FEBA Forever!

by Donald Opitz and Derek Melleby

What if Christian college students didn’t resign themselves to the two themes of university life? Namely, these two themes are “college is your ticket to a good job” (so get the piece of paper and never mind learning anything so long as the resume is stuffed) and “college is a rite of passage” (so you should eat, drink and party, for tomorrow you must graduate and become a boring adult, shuffling zombie-like through your “earning years”). What if Christian college students actually devoted themselves to learning, actually took learning seriously, and were actually disciplined students seeking to integrate their faith with their course of study? This is the premise of the book The Outrageous idea of Academic Faithfulness by Donald Optiz and Derek Melleby (2007; Bazos Press).

The title is inspired by George Marsden’s The Outrageous idea of Christian Scholarship (1997; Oxford University Press), which essentially argues that Christian faculty should be more explicitly Christian in their teaching and research. From the title alone, I had to read this book. As a college professor, I am often frustrated by most college students’ approach to their academics. Often students have very lackluster performance or view college in a very utilitarian manner. For example, I have heard students comment “Why go to class?” Usually this is followed by an explanation, such as “they teach right from the book” or “the notes are available online” as if there is no value in an education besides finishing the degree with as little work as possible. I often wonder “how are you going to use that time that you didn’t attend class?” So I read The Outrageous idea of Academic Faithfulness, a short treatment of what has sadly become an outrageous idea; that God cares about how people use their intellectual talent and extraordinary opportunity to attend college, and that students just might take learning seriously, approach academics in a disciplined way, and choose to be faithful in this area of their lives.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t much left in this book after the premise was established. I think that the book has many shortcomings, but some of these might merely reflect my fickle tastes (e.g., too short, too shallow, too “popular press” in style). Therefore, I will focus on what I believe are three major and related flaws in this three-part series.

Wheat and Weeds in the Kingdom of God

First, the authors misinterpret the parable of the wheat and the weeds from Matthew 13 and reach a faulty conclusion. The parable is:

24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. 27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ 28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29 “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

The authors stopped at verse 28, and conclude that college is like this field, full of good things (wheat) and bad things (weeds). Telling the difference is the challenge, and in college the academically faithful learn to carefully discern the good ideas from the wrong ideas.

Well, this is not remotely the point of this parable, as verse 29-30 make clear (who stops to interpret a parable after a question mark but before the answer is given?). Jesus says DO NOT try to separate the wheat from the weeds, not to mention that the parable is about people in the Kingdom of God and not ideas. Oh look! Jesus himself explains the parable in verses 36-43, so there’s no confusion…and the authors are waaay off base with their application.

36 Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” 37 He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. 40 “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

Jesus sowed, the field is the world, good seeds are Christians, the weeds are God’s adversaries, etc. So “do not try to separate them” has to do with the coexistence of Christians and non-Christians until the final judgment…which does not support the application that students will be faced with the task of discerning between good ideas and bad ideas during college. There are doubtless bible passages that support the need to discern true from false, but not in this kingdom parable.

In Part 2 of this review, I will describe what I believe is a crippling omission from the book, and in Part 3, I will try to uncover the source of these shortcomings of this book.

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