A Handbook for Christian Higher Education.
Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, forthcoming in May 2012 (560 pp.).
Glyer, Diana and David L. Weeks, eds. The Liberal Arts in Higher Education: Challenging
Assumptions, Exploring Possibilities. Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1998
(161 pp.).
Stancil, Wilburn T., ed. A Student’s Guide to the Liberal Arts. Bronx, NY: Fordham University
Press, 2003 (277 pp.).
Since my book will be in direct competition with only the first three books listed above, I
will compare it only to them.
I’ll start with Arthur F. Holmes’ The Idea of a Christian College, which is the oldest and most
well known book in that list. My book shares some content and aims with Holmes’s now
classic work, but it is different in a number of important respects. First, though our books
address many of the same themes (e.g., the liberal arts, faith-learning integration,
worldviews, theological foundations, and academic freedom), my book is tightly organized
according to a means-end structure (learning as a means to wisdom), whereas the chapters
of Holmes’ book are more loosely connected. Second, my book develops (analyzes, explains,
evaluates) most of the topics in Holmes’s book much more thoroughly than he does. Third, I
introduce a number of other important issues not discussed in Holmes’ work, such as the
nature of learning, alternative liberal arts ideals, the challenge of multiculturalism and
postmodernism, the relevance of non-Western traditions, and the role of the spiritual
disciplines in the Christian liberal arts. Fourth, my book is somewhat more narrowly
focused than Holmes’ book in the sense that it emphasizes wisdom as both the primary
immediate goal of liberal learning and as an essential tool for living well. Fifth, my book not
only covers the important subject of faith-learning integration for the purpose of
worldview construction, but also explores the crucial role of spiritual discipline for the
purpose of character transformation. Finally, I examine some important passages of
scripture and classical (ancient Greek, medieval, and ancient Chinese) philosophical texts
that bear on the points I am making.
Rick Ostrander intends for his Why College Matters to God to function for today’s Christian
college students the way Holmes’s The Idea of a Christian College did for the previous
generation. One of the book’s promoters even states that he sees Ostrander’s volume “as a
potential replacement for” Holmes’s book. The two books overlap in content to a large
extent, though Ostrander expanded Holmes’s theological foundations chapter into three
chapters, added a chapter on the history of Christian colleges in America, and reduced his
treatment of some of the topics to which Holmes devoted more space. He also added brief
discussions of themes not included in The Idea of a Christian College such as the importance
of a global perspective. My book differs from Ostrander’s book in the same general ways it
diverges from Holmes’s book.
Gene Fant’s recently published The Liberal Arts: A Student’s Guide, is a volume in the
Crossway series entitled Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition and edited by David
S. Dockery. According to the publisher’s blurb, “Professor Gene Fant teaches how to
maximize a liberal arts education by outlining its history, criticisms, purposes, and benefits.
Ultimately, he shows that liberal learning equips us to become spiritually and intellectually
empathetic people who are passionate about serving God, the church, and the world.” This
description also applies for the most part to my book. However, though Fant’s text also
covers many of the topics my book shares with the Holmes and Ostrander volumes, it
differs from my book in most of the ways the latter two books do. One important exception
is that Fant includes a chapter entitled, “Wisdom and Liberal Learning,” which touches on
some ideas developed in my book. However, his explanation of the role of wisdom in a
Christian liberal arts education is substantially less thorough than mine.
The Holmes, Ostrander, and Fant texts are each intended to be concise and accessible
introductions to the idea of a Christian college and to serve as supplementary texts when
used (as they are primarily intended to be used) in the classroom. My book is also an
accessible introduction to the Christian liberal arts, but I wrote it to be a main text that
invites its student readers to engage in relatively serious and in-depth philosophical and
theological reflection on the general nature of Christian liberal learning, the characteristics
of the types of wisdom that collectively constitute the primary immediate goal of Christian
liberal learning, and the elements of the interdisciplinary and integrative learning that
leads to the sorts of wisdom aimed at in a Christian liberal arts education.
