THE RULE OF CHRIST OR CULT OF THE EXPERT
Clearly, intellect, intelligence and wisdom do not always coincide, are certainly not identical, and should never be conflated. A person may have the ability to grasp complex ideas (intellect) and even have the capacity to understand their relevant implications for a given area of thought (intelligence), but wisdom is of another character altogether. As Thomas Sowell points out, “wisdom is the rarest quality of all – the ability to combine intellect, knowledge, experience and judgment in a way to produce a coherent understanding. Wisdom is the fulfilment of the ancient admonition, ‘With all your getting, get understanding.’’’7 INTELLECTUALS, REASON AND WORLDVIEW
In the occupational construction of political and cultural ideas, the modern intellectual is usually (there are always exceptions) a person who claims allegiance to a particular kind of thinking and a commitment to the use of certain analytical tools and evaluative frameworks. Within these frameworks, ideas that are viewed as progressive or nuanced, novel, enlightened or artistically complex, tend to be applauded whereas ‘traditional’ ideas are largely dismissed as reactionary, simplistic or outmoded.8 I remember some years ago a friend who was studying at a Christian university made the traditional assertion that Moses was the author of the first five books of the Bible, to which the instructor replied in a kind of stage whisper “what year is this?” It is perhaps not surprising that few openly and authentically Christian thinkers are welcomed into the exclusive chambers of orthodox intellectual elites. 10
