Musings of a peripatetic wannabe-sage: Kaleidoscopic Intellectual Play as a Way Toward Conceptual Integration

For the past several months, I've been thinking a lot about integrative thought. Back on December 18, 2018, the dictionary.com Word of the Day, kaleidoscopic, caught my attention, so I set a reminder for myself to ponder the intersection. So, here we go.

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Kaleidoscopic intellectual play moves across conceptual links like an intellectual dance, using its versatility and creativity to transform and communicate reflections of God's divinity and power. It plays with substantive concepts about the power and divinity of God as spoken through his creation to please God and serve others. It is a form of theological reflection taking place amidst personal and conceptual connections and gaining power from those connections. It is a type of thinking across. The participants’ attitudes toward power grounded in towardness and gratitude, reveling in God's endless works and Jesus’ ever-present partnership and telic guidance.

Kaleidoscopic intellectual play is grounded in the connections and integrations made possible by Jesus’ Creatorship and Lordship. The players are equipped with the delegated power, gifted grace, and centered community that God supplies to his people. This means it functions best in Christ-centered contexts, for he is the reason there are connections to discover and integrations to work out.

In communal kaleidoscopic intellectual play, each participant must exercise his or her power. God has already delegated power to humanity, and his grace shapes how each Christian focuses and exercises that power. When any player in the community is stifled, the community is the less. When one refuses to contribute their gifts, the community is less.

Much pondering remains.

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