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Michael explores the intellect, truth, fact, bias, imagination, and experience to arrive at a more relational and integrated understanding of the spirit of the mind. He explores disorders of the intellect, which contribute to everything from sociopathy to sloth, and establishes humility as the only virtue that can cut through self-deception.
LINKS
Subscribe to Michael’s Patreon
“Believing Into Christ,” by Living to Him Ministries
How Christian Rationalism Turned Me Into a Psycopath, by Michael Minkoff, Jr.
The Prophetic Imagination, by Walter Brueggeman (Helped me sort through some of these concepts)
I’m glad you addressed the distributions of the powers. I was curious about that. I was also curious about the distribution of the powers between the sexes. It sounds like you’re gonna talk about that next week so I will be patient and wait.
I did want to ask you to further elaborate on where you came up with the definitions for knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. You talked a little bit about where one can see the intimacy of knowledge in the scripture, but I imagine there is more to say on that topic and I’d like to know the analogous source of the other two definitions please.
I write a bit about knowledge as intimacy (and the human necessity for that) in my book on aesthetics, According to His Excellent Greatness (concerning “The Doctrine of Knowledge” in the chapter about what’s wrong with Christian art). I probably need to do some more thorough articulation of the biblical bases for my distinctions, though. Most of what I talk about concerning knowledge, understanding, and wisdom in the podcast is from trying to make sense of the categories, particularly in the Proverbs. It would probably be helpful for me to write a little bit more about why those distinctions made sense of the biblical data for me, but I haven’t yet. That’s not a very satisfying reply for now, but I will do this work eventually.
And yes, I will talk about distribution of powers in the next episode.
Hi Michael, found your podcast through Renew the Arts. Thank you for all the effort you put into your work. The intellectual striving as well as content creation. Your insights have been incredibly valuable to me.
My question:
I think I’m Intrinsic-Affections>INTELLECT>will, to the great annoyance for everyone involved.
I feel a deep desire to use visual art to tell stories, but coupled with a Bartleby inability to do anything useful. The hand refuses to move.
You mentioned the sometime necessity of functioning powers to support, breathing life into the dysfunctional;
How may someone caught in slothful despair rouse his heart and mind to resurrect an atrophied will?
Hi! Thank you so much for commenting and for your encouraging words.
I have some thoughts concerning your question. To start, I think your hierarchy, if accurate, is the one most likely to suffer from lethargy, procrastination, and addictions. I know that is not great news, but it’s not the end of the story. The reason for this is that an internal affectional orientation will do its best to avoid pain and pursue pleasure. This will mean conflict avoidance, the eschewal of schedules diets and discipline, and all that sort of thing. Being internal, you will also tend to reject the standard-enforcement of others (including their protocols and process suggestions). The partner intellect will enjoy processes of story and imagination, but also may be exploited for the creation of escapist fantasies (to avoid the pain of reality) or lies (to avoid conflict, etc.). Everything I’m about to recommend will be difficult for you to implement, but start small and these things may very well help you:
1) Start exercising regularly. And keep pushing yourself in it as you grow. Do not allow it to become something that doesn’t continue to challenge you. I recommend strength exercises, as they will begin to push against the fear your affections have of being weak or in pain (which generates many fearful/slothful behaviors).
2) Make a schedule (at least a weekly one if your work allows) for yourself that covers 30-minute to 1-hour increments of your day. A few notes on this: you may begin by auditing the way you already spend your time for one week. Because you need to have some idea of how you already spend your time. But when you are ready to rewrite your schedule to maximize your time, take some of the following into account. You should have a set wake-up time and routine. Give yourself 30 minutes to an hour in the morning to get into the day. Make sure to mark in your schedule anything that is already set (day job/ recurring meetings/ etc.). This will give you an idea what time you have to work with that isn’t already accounted for. Begin to fill in your schedule with set times to work on: things you want to do and that should be done, things that need to be done that you don’t want to do, things you want to do but that you need to do less, etc. Give yourself some space at first to settle in to a routine. You will likely never create auto-pilot habits like other people do. You will need to keep choosing to follow your schedule. Keep telling yourself it is good and reasonable. That it might hurt, but it will produce good in the end. Make sure to put in regular rewards to your schedule. You did something you don’t want to do? Awesome! Now, do something you want to do in the next slot. That sort of thing.
3) Learn to sit with unpleasant truths about yourself and the world. You can tell yourself directly: “I want to honor the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts. Jesus, help me to know and believe that the truth is to my good even if it hurts or is scary to me.”
4) Learn to accept your vulnerability and the fear and pain it can cause without considering yourself worthless or lesser in value. You will often have to resist the valuation of the world and the condemning voice of your own self-loathing to avoid despair in this. You are vulnerable and sensitive. You will experience pain in the world. This is not a defect. You will likely have to exercise more courage to do daily things than will-oriented people would have to exercise to go to war. This is not a defect. God made you like this, and you are good. But perfect love casts out fear. Do not operate in fear. You will likely have to tell yourself true stories that will strengthen your hope and resolve. Let your affectional capacity for narrative inspire you to daily acts of courage and fortitude.
Those are some initial thoughts. There is a lot more that can be said. Feel free to check back in and let me know if any of these things helped you make progress, and thank you for engaging with my work!