Estimated date for the manuscript’s completion: December 31, 2012.
Approximate length of each chapter in words: The book has three sections. Each section
contains four relatively short chapters (average 10 pages typeset). There is an introduction
preceding the first section and a conclusion following the third. Thus there are 14 chapters
in all. This format should make the book attractive to professors who are looking for a text
from which they can assign one manageable chapter per week throughout an average 14week term (possibly to be supplemented by readings from other, perhaps primary,
sources). Each chapter averages 4,500 words in length. So the completed manuscript will
contain around 63,000 words. At 450 words per typeset page, this will make the book
about 140 pages long apart from the front matter and indexes. Adding twelve pages for the
front matter and indexes, the book will have a total of around 152 pages.
Annotated outline of the book: As I indicated, the book is divided into three sections,
preceded by an introduction and followed by a concluding chapter. Each section contains
four short chapters. Here is a brief table of contents (followed by an annotated table of
contents with a paragraph summarizing each part, section, and chapter):
Introduction
Section One: Learning
Chapter 1: Learning
Chapter 2: Liberal Learning
Chapter 3: Christian Liberal Learning
Chapter 4: Socratic Inquiry and Christian Commitment
Section Two: Wisdom
Chapter 5: Wisdom in the Greek Tradition
Chapter 6: Wisdom in the Biblical Tradition
Chapter 7: Wisdom in the Chinese Tradition
Chapter 8: Human Wisdom and Divine Wisdom
Section Three: Learning for Wisdom
Chapter 9: Learning for Theoretical Wisdom
Chapter 10: Learning for Practical Wisdom
Chapter 11: Learning for Productive Wisdom
Chapter 12: Academic Disciplines and Spiritual Disciplines
Conclusion
In a nutshell, what I do in the book is to explore the nature and purpose of Christian liberal
learning (Section One), the nature and varieties of wisdom (Section Two), and the ways in
which Christian liberal learning can lead to three different kinds of wisdom: theoretical,
practical, and productive (Section Three). At the end of each section I suggest a way of
resolving a tension between liberal learning (as it is often practiced) and Christian
discipleship (as the Bible portrays it).
Here is a brief summary of the content of the book by section and chapter:
Introduction. I introduce the idea that the primary goal of a Christian liberal arts education is to
help students become wise for the sake of good Kingdom living. I then sketch a few vignettes
featuring Christian students at a variety of developmental stages asking critical questions about
the possibility and desirability of Christian liberal learning. Finally, I characterize the three
“Jerusalem/Athens” tensions I discuss in chapters 4, 8, and 12 and some other issues I will
address.
Section One: Learning
Chapter 1: Learning. I discuss the definition of learning as “a natural process that results in
a gain of knowledge.” In the course of explaining this definition, I talk about different kinds
of knowledge (propositional, recognitional, and procedural) and the diverse sorts of
learning that lead to them. I also introduce students to some debates about the sources of
knowledge and the learning processes that lead to different kinds of knowledge.
Chapter 2: Liberal Learning. I focus on liberal learning as an especially valuable means to
acquire the varieties of knowledge I introduced in chapter 1. I characterize two competing
liberal arts traditions: the “philosophical” and the “oratorical” traditions. I argue that these
two traditions share important commonalities in spite of their different emphases, and I
develop an inclusive liberal arts framework on the basis of these overlapping
commitments.
Chapter 3: Christian Liberal Learning. I argue that the liberal arts framework I sketched in
chapter 2 needs to include Christian theology for completeness. I then characterize some
essential features of a distinctively Christian approach to the liberal arts, defend the view
that philosophy and Christian theology can be sources of knowledge, and articulate the
proximate, intermediate, and ultimate goals of a Christian liberal arts education.
