My elder son and I fell into conversation about education and scholarship. Because of my life he was drawn early in life into a circle of persons quite respectful and dedicated to scholarship and practiced it as one of the dominating factors influencing life. Education was made vital to my family members with a college degree made as important to us – as a high school diploma was important to many families with college left optional. (College entry has become more common in the passing decades since that first awareness in my life. Reviewing back through several generations of my family, I was the first in my family review to earn a college degree.) My inquiring son, who holds a Master’s degree and is now semi-retired, asked my interpretation for his feelings – that he was not driven by scholarship as he had observed it in the many connections of our lives, and the differences in conversations between scholarly persons, and those not taken with high intellectual collegiate contexts. He wondered what my take might be on his interest in knowing the difference between education and scholarship. He noted that he had majored in psychology on the graduate level so that he would know better how to work with others, especially family members and students. The drive to become scholarly to the point of research and contribution to a body of knowledge never seized his interest. My response was that he is an educated person, but not scholarly. He wants to know what scholarly people have found, perhaps by which he might choose to believe and live but he does not feel involved in the process. His education impacted his life so to become more objective in his beliefs and conduct, in life interests and procedures, but he did not feel he had what scholarly persons appeared to have. Scholarship, broadly, is continuing search for discovery of facts and information, making analysis and evaluation so to discover the truth of relevant context.
A person learning, and following approved procedure has the seeds of scholarship within. Those seeds sprouting and growing into stages of learning can be advanced through formal and informal education as the serious student advances in pursuit of knowledge. If that knowledge, in whatever volume gained is directed into understanding, and that understanding applied to life, the rightful consequence is human wisdom. The process can be distorted along the way by inappropriate procedures, by disdainful and misdirected searchers, by lack of available evidence, and other factors that detour the process, perhaps losing the acknowledged goal – wisdom. The true and faithful student is looking for wisdom based on knowledge that directs the person to truth, and that to proper application. There is an education that uses the process, not in its rightful meaning but that makes embezzlers, thieves, murderers, abusers, and the like becoming detours of selfishness that do not lead to wisdom. Even sound scholars in research may not learn self-wisdom. Scripture notes an awareness of knowledge to understanding and wisdom in such persons as Joseph and Daniel in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New. Solomon wrote at length about the issues.
The scholar takes this somewhat farther in motivation, search for theory, evidence (perhaps experiment), understanding (interpretation) of the evidence, and the communication of the benefits and limitations of an intense study that likely identifies his or her professional life. In this both good and evil may be served, depending upon the replication of the work in the searches of other scholars. The result is presumed to be truthful in the search and not reach beyond the meaning implied in emerging evidence and theory. The alleged searcher violating the rules of the search in the conclusion is presumed defrocked as a scholar. Scripture helps us understand the above in studies of words and experiences. The secret for students in learning is to ask questions that lead to objective reasoning. Some questions asked of Jesus were directed to trapping him, not to learn from him. He would have none of it. Human beings are masters in asking judgmental questions, and must be pressed to learning procedures that lead to truth, objectivity and wisdom. We reject the uses of scholarship that are not designed to forward the meanings and blessings of genuine scholarship. We must press forward on that matter in objective evaluation. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020