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October 19, 2006
Mandarin Bildungburgers
Did you know that the modern university was established after Napolean creamed the Prussians? The leader of Prussia decided his state needed to make up in intellectual resources that which they had lost physical resources. Anyway, pretty soon Germany caught on.
The Mandarin Bildungburgers were a group of academicians in Germany who thought the pursuit of knowledge, when combined with moral training, would bring Germany together. The Bildungburgers ideas were soon brought to the extreme by Hitler, and well, we know the rest of that story.
The following is my response paper in class to these ideals and how it made me think of what Tim taught on Sunday morning. I apologize if some are unfamiliar with the context of some of the terms. Feel free to post about that. And of course, enjoy.
When I read Chapter 7 in Leahey’s book, many of the German ideals resonated with me. I loved the idea of using education to work towards “true community.” The description of a German warrior included many words that I hope will someday be attributed to my own life—sacrifice, faithfulness, openness, respect, courage, religiosity, charity, and willingness to obey. When the class started to talk about how they felt these ideas primed the empire for Hitler, I felt confused. Why is it so often that these ideas end up destroying people rather than building them up? Strangely enough, I think I may have heard at least part of the answer in church this morning.
This morning one of our pastors shared on God’s love, not an entirely uncommon topic for a Sunday morning sermon. He referenced one verse in particular in 1 Corinthians 13. Verse thirteen in this chapter says “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” The pastor shared that he had been struggling through the premium that God puts on love in this verse. He shared that he thought for many years that faith was in fact the thing that God valued the most and that would bring the most good to the lives of people around him.
My guess is that it is this mentality that drove the German scholarly leaders and many other leaders throughout history. I am sure that the Mandarin Bildungburgers had much faith in their academic pursuits and ideas. They fully believed that they had the answers that would keep Germans from the effects of commercialization that they saw in the West. The believed they had the ideas that would bring about true, organic community. However, I don’t think that ideas alone ever better the world around us. Another verse in 1 Corinthians 8 says “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up” (v.1). I think that Germany began to see its decline when it lost track of the love it takes to thrive in gemeinschaft. This, not their radical ideals, primed the country for Hitler.
And I believe that if we are honest with ourselves, we have all struggled with this balance. Sometimes we get it right. Sometimes we are willing to do things that are inconsistent with the way we thought things ought to be in order to love another person. However, sometimes we fail. We choose to love our ideas, our preconceived notions over the people we were trying to build up with these notions. The result is always the same—we become ineffective, clanging gongs.
I often times find myself distracted in my attempt to balance the ideals of two worlds: the university and the church. I struggle to determine what my convictions even are, let alone whether or not they fit well with my philosophy of science and faith. I find myself looking for the right answers, sometimes even going so far as to argue with those around me. The Eastern ideals of community and paradox are appealing to me, but are often times swept over by the strong current of Western thought that have shaped my upbringing.
As I have pondered these elusive ideas, I am comforted by my belief that Christ himself may have been caught up in the middle just as the Germans were and as I am today. When I think about the ancient world that Christ would have known, I recognize it as one that was caught between two civilizations and traditions: that of the modernizing Roman Empire and the traditional system of Judaism. Surely these societal forces shaped Christ’s ministry and words as much as German and Chinese influences shaped the Bildungburgers.
And yet, unlike many around him, Christ was not concerned with his philosophies being fully understood or agreed with. He often acknowledged that people around him were missing the point. The infinite amount of knowledge that was at his fingertips, that he could have shared endlessly, was all trumped by his love for people. Maybe he simply didn’t put his hope in knowledge like I do, like the Germans did. Perhaps he was confident enough in something greater that he let knowledge have its place, but knew that we all needed more. Am I willing to do the same?
Posted by Autumn at October 19, 2006 07:17 PM