With All Your Heart and Mind

Seeing as this is a blog about my experiences studying abroad, I feel it might be appropriate to write a blog about my studies. I have 6 classes here at Westfield House, plus 2 required field experiences. Let's start with the first class I have every day: Lutheran Dogmatics I with Dr. Mumme. Dogmatics is an underused word for doctrine. So in this class, I learn the doctrines of the Christian faith with an emphasis on the Lutheran tradition. One of the key Bible verses mentioned in this class that's been on my mind lately is Mark 12:30. Jesus said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." We focused on two parts of this verse: "with all your heart" and "with all your mind." Jesus calls and commands us to love the Lord with both our hearts and our minds. Most Christians (including myself) tend to favor one over the other. Some Christians are all about the heart, saying "All that matters is my personal relationship with Jesus. I don't need to learn all that theology and doctrine stuff." They desire only to love the Lord with all their heart and not with their mind. Then on the other side of the spectrum, you have academics who get so wrapped up in studying the Scriptures and commentaries and Bible dictionaries and different translations that they miss the both the personal relationship we have individually with Jesus and the corporate relationship we as the Church have with Jesus. They love the Lord with all their mind and not with their heart.
There is a tension between spirituality and scholarship we must live in. The love of learning and the desire for God are united. The importance of both of these cannot be overstated; and we aren't permitted to choose one or the other. To only study or to only worship would be to pick and choose which part(s) of Mark 12:30 we want to follow. But to recognize what is crucial, we must consider both and distinguish between the "monastic" and "scholastic" sides of the Christian life.
This is the most useful concept I have learned so far in Lutheran Dogmatics I. Here at Westfield House and at Resurrection Lutheran Church, I'm pleased to be immersed in both aspects of the Christian life. With chapel every weekday and church every Sunday, I'm saturated with God's Word and Sacraments; and I'm honored to respond to that Word in prayer and praise. And with doctrine classes, reading books by great theologians of the past, and studying church history and the Confessions, I'm active in the scholastic side as well. As Christians, we're all tempted to overemphasize one and downplay the other, especially me. So it's helpful for me to keep the words of Mark's gospel in my thoughts every day: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart...and with all your mind." AND... not or.