The Divine Conspiracy

I'm currently rereading The Divine Conspiracy, a book by Dallas Willard. His overall point is that belief in Jesus is far more than the key to everlasting life after our time on earth. Instead, he argues God is relevant for every aspect of our existence. We need him now for our life on earth, rather than only as a part of the hereafter. I want to hit a few highlights of this book.

Since I am part of higher education, I found some of his opening comments intriguing. Teachers have been told over the past fifty years that there is no recognized moral knowledge to be used to develop moral understandings among students. Teachers have been told they are not to impose their views on students.

So what has been the outcome of this attitude? Well, if it's true there is now no body of moral knowledge in our culture, then we shouldn't be surprised at what has come about. Listen to what Robert Coles discovered.

Coles is professor of psychiatry and medical humanities at Harvard University. He's also a well-known researcher and commentator on moral and social matters. In 1995 he published an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education called "The Disparity between Intellect and Character."

He came up with this essay due to an encounter he had with one of his students over moral insensitivity of other students. Remember, this is at Harvard, home of some of the best and brightest in our society. The student was a young woman of shaky economic means who had to clean student rooms to help pay her way through the university. She discovered quickly that people who were in classes with her treated her ungraciously because her lower economic position, without simple courtesy and respect, and often were rude and crude to her. One man, for example, repeatedly propositioned her for sex. What was ironic was that he was in two classes with her which focused on moral reasoning. He excelled in these classes and receive the highest grades.

This young woman quit her job and left school. When she talked to Coles, she concluded by saying to him, "I've been taking all these philosophy courses, and we talk about what's true, what's important, what's good. Well, how do you teach people to be good? What's the point of knowing good if you don't keep trying to become a good person?"

So this is the world of intellectuals. They can fill in the blanks, they can answer essay questions, they can discuss ethical issues. But, of course, this seems to have no bearing on their character or behavior.

That's where we are today -- we have a culture that has accepted the view that what is good and right is not a subject of knowledge that can guide action and for which individuals can be held responsible. As Willard says, we are flying upside down and don't know that. We are clever; we are not good.

This is true in so many other fields besides education. But universities have become authority centers of world culture, so this attitude is conveyed to the rest of our society. Notice that The Divine Conspiracy is covering the same ground that Nancy Pearcey covered in her powerful book Total Truth.

I want to cover a few additional points that Dallas Willard makes, so I plan a few more blogs on his book.