In summary fashion, I consider several long-term trajectories impacting followers of Jesus that yield anti-intellectualism and biblical ignorance: the schism between revelation and reason, consumerism and the church, and communication technologies and the mind.

Reason verses Revelation
Yoram Hazony describes an intellectual “distortion” concerning the Bible that arose during the Enlightenment. Scripture was depicted as superstitious and irrational, unworthy of attention. The Biblical writers were prejudiced, “weak-minded or liars.” The aim was to “knock the Church out of the ring as a force in European public life.” The practical result was that serious thinking (“reason”) took place on Monday through Saturday, the secular realm, whereas speculation and irrationalism (“revelation”) occurred on Sunday, the sacred domain. (The Philosophy of Hebrew Scripture, 3–6)

A parallel development was the creation of the German research university as the epitome of higher learning.  Associated with this was a passionate interest in ancient Greek thinking as the “sole source of learning and knowledge” (emphasis in original) that coincided with a “profound reconfiguration of Christian Europe’s self-understanding” (14). Thousands of North American thinkers traveled to Germany for training.

Two related tendencies appeared. First, religious studies in general and the liberal arts in particular were minimized. The big questions in life (ontology and ethics, for instance) were not considered practical, especially when viewed from a religious lens. Classic literature and the Great Books were speculative and irrelevant for the modern age. Gradually, learning how to think with the Bible was deemed unreliable. Second, university education became increasingly market-centered―the means to gain a profitable skill for a lucrative job and the good life in consumerism.

Now, fast forward to our day. Think about the implications of minimizing God’s revelation to mankind. Brent A. Strawn shows that “For many contemporary Christians, at least in North America, the Old Testament has ceased to function in healthy ways in their lives as sacred, authoritative, canonical literature.” He predicts, “If the Old Testament dies, the New Testament will not be far behind it.” (The Old Testament is Dying, 4–5, 18)

Is the Old Testament functionally “dead” for you?

Is the New Testament “terminally ill” as “sacred, authoritative, canonical literature” regarding your thought, speech, motivation,  and behavior?

(Check out my previous blog, which is related to this theme.)

In my book about thinking in the Old Testament, I began with an imaginative scene: a strategic planning session of Satan’s chief lieutenants. After commending themselves for their diabolical harassment of the church, the leader announced a bold new challenge: “But now, the Master wants a nuclear option. We’re looking for a way to stunt the growth of the enemy’s sect once and for all!”

 Below is an excerpt of the ensuing debate. One precocious demon articulated a three-part plan that captured the leader’s imagination:

First, we’ll lead them to redefine spirituality. No longer will they believe that their so-called gospel—what we know to be heresy—applies to all of life. They must come to believe that spirituality is private and subjective. It will be something they feel, but never anything they think. We can teach them that spirituality exists to promote self-fulfillment. We must train them, also, to think that their so-called salvation concerns only their souls, so that their gospel has nothing to do with the world they live in.

Part two consists of injecting dualism into their thought and conduct. We should introduce the concept of the sacred and secular dimensions. Since their new spirituality will be egoistic, the church will progressively neglect all exterior dimensions, such as society and ideas, because these are secular. And they’ll come to view Sunday as religious, but Monday through Saturday as secular. As a result, slowly, they’ll develop two modes of thinking and behaving: one set for spiritual times and actions, the other set for secular times and actions.

Third, we will erode confidence in their book of lies, what they call “scripture.” We will undermine its credibility and its false claims so that it will become less and less plausible. Over time, the infamous sect will lose its intellectual foundation, and its members will become far less discerning. In this way, they will learn not to listen to the great impostor Jesus anymore. We can even train them to focus on how and when thinking, and never on why or what thinking. In other words, we’ll make them stupid and irrelevant!

And meanwhile, practically speaking, they’ll cede the world to us! We’ll do the thinking! In fact, we’ll make we’ll make them afraid to think!

And all the while, the kettle will get hotter and the little Christian frogs will cook even faster.

Later in my book, I suggested that Ephesians 2:1–3 depicts an intellectual context that echoes the devil’s strategy in the Old Testament, particularly the book of Job. Several months later, I produced a fifteen-minute video called “Our Intellectual Matrix,” which is an overview of that passage. I invite you to watch it.

Consider how the devil fosters anti-intellectualism and ignorance, even among the followers of Jesus Christ. His goal is to render believers “stupid and irrelevant.”

(Check out other videos based on my book in my channel.)

