Shortreads
I Want to Know God and the Soul
John Coe
Guarding one's heart as the path to life
Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23). In these words, the Old Testament educational literature makes a sweeping indictment against the educational model of the twentieth century. It is good to know something about science, history, geography, math, and literature. But the central task of a robust, wise education, parenting, and of life itself is to mind one’s heart: to guard it, to care for it, to search it out with God, to understand and open to the truth of its pains, sins, virtues, and need for change with oneself, God, and others. For from the heart all the issues and ways of our lives will pour forth. Augustine sums up this wisdom well in his Soliloquies, where he dialogues with Reason:
Reason: What do you desire to know?
Augustine: I want to know God and the soul.
Reason: Nothing more?
Augustine: Nothing at all.
This is where theology, psychology, and philosophy meet in the most important of all discussions. God help us transform our university, our preaching, our families and our journeys through this life.
