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The Cult of the Expert or the Worship of Christ
to say man must prescribe, not discover and acknowledge, the normative structures for human life. Thus, in the name of intellectual freedom, unaccountability becomes a hallmark of the occupation of both the intellectual and the intelligentsia which follows them. The noted British intellectual, John Stuart Mill, went as far as to argue that intellectuals should be free even from social standards, all the while setting those standards for others.14 It is existing institutions and traditions, norms and standards that must change to accommodate the intellectuals’ ideas, not the thinker who must be subject to laws and norms in the created world.
In marked contrast, the Christian must submit their thinking to Scripture and explore the various spheres of the creation order as revelation from God. Together, these have a ‘norming’ impact on Christian thought, giving concrete direction to the believer’s labors in every sphere – including the political. The thought-products of Christians can then be judged by and made accountable to an external standard, just as the prophets in Scripture were judged in terms of their faithfulness to the Word of God and accuracy of their description of God’s historical activities.
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THE CULT OF THE EXPERT OR THE WORSHIP OF CHRIST
One of the besetting sins of professional intellectuals as a class is believing that, because they have a particular depth of knowledge or strong ability in a given area, they can then generalize their narrow knowledge and ability into the