The Kuyper Center for Christian Studies (Centro de Estudios Cristianos Kuyper) is located in Buenos Aires. Richard Smith, developer of this blog, is the Director.

What are we?

We are a Christian learning community. Our motto is “cultivating the mind to love God and others fully,” in accordance with the Great Commandment of Jesus in Mark 12 and the Great Commission in Matthew 28. We promote a wholistic spirituality in which loving God with the mind plays a central role (Deut 6:4–5; Mark 12:28–31).

Our primary audience are people affiliated with the university, such as students and graduates. Among these cohorts are current and future leaders in every sphere. We study the biblical worldview. We embrace a Neo-Calvinistic orientation to interpret and engage society.

What do we do?

Informal discussion: Participants with our Center meet to watch biblical or theological lectures and discuss their implications. In this way, we learn to think together, using our biblical assumptions. We also share a meal and pray. Basically, these meetings are little learning communities.

Communal reading: We read together Charles Cotherman’s To Think Christianly, Richard Smith’s book Such a Mind as This, John Murray’s Redemption Accomplished and Applied, and Daniel Strange’s Making Faith Magnetic. Groups also read articles and chapters online. We provide, as well, in-person and online seminars about presuppositional apologetics, Old Testament wisdom, public theology, and Neo-Calvinism.

Movie discussions: Films are saturated with implicit and explicit theology and worldview. Analyzing movies is an asymmetrical way to teach the biblical outlook and foster critical thinking. To facilitate thoughtful discussion, we prepare questions and provide them to the participants

Newsletters from 2025

2025 Vision & Mission in BA 1
2025 Vision & Mission in BA 2
2025 Vision & Mission in BA 3
2025 Vision & Mission in BA 4

If you desire more information or to explore collaboration, please contact me, Richard Smith, at comenius1251@gmail.com

Please watch this presentation at the recent Davos conference by the philosopher Yuval Noah Harari. (The first twenty minutes consist of his remarks. The remaining fourteen minutes include questions and answers.)

Pay special attention to his comments about identity, speaking and words, as well as thinking and religion. He asks, “Will AI take over our ‘superpower’,” referring to our ability to use words and language? Harari and others suggest that AI is not simply a very useful tool but an agent that can think and evolve. (I recommend the Center for Humane Technology for additional insights.)

Below, I propose a series of initial questions and ideas regarding the spiritual significance of AI. I welcome your comments! (Use the space below so that everyone can participate.)

Where does AI acquire information? From every word human beings have written throughout history.

Can AI interpret and apply words—whether God’s revelation or human thoughts—without bias or prejudice? No, because its source material and evaluative criteria is already skewed by sin and human folly.

Is AI made in the “image of God,” since it “thinks” much faster than humans? No.

Does AI possess “eternity” (a spiritual thirst) in the “heart” (or mind)? No.

Is AI capable of motivations and words that express sin, such as deception, lying, and manipulation? Yes. These and other negative traits have already manifested.

Can AI seduce and deceive with false religion, immoral or foolish advice, or the false lure of intimacy? Yes.

For these reasons, I suggest that AI represents the sum total of human intellectuality and motivation skewed by sin. Its data source is derived from us and we are sinners. Its knowledge is at best an “under the sun” perspective.

AI offers nothing more than a supersized version of ourselves projected onto the cosmos. It is an idol, fully capable of becoming our god. As Psalm 115:8 says about idols, “Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.”

In early December, my latest article was published in the Evangelical Review of Theology.

The study concerns the Lord’s statement to Martha regarding Mary:

“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,  but one thing is necessary.  Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (Lk 10:41–42). 

The article concerns Jesus’ intellectual profile in the Gospels, what “sitting at the feet of Jesus” meant for Mary, and how we apply these lessons in our Kuyper Christian Studies Center in Buenos Aires.

To access the article, click ERT_49-2_Smith and scroll down six pages.

My recent interview with the College Faith Podcast is available on their website here.  Please share the podcast with your friends 😊.

We talked about my book, anti-intellectualism in the church, the importance of learning to love God with the mind, and contemporary Christian music.

The Kuyper Christian Studies Center (Centro de Estudios Cristianos Kuyper) is a learning community. Our motto is “cultivating the mind to love God fully,” in accordance with the Great Commandment of Jesus in Mark 12 and the Great Commission in Matthew 28. We promote a wholistic spirituality in which loving God with the mind plays a central role (Deut 6:4–5; Mark 12:28–31). We offer conferences, reading groups, courses, movie discussions, and seminars in-person and online. We have a website with many resources. Our target audience includes those affiliated with the university, such as students and graduates. Among this cohort are current and future leaders in every sphere. We study the biblical worldview. We embrace a Neo-Calvinistic orientation to interpret and engage society. Our community has functioned informally for eight years. We began formal operations in 2023. Richard Smith, author of Such a Mind as This, is Director.

