Howard C. Wilkinson - "Examining the Examined Life" (May 22, 1966)

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	(organ music)	0:04
-	Deliver us our heavenly Father	0:11
	from assuming that when these gifts are made	0:13
	our duty is done.	0:16
	Rather take this money and our hearts and our lives	0:18
	and use them for the relief of human suffering,	0:22
	and to the end that the good news	0:26
	may be heard around the world	0:28
	for the sake of Christ.	0:30
	Amen.	0:32
	(faint organ music)	0:35
	Before commencing the sermon today,	1:01
	I have a personal word of gratitude	1:03
	that I would like to speak,	1:05
	which I suppose I am more interested in speaking	1:07
	than I am in preaching the sermon,	1:10
	if the truth were told.	1:12
	Next Sunday is the last Sunday	1:15
	in our regular series of university services of worship	1:17
	for the academic year,	1:20
	which is rapidly drawing to a close.	1:21
	It will not be my privilege	1:24
	to be in the service next Sunday.	1:25
	And I cannot let the year close	1:29
	without taking an opportunity	1:31
	to express my own personal and official gratitude	1:34
	to the many students who have been responsible	1:38
	for what our services have been this year.	1:41
	I am referring mainly to the students who have	1:46
	given their time as ushers, as collectors,	1:50
	as members of the choir,	1:53
	as communion ministers,	1:55
	and who have helped in many other ways.	1:57
	All of these have served,	2:01
	some of them for four years,	2:03
	others were three, two or one,	2:05
	and have given disciplined and dedicated service	2:09
	without being paid one penny.	2:13
	There are some people who never think of serving	2:17
	unless they can be paid money.	2:20
	There are others who would be almost insulted	2:23
	if they were offered money for their service	2:25
	to almighty God.	2:28
	The chapel could not operate in the way that it does	2:30
	without several hundred of our students	2:33
	giving dedicated service as ushers collectors,	2:37
	choir members, communion ministers, et cetera.	2:41
	I think many times we do not realize	2:45
	the kind of sacrifice that is called for in this service.	2:48
	For instance, today, the day before final exams,	2:51
	many students who normally attend chapel say	2:56
	"This one time I have to study."	2:58
	Our ushers and collectors, choir members	3:01
	do not answer the question in that way,	3:04
	no matter what the crisis may be	3:08
	or the attraction of a beach weekend or whatever.	3:11
	It never crosses my mind that	3:14
	I will come to chapel on Sunday morning	3:17
	and the collectors and the ushers	3:18
	and the choir will not be here.	3:20
	I have grown accustomed through the years	3:23
	to expect faithfulness and excellence on their part.	3:25
	I would be very ungrateful if I did not say at least	3:30
	these minimal words of thanks.	3:33
	I would like to add one word to that concerning the choir	3:36
	and that is to say that I am sure	3:41
	having served as chaplain here for nine years	3:44
	and observing the effort and the dedication	3:46
	on the part of many of our professors and students	3:49
	across the university	3:51
	to achieve what our president has called for	3:53
	namely excellence in every line.	3:56
	I am sure that there is no individual, no discipline,	3:58
	no department, no laboratory, no group	4:03
	anywhere in Duke University	4:06
	that strives as hard for continual excellence	4:08
	as does the Duke Chapel choir.	4:12
	Their offering to God includes not only harmony and beauty,	4:16
	but excellence.	4:20
	I am personally grateful	4:22
	as I know you and the congregation are	4:24
	for the kind of dedication	4:26
	which all of these people bring to the service of worship.	4:28
	As we find it from Sunday to Sunday	4:33
	here in the Duke chapel.	4:35
	But I do have a sermon.	4:39
	I would like to commence it by quoting	4:43
	an often quoted sentence.	4:45
	"The unexamined life is not worth living."	4:48
	I should hasten to add	4:54
	that I'm not talking about your finals	4:56
	when I refer to the examined life.	4:58
	I think you will be exhilarated rather than disappointed	5:02
	to learn that.	5:06
	That familiar statement is not,	5:09
	however, a verse from the Bible	5:11
