Cornel West in The Hedgehog Review

Cornel West's discussion of the role of the intellectual and of the university in the latest issue of The Hedgehog Review (pp 88-89):

"The very existence of the university is a quest for truth (small 't'), a quest for knowledge (small 'k'). Its very important. . . You never really possess the truth, but we're after it. . . So even if you bring critique to bear on universities, they have to somehow justify what they're doing in light of that quest. Not a McCarthyism or the escalating authoritarianism now among certain universities; they can just say explicitly, 'Well, you know, we don't take that quest for truth that seriously.'"

What West identifies as the end of the university, the constant, never-ending quest for truth and knowledge, is decried by conservative Christians as "forsaking truth," not taking it "that seriously." But what West and intellectuals like him have right is that things now aren't as they should be, that we can only see dimly. Christians should learn to be more carefully about the emphasis they place upon truth-it's certainly important, but also incomplete.

What we can add to West's vision, however, is the eschatological imagination to guide us in that quest for truth, so that the end isn't the quest itself, but only the prelude to seeing, one day, face to face. How should one articulate a critique of both West's vision and today's popular evangelical vision, in light of the need for a stronger grasp on the end we will one day share? What would this renewed vision look like in practice