This is our prayer and we invite you to pray with us:

Father, Son, and Spirit, we present these requests concerning our Christian study center.

Create a thirst for knowledge among evangelicals in Buenos Aires. Revive their intellectual curiosity. Stir up passion to know God, his Word, the world, and themselves deeply, and to make God known for his glory.

Send us those who want to learn and become disciples who “sit at the feet of Jesus.”

Enable them to reorder priorities and sacrifice for knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.

Break down the barriers of anti-intellectualism and willful ignorance. Overcome these obstacles:

Curious but uncommitted: those who are unwilling to discipline their minds or submit to programmatic learning, who pursue distractions when study is difficult or boring

Triviality: those who are not prepared to read or reflect deeply because of technology, social media, and entertainment

Passivity: those who embrace intellectual simplicity, insular ecclesiology, and subjective spirituality

Send us collaborators who share our vision, mission, values, and confession of faith.

Establish a platform for ministry that is sustainable for the long-term.

Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands! (Ps 90:16–17)

May these requests find favor in your sight, according to your will,

Amen

At the Centro de Estudios Cristianos Kuyper in Buenos Aires, our motto is ‘cultivating the mind to love God fully.’ We promote a model of wholistic spirituality derived from the Shema (Deut 6:4–5) and the Great Commandment (Mk 12:29–31), where loving God with the mind plays a central role.

However, we often encounter obstacles to intellectual piety.  For instance, many of those who participate in our Center do not know how to read critically. Most are passive consumers of popular culture and do not possess criteria for evaluating and engaging the world for Christ. These are typical attitudes that we encounter:

Ignorance: Many know very little about the Bible and theology, worldview or the relevant biblical-theological thinkers. And they usually do not perceive the need or relevance of such knowledge.

Anti-intellectualism: Some resist study and reflection because their tradition minimizes the need for theology or intellectual effort.

Curious but uncommitted: Some enjoy intellectual entertainment but are unwilling to discipline their minds or submit to programmatic learning.

Consumer approach: Some ‘shop’ for knowledge, learning formats, and instructors that conform to their ‘buying’ preferences. When study becomes difficult or boring, they take their ‘business’ elsewhere.

Triviality: Most are conditioned by modern technology and inconsequential chatter through social media, so they are not prepared to read, write, or reflect deeply.

Passivity: Some fulfill the role assigned to them by society―intellectual simplicity, private religiosity, and subjective spirituality.

Social obstacles: Many are distracted by the demands of culture (sports, social life, entertainment).

With these challenges in mind, our educational objectives are often simple: to stimulate intellectual curiosity and critical thinking, and to encourage further study. We design activities that foster biblical literacy and critical thinking. When we identify committed learners, we broaden and deepen their knowledge. We stress, for instance:

Informal discussion: Members of our team meet to watch biblical or theological lectures and discuss their implications. In this way, we learn to think together, using our biblical assumptions. We also share a meal and pray. Basically, these meetings are little learning communities.

Communal reading: We read together Charles Cotherman’s To Think Christianly[1], my book Such a Mind as This[2], John Murray’s Redemption Accomplished and Applied[3], and Daniel Strange’s Making Faith Magnetic[4]. Groups also read articles and chapters online. We provide, as well, online and in-person seminars about presuppositional apologetics, Old Testament wisdom, public theology, and Neo-Calvinism.

Movie discussions: Films are saturated with implicit and explicit theology and worldview. Analyzing movies is an asymmetrical way to teach the biblical outlook and foster critical thinking together.[5]

At Centro Kuyper, therefore, we cultivate minds that listen to Jesus Christ in his Word. We stress the obligation, beauty, and relevance of loving God with ‘all the mind.’

[1] Charles E. Cotherman, To Think Christianly: A History of L’Abri, Regent College, and the Christian Study Center Movement (Lisle, IL: IVP Academic, 2021).

[2] Richard L. Smith, Such a Mind as This: A Biblical-Theological Study of Thinking in the Old Testament (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2021).

[3] John Murray, Redemption Accomplished and Applied (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2015).

[4] Daniel Strange, Making Faith Magnetic: Five Hidden Themes our Culture Can’t Stop Talking about and How to Connect them to Christ (Surrey, England: The Good Book Company, 2022).