	to be used as a text over this sermon.	5:13
	We shall get to the biblical text in a little while,	5:16
	but let us first look at this sentence,	5:20
	which has come down to us from ancient Greece.	5:22
	Many of you recognize it as a dictum of Socrates,	5:27
	quoted by his famous student, Plato, in the apology.	5:31
	When Plato quoted Socrates,	5:36
	as having said that	5:38
	"The unexamined life is not worth living."	5:39
	He preserved a statement which was destined	5:42
	to be repeated millions of times	5:45
	in the halls of learning	5:47
	across some 22 centuries at least.	5:49
	The assumptions inherent in this statement	5:54
	and then it's implied positive counterpart,	5:59
	namely, the examined life is worth living,	6:02
	are very basic to the whole academic enterprise.	6:09
	Indeed, with some justification,	6:13
	it might be said that college and university existence	6:15
	is the examined life.	6:19
	Someone has said that it is the business of universities	6:24
	to examine and correct the teachings of common sense	6:27
	and appearance.	6:30
	Think of that.	6:33
	If you get in your car and drive a day's journey,	6:35
	and if at the end of the day you have on the common sense	6:39
	to guide you,	6:42
	it is almost inevitable that you will come to the conclusion	6:44
	that the earth is flat,	6:48
	but the university examines that assumption	6:52
	and declares it to be false.	6:55
	The university scientist charge a world that is round,	6:57
	not flat.	7:03
	In like manner,	7:06
	the academic life constantly correct	7:07
	the errors of appearance.	7:10
	If you were to rise very early tomorrow morning,	7:13
	and instead of going to your exam,	7:16
	take a lawn chair with you	7:18
	and sit all day from dawn to dark	7:20
	in the middle of the quad,	7:22
	it would appear to you	7:24
	that the sun rose in the east,	7:28
	that it passed over your head,	7:32
	moving ever westward,	7:35
	finally, that it sank below the horizon	7:37
	and as Thomas Gray would phrase it,	7:40
	"Left the world to darkness and to you."	7:42
	But if you then picked up your lawn chair	7:46
	and consulted the accumulated discoveries of the university,	7:49
	it would become clear to you that what you had learned	7:54
	by trusting appearances was false.	7:57
	The sun had not been on any such journey at all;	8:02
	you were the one making a trip.	8:05
	While sitting all day in that lawn chair	8:09
	in the middle of the quad,	8:11
	you had traveled, in fact, many thousands of miles.	8:12
	It is precisely because the inquiring mind has corrected	8:18
	an uncountable number of such errors	8:23
	that the examined life has come to be widely referred	8:26
	above common sense and appearance.	8:31
	In our culture today,	8:37
	the examined life is in,	8:39
	common sense is out.	8:42
	Indeed, the examined life	8:46
	has come to be the intellectual establishment	8:48
	and the priests of the cult	8:52
	have generally accepted society's appraisal of them	8:54
	as being among the most valuable man in the world.	8:57
	Now, the reason why all this has crept into a sermon	9:02
	is that there is a tendency for corruption	9:07
	to beset everything which gains uncritical acceptance.	9:12
	However healthy and sound the main body	9:19
	of the establishment may be,	9:22
	there is always a tendency for some of its members	9:25
	to become corrupt and to take unhealthy advantage	9:29
	of the favored position which they hold	9:34
	sometimes this corrupted form of the establishment	9:38
	threatens to invalidate and discredit	9:41
	the central reality of which it is a distortion.	9:45
	This must not be allowed to happen.	9:51
	And it is the desire to prevent its occurrence,	9:58
	which prompts this sermon.	10:02
	What am I talking about?	10:05
	Why is it so important?	10:07
	Well, I am talking about the concept of examination.	10:10
	The concept of examination,	10:14
	which many people have today.	10:18
	The difficulty is that in some circles,	10:22
	examination has come to mean criticism exclusively;	10:27
	and criticism has come to mean negative criticism,	10:36
	and negative criticism has scorn the companionship	10:42
	of positive support.	10:46
	The end result of this downward spiral	10:50
