Letter from the Editor

Charles Clark

        Modern academia is a maze of compartmentalization. The vast body of human knowledge is divvied up among more fields and specializations than any one of us is capable of exploring. John Sommerville, author of The Decline of the Secular University, points to this phenomenon and its attendant cognitive dissonance as evidence of a fundamental deficiency in the modern educational experience. Considering that there is widespread agreement on the value of our academic pursuits, as evidenced by our willingness to expend vast quantities of time and money on them, one would expect to find a similar consensus on the ultimate purpose of these endeavors. But no such consensus exists, and the exploration of values and purpose in academic settings is conspicuously absent.
        Many academics reject the idea of absolute values altogether, like the ghostly bishop in C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce. The bishop, having arrived at the edge of heaven, is met by an old friend. The friend tells him, “I will bring you to the land not of questions but of answers, and you shall see the face of God.” But the ghost replies, “For me there is no such thing as a final answer. The free wind of inquiry must always continue to blow through the mind…to travel hopefully is better than to arrive.” The friend replies, “If that were true and known to be true, how could anyone travel hopefully? There would be nothing to hope for.” By ignoring the destination of truth, the bishop has deprived his intellectual journey of value. The journey only becomes valuable in relation to its destination. Likewise, if our values are not rooted in an ultimate fact, then whatever goals toward which we direct ourselves will be futile.
        Unless we question the purpose of our academic pursuits, life and thought will be profitless. If our questions about purpose cannot be answered with finality, we have no reason to hope for fulfillment. Therefore, Sommerville concludes, “Anybody who has achieved a unifying view of all of life and all of thought will have something like a religious view… [Everything they do or think] will be integrated in some highest concern.” The only way to achieve a fulfilling, integrated intellectual life is by tracing our individual goals to a fixed reality of purpose and meaning, something like God.
        At The Apologia, we believe that “Thirst was made for water; inquiry for truth.” We hold that our intellectual abilities are properly directed to experiencing and understanding the final, definite, and unchangeable reality of the human condition, which we are convinced was embodied in the person of Jesus Christ. We strive to apply academic rigor to our spiritual convictions and to invest spiritual purpose in our academic pursuits. We are not trying to argue God into existence. We recognize that if God exists, he exists—believe it or not. Rather, this journal seeks to present Christianity as the message of Eternal Fact and Supreme Value, as a foundation for all of life and thought.