Related articles and links |  1 of 3

Were evangelical supporters of President Obama naïve to think that he would seriously try to limit abortions? Or were they displaying Christian charity by giving him the benefit of the doubt?

When a Christian father trusts that God will take care of his family without recourse to an American luxury like life insurance, is he displaying godly simplicity, or immaturity?

When someone prays for a parking space at the mall, is it childlike faith, or childishness?

These are some of the ways the tensions between naïveté and Christian virtues arise today. To accuse someone of naïveté can be a handy way of dismissing someone else's effort to practice faith concretely. On the other hand, Christians can also hide behind "simplicity" to evade serious responsibilities or thinking through serious matters. Depending on what we mean by the word, naïveté can be helpful or dangerous to the authentic Christian life.

In the mid-17th century, English speakers began adopting the French words naïve and naïveté, terms that were coined as reactions to the opulent reign of Louis XIV; these words derive from the Latin adjective naturus, or "natural."

Those who know their Bible will understand why the word natural is ambiguous! For it evokes Adam and Eve, and both the beauty and vulnerability of human nature. The whole concept is complicated by the diminution of human nature since the Fall (so that we now say, "to err is human"), and by the intricacies of this fallen world.

Yet there remain passages in Scripture that exalt the simple, the unretouched: "unless you change and become like little children …"; "only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better . …" In my late adolescence, the secularized version of this concept was commended to us by the call to a "second naïveté" in reading and in living. And in the tradition of English literature (transmitted through film), there is the famous interchange in Sense and Sensibility between Colonel Brandon and Elinor Dashwood concerning her spontaneous sister:

Colonel Brandon: Your sister seems very happy.

Elinor: Yes. Marianne does not approve of hiding her emotions. In fact, her romantic prejudices have the unfortunate tendency to set propriety at naught.

Colonel Brandon: She is wholly unspoilt.

Elinor: Rather too unspoilt, in my view. The sooner she becomes acquainted with the ways of the world, the better.

Colonel Brandon: I knew a lady very like your sister—the same impulsive sweetness of temper—who was forced into, as you put it, a better acquaintance with the world. The result was only ruination and despair. Do not desire it.

What should Christians desire? Is naïveté to be celebrated, or is it immature and therefore ungodly?

A careful consideration of this topic sends us to passages in Scripture that feature the words simple and simplicity, ignorant, childish and like a child, knowing and craft/iness, and nature and natural. The entire purpose of Proverbs is "to give prudence to the simple" (Prov. 1:4, ESV) and to challenge the uninformed: "How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?" (Prov. 1:22, ESV, emphasis mine; the Hebrew word pethiy may also be translated "naïveté.")

We must therefore consider the dynamic of the Christian story rather than merely static principles. God alone, who lives from eternity to eternity, has the wherewithal to be absolutely simple and omnisciently wise at the same time; human beings, on the other hand, must take things in stages, for they are indeed players in the drama of God.

next page... |  1 of 3

share this page

June 2009, Vol. 53, No. 6, Page 42