	is the production of a steady stream of negative criticism,	10:53
	devoid of any tangible evidence of endorsement,	11:01
	but a criticism which claims for itself,	11:06
	all of the prestige,	11:09
	the status,	11:12
	and the justification of the establishment.	11:13
	In these circles, therefore,	11:19
	the examined life has come to mean	11:21
	the negatively criticized life.	11:25
	One of the most obvious characteristics of this trend	11:32
	is its failure to examine itself.	11:34
	It examines all assumptions except its own assumptions.	11:38
	It criticizes everything except criticism.	11:42
	It has a completely positive attitude	11:47
	toward negative examination	11:49
	and its chief affirmation is denial.	11:52
	To be sure that what I'm saying is understood	12:00
	and not misunderstood.	12:03
	Let me attempt an illustration.	12:06
	Suppose, if we were to change the arena of thought	12:09
	this morning,	12:12
	suppose that instead of considering the Socratic thesis,	12:13
	that the unexamined life is not worth living,	12:16
	we were to examine to consider the engineering thesis	12:20
	that the unexamined bridge is not worth driving over.	12:25
	I believe such a thesis could be successfully defended.	12:31
	Here's a bridge spanning a mighty gorge,	12:35
	both ends of the bridge	12:39
	are connected to ribbons of concrete	12:40
	which stretched to the horizon in either direction.	12:43
	The construction crew has completed its work	12:47
	and is preparing to depart,	12:50
	about that time a huge tractor trailer truck	12:53
	comes rolling along one of those ribbons of concrete,	12:57
	and as it approaches the bridge,	13:00
	the driver brings his truck and its cargo to a halt.	13:02
	He knows that the bridge is new.	13:08
	He asked the contractor if the bridge has been inspected	13:11
	by an authorized and competent examiner,	13:15
	let us suppose that in reply,	13:20
	the contractor invites the driver to look at the bridge	13:22
	for himself.	13:25
	And although the driver admits it appears to be sound,	13:26
	he insists he wants more assurance than mere appearance.	13:31
	So all the contractor appeals to common sense,	13:37
	he asked the driver if he thinks a licensed contractor	13:40
	would want to build an unsafe bridge.	13:43
	Again, the truck driver is dissatisfied with common sense.	13:46
	Demands are rigorous examination of the bridge.	13:50
	He will not trust his cargo and his life on that bridge	13:56
	without it;	13:59
	he says the unexamined bridges not worth driving over.	14:00
	Finally, a certified examiner comes,	14:06
	gives the bridge of rigorous examination	14:08
	using instruments and standards	14:11
	as critically accurate as can be scientifically devised.	14:12
	Let us suppose that he finds the bridge	14:17
	to be completely sound,	14:19
	entirely safe,	14:22
	and that he so announcements,	14:24
	thus opening the bridge to traffic.	14:26
	Now, if you have followed me this far,	14:29
	I have a question.	14:35
	Does this certified examiner,	14:39
	in order to prove his competence	14:42
	and to establish his usefulness to society,	14:45
	have to stand there by the bridge day in and day out	14:49
	pouring for the steady stream of negative criticisms	14:55
	directed now at the bridge, now at its builders,	14:58
	now at the architect?	15:01
	Does he?	15:04
	Indeed, were the examiner to behave in this way	15:07
	for only a few days,	15:10
	his family would ask the man in white coats to go for him.	15:12
	By mean so this analogy I hope to suggest the truth	15:19
	that rigorous examination does not,	15:23
	of necessity,	15:26
	lead to denunciation at all.	15:28
	And that the concept of the negatively criticized life	15:32
	is a serious perversion	15:37
	of the true concept of the examined life.	15:39
	Moreover, when we find an individual	15:44
	engaging in the production	15:46
	of nothing but negative criticism,	15:48
	we have to call into question his objectivity,	15:50
	his balance and his motivation.	15:53
	Were this chronic critic to be a single man	15:58
	living alone on an otherwise deserted island	16:01
	in the south seas	16:04
	his negative bias might be the least one of his problems.	16:06
	But if, instead, he is a member of the group,	16:11
