On Being a Life-Long Learner – Open Mindedness Part 2

So, what does being open-minded mean and/or require of us, and how does open-mindedness contribute to being life-long learners? The Berean Jews were, according to Luke, “more open-minded than those in Thessalonica” and thus they set an example we should strive to imitate.  Here’s Part 2 (points 3 & 4).

3.  Being open-minded means having the humility and courage to allow "what we think we know" to be challenged and/or corrected.

"Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large group of God-fearing Greeks and quite a few prominent women...Therefore many of them believed, along with quite a few prominent Greek women and men" (Acts 17:4, 12).

There were numerous men and women in both Thessalonica and Berea who were willing to have their understanding of what was true about the Messiah challenged and corrected. That took both humility and courage. When our fundamental truths are challenged and corrected, it rocks our world! Those who accepted Paul's message had their individual worlds turned "upside down."

When we give others’ views thoughtful consideration there is always the “risk” that we will be convinced by their rationale to see their perspective as more valid than our own. Yet, taking that “risk” is required, otherwise we can never engage in a humble and honest dialogue. As Nielsen states, "One must, so to speak, hold one’s views somewhat loosely, which is not to suggest that one should be willing to give them up uncritically or flippantly.” To be unwilling to re-evaluate one's own convictions is to be dogmatic. And being dogmatic is the opposite of being open-minded.

During my undergrad studies, I took a course on Archaeology and the Bible taught by one of the foremost Egyptologists in the world. When it came to the biblical story of the Exodus and the overwhelming lack of archaeological evidence in support of that story, I was challenged to hold my own views loosely so that I could really hear what Dr. Thomas Schneider was presenting. I could consider and assess later. In the moment, over a period of several lectures, I had to allow “what I thought I knew” to be challenged and/or corrected.

Question: Are you willing to hold your own views somewhat loosely, so that you can really hear what the other person is explaining, and so that at the very least you will walk away knowing why the other person holds the views they do?

4. Being consistently open-minded requires endurance and hard work.

Being a life-long learner necessitates lots of hard work and a certain amount of suffering. We would love it, if we could painlessly learn and grow. We live in a society that worships leisure, ease and comfort. We think we've arrived when we've "achieved" such a state of existence. But in fact, the opposite is actually true. If we try to prevent or avoid pain, we will fail to learn. One of the most challenging images of Jesus is repeated several times over in the book of Hebrews – the suffering servant who became our saviour.

Specifically, the Hebrew writer said, "Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him" (5:8). Jesus, because he was God in the flesh, had to learn obedience through suffering and that resulted in his perfection! Wow! We are only "in the flesh." We have so much still to learn, no matter how long we've been Christians and no matter how certain we are about the "correctness" of our beliefs and our practices. In spite of being saved from our sins, we are still finite and fallen beings who have a whole lot of learning to do. 

Being a learner is never easy because true learning requires, and results in, change. And change is difficult at best and, at times, might even involve mental, emotional and/or physical stress. So, learning comes only as we are consistently willing to pay the price. That price is humility, curiosity, respect, endurance and hard work.

In the last fifteen or so years I’ve experienced a radical transformation of several of my key convictions. These were convictions that I not only had held for twenty-five years, but that I had shared and implanted in the minds of others. I wrote a paper early in my undergraduate studies at UBC in class on the life and letters of Paul in which I defended his authorship of 1^st and 2^nd Timothy and Titus. However, I’ve since learned, by staying open-minded to others, that my rationale was quite weak. As I’ve learned more about scribal practices and authorship as practiced in the Hellenistic world, I realized how mistaken my defence of Paul as author of the pastoral epistles was. I have had my mind changed on a lot of topics and issues: the nature and purpose of Genesis 1–11, the historicity of the Exodus and the conquest of the Promised Land (as depicted in the Old Testament), the complexity of the transmission of the texts that would later be canonized in the Hebrew Bible, and the nature of what “God-breathed” means with respect to the inerrancy of Scripture.   

Over a period of years, many dialogues with fellow students and professors, whether in person or via their written works, gradually (but consciously on my part) brought about significant transformations. I’ve come to see myself, others and the world differently. None of these changes were easy, painless or without consequence. I have learned the foolishness of being rigidly dogmatic, where I was so sure that my own understandings were all completely valid and my rationale without flaw or fault.  I’ve learned the benefits of being open-minded to others’ views and truly engaging in dialogue even with those with whom I, at least, initially disagreed.

Question: Are you willing to put in the time and effort to really analyze the views of others and, once convinced, to endure the emotional pain and consequences of radically adjusted, or even disregarding, your once cherished convictions?

Conclusion:

Are you truly willing to be a life-long learner? Are you willing to engage in humble, curious and respectful dialogue, put your own understandings on the line, have them challenged and/or corrected, and then strive to incorporate into your life whatever new understandings you gain? Being a life-long learner requires so much more than reading a few books, going to a few lectures and talking with similarly minded people about what you believe. 

However, as daunting a task as life-long learning is, it is worth all the hard work and endurance required. Being a life-long learner results in ongoing and life-long growth. As disciples of Jesus, we have so much growing to do, as we strive to be as much like him in this life as possible. Remember that God's purpose in calling us to himself is that we might be conformed into the image of his Son (Romans 8:28–29).

In a series of posts soon to follow, I will present a viewpoint that is a radical, 180-degree, departure from my previously held position on a specific subject. For at least some of you (and perhaps many), if you are willing to engage in a dialogue with my posts, I will be “the other.” In the end, you may indeed disagree, but at the very least you will better understand why I, and others, hold to the view that we do.

In close, here’s a prayer I read recently in my copy of the Mishkan T’Filah (a Reform Judaism prayer book)

"From the cowardice that shrinks from new truth,
From the laziness that is content with half-truths, 
From the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth,
O God of truth, deliver us."