Intellectual Integrity and the Christian Worldview

By Douglas Groothuis

Teach me your way, LORD, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. (Psalm 86:11)

The great American philosopher Marilyn Monroe once said, “I believe everything just a little bit.” That’s one way to handle pluralism: tread lightly on intellectual commitments and experiment with various ideas, never landing on any one consistent belief system. But it is not the way of intellectual integrity. I read a statement from a student from a Christian college in which he resisted the claim that Christians should have one Christian worldview. Why not borrow from several worldviews instead of being restricted to just one? That approach seems capacious and open-minded. But, as G. K. Chesterton said, “I am incurably convinced that the object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.”[1]

Before we address this temptation, we should consider what integrity means. The noun integrity is always used positively. If a lawyer has integrity, she is honest, competent, and trustworthy. The parts of her life fit together harmoniously and virtuously. A deck on a home has structural integrity when its essential parts are strong and doing their part to hold up and stabilize the deck. Likewise, the word integration rarely means a haphazard or random assembly of parts, but rather refers to a collection of two or more things that form a unified whole. My 1993 Dodge Intrepid was equipped with an “integrated child seat,” which seamlessly blended in with the back seat and collapsed neatly out of sight when not used. Various theological emphases can be integrated as well, as long as no contradiction ensues. For example, one may be Reformed in theology and also charismatic with respect to spiritual gifts. While some Reformed thinkers are cessationists, this is not intrinsic to something like holding to the Westminster Standards.[2] So, one may integrate the two theological traditions without contradiction.

The word integration is only used negatively when the integration is inapt, inept, or forced; in that case, disparate items are combined without a functional or desirable unity. But then words like ad hoc or makeshift are typically used. Or, we may speak of failed integration.

Applied to the life of the mind, one has intellectual integrity if one’s beliefs are well-formed (coherent), well-founded (providing knowledge), and form a unified whole that accounts for (or explains) reality. Those with intellectual integrity shun holding contradictory beliefs; they do not fear acquiring new knowledge that might discredit previous beliefs; and they are intellectually studious about what matters. As an antithesis to intellectual integrity, consider Walt Whitman’s statement from his poem, “Song of Myself”:

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

I am sure he contained multitudes, but however “large” he may have been, that largeness was intellectually defective since contradictory statements cannot both be true, as Aristotle taught[3] and as Scripture assumes when it warns of false doctrine (1 Timothy 4:1-3; 1 John 4:1-4), false morality (Romans 1:18-32), false angels (Galatians 1:8), false prophets (Deuteronomy 13:1-4; Matthew 7:15), and false apostles (2 Corinthians 11:1-5). Despite this spirit of antithesis, some would rather blend worldviews than show the sharp distinctions between them.

However, intellectual integrity draws us closer to reality through consistent cognition. Since God is the final and ultimate reality, we should strive to hold proper beliefs about his nature, his creation, and his ways with the world. And, in light of these truths, we should desire to obey, enjoy, and experience God in terms of how he has revealed himself.[4]

A Christian College Student’s Confusion

A professor at a Christian college wrote to The Worldview Bulletin: “In administering a Christian worldview assessment as part of [a] course, I have noticed in the past three or so years that more and more students now often view their mixed worldviews as a positive.” He included a paragraph by a representative student, from which I will draw material.

The student claimed that “we can all be pulled toward multiple perspectives” and that he could “connect with multiple worldviews.” He agreed with relativism, the idea that we can “know the almighty Truth is just a power move,” but also affirmed the tenant of Christian theism that God is all-knowing. Pantheism appealed to him in its claim that “Truth is beyond rational comprehension.” Not fully embracing one worldview allows him to see other people’s viewpoints, so as not to “discourage diverse thinking and perspectives.” He can also “gain context in their behaviors, thought processes, and values.”