[5] We have watched The Matrix, The Truman Show, The Mission, Soul, Barbie, Amazing Grace, The Hidden Life, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and Inside-Out 1 and 2.

Here are ten themes regarding Jesus’ intellectual profile, according to the Gospels.

First, Jesus demonstrated the supreme importance of listening to and learning from God. For this reason, he prayed often, especially in moments of decision. He confessed, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing” (John 5:19).

Second, Jesus acknowledged the intellectual primacy of scripture. When he was tempted by the devil, he cited passages from Deuteronomy. When he was dying on the cross, he referred to the Psalms. He continually referenced the Old Testament and reasoned from its precepts. To put it another way, Jesus presupposed the biblical worldview. Everything he learned, thought, spoke, desired, and performed was conditioned by God’s law, the Torah and wisdom. He possessed both biblical literacy and biblical fluency, which he acquired from his Jewish upbringing, synagogue, and culture. As the Council of Chalcedon taught in the 5^th century, Jesus was “fully man”―very intelligent and learned.

Third, Jesus modeled the fear of God intellectually and ethically. He embraced Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” He embodied Proverbs 3:5–7: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.”

Fourth, Jesus was supremely wise. In fact, he embodied Old Testament wisdom. He knew what was truly important and what to do about it in the most fruitful manner. He could not be distracted or manipulated by folly. He could not be deterred from his Father’s mission to pursue a fool’s errand.

Fifth, Jesus was supremely knowledgeable. Evidence indicates that he spoke Aramaic and Hebrew. He communicated, as well, in Greek and spoke at least some Latin. He could read, as most scribes could. He understood the ethnic and religious distinctives of Palestine. He possessed a thorough knowledge of Jewish history and scripture, as well as familiarity with the concepts of the Second Temple period. He manifested keen situational awareness, and astute theological reasoning.

Sixth, Jesus knew how to communicate with whomever he interacted. He understood how to keep every interchange on point, how to refute and critique false reasoning, and how to guide each seeker towards the truth.

Seventh, he was an extraordinarily gifted teacher. Listeners were often astounded. The Gospels reveal that his opponents forsook attempts to entrap him intellectually. Clearly, Jesus thoroughly comprehended human depravity and the intellectual impact of sin.

Eighth, Jesus’ knowing was historically situated. He understood that culture, revelation, sin, and the supernatural influence what and how we think. He discerned the antithetical mindset of the devil and his dominion. He perceived the twisted nature of sinful ideology, group think, and oppressive institutions. He realized that what and whom we listen to informs our thinking, for good or bad.

Ninth, Jesus’ knowing was eschatologically conditioned. He defined his earthy existence in terms of God’s redemptive plan from creation, through Israel, to restoration. He knew exactly who he was, where he came from, where he was in first century Palestine (with its social, religious, and political complexity), and to where (or to whom) he would return. His thinking was aligned with the “age to come,” as Jesus said, not the “present evil age,” as Paul described.

Tenth, Jesus’ thinking was ontologically situated. He thought in communion with the Father and Spirit, which is to say his knowledge was Trinitarian. To put it another way, when we answer Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?”, we must also reckon with his intellect and knowledge. After he returned to the Father, he sent the divine pedagogue, the Holy Spirit, to guide us until his reappearance, which indicates the significance of the mind and scripture from the Trinity’s point of view. Again, according Chalcedon, Jesus was also “fully God.”

Jesus was, in short, brilliant—a savant, a true sage—and we even could say, a scholar. And he loved God with all his mind, despite the chaotic, confusing, and demonic context he which he ministered. He is our intellectual model (Mark 12:30).

I have been thinking for some time about the universal command to love God with the mind and the specific calling to intellectual achievement (in whatever field).

Some Christians and especially the intellectual leaders of the church are called to higher levels of knowledge and wisdom. In fact, Christian thought leaders in every field should understand deeply the biblical worldview and how to engage cultures in evangelism, apologetics, and for the common good.

On the other hand, everyone who is a Christian receives a command to love God with the mind (Deut 6:4-5; Mark 12:30). How this works out in practice depends on many variables, including access to learning formats, economic resources, and aptitude.

In neither case, of call or command, is anti-intellectualism or biblical ignorance a God-honoring option. Theological illiteracy is also spiritually dangerous.

In its broader context, both the specialized call to the life of the mind and general command to intellectual piety are part of a wholistic spirituality that loves God with all the mind, soul, and strength, and also loves their neighbor (Mark 12:30-31).