The division between the academic and the poplar has roots deeper than eighteenth-century controversies between history and theology. The squabble between those who conceive of Christianity as basically a matter of outward and physical signs and those who conceive it to be a matter of inner light is almost perennial; so is the deep mistrust that separates those who advocate simple piety from those who insist that faith must always be ‘seeking understanding’.
-N.T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, p.5
Perennial is right! It seems pretty easy to chop up nearly all church controversies over the years into one of these camps. Sometimes these categories don’t work, but for most things they do.
As with nearly all these sorts of dichotomies, the “answer” is some sort of balance between the two: Emphasize piety and holy living, but without letting it deteriorate into legalism and behavorism (an easy trap to fall into). Emphasize education and religious study, without forsaking the getting-you-butt-out-there-and-living-it aspect (also an easy trap).
The examples that come to mind include Emergent church members who are out on the streets helping the homeless every day, but have grown to deny the creeds and allowed various sins to be acceptable within their church community.
Contrast with this with the man who can’t ever help his neighbor because he’s holed up in his office studying Jonathan Edwards 20 hours a week.
I am more tempted to fall into the latter of these.