In a pluralistic culture, there are “multiple perspectives” on worldview matters, such as the ultimate reality, the human condition, the good life, and the afterlife. But they are perspectives on or about a reality independent of the perspectives themselves. As A. W Tozer put it in his devotional classic, The Pursuit of God:

What do I mean by reality? I mean that which has existence apart from any idea any mind may have of it, and which would exist if there were no mind anywhere to entertain a thought of it. That which is real has being in itself. It does not depend upon the observer for its validity.[5]

A true statement is one that matches or corresponds to the reality it describes. A false statement fails to match reality. Our student’s comment about “almighty truth” is hard to understand, since a clear statement is either true or false, and “might” has nothing to do with it. Perhaps he rejects holding a belief in a way that does not admit to intellectual challenges and which is used to wrongly control others. But relativism fails to help us hold beliefs in a humble way; rather, it makes truth relative to beliefs. As Tozer put it, relativists “like to show that there are no fixed points in the universe from which we can measure anything.”[6] If relativism is true, then assertions about naked facts (true and independent of opinion or experience) will necessarily vanish.

The student affirmed from Christian theism that God is all-knowing. But if relativism is true, that statement could not be true, since it states an absolute truth and is not a matter of relative or subjective opinion. He appeals to pantheism in that “truth is beyond rational comprehension.” Pantheism claims that the absolute (Brahman in Hinduism) is beyond concepts and language, which is a deeply confused claim since it demands that nothing be said of the absolute since words must be left behind. If so, the very idea of pantheism (everything is divine) would lose descriptive accuracy, as would every statement about the unknowable absolute. Worse yet, pantheism cannot be blended with Christian theism for a plethora of reasons. Christian theism claims that God is personal and absolute. God is the great “I am Who I am” (Exodus 3:14). Further, God is not to be identified with his creation, since He transcends it. Tozer puts it wonderfully:

The truth is that while God dwells in His world, He is separated from it by a gulf forever impassable. However closely He may be identified with the work of His hands, they are and must eternally be other than He, and He is and must be antecedent to and independent of them. He is transcendent above all His works even while He is immanent within them.[7]

While the Bible reveals knowable truth about God, creation, and God’s plan for the world, it still counsels us to not overstep the bounds of what a fallen creature can know in this life. Within the framework of knowledge, we must endure many mysteries. As Paul wrote:

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”  “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?” For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen

(Romans 11:33-36; see also Deuteronomy 29:29).

Our student’s concern for the limits of rational comprehension and his fear of claiming “almighty Truth” can be assuaged by placing both knowledge and ignorance squarely within the biblical worldview.

The Lordship of Christ and the Intellect

Scripture emphasizes oneness and unity in several related ways. We are told there is but one God (Deuteronomy 6:4), whose authority, revelation, and guidance builds a community of followers, whether in Old Testament times (Deuteronomy 7:6) or in the New Covenant (1 Peter 2:9). As Paul affirmed to the Ephesians:

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4:3-6).

The oneness of the true God leads to a unity in God’s revelation in the Bible and unity for Christian beliefs if properly formed based on Scripture, sound reasoning, and deep piety. In refuting false teaching, Paul says that “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Christ is the Word who orders all things, who created all things, and who holds all things together (John 1:1-5; Hebrews 1:4).

In light of this, we realize that there is a Christian worldview, or, to use the German word, a Weltanschauung. As James Orr put it, this denotes “the widest view which the mind can take of things in the effort to grasp them together as a whole from the standpoint of some particular philosophy or theology.”[8] A Christian worldview (philosophy and theology) aims to discern the world as it is in its basic nature and direction:

If apologetic is to be spoken of, this surely is the truest and best form of Christian apology—to show that in Christianity, as nowhere else, the severed portions of truth found in all other systems are organically united, while it completes the body of truth by discoveries peculiar to itself.[9]

Christianity can account for all truths found outside of the Bible, on the basis of general revelation and common grace (Matthew 5:45). God is the giver of every good gift, intellectual or otherwise (James 1:17). The Apostle Paul effortlessly incorporates truths from two Greek philosophers in his address at the Areopagus without endorsing their total worldview (Acts 17:28). To affirm Sola Scriptura, as we should, does not mean that truth is only found in the Bible, but that everything in the Bible is true and forms the standard for evaluating other truth claims. The Bible itself claims that there is knowledge outside of it, as can be seen when the Hebrew prophets judge the pagan nations for immorality even though they were not beneficiaries of special revelation (see Amos 1-2). They had violated known standards of morality. J. P. Moreland expands on this:

Repeatedly, Scripture acknowledges the wisdom of cultures outside Israel; for example, Egypt (Isaiah 19:11-13), the Edomites (Jeremiah 49:7), the Phoenicians (Zechariah 9:2), and many, many others. The remarkable achievements produced by human wisdom are acknowledged in Job 28:1-11. The wisdom of Solomon is compared to that of the “men of the east” and Egypt in order to show that it surpassed that of people with a longstanding, well-deserved reputation for wisdom (1 Kings 4:29-34).[10]

All truth traces back to the God of truth. “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4, KJV). He is the one who makes knowledge possible through the Word (Logos) in general revelation and special revelation (Psalm 19:1-4; John 1:1-5; Romans 1:18-21; 2:14-15).[11] Therefore, if Christianity is true, then there is no need to blend it or amalgamate it with any other worldview. This is because it contributes unique propositional content not found in any other worldview—such as the Trinity, original sin, the incarnation, and the gospel—as well as the conceptual resources to recognize truth in other worldviews without compromising its own claims. While truths may be found in other worldviews and religions, the Christian worldview is comprehensively true and lacking nothing of substance.[12]

One Truth and a Unified Worldview

Despite the temptation to hold an eclectic worldview made up of irreconcilable elements, a unified and meaningful worldview is found through biblical revelation. Within these truths, we can thrive as human beings reconciled to God through Christ who find their purpose in loving God and others (Matthew 22:37-40). Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984), who did so much in the last half of the twentieth century to challenge Christians to have a biblical view, will be given the last word here.

Christ is Lord of all—over every aspect of life. It is no use saying he is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the Lord of all things, if he is not the Lord of my whole unified intellectual life. I am false or confused if I sing about Christ’s lordship and contrive to retain areas of my own life that are autonomous.[13]

Notes

[1] Chesterton, G. K.  The Autobiography of G.K. Chesterton (pp. 149-150). Rare Treasures. Kindle Edition.

[2] This is my theological position. I share it with pastor and author Sam Storms, for example. See his Practicing the Power (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017).

[3] See Douglas Groothuis, Philosophy in Seven Sentences (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Academic, 2016), 51-63.

[4] See Francis Schaeffer, “The Importance of Truth” in The God Who Is There, IVP Classics ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2020).

[5] Tozer, A. W. The Pursuit of God (Updated, Annotated) (p. 25). Aneko Press. Kindle Edition.

[6] Tozer, A. W. The Pursuit of God (Updated, Annotated) (p. 25). Aneko Press. Kindle Edition.

[7] Tozer, A. W. The Pursuit of God (Updated, Annotated) (pp. 28-29). Aneko Press. Kindle Edition.

[8] Orr, James. Christian View of God and the World - Enhanced Version. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Kindle Edition.

[9] Orr, James. Christian View of God and the World - Enhanced Version. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Kindle Edition.

[10] Moreland, J.P. Love Your God with All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul (p. 41). The Navigators. Kindle Edition.

[11] For an insightful reflection on God’s revelation through his “voice” in nature and Scripture, see A. W. Tozer, “The Speaking Voice” in The Pursuit of God.

[12] For more on this, see Harold Netland, “On the Idea of Christianity as the One True Religion” in Christianity and Religious Diversity (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015) and Douglas Groothuis, World Religions in Seven Sentences (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Academic, 2023).

[13] Schaeffer, Francis A. Escape from Reason: A Penetrating Analysis of Trends in Modern Thought (IVP Classics) (pp. 107-108). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition.

— Douglas Groothuis is University Research Professor of Apologetics and Christian Worldview at Cornerstone University and is the author of twenty books, including, most recently, Beyond the Wager: The Christian Brilliance of Blaise Pascal (InterVarsity-Academic, 2024) and Christian Apologetics, 2^nd ed. (InterVarsity-Academic, 2022).

Image by Arek Socha from Pixabay

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