Trevor,
Why would you "love to learn Latin" (a dead language) when...? Your post seems conflicted and perhaps contradictory. Either Latin-learning children are wasting time while the world burns (in which case your desire to learn Latin is sinful and you need to repent) or you are wrong-headed in your passionate diatribe against children learning Latin. You can't have it both ways.
The bulk of your post reflects an attitude toward learning which is rampant among American evangelicals. Your post is typical of those who place "doing" above learning. The anti-intellectualism in your post emerges clearly when you say, "sitting and reading while the world burns."
I struggle daily to eradicate this very attitude from my students.
If they are to do anything of value as ministers, their first duty is to sit, read, and learn a couple or three dead languages.
The very activism you advocate has caused our educational system (whether Christian or secular) to cut us off not only from the great Western (classcal and Christian) tradition but also from our own theological tradition. Most of our theology from the 16th and 17th century remains hidden in Latin. Because so many have taken the same approach you advocate, few of our ministers can actually read those texts. Indeed few scholars seem to be able to read those texts. As a consequence of this almost universal ignorance, we've been victimized by a propoganda campaign distorting the nature of our own theological tradition.
If evangelical and Reformed folk and fundamentalists had spent more time "sitting and reading" there might be fewer fires to put out. Our ministers might actually be able to spot the foolishness of the Federal Vision for what it is. Because so few people have actually spent the time to sit and read many of our congregations are burning!
I received another post this morning from someone deeply distressed about the theological and, as a consequence, the spiritual condition of some of the Reformed churches in the Pacific Northwest. This condition is directly related to the pervasive ignorance about the Reformed tradition, about our theology, piety, and practice. Ignorance isn't pious, it kills.
How much time might we have spent on advancing the gospel rather than conducting stupid arguments had we all a better education?
If our new students came to us with only a decent grammar, high school, and college education we could advance well beyond where normally do with most students. Nearly all of them are victims of the same sort of anti-intellectual, activist approach to education reflected in your post.
Assuming you indulge yourself in "sitting and reading" occasionally (as I think you do) then perhaps you enjoy C. S. Lewis? Why do you think he was such an amazing writer? Lewis wasn't a brilliant writer only because he was gifted. He became a great writer because he worked at it. You might read the recently published editions of his letters. There one gets a sense of the sort of misery he suffered in order to become one of the great English language writers in the 20th century. Without learning to conjugate verbs and decline nouns from a couple of dead languages he would not have been as skilled as he was.
Would it matter if you found out that a substantial percentage of the English language has Latin roots? Would it matter if I told you that learning an inflected language (i.e., a dead language that uses cases) is one of the first steps toward really understanding English? Indeed, learning to pay attention to the facts and grammar in a Latin or Greek sentence is one of the best learning exercises a student experiences. Inflected languages force a student to pay attention to evidence and to think clearly.
I understand that you're not counseling complete ignorance, just selective ignorance. I understand your frustration that not enough folk are preparing to do the work of missions, but as I understand the missional task, it means that we must train ministers (of course, I come to that conclusion as a result of spending time reading dead languages!) to plant churches everywhere, in every language. We need to train nationals to preach in their own languages. In both cases, we need ministers who are well-trained and prepared to learn the languages of the world. Learning dead languages is excellent preparation for that work.
I hope you'll re-think your attitude toward learning.
rsc
Quote:
Originally Posted by trevorjohnson  Soapbox and opinionated post in 3....2.....1....
Why learn a dead language when there are thousands of languages that need the Scripture? It is not even an original Scripture language. Learn Tamil, Indonesian, urdu, Arabic....... It would be nice to read some classics, but if you want to equip your kids for service in real life instead of sitting and reading while the world burns around you, then go ahead.
Okay...end of highly opinionated post. Sorry guys.
P.s. I would love to learn latin, by the way, too. With limited time and brains, one must pick a language that they can use for the best good.. and I do not plan to teach the classics at university level, therefore learning latin is off my lists.. |