Christianity for Young Intellectuals: Warm-up Exercises for Big Thinkers
Ebook
If you're like many young intellectuals, Christianity may seem quaint at best, or even a sign of an anti-intellectual worldview. The doors of your mind and heart may shut prematurely. If so, this anthology may blow those doors open wide. Some of the world's most intriguing authors appear here, often in essays without wide circulation. They tackle big, often unspoken questions that resonate deeply. What if you could figure out everything--then what? Where do both science and the humanities stop short? What is a truly fulfilled life? Several chapters describe Jesus's profound impact on history and philosophy. Many signs point to something more. What might it mean to say that it is Jesus? This collection isn't about converting minds but energizing them--a set of "intellectual calisthenics" designed to invigorate and strengthen your academic and personal development.
Introduction Robert Klitgaard
PART I | POSING BIG QUESTIONS
1. What If You Could Figure Out Everything? Then What? Annie Dillard
2. Are the Arts and Humanities Your Thing? How about Science? Do They Halt in the Same Way? Wilson Poon and Tom McLeish
3. Why Is Philosophy So Impractical? Roberto Mangabeira Unger
4. We Human Beings Are Vanishingly Small and Impermanent. Life Is Meaningless. Isn't it? William James
5. What Is a Full Human Life? Robert Klitgaard
PART II | INTRODUCING JESUS
6. What Is Special about Jesus? Adam Gopnik
7. What Does the Crucifixion Signify? Jack Miles
8. What Did Jesus Contribute to Western Philosophy? Leszek Kołakowski
9. How Can One Get from Here to There? Paul Kingsnorth
“Robert Klitgaard makes a tantalizing promise: to blow open mental doors shut tight by muck, offering fresh ideas about how to live life well and fully. Starting with Annie Dillard’s wonderful reflection on the rich diversity behind assumed values, Klitgaard guides us through an array of intellectual, moral, and spiritual challenges, some engaging and some tough, that are bound to set minds and hearts in motion.”
—Katherine Marshall, executive director, World Faiths Development Dialogue
“Many young people feel there is an incompatibility between faith and reason, and so they must choose between the two. In Christianity for Young Intellectuals, Robert Klitgaard masterfully shreds this notion, showing that religion and the intellect not only can co-exist; they are incomplete without each other.”
—Arthur C. Brooks, professor of the practice of public leadership, Harvard University
“In this readable and rewarding collection, Robert Klitgaard gathers diverse thinkers—historians, philosophers, artists, scientists—to answer the most demanding questions of human experience through serious engagement with the Christian religion. The essays collected here are not apologetics in any flat or formal sense. Rather, they are serious and critical reflections that recognize Christianity as a complex, living, inspiring, and sometimes troubling tradition, and which persuasively invite their reader to do the same.”
—Matthew Ichihashi Potts, professor of Christian morals, Harvard Divinity School
“Are you young, smart, successful in much that you do and yet have a deep sense that your education, vocation, and relationships still leave a void? If so, then Christianity for Young Intellectuals is a quick yet profound investigation by some of the world’s great intellectuals, who found hope in looking deeper into this peace-filled story of Jesus.”
—Jack Jackson, president, Foundation for Evangelism
“This book is a must-read for anyone curious about the deeper questions of science, philosophy, and faith. A call to action for young thinkers to re-examine their beliefs.”
—Zachary Swanson, PhD student in applied positive psychology, Claremont Graduate University
“Christianity for Young Intellectuals took me aback. Much of what passes for apologetic material these days is clear and straight-forward but bland and two-dimensional. The essays in this book, however, expand the apologetic to include voices critical of the faith and others that suggest a literary, artistic approach to faith. The final essay, written by Paul Kingsnorth, is worth the price of admission. I challenge the reader to hold off reading it until the end of the book.”
—Rick Mattson, evangelist/apologist, InterVarsity
“I had a wonderful time reading this much-needed book for Christian intellectuals. It’s also perfect for intellectuals, young or old, who are attracted to Christianity, but have stopped short of crossing the threshold of faith.”
—George Varghese, distinguished professor of networking, UCLA Computer Science
“The faith taught to us as children will not satisfy us as adults. The faith simplified for mass consumption will not survive the scrutiny of a young intellectual’s probing mind. Christianity for Young Intellectuals is the challenge, provocation, and practicality that you didn’t find in Sunday school classes, preacher sermons, and won’t find in Christianity as it’s presented by mass media. This book arms young thinkers with a starting point to serious treatment of Christianity's claims, living concepts, and impact on the world. These are exercises for a nuanced, adult engagement with one of history's most influential belief systems.”
—Michael Muthukrishna, author of A Theory of Everyone
“The great Wordsworth wrote of Imagination as Reason ‘in her most exalted mood.’ Robert Klitgaard’s judicious and sagacious collection and commentary of texts fires the imagination and challenges the intellect. There is much to reflect upon in these pages: perfect for an inquiring spirit of any age!”
—Douglas Hedley, professor of the philosophy of religion, University of Cambridge
- Title: Christianity for Young Intellectuals: Warm-up Exercises for Big Thinkers
- Author: Robert Klitgaard
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Print Publication Date: 2024
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9798385222049, 9798385222025, 9798385222032
- Resource ID: LLS:9798385222049
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-09-17T07:39:51Z
Robert Klitgaard is a university professor at Claremont Graduate University. Formerly a professor at Harvard and Yale and dean at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, his fourteen previous books include Tropical Gangsters, named one of the New York Times’ Books of the Century.
Contributors to Christianity for Young Intellectuals include:
Annie Dillard, Author and novelist.
Adam Gopnik, Staff writer for The New Yorker.
William James (1842–1910) Professor/founder Harvard University Department of Psychology.
Paul Kingsnorth, poet and novelist.
Leszek Kołakowski (1927–2009) Philosopher and historian of ideas — McGill, Chicago, Yale, and Oxford.
Tom McLeish (1962–2023), Theoretical physicist. Chair of Natural Philosophy University of York.