Excellence, Knowledge and the Renewal of the Mind

In the last edition of Networks, I reflected on More than Achievement: A Christian Understanding of Excellence, exploring how excellence is not primarily about performance, recognition or comparison, but about faithfully developing the gifts God has entrusted to us for His glory and the good of others. Excellence begins with God Himself, who is the source and standard of all that is good, true and beautiful. As we seek to grow in Christ-likeness, diligence, wisdom and faithful stewardship become expressions of worship and service rather than simply avenues to personal success.

This understanding of excellence naturally leads to a further question: 

What role does knowledge and learning play in God's purposes for us?

As a Christian school community, we believe that learning is far more than the accumulation of information or the pursuit of academic achievement. Rather, learning is part of our response to God's calling to love Him with all our heart, soul, strength and mind. If excellence is about faithfully pursuing the purposes for which God created us, then the life of the mind matters deeply.

I have been reflecting recently on Bradley Green's book The Gospel and the Mind: Recovering and Shaping the Intellectual Life, which explores what it means to pursue knowledge through a distinctly Christian lens. Green argues that the transformation of the mind lies at the heart of God's redemptive work in our lives.

The Apostle Paul writes:

"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2 

And in Psalm 19, we read that the “skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour  forth speech: night after night they display knowledge”. 

Green writes Because God is a speaking God who has created us as knowing

creatures, there is powerful theological grounding for the possibility of knowledge. God 

made every fact in the universe, and he alone can interpret all things and

events. His interpretation must pervade all our intellectual and educational

endeavours (Green 2010). 

He also writes about the intersection of faith and thinking and argues that the

Christian faith involves a striving to understand, and to flesh out what is already

believed. He quotes Augustine who wrote “Everything which is believed should be

believed after thought has preceded; although even belief itself is nothing else than

to think with assent. For it is not everyone who thinks that believes, since many think

in order that they may not believe; but everybody who believes, thinks – both thinks

in believing and believes in thinking” (p83).

There is a moral nature to knowledge and it is the responsibility as Christian parents and educators that we assist students in their thinking, to bring them into contact with the God of all knowledge, to understand the ‘truth of all things’, to love God with all their hearts, minds and souls and to apply wisdom as they seek to live out what they know. This, I believe, is the heart of Christian education.

The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge; the ears of the wise seek it out. Proverbs 18:15

To quote Augustine again “one must love what one knows, only when we love

something can we begin to grasp its true potential. God is to be loved while all other

things are to be viewed in relation to the ultimate love. Intellectual life is a means by

which man fulfils his ultimate destiny, to love.”

Our vision states that we will provide students with an education that empowers them to serve others and respond to God's calling in their lives by cultivating their academic growth, authentic faith and personal development. This involves helping students to seek truth with humility, think deeply and discern wisely as they encounter the God of all truth across every subject area we teach. In doing so, we seek to develop young people who pursue excellence not merely in what they know, but in how they use that knowledge to honour God and serve others.