What’s Forever For?

Interdisciplinarity.

It’s a buzz word, for sure. But what’s all the hype about?

Interdisciplinarity comes from two words: “inter,” meaning “between,” and “discipline,” that is “a systematic method of obtaining information” (i.e. science, chemistry, mathematics, fine arts, music, etc.). So interdisciplinarity is the idea of bringing disciplines together for a common purpose. To solve a problem – say, how to plug an out-of-control oil leak on the bottom of the sea floor – requires various disciplines to work in harmony with one another (in this case, welding engineers, creative visionaries, submersibles, and architects).

Where Does interdisciplinarity Come From?

Since Plato was the first to propose philosophy as a unified science, many credit him with the origins of interdisciplinarity. In the medieval era, the concern with the problem of overspecialization led to the inclusion of both trivium (logic, rhetoric, and grammer) and quadrivium (music, geometry, arithmetic, and astronomy) in the courses of education.

As the Enlightenment found full expression in art, literature, science, and astronomy, the knowledge of each individual discipline expanded. Disciplines became more sophisticated, and subsequently, students who wanted to master a field needed to spend a great deal of time specializing in that field. To be a lawyer, for instance, required law school. Eventually further specialization in subcategories of law were necessary.

Over the last one hundred and fifty years, higher education has depended on individual disciplines to generate knowledge. In the United States, the liberal arts college model has been used as a corrective to a myopic education in that students are exposed to a wide range of disciplines. In the United Kingdom, a more specialized approach is encouraged. One of the benefits of the UK educational model is that a student is given the time and resources to go very deep into a discipline, even to the point of mastering it. A weakness in the system is that breadth is often sacrificed for depth.

Why We Need It

Specialization is a blessing for those living in an age of information. It allows us to focus on the problems of humanity and dig deeply to locate solutions. Yet when it comes to the church, specialization can foster a kind of compartmentalized Christianity. Ours is the era of analysis and taxonomy, and in our Christian lives, we enable ourselves to separate what happens on Sunday morning from what happens during the rest of our week. “The blood of Christ,” so to speak, doesn’t bleed into every aspect of our lives.

Interdisciplinarity can be used as a tool to combat this kind of inward sectarianism. How? Because it shows us Christ in everything – science, music, art, literature, recreation . . .
In one sense, it returns us to medieval spirituality. But in another sense, it becomes the logical conclusion of taxonomy.

If we believe that there is only one fixed point of truth (not a popular concept in a postmodern age), then our disciplines, as they develop, will eventually point to that one source of truth – God. If all creation comes from the same hand of the Creator, eventually, every aspect of creation will in some way point to it’s original artist.

What’s Forever For?

It’s interesting to see what happens when philosophy’s great question, “what?” joins forces with science’s great question, “how?” Add Christianity’s great question, “who?” into the mix, and you have yourself a good conversation!

Maybe that’s what eternity is all about. Maybe that’s what forever’s for! Spending time in the presence of God, digging into who he is and what he has accomplished, all climaxing in perfect and total adoration of the Creator. Perhaps. In the “foreverness” of it all, perhaps we will have the time to reflect on how mathematics and astronomy and architecture and painting and soccer in some way point to the God who, once upon a time, kicked it all into existence.

Until then, our Christianity doesn’t have to be limited to Sunday morning experiences. The entirety of our lives can become an activity of worship – going to work, taking missions trips, preaching, hitting the gym, waiting in airports (of which I am most weary), vacationing, writing, fasting, eating barbecue, playing ping pong – everything.

The time has come for God to burst out of the tupperware we seal him in!

Bring the forever into the now. I dare you.

Blog