Evangelical Education and the Life of the Mind

Evangelical activism, mobilization of the laity, and the vocational model of university training find a native environment in the frenzied internet age. When one adds to them a tuition-driven approach to university finances, they become a potent mix that creates a culture resistant to the very practices necessary to promote the life of the mind. Like an invasive form of plant life, they choke out any push toward the leisure required for study and prayer. Even the very term leisure is associated with sloth—a deadly sin—because it is understood in purely economic terms, rather than in terms of the monastic otium necessary to the life of the mind.