The Different Levels of Thinking & Thinkers

In Undergrad, we learned there were 4 levels of worldview thinking and thinkers.

1.) Original Thinkers — These types show up once every two or three generations. Though honestly, Solomon said a millennium ago that there was nothing new under the sun. Examples might be Newton, Ptolemy, Calvin, Augustine, J. Edwards, etc.

2.) Sociological Applicators — These are the synthesizers and they likewise are geniuses. These chaps take from the geniuses and synthesize so that new plausible worldview paradigms arise.

Men like Erasmus, Herbert Spencer, Neil Postmen, Kuyper, Bavinck, Karl Popper, M. Polyani, R. L. Dabney, R. J. Rushdoony etc. You and I probably won’t meet one of these in our lifetime.

3.) Eclectic — These are those who randomly take from different thought systems as your lunch diner takes from the noon buffet. Often they have deep contradictions embedded in their thinking. These are most college professors, shrinks, social workers, lawyers, bureaucrats, politicians etc. They make up the professional white-collar class. These are dull people. This doesn’t mean all in these white-collar categories are Eclectic but many are.  Think Barak Obama, George Bush, Donald Trump, Fauci, Gates, Sean Michael Lucas, J. Ligon Duncan, Kevin DeYoung, Joel McDurmon, Greg Johnson, etc.

4.) Conglomerate — They catch their worldview like you catch a common cold. They are just mouthpieces for the floating zeitgeist as found in media and pop culture. This represents 90% plus of the world we live in today. This is your cousins, your co-workers, your average pew sitter, and the average minister standing up in front of the average pew sitter.

After I first wrote this a friend from Australia offered a slight correction that I thought was quite good.

________

 
 
The 2  you have is a rare genius while the 3 you have is a dullard. We

need something between 2 and 3.
 
 
 
Suggested – 3. Deep Reader. Produces nothing new, nor a master of synthesis, but strives for consistency and relentlessly follows – learns without new production nor synthesis. Guards and transmits systems that others have invented and refined. Examples are Gary North, N. T. Wright,  Daniel Ritchie,  Joel Beeke,  Shelby Foote, Winston Churchill, Thomas Paine, etc.
 
 
1. totally new worldview generator
2. refines and systematizes worldview
3. comprehends and reiterates worldview
4. a mess of different world views and contradictions often loudly proclaimed
5. Hoi Polloi Eloi… Rank & File 
 
 

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him.

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