Talking Past Each Other

(WSJ gif)

Alan Jacobs, who is a member of both groups, asks, Can Evangelicals and Academics Talk to Each Other? [bold added]:

I have spent decades trying to figure out how these pervasive misunderstandings arise and looking for ways to correct them. But they are very hard to combat, because academics and Christians (like the rest of us) treasure their enmities. And where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Sixty years ago the italicized phrase above would have been instantly recognized by most Americans, including non-Christians, as a saying by Jesus (specifically, the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6).

The disappearance of a common vocabulary is one cause of the divide. Today there is little overlap between the language of the academy and the church. (Having read Fanon, Marcuse, Mills, and Goffman in college I have a passing familiarity with the former, and being a cradle Episcopalian takes care of the latter.)

But hatred is easy and, yes, pleasurable, while understanding is hard work.

the phrase “repugnant cultural other” (RCO) neatly describes one of the most common impediments to thinking rationally about those with whom we disagree.

For many academics, evangelical Christians are the RCO; for many evangelical Christians, academics play that role. And having an RCO is one of the best ways to form and maintain group identity. Recent research by the political scientists Shanto Iyengar and Sean J. Westwood indicate that, in terms of social belonging, “outgroup animosity is more consequential than favoritism for the ingroup.” That is, it’s more important to hate the RCO than to affirm and support the people who agree with you. How do I know you’re One of Us? Because you hate the right people.

Learning another language is always difficult, and it won't happen on a large scale unless there's an economic incentive to do so.