The intellectual pathway

Spiritual pathways are ways in which we sense God’s presence and experience spiritual growth

We all have some involvement in each of them. But people are different and some pathways resonate more with some than others. They may open up a whole new level of connection between people and God. Each also has dangers.

The pathways identified by John Ortberg are:

• Intellectual
• Relational
• Serving
• Worship
• Activist
• Contemplative
• Creation

People on the intellectual pathway draw closer to God as they learn more about him. Ideas are as alive to you as people. You love to study Scripture and books When you are faced with crises or spiritual challenges, you tend to go into an analytic, problem-solving mode.

Moses said in the central command of the Law that God's people are to love him "with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." When Jesus cited that statement, he followed the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament) by adding one phrase: "with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind." If you're on the intellectual pathway, you are deeply grateful for that addition.

“Scripture tells us our first search, our primary calling, is to get wisdom and understanding.”

One person who probably walked this pathway was the apostle Paul. Perhaps most typical of this pathway is how frequently and irresistibly Paul will move in the middle of his writing from thinking to praising. "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory ...."

If you're like Paul, the road to your heart usually runs through your head. You hear God best when you learn. You need to continually immerse yourself in great books, deep thoughts, and sound teaching. When your mind is growing, you feel fully alive. Many of your most significant moments of worship or devotion or decision or repentance came when you were in a deep learning mode. If you quit learning, you grow stagnant.

What are your deep thoughts about these days, and what is influencing them?

• How do we know what we know?
• How do we know that God exists?
• How does our spirituality work – the transcendent connection to God?
• How to integrate science and faith e.g. around creation
• In what way does God intervene these days and does prayer work?
• Is my sense of free will real?
• How much of my Christian experience is real?
• How do I relate my faith to other worldviews which often seem to have some validity
• Ethics
  

What stretches you and helps you to grow in your faith-thinking?

Each of us needs to start developing a spiritual formation plan that focuses on the development of the mind. What helps you?

• Lecture courses and seminars
  
• Books & active note-taking (I am currently using Word in outline mode in a particular folder on my laptop – called Thinking)
• Explaining my thoughts to someone who understands enough to follow what I’m saying
• Preparing stuff to present in public
• Discussing with non-Christians

The dangers of the intellectual pathway lie in becoming

• Cold: all head and no heart.
• Combative: It is extremely difficult to be right and not to hurt anybody with it. Some people find the dialectic creative others don’t! It can hurt relationships.
• Arrogant: Very few people enjoy sitting next to the kid in class who's right all the time - and knows it. "Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up,"
• Dominant: We hate small talk, but once a proper subject comes up you cannot shut us up and we can dominate groups, eat up all the air time.
• Negative: With the modern tendency to deconstruct everything it is also easy to tear down ideas and faith rather than to build up. 
• Addicted to information: the pleasure of working with ideas can take us away from talking to God, to our family and friends and can de-activate us from making a difference in the world.