J. Elliot’s Attitude on Education—

The acquisition of academic knowledge [the ‘pride of life’] is a wearing process and I wonder now if it is all worth while.  The shiny paint laid on by curiosity’s hand has worn off.  What thing better can a man know than the love of Christ, which passes knowledge?  Oh to be reveling in the knowledge of Him, rather than wallowing in the quagmire of inscrutable philosophy!  My philosophy prof says I can’t expect to learn much in his class—all he want to do is to develop an inquiring mind in order to ‘make explicit and critically examine philosoph8ical problems of the widest generality.  Ho hum… [Shadow of Almighty, 40]

You speak of it as ‘rounding out one’s manhood.  It rounds it out, all right, but I’m afraid sometimes it’s more in the style of 1 Corinthians 8:1, ‘knowledge puffs up.’  ‘Culture,” philosophy, disputes, drama in its weaker forms, concerts and opera, politics—anything that can occupy the intellect seems to turn aside the hearts of many here on campus from a humble life in the steps of the Master, though we sing about this most delicately!  No, education is dangerous, and personally, I am beginning to question its value in the Christian’s life.  I do not disparage wisdom—that comes from God, not from PhD’s.  [Shadow, 41]

…it’s because of this that I begrudge myself an education, for at a time when my mind still functions quickly it is forced to work on subjects like René Decartees’ rational epistemology or Laplace’s nebular hypothesis, while I would so much more enjoy study on the things of God.  Be that as it may, my Father knows best, and I’m confident that He has placed me here; my task is to labor quietly until the pillar-cloud removes and leads farther, working out God’s purposes in God’s time. [Shadow, 43]

In spite of these kinds of attitude towards education, J. Elliot still graduated w/ high honors.  This is a lesson on obedience.  It seems like when a lot of seminarians begrudge their seminary years w/ resentful attitude, I wonder if it’s motivated by their own arrogance and desire to be lazy.  If the subject doesn’t interest them, they should at least see it as God’s leading them thru a lesson on faithfulness.  After all, it’s not the institutions that make a man’s heart dry, but it’s their unreachable attitudes of thinking they know better than their instructors or even God who sent them there.  I proudly admit I had to struggle a lot to go thru my seminary training, probably even more than most people.  But, I cherish those years, not b/c I was a good student [I was not] but b/c I always knew I couldn’t have gotten thru w/out God.  I had a profound spiritual experience, in taking every exam and meeting the deadlines for the papers b/c each of those times, I had to depend on God and nothing else to bring me thru.