{"id":37216,"date":"2024-04-04T13:06:58","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T20:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=37216"},"modified":"2024-04-04T17:32:13","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T00:32:13","slug":"head-heart-or-instinct-which-creates-more-followers-of-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/head-heart-or-instinct-which-creates-more-followers-of-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Head, heart or instinct: Which encourages more followers of Jesus?"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the blog today is my review of the 2023 book, Evangelization and Ideology: How to Understand and Respond to the Political<\/em> Culture by Dr. Matthew Petrusek, Professor of Catholic Ethics and Assistant Director at the Word on Fire Institute. Petrusek tackles the complex art of arguing against modern ideologies using the principles of Catholic social thought. Because I am more familiar with Evangelicalism than Catholicism, the first question I explored was: What is meaning and development of Catholic social thought? <\/em>Second, I explored the argumentative process Petrusek suggests Christians use to debate the ideologies of utilitarianism, classical liberalism\/libertarianism, progressivism\/wokeism, and non-theistic conservatism. And finally, I contrasted Petrusek\u2019s singular focus of using thought and reason to\u00a0 evangelize with the impact of using the other centers of human intelligence: the heart and the gut (instinct) to connect people to Jesus. A summary of this journey follows below.<\/p>\n

What is Catholic Social Thought?<\/h2>\n

The University of San Diego\u2019s Ministry page provided a helpful overview of Catholic social thought, which they define as \u201cthe reflection of the whole [Catholic] Church on the order of social life.\u201d[1]<\/a> In short, Catholic social thought is the church\u2019s response to modern social issues. There is no one source for this worldview, instead \u201cit has developed not only through the insights formulated by the Church councils, papal encyclicals, and bishops’ documents and letters, but also is fashioned by the contributions and insights of the broader Catholic community around the world.\u201d[2]<\/a> Armed with this background and additional insights provided by the article referenced above, I set out to understand Petrusek\u2019s methodology for arguing in support of Catholic social thought against the popular ideologies of the modern day.<\/p>\n

Thinking in Circles: A Map of Moral Argumentation<\/h2>\n

Along with in-depth philosophical histories of utilitarianism, classical liberalism\/libertarianism, progressivism\/wokeism, and non-theistic conservatism, Petrusek introduces a simple tool to assist us in recognizing the various components that make up moral reasoning. The map, which he calls Thinking in Circles<\/em>, is a visual representation of the factors that influence our moral reasoning, with the outer circles being the foundational concepts and the interior circles being dependent on those concepts that surround it (see figure below).[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Petrusek asserts that each of the modern ideologies has deficits that become clear when mapped in this way and that Catholic social thought can \u201cfix\u201d these deficiencies and prove it\u2019s superiority in a rational, logical manner.<\/p>\n

What I appreciated about Petrusek\u2019s approach was the systematic way he dissected the ideologies. The Thinking in Circles map helped me understand the relationship between politics, morality, epistemology, anthropology, ontology, and theology in a new way that is helpful and visual. For the sake of this useful diagram, I will keep Petrusek\u2019s book on my shelf for future reference. What I found disheartening about the book, was Petrusek\u2019s argumentative tone and premise that rational argumentation is THE way to change a person\u2019s mind about ideology. In contrast, I suggest there are two other centers of intelligence that are equal, if not superior to argumentation when it comes to winning hearts and minds for Christ.<\/p>\n

The Three Centers of Intelligence<\/h2>\n

As a certified Enneagram Coach, one of the basic concepts I teach my clients is that human beings have three centers of intelligence: 1) head 2) heart 3) instinct. Each personality type has a default center that they primarily use to make decisions and see their place in the world, but the goal is to use all three. In Petrusek\u2019s book, he focuses exclusively on the head center for evangelizing. While this is useful, head knowledge or consious thought is not the only way of knowing things (epistemology). A person can know things subconsciously out of instinct and emotion, as well. In fact, \u201cNeuroscience now tells us that we each have three brains. The one we most often think about and pay attention to is the \u201chead\u201d or cephalic brain. We also have a heart (cardiac) and a gut (enteric) brain. Each has sensory neurons, motor neurons, ganglia, and neurotransmitters. They are able to take in information, process it, store it and access it when needed.\u201c[4]<\/a> This makes perfect sense when we think about how Jesus evangelized to the world. He did not solely use facts or debate as a means to communicate the gospel. He used story and emotion, meals, dancing, physical touch, prayer, and even song. This holistic way of sharing about God using all three centers of intelligence is becoming more and more important as Christians face the competing ideologies of the day.<\/p>\n

According to Tim Keller, there is a pensee by Blaise Pascal where he says, “Bring people to the place where they wish<\/em> Christianity was true, then<\/em> show them it’s true.”[5]<\/a> In other words, help people understand emotionally and instinctually why they would even want Jesus to be real and THEN show them how it can make sense with reason. By putting the mind first, as Petrusek proposes, I fear we are missing the mark with a generation that is becoming more and more disillusioned with arguments and facts. Perhaps beginning with the heart, where the greatest commandment resides, would be a more effective approach.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> \u201cWhat Is Catholic Social Thought? – University Ministry – University of San Diego,\u201d accessed April 4, 2024, https:\/\/www.sandiego.edu\/ministry\/service-and-social-justice\/catholic-social-thought.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> \u201cWhat Is Catholic Social Thought?\u201d<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Matthew Petrusek and Cardinal Thomas Collins, Evangelization and Ideology: How to Understand and Respond to the Political Culture<\/em> (Word on Fire, 2023), 49.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Brian Gorman, \u201cCouncil Post: Change Leadership: Why Your Head, Heart And Gut Are Critical To Listen To,\u201d Forbes, accessed April 4, 2024, https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/forbescoachescouncil\/2019\/03\/04\/change-leadership-why-your-head-heart-and-gut-are-critical-to-listen-to\/.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Carey Nieuwhof, \u201cEpisode 583: Tim Keller on How He Would Preach If He Was Starting Over, His Biggest Regret, The Decline of The Evangelical Church, and How Culture Is Changing the Future of the Church,\u201d CareyNieuwhof.com, July 13, 2023, https:\/\/careynieuwhof.com\/episode583\/.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the blog today is my review of the 2023 book, Evangelization and Ideology: How to Understand and Respond to the Political Culture by Dr. Matthew Petrusek, Professor of Catholic Ethics and Assistant Director at the Word on Fire Institute. Petrusek tackles the complex art of arguing against modern ideologies using the principles of Catholic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":154,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2997],"class_list":["post-37216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-petrusek","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/154"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37216"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37226,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37216\/revisions\/37226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}