Chapter 4: Socratic Inquiry and Christian Commitment. I explain Socrates’ ideal of the
examined life, Jesus’ model of submission to God, and the tension between Socratic
criticism and Christian devotion. I attempt to resolve this tension on the basis of
Augustine’s motto of “faith seeking understanding.” Then I illustrate how this motto can
apply to Christian discussions of the creation-evolution controversy and Christian
responses to the New Atheists.
Section Two: Wisdom
Chapter 5: Wisdom in the Greek Tradition. I sketch the nature and varieties of wisdom as
understood by the Greek philosophers. Following Aristotle, I distinguish three kinds of
wisdom: theoretical, practical, and productive. I explain how these concern the true, the
good, and the beautiful respectively, and so provide their possessors with important
intellectual, moral, and aesthetic resources. I end this chapter with a discussion of the
challenge of postmodern multiculturalism.
Chapter 6: Wisdom in the Biblical Tradition. I give an account of the general biblical
approach to wisdom, starting with the wisdom literature in the Old Testament (Job,
Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes). I discuss the beginning of wisdom (the fear of the Lord), the
fruit of wisdom (well being), and the limits of wisdom (human finitude and mystery). I then
compare the Greek and biblical views on wisdom (with a focus on Solomon) before
examining wisdom in the New Testament.
Chapter 7: Wisdom in the Chinese Tradition. In the spirit of Augustine’s approval of
“plundering Egyptian gold,” I urge students to explore non-Christian and non-Western
traditions in their search for wisdom to supplement what they learn from the Bible and
from the Greco-Roman tradition. I then model this quest by briefly expositing central ideas
from Confucius’s Analects and Lao Tsu’s Dao de Jing – and I evaluate these ideas from a
Christian point of view.
Chapter 8: Human Wisdom and Divine Wisdom. I focus here on Paul’s remarks about human
and divine wisdom in I Corinthians 1-4 and his warning about “vain philosophy” in
Colossians 2:8. Though these passages seem to challenge the whole idea of a Christian
liberal arts education, I argue that Paul’s position is consistent with the goals of Christian
liberal learning. Then I encourage students to follow Paul by using reason “ministerially”
rather than “magisterially.”
Section Three: Learning for Wisdom
Chapter 9: Learning for Theoretical Wisdom. I characterize students’ acquisition of
theoretical wisdom in terms of their development of a worldview. I also discuss the nature
and variety of worldviews and the role of the specific academic disciplines in the
development of a worldview. I then explain how worldviews are formed unconsciously
through various societal and cultural influences and how students can revise their
worldviews consciously and deliberately.
Chapter 10: Learning for Practical Wisdom. I start by emphasizing the importance of
practical wisdom for Christian living. I then show how Augustine’s “Great Chain of Being”
provides a foundation for moral and spiritual formation. I end by explaining how practical
wisdom –acquired through Christian liberal learning – can provide an intellectual basis for
the deliberation that leads to good individual and corporate policy-making, action, and
evaluation.
Chapter 11: Learning for Productive Wisdom. I discuss the nature and variety of artworks
and characterize productive wisdom as knowledge that facilitates the production and
evaluation of beautiful and useful things. Drawing primarily on Aristotle, I show how liberal
learning can provide a general understanding of both the fine arts and the useful arts and I
explain the role of the specific academic disciplines in furthering and deepening this
general knowledge.
Chapter 12: The Academic Disciplines and the Spiritual Disciplines. I begin by thinking
generally of “disciplines” as means to academic or spiritual ends. Then I illustrate how
students can enhance Christian liberal learning by employing both academic and spiritual
disciplines to answer worldview questions that focus on the meaning of human life. I end
by showing how Christian liberal learning can be a form of worship and how worship can
be a means of learning.
III.
Conclusion
I will rest my case for the possibility and value of a Christian liberal arts education
by summarizing both the nature and goals of Christian liberal learning and the ways
I resolved the tensions between liberal education and the Christian faith. Then I will
return to the students featured in the Introduction’s vignettes to show how their
questions have been answered and concerns addressed. I’ll end with a discussion of
the uses of wisdom for good living in God’s Kingdom