The Wisdom Pyramid - A Review

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We don’t hear as much about wisdom these days in modern discourse.

We hear about expertise, eloquence, and clarity.

None of those three things are bad things in and of themselves, but they are a far cry from wisdom.

Any good Bible reader can tell you that wisdom is a good thing. Wisdom is personified by Solomon in the Proverbs. Moreover, James urges his readers, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.” (1:5) The alternative to wisdom is being a doubter who is “like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.” (1:6)

To be honest, being tossed like a wave seems to be the standard state of most people in our culture. People tend to have a ton of information at their fingertips, especially since most of us carry the internet in our pockets. But having information without knowing what to do with it leads to being wind tossed. Having a framework that allows us to do something with available information is a step along the way to wisdom. True wisdom is having a true framework that can handle all available data.

Brett McCracken’s book, The Wisdom Pyramid, published in 2021, is a helpful, popular level book on the problem of information overload (or wisdom deficit) with some practical solutions. It’s more than a jeremiad and much more than a self-help book.

McCracken identifies the problem of information overload, with statistics that help illustrate the immense increase in volume and range of information we are exposed to. He also notes there is a constant pursuit of novelty in our world—there is always something different coming down the pike. This is complicated by the emphasis on finding meaning within, so that one’s moral compass is guided by one’s current feelings.

This sort of condition helps explain why many of feel ill at ease in the world. There is no solid ground. We have not been taught how to navigate this world. We are often overwhelmed by the battering of the wind, like waves of the sea. Too seldom have we asked God for wisdom.

As part of the solution, McCracken proposes a six-tiered approach to information intake. Much like the food pyramid paradigm that used to guide our nutritional sources, the foundation layer is the most plentiful with the top level being consumed sparingly.

It is little surprise that McCracken, a regular contributor to The Gospel Coalition, begins with Scripture intake. The Bible should make up the largest volume of our information diet. The Word of God is food for the soul and we should feast on it regularly. After that the teaching ministry and community of our local churches should be a plentiful source of content. In a reasonably healthy church with other believers also trying to consume great volumes of Scripture, that fellowship and teaching should echo the foundation of the pyramid.

McCracken recommends that nature form the third tier of the ever-narrowing pyramid. It has certainly not helped our culture’s understanding of truth to believe we have conquered the outside and that we can master nature. The heaven’s declare God’s handiwork, if we’ll only take time to listen. The next level in the wisdom pyramid is books. Old books are good, because they help us see the problems with our own age. New books can be good because good books explore topics with a depth and precision that blogs, newspaper articles, and social media does not.

The penultimate layer of the wisdom pyramid is exposure to beauty. McCracken recognizes the transcendent nature of beauty—that it isn’t merely a human appreciation, but reflects the order of the universe. More significantly, he knows that because has emotive power that comes and goes. It cannot be the main pursuit, though it can point us toward the other transcendentals: truth and goodness. Finally, at the tippy top of the pyramid is the internet and social media. These are the “fats, oils, and sweets” foods of the old food pyramid. Great treats, but terrible for long-term health when taken in large quantities.

The wisdom pyramid is helpful. It may not perfectly reflect the opportunities we have, but it should be something we aspire to replicate. Our problem is that most of us have reversed the pyramid. We live online and dabble in the others. It’s a good thought to try to wean ourselves off our phones and the internet (except my blog, of course), and spend more time at the bottom of the pyramid.

After all, we should be seeking wisdom. And wisdom is best found in the words of the author of the universe. Indeed, where else shall we go, for Christ has the words of eternal life? (John 6:68)

The Consistent Testimony of Eric Liddell

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Reading biographies of significant Christians can be encouraging. The sorts of people about whom biographies are written are often those through whom God has done some impressive things. Sometimes the study of such Christians is a good reminder that God can do great things through ordinary, flawed people.

The study of Eric Liddell is a bit different than other missionaries. By all accounts, he seems to have been someone who achieved a surprising degree of holiness. Even secular biographers, like `Duncan Hamilton, find themselves awed by the consistent character of Eric Liddell.

Liddell, of course, is most famous for winning an Olympic Gold Medal at the 1924 games in Paris. The movies, Chariots of Fire, reasonably accurately represented his life. That film went on to win four Academy Awards in 1981.

The focus of Chariots of Fire was the Olympic competition, especially Liddell’s refusal to participate in the 100m race because there were heats of it being run on Sunday. As a strong Sabbatarian, Liddell refused to engage in such entertainments on the Lord’s Day. Liddell’s character is portrayed as being affable, if a bit stubborn on religious matters, and deeply concerned with holiness.

That bit of the story is all good. But the viewer is left with a limited picture of Liddell. There is a brief scene at the end of the movie where viewers can read that Liddell went to be a missionary and died in China. It’s that death and the manner of life until his death that is the most significant thing.

Eric Liddell appears to have been one of the most consistent, faithful, and Christlike men to walk the face of the earth. Read the words of a recent biographer, Hamilton:

“Skeptical questions are always going to be asked when someone is portrayed without apparent faults and also as the possessor of standards that appear so idealized and far-fetched to the rest of us. Liddell can sound too virtuous and too honorable to be true, as if those who knew him were either misremembering or consciously mythologizing. Not so. The evidence is too overwhelming to be dismissed as easily as that. Amid the myriad moral dilemmas in Weihsein [a prison camp], Liddell’s forbearance was remarkable. No one could ever recall a single act of envy, pettiness, hubris, or self-aggrandizement from him. He bad-mouthed nobody. He didn’t bicker. He lived daily by the most unselfish credo, which was to help others practically and emotionally.”