	if he is a participant in community,	16:14
	and if his negative criticisms	16:17
	are directed from week to week	16:19
	towards the community of which he is a member,	16:20
	then his negative bias	16:24
	becomes a source of inescapable concern	16:27
	to the community of which he is a part,	16:30
	the community may be a family, a fraternity,	16:34
	a church, or a university;	16:37
	In any case, the principle is the same.	16:41
	Now we come to this point	16:46
	to say that the person who is seeking to live	16:48
	the examined life	16:51
	in any given community,	16:55
	large or small, of whatever kind,	16:58
	must ask himself whether he is a responsible member	17:02
	of that community,	17:06
	whether on the one hand,	17:09
	his negative criticisms of it constitute enmity,	17:11
	disloyalty or a paranoid type of sickness,	17:15
	or whether on the other hand,	17:20
	they represent the intelligent efforts	17:22
	of a loyal member of that community to improve it.	17:24
	He cannot evade that question.	17:29
	There is one sure way by which he can convince both himself	17:33
	and the members of his community,	17:38
	that the purpose and the effect of his fault-finding	17:40
	is constructive.	17:43
	If prior to and along with his negative criticism,	17:45
	he offers tangible,	17:50
	sincere and convincing evidence of support	17:52
	his community can likewise accept his fault-finding	17:56
	as being sincere.	18:00
	Otherwise it must look upon the chronic carping critic	18:03
	as being an enemy of the community	18:06
	operating from within the community	18:07
	or as a disloyal member of the community,	18:10
	or as a sick person.	18:13
	Knowing this,	18:16
	the enemy and the disloyal member	18:18
	are often prone to pretend just enough endorsement	18:20
	to escape the accusation that they never give support.	18:24
	But when the chronic critic praises the community	18:29
	of which he is a part	18:32
	it is usually with such faint praise	18:33
	that the effect is damning rather than supportive.	18:38
	When he does give a cent to his community,	18:42
	it is with a civil leer,	18:45
	And if he manages to avoid snaring,	18:48
	he at least teaches others to snare.	18:50
	See, Alexander Pope.	18:54
	For a few moments, let us look at some of the communities	18:58
	of which you and I are members.	19:01
	First, think of that community of learning	19:05
	known as Duke university.	19:08
	Now like every other vital group,	19:12
	this one needs to be examined,	19:14
	and often the examination will honestly lead to criticism.	19:17
	But again, like every other group,	19:22
	this university has a right to expect that its critics	19:25
	shall give tangible, sincere	19:29
	and convincing evidence of support.	19:33
	Let me cite an example of what I mean.	19:39
	And I hope that this citing	19:41
	will not prove to be embarrassing to a fine young lady.	19:42
	During this academic year,	19:47
	Libby Falk has been the editor of the Duke Chronicle,	19:49
	and she has contributed through its pages,	19:53
	her full share of negative criticism	19:55
	of this academic community.	19:59
	I have paid attention when she has criticized,	20:02
	because I could not forget the editorial	20:07
	which she wrote and published in the very first edition	20:10
	when school opened last September.	20:16
	Let me read you a part of her editorial.	20:18
	I quote, "The walls have opened again	20:22
	"to let in 1,217 new pairs of feet,	20:25
	"you come here as freshmen,	20:29
	"as the next month stretch into years,	20:32
	"you'll hear criticisms	20:35
	"of practically every aspect of this university.	20:36
	"Everyone will be pointing out problems,	20:40
	"objecting to things that seem wrong,	20:44
	"complaining of various lacks.	20:47
	"Soon, you too will be one of the critics,	20:50
	"but realize this, now,	20:54
	"while your enthusiasm is still intact.	20:57
	"Most of us who criticize are working to improve something	21:00
	"we think is worth improving.	21:04
	"This is a good school."	21:07
	End quote.	21:12
	She had earned the right to criticize	21:14
	and both her criticism and her support	21:17
	should be taken seriously.	21:19
	Each has made a contribution	21:22
	to the strengthening of the university.	21:24
