In this series, I consider briefly several long-term trajectories impacting followers of Jesus that yield anti-intellectualism and biblical ignorance. I outline the schism between revelation and reason, consumerism, the technological tsunami, and evangelical spirituality. I conclude with a profile of insipid intellectuality among many Christians today.

Social Media
Last year in Nicaragua, I preached on the theme “One Thing Necessary,” dealing with the critical importance of listening to Jesus in the Word. At one point I asked, “What is the greatest distraction to heeding God’s voice today?” Immediately, a mother reached over and raised the arm of her teenage daughter, to her great chagrin. What was in her hand? A smart phone. The girl was scrolling in church.

Do you know the average cell phone usage worldwide? Five hours a day. It is often higher among youth. So, let’s do the math: five hours a day is 35 hours a week, 140 hours a month, 1,680 hours a year, and in forty years, a total of 67,200 hours. Imagine explaining this enormous waste of time and mental energy, as well as the distorted perception acquired, to St. Peter when we arrive at the pearly gates of heaven!

One expert, Tristan Harris, argues that social media was the precursor to AI. Social media is addictive and manipulative, and promotes tribalism. AI evidences the same behavior, only much more effectively. Metaphorically, social media is to AI what John the Baptist was for Jesus.

Functionally, therefore, I believe that we have already lost the war for the mind of those who sit in our pews. We have been colonized and discipled with ideas, habits, and values antithetical to the biblical worldview. Most of those who attend church come with their phones on and they glance periodically. All of those who come have been watching and listening all week to messages telling how them to think and behave. And when they leave church, shortly after they exit the building, they consult their phones. So, apart from the work of God, it is unlikely that a mere sermon and emotive worship experience will change their lives intellectually. Their minds are captivated and polluted by stories different than the mission of God.

Artificial Intelligence
As much as social media is ubiquitous, AI will soon surpass all limits and expectations, especially since neither governments nor businesses are likely to rein in its development or regulate its use. There are too much money, glory, and power to gain.

An article on the BBC website today cites various studies analyzing the use of AI among young people. It reports that, “The studies show a huge number of parents have no idea what their kids are doing with AI. Some uses are mundane, but some teens use AI in ways their families will find alarming.”

The philosopher, Yuval Noah Harari and others, suggest that AI is not simply a very useful tool but an agent that can think and evolve. Experts do not know how it learns or how to control a device that will be vastly more intelligent than us. Add to this, the authoritarian desire to control AI’s power for nationalistic and economic agendas. We are witnessing―and even more experiencing― potentially cataclysmic impacts in almost every sphere of life and society in the near future.

For this reason, I believe that we must think very carefully, theologically and pastorally, about the coming technological tsunami. We should answer important existential and theological questions. For instance, what is the meaning of being the image of God in an age of autonomous superintelligence? How does AI affect discipleship and church? What does it mean to love God with the mind given the reality of AI?

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.

Consumerism
The essence of consumerism consists in a commitment to autonomous self-definition. Individuals alone provide themselves with meaning and purpose. Human happiness is something constructed for ourselves in the here and now in what we choose and buy.

Consumerism cultivates unbounded desire and insatiability. We consist of unmet needs and inadequacy that can only be appeased by commodities and experiences, which is the deification of dissatisfaction and desire.

In my article “Economics and the Present Evil Age’” I wrote:

Mass consumerism is an all-embracing reality with imperial ambitions, seeking to homogenize peoples and cultures into a global civilization of manufactured expectations and engineered through the advent of modern communication. In one sense, it is the Enlightenment’s myth of progress in the form of luxury for all.

Benjamin R. Barber depicts consumerism as the process of global “infantilization,” or an “induced” and “enduring childishness” packaged and exported as a totalizing narcissism expressed through Western symbols typified by Hollywood lifestyles. It has infiltrated every sphere of our existence: personal identity, spiritual aspiration, ecclesiastical life, education, sports, spatial organization, and systemically in social and economic policy.

Consumerism, therefore, functions as an alternative gospel and a false view of reality. The authors of StormFront: The Good News of God (7) summarize the ecclesiastical impact:

When Christians accept a consumerist culture’s definition at face value, they look to the church primarily to provide them with the means to improve their private lives, enhance their self esteem, and give them a sense of purpose. Worship becomes a form of therapy whose sole aim is to improve the emotional state of individuals and to energize them for the week ahead.

Does your church participation function to boast “your self esteem”? Is your worship experience mostly a self-help “form of therapy”?

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.)

“We’ll make them stupid and irrelevant!”

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.