In the short book that Liddell wrote, but which was not published until 40 years after his death, Liddell suggests a fourfold test of obedience to God’s moral law:

“Here are four tests of the moral law by which we measure ourselves––and so obey the biblical commands.

                Am I truthful? Are there any conditions under which I will or do tell a lie? Can I be depended on to tell the truth no matter what the cost? Yes or no? Don’t hedge, excuse, explain. Yes or no?

                Am I honest? Can I be absolutely trusted in money matters? In my work even when no one is looking? With other people’s reputations? Yes or no? With myself, or do I rationalize and become self-defensive?

                Am I pure? In my habits? In my thought life? In my motives? In my relations with the opposite sex? Yes or no?

                Am I selfish? In the demands I make on my family, wife, husband, or associates? Am I badly balanced; full of moods, cold today and warm tomorrow?”

These questions logically follow on from Liddell’s definition of a disciple:

“A disciple is one who knows God personally, and who learns from Jesus Christ, who most perfectly revealed God. One word stands out from all others as the key to knowing God, to having his peace and assurance in your heart; it is obedience.”

Liddell penned those words somewhere between 1941 and 1943, when he wrote The Disciplines of the Christian Life. It was a little manual for discipleship that he wrote during a time when he was stuck in Japanese occupied China, but wasn’t allowed to minister to the local Chinese.

By all accounts, Liddell appeared to compare well to those four tests.

In his book, Shantung Compound, Langdon Gilkey is very critical of many of the Christians in the camp, especially the missionaries. He seems to delight in recounting every time they got caught up in their own misery and allowed their pettiness to overcome them. His opinion of Liddell, whom he calls Eric Ridley, is surprisingly positive.

He writes,

“It is rare indeed when a person has the good fortune to meet a saint, but he came as close to it as anyone I have ever known. . . . He was aided by others, to be sure. But it was Eric’s enthusiasm that carried the day with the whole effort [of entertaining the teens in the camp.]”

Liddell’s life is more than interesting; it is convicting. That he seemed to be just as much at his best in a prison camp as he was in a relaxing situation is a testament to his character. His character is one that Christians should seek to emulate.

Assisted Suicide and the Ailments of Culture

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Assisted suicide, or what is called “medical assistance in dying (MAID)” in Canada, is no new topic in our cultural. During my childhood, the name “Jack Kevorkian” became a byword and a punchline due to his advocacy for medical professionals helping their patients die instead of helping them live.

To those immersed in the flood of modernity with its emphasis on the radical autonomy of the individual, it is only logical that someone should be permitted or even encouraged to end their life in a clinical, sanitary manner. Why create a mess or a scene of horror for a loved one to find when you can end your existence with a slow wave of drowsiness wafting over you from the silent dripping of a potent fluid in a shapeless plastic bag?

Such an end is no more than what US Supreme Court Justice Kennedy argued for in the infamous Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision in 1992:

“At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.”

That philosophy was, until the recent Supreme Court decision, sufficient to permit the killing of a child in the womb. It is a reflection of an entire cultural ethos that echoes that famous hymn of hell: “I Did it My Way.”

A recent ad from Canadian retailer La Maison Simons, or Simons, presents assisted suicide as a heroic, beautiful, and self-fulfilling way to die. Were the subject not so macabre, it would be a lovely video to watch.

(Note that the ad, originally published on October 24, 2022, has been pulled by the retailer due to negative reaction.)

For the Christian, of course, life is sacred. Whether in the womb or in the last moments of natural life, there is goodness and beauty in life. David taught us this is Psalm 139:16 while speaking to God:

“Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.”

 So, for the believer in Christ, of course intentionally ending one’s life is sin. For those of us who recognize that God’s laws are universal, there is no question, then, that assisted suicide is a sign of a corrupt society.  

But how dare we argue against the non-Christian’s right to day at the hour of his choosing? Is this not an example of “forcing our religion” on others? Or, what if this is really a big problem that will create social injustices and it is simply because of our knowledge of the goodness of God that we are able to see its horror and where it will inevitably lead? 

It is not too hard to see right now that the assisted suicide train is running away on the tracks. In Canada, since 2016, there have been over 31,664 reported deaths through MAIDs with 10,000 of them in 2021. This amounts to approximately 3% of all deaths. 

The current debate in Canada is whether mental illnesses, like depression, should be considered a justifiable reason to request the state to terminate the requestor.  

In the discussion offered in the report to the Canadian Parliament, the authors seem to recognize how dangerous making this option available to  those suffering from mentally ill. However, they also seem to shrug, noting that the original language of the statute allows assisted suicide for “that illness, disease or disability or that state of decline causes them enduring physical or psychological suffering that is intolerable to them and that cannot be relieved under conditions that they consider acceptable.”  

This is “the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.” It is the right to die. If you don’t like the conditions under which your pain can be alleviated, then you have the right for the state to kill you. 

It does not take much to see how this right to die can quickly become the easy way out. How it can become a convenient way to avoid the hassles of a system built to make more expensive treatments hard to get. It can be an option so that “inconvenient” people who rely on care and accommodation from others can be “conveniently” encouraged to ease the burdens of others. It takes little imagination how the “beauty,” as the Simons ad calls it, could be a way to end a period of sorrow or struggle that might have made the person or their neighbor a little better as a person. That convenience may remove a whole lot of beauty from the world. 

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.
-          John Donne