	We'll think next about this principle	21:28
	and the life of that community	21:31
	which we call the United States.	21:32
	Our nation, and particularly its government,	21:35
	need to be rigorously examined.	21:39
	The examination often leads to criticism.	21:43
	The late president, John F. Kennedy,	21:46
	was one who never shrank from honest criticism,	21:50
	and he often indeed made jokes out of the criticisms	21:52
	which were directed against him personally.	21:55
	And yet even this unusually tolerant man	21:58
	understood the depth and the width	22:03
	of the chasm which separates supportive criticism	22:06
	from irresponsible denunciation with axes to grind.	22:11
	On November 22nd, 1963,	22:18
	President Kennedy rode through the streets of Dallas, Texas,	22:22
	taking with him a speech,	22:26
	which he was on the way to deliver	22:27
	the bullets of an assassin cut him down	22:31
	before he could deliver the address.	22:33
	But the world now has a copy	22:36
	of what this great man was planning to say.	22:38
	One sentence from that speech	22:41
	has lodged in my consciousness,	22:43
	"There will be dissident voices heard in the land	22:47
	"finding fault, but never a favor,	22:54
	"perceiving gloom on every side	22:58
	"and seeking influence without responsibility."	23:01
	"Finding fault,	23:06
	"but never favor,	23:07
	"perceiving gloom on every side	23:09
	"and seeking influence without responsibility."	23:12
	The loyal citizen who loves his country	23:18
	will offer it the best fruit of his intellect,	23:20
	he will examine its policies	23:24
	in the light of his keenest judgment.	23:26
	Sometimes this examination will lead him to criticize,	23:28
	sometimes it will lead him to approve,	23:32
	but he will be just as ready to improve and support	23:35
	as to criticize and support.	23:42
	And he will both realize and acknowledge	23:46
	that his own personal destiny	23:48
	is involved with the health of his national community.	23:51
	And if he is wise as well as perceptive,	23:55
	he will know that negativistic chronic and carping criticism	23:58
	never contributes to that health.	24:03
	Third and finally,	24:09
	let us look at the relevance of all of this	24:10
	to the community of faith.	24:12
	Is there a place for an examining mind in the church?	24:16
	Is criticism valid in a religious group?	24:22
	Our Lord Jesus Christ, commended childlike faith,	24:28
	and declared that only those who are like little children	24:33
	shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.	24:36
	And yet, it does not seem	24:41
	that the Socratic proneness to examine all things,	24:43
	is in any way, unnecessary conflict with childlike faith.	24:48
	If, in the church,	24:56
	the emphasis is upon examination	24:57
	with open unwillingness to criticize or to endorse	25:01
	such examination can indeed be a useful companion	25:05
	to the trusting faith which Jesus Christ called for.	25:09
	But if, in a religious group,	25:14
	examination becomes criticism exclusively,	25:16
	and criticism becomes negative criticism,	25:19
	and negative criticism scorns any meaningful support	25:23
	then we have a situation in that religious group	25:27
	which is as disloyal or sick	25:31
	as is the case in any other type of community	25:33
	in which negativistic bias operates.	25:36
	When the examined Christian life	25:40
	becomes the negatively criticized Christian life,	25:43
	it stands in danger of ceasing to be a community at all.	25:46
	From the very beginning of the Christian Church,	25:52
	it has been criticized, and rightly so,	25:54
	but it is interesting to observe	25:59
	that it's most penetrating critics	26:01
	have always been members of the church	26:04
	and its most helpful critics	26:08
	have always been those who have given tangible,	26:11
	sincere and convincing evidence of support	26:13
	to the community they criticized.	26:18
	There are two contemporary religious writers	26:22
	who illustrate	26:25
	how constructive and destructive criticism work	26:27
	within the community of faith.	26:30
	One is the German academic preacher, Helmut Thielicke,	26:33
	the other is an American seminary professor, Peter Berger.	26:37
	Thielicke has quarrel with the church to be sure,	26:42
