Academia and the “Suspension of Belief”

In literature, there is a concept known as a “suspension of disbelief” where you are mentally are willing to belief in the unbelievable.  This then allows the story to make sense, despite the fact that chipmunks don’t sing and different worlds don’t exist deep inside your wardrobe.

Since coming to England for my postgraduate, theological studies, I have come to the realisation that there needs to be a “suspension of belief” — that, in my writing, I cannot appeal to my biblical or doctrinal convictions as authoritative. To put it frankly, my beliefs don’t matter — the only thing that cuts it in the academia is rational logic.  This doesn’t mean that I should have no passion or practical applications or anything of that sort.  What it does mean is anything I say must be defendable and should be defended.  I must constantly navigate towards my thesis statement but I also must be dialectical and willing to bring to question all opinions, including those which I hold close.

What is at stake is one’s soul.  It has been said that “seminary” is like “cemetery” because so many people who have left it leave behind their faith.  But the counter-argument is that if you cannot be baptised by fire and survive, perhaps your faith really wasn’t that strong to begin with.  We must constantly challenge ourselves and our minds to grow and be refined.

At times I feel as though I want to think and write my thesis for the local congregation — afterall, theology must be rooted in the church.  Yet, I am also reminded time and time again that my audience, at least for this genre of writing, is not the congregation but the guild of academics.  It is a testing time but, as the Lord wills, His grace is sufficient.

One book I have come across that has been rather helpful is by Scott G. Brown entitled A Guide to Writing Academic Essays in Religious Studies (New York: Continuum, 2008).  Coming from my background, two quotes that I have greatly appreciated:

[A] strictly academic approach is not apt to shed light upon the ultimate questions of human existence.  But for pragmatic reasons, metaphysical investigations of religious truths are best conducted in places where all persons involve already agree upon a set of theological presuppositions, and that kind of consensus rarely occurs outside of academic communities that are based on religious affiliation, such as seminaries, Bible colleges…  In a context that is as religiously pluralistic as a public university, researchers cannot derive axioms from their faith, support their claims through appeal to revelation or dogma, or cite scripture as an authority that is above question.  Rather, they are obliged to limit themselves to theoretical assumptions, methods, forms of argument, and kinds of evidence that are open to scrutiny and challenge by anyone. (p. 5)

Academic [sic] essay writing is not a forum for defending personal or religious convictions or for disclosing one’s private thoughts. The writer of a research essay engages in the impersonal exercise of analysing a phenomenon in order to gain some rational understanding of its occurrence. The persuasiveness of the argument should therefore be logical rather than rhetorical, aimed at the intellect and not the heart. Appeals to the emotions or to religious values not only are out of place in academic writing but actually weaken one’s position, for by relying on these things one is tacitly acknowledging that the evidence does not provide sufficient strong support. (p. 10).

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