I earnestly seek to keep more obscure references out of my posts, but I could not help but to ponder on this quip from The Hobbit 2: The Desolation of Smaug, and see a stricken conundrum facing the church today. In the aforementioned movie, Tauriel (an elf of little consequence to the main plot, or subsequent books) asks Legalos (of much greater significance), “When did we let evil become stronger than us?” Within the context, Tauriel is commenting on the fact that the elves must get involved with the Orcs pursuing Bilbo and company. The reason being that if they do nothing, darkness will descend on the earth. Legalos responds, “Why? This isn’t our fight”. To which Tauriel responds, “Do we not live in this world? When did we let evil become stronger than us?”

I audibly gasped when I came to a parallel quandary—when did the church let the world out man us? Seriously. Not as in an Orc v. Elf sort of way, but in regards to Academia? Theologians were the most respected scholars for centuries. Men like St. Thomas Aquinas set the framework for ontology and philosophy that was unparalleled or questioned for centuries. It is no secret that most Christians today are viewed as uneducated and superstitious without cause. I wish I could dismiss that notion, but the truth is most Christians don’t know why they believe what they believe.

We live in an era where empiricism rules, and absolutes are nigh absent. Ever since the “Enlightenment” with volatile, anti-religious philosophers like Voltaire—the church has been backsliding in its defense of the Gospel. “The Bible says it, and I believe it, so that settles it,” cannot and will not fly with the outside world. The church failed to sufficiently answer Voltaire, refute Kant, and reign in radical existentialism. Darwin provided the final blow in the church’s academic prowess, when the church failed to properly answer natural selection and On the Origin of Species. And now we sit here and ponder, “When did we let the world get the upper hand in academia?”

The answer: when we stopped believing it was our fight.

Because of the inefficient, and sometimes non-existent, attempts to counter Enlightenment, Transcendentalism, Existentialism, Darwinism, Nihilism, Dadaism, and Modernism, the church is up a creek in this postmodern era we now find ourselves in. Are we defeated? Do we have no chance of regaining our academic splendor that once gave such irrefutable support to the Gospel?

Thank God, the answer is no. During these trying times a few brave men stood, such as CS Lewis and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, but too few. Now men such as Ravi Zacharias, Allister McGrath, and others are starting to reclaim, or at least rebut, the onslaught of anti-religious academia. In similitude to the scenario from The Hobbit 2, we can no longer sit idly by as academia attempts to put sound reason, empiricism, and philosophy at odds with God’s truth. Do we not live in this world? When did we let the world become more equipped in empiricism, philosophy, and literature than the church? It is time for the church to reclaim academia. Without the truth and light of the Gospel, man’s desire to explain reality will result in chaos and destruction as we saw Darwin’s principles used to justify the Nazi regime.

“but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,”—I Peter 3.15  (ESV)

“This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper.”–T.S. Eliot

I have worked retail the past eight years; over this period, I have noticed a surprising decline. It’s a decline that I never would have noticed where it not for and epiphany I had at work today. A customer was wandering around in the Christmas aisle I was stocking. Naturally, I asked if they need help finding anything. They inquired where our Thanksgiving stuff was. I answered we only had a single end cap at A9; she thanked me and scurried in that direction. I turned around and stepped back, overwhelmed by the fifteen aisles of Christmas in front of me. Then I came to a shocking realization.

We had only one END CAP of Thanksgiving–on November 10…at Target.

And it made me ponder, when did Thanksgiving become a minor holiday?

I went into the backroom and discovered that we already had five pallets dedicated to Black Friday merchandise. Really? That’s not even technically a holiday, but we had 8x’s the merchandise for it than Thanksgiving. We already had fifteen aisles of Christmas set by November 7! I began to think back at the trend I had unknowingly witnessed over my last eight years in retail. Each year, Christmas was set earlier, Black Friday sales opened sooner, and Thanksgiving merchandise, and hype, diminished.

No wonder Americans are considered ungrateful and greedy! Thanksgiving becomes an afterthought in the commercialism of Halloween, Black Friday, and Christmas.  What’s with having a “holiday” celebrating greed and materialism the day after (and usually starting the day of anymore) an official holiday celebrating contentment and gratitude?

It has been subtle, and years in the making. It isn’t like Congress has removed it as an official holiday, and it isn’t as though people have stopped holding meals or elementary school plays, but Thanksgiving is waning in importance and meaning. Much like Eliot’s poem, “The Hollow Men”, Thanksgiving seems to be dying, not with a sudden, extravagant exit, but gradually–unnoticed–not with a bang, but a whimper.