	but it is a lover's quarrel.	26:45
	Berger has a quarrel with the church,	26:47
	but it certainly is no lover's quarrel.	26:50
	Thielicke criticizes the church	26:54
	in such fashion that his readers and hearers	26:55
	recognize the accuracy of the criticism	26:58
	that he's making.	27:01
	And they are inspired to renew the church,	27:03
	and to join with Thielicke	27:06
	in making it responsive to its Lord.	27:08
	Berger, on the other hand,	27:12
	distorts the weaknesses of the church,	27:14
	pretends that exceptionally bad situations or normative	27:17
	seems to delight in finding fault with the church,	27:21
	and as a result inspires his readers to snare at it	27:25
	and to regard it as a hopeless situation.	27:28
	It is fashionable these days	27:34
	for some campus religious groups across America	27:35
	to spend the majority of their time	27:39
	in denouncing the institutional church.	27:41
	A sobering thought is that these campus arms of the church	27:45
	would cease to exist	27:51
	if the institutional church were as critical of them	27:53
	as some of them are of it.	27:57
	Because if it were,	28:00
	it would terminate its financial support of them	28:02
	and that would be the end.	28:04
	Fortunately, the institutional church	28:08
	is more tolerant and supportive of its carping critics	28:10
	than they are of it,	28:14
	and so the church moves ahead in dialogue.	28:17
	What a chronic critic in a religious group must remember,	28:21
	however,	28:24
	is that negativistic criticisms	28:25
	without convincing evidences of support	28:29
	destroy personal relationships;	28:32
	and when they are gone, community is gone	28:36
	because the presence of a given number	28:41
	of warm bodies in a group does not guarantee community.	28:43
	The chronic critic destroys Christian community.	28:48
	That is assuming no small responsibility,	28:52
	but happily, there is a more excellent way;	28:57
	it is the way of love.	29:00
	When there is charity	29:02
	even criticism is not really painful	29:04
	or we speak the truth in love to each other.	29:07
	As Paul wrote to the Ephesians 4:15	29:11
	in Christ's high priestly prayer	29:17
	described in the 17th chapter of John	29:19
	and read is our morning scripture lesson today	29:21
	by James Powell:	29:23
	"Our Lord prayed that his disciples might be one	29:25
	"so that the world might believe in him.	29:30
	"He prayed that we might be one	29:34
	"so that the world might believe in him	29:36
	"with obvious implications, for the contrary."	29:40
	Even before Christ came,	29:45
	the Psalmist in the Old Testament knew	29:48
	that it was both good and pleasant,	29:50
	or brethren to dwell together in unity.	29:54
	All mighty God, our heavenly father	30:04
	has called us to thy self,	30:07
	the Son, Jesus Christ,	30:10
	has called us to unity in our obedience of worship	30:12
	grant us thy Holy Spirit that we may respond to the call.	30:17
	Now may the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ,	30:24
	the love of God, The Father,	30:27
	and the communion of the Holy Spirit	30:29
	rest and abide with you	30:31
	now and evermore.	30:33
	(choir harmonizing)	30:42

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Title:

Howard C. Wilkinson - "Examining the Examined Life" (May 22, 1966)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4bc3xz6q

Date:

May 22, 1966

Speaker:

Wilkinson, Howard C.

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0338
ref5881_j45
uachapelsermaud
duke:628616
dcrau002335
ark:/87924/r4bc3xz6q
d8604663-d35d-44bc-bb68-301ee4e32c45

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

Related Resources:

See below

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

Educational Use Permitted

Rights Note:

This material is made available for educational and non-commercial use. This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the license indicated here. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For other reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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Howard C. Wilkinson - "Examining the Examined Life" (May 22, 1966)

Transcript

Item Info

Related Item

Duke University Archives