In his book, Shop Class as Soul Craft, Matthew Crawford writes about the separation of thinking and doing in our work.  Are we a part of and raising a generation of people who can only solve a problem instead of figuring out what’s really going on?  How do faith communities participate in this issue?

Matthew Crawford owns and operates a motorcycle repair shop in Richmond, Va.  He is known for his willingness and success in working on old and obscure bikes that no one else will touch.  This is his trade.  Matthew also holds a PhD in philosophy and directed a Washington, D.C. think tank until he decided to go back and practice his trade.  If you are fascinated already then I suggest you pick up the book because I won’t be able to do justice to his work in this simple blog post.  Trust me, you’ll be offended and you won’t be able to put it down.

This is not a book review and I’m not being paid to market Crawford’s book.  What I want to share with you is one nugget that really stuck out to me as I was reading.  Crawford writes about what it means to problem solve and what it means to problem find.  He takes the reader on a journey through the inner workings of a very old, notice I didn’t say classic, bike.  As he uncovers one issue, he finds that there must still be another lurking in the deep recesses of the bike and so he has to make the decision…do I keep going and risk costing more than the bike is worth or do I fix only what’s on the surface and the bike runs for a while? 

Crawford crafts an argument that leads the reader to consider the ways we educate society to do without thinking.  He, of course, takes this to a place of our consumer driven economy and beyond.  We are lulled by the fact that we are teaching and learning to problem solve…isn’t that a good thing?  How do we learn to problem find?  As with the bike story, Crawford was able to fix an issue that would allow the bike to run, but eventually it would be back in the shop because he “knew” there was a deeper issue going on somewhere…that is moving from problem solving to problem finding.

In seminary and divinity school ministers are taught to use a hermeneutic of suspicion to look at text and ask the question…what’s really going on here?  I think Crawford is suggesting that we take that question and integrate it more deeply into our lives.  If we simply “fix” the issues that sit on the surface, we may be missing something much more deeply rooted. 

Problem finding takes time and discipline.  Crawford writes that trades people submit themselves to a standard of logic as they do their work.  They move with calculation and precision as they try to understand what’s going on. 

Faith communities must not be lulled by the desire to have the quick and easy fix!  We must practice rigorous examination and be willing to take the time necessary to ask the hard and meaningful questions! 

I wonder what would happen if we gave attention over and listened deeply to the community for the pings and groans that might suggest both growth and suffering lurking underneath the surface.  We don’t want people to suffer and we don’t want to suffer the change that is a part of growth, but we do want to survive and we do want what we once had…you just can’t have one without the other.

I would like to suggest that before we decide to fix the problem sits on the surface, we ask the deeper questions that lead to sustainability. 

Melissa Clodfelter April 2011