 Questions drive thinking. Well, actually we should say that questioning is the driving force of critical thinking. For the next few minutes, I'd like for us to think about what it means to ask critical questions. According to Donald Luck in Why Study Theology, education exposes us to wider ranges of experience than we could ever possibly have on our own. That's the constant miracle of reading books. In reading them, we are enriched by sharing the internal and external worlds of many other persons. And if we are receptive to what we encounter, we can have our horizons expanded. But in order to profit most from our reading, we need to learn how to carry on critical dialogue with the text. Education gives us increased measures of information and enables us to develop skills. Perhaps the most challenging and important of these skills is critical thinking. When we use the words critical or criticism, as in critical thinking or biblical criticism, we don't necessarily mean something negative, like when we say, he's so critical or don't criticize me. The English words critical and criticism are rooted in the Greek word krino or in kritikos. And this word family means to judge or to separate or to make a distinction or to draw out and isolate particularities. In critical thinking, then, we learn to make judgments about a text based upon a careful process of distinguishing particularities. So what does this mean? When we encounter a text, we're encountering someone's thinking. And behind this thinking are very important components. These components are not always explicit. Usually they look behind the curtain. The components of thinking include the goals and purposes, questions at issue, an information base, inferences and conclusions, concepts and ideas, assumptions, implications and consequences, viewpoints and perspectives. Now questions help us to get behind the curtain in order to discern and consider these components of thoughts. Let's consider this example of a very nice sounding text. He thinks of himself as daddy. Just a fellow like millions of others making the most of every day, working with a purpose and then relaxing to live with his family and friends. His age? He feels so young that the years don't matter. He's the best playmate his wife and youngsters ever had. And why not? No setting sun sees him bringing home the cares of the day. No rising sun fails to find him refreshed and eager to greet the new day. Well, that is a nice sounding text. But what we find is that actually this sweet sounding text is part of a 1940s advertisement for alcohol. Questions specifically related to each component of thought help us to get behind the curtain and discern the meaning and the intention of the text. So we ask what is the author's explicit main point? Does she articulate a purpose for writing? What is the issue or problem that she is addressing? What underlying questions are guiding her writing? What types of evidence is he using to support his claim? From what sources does he draw this information? Are these sources reliable and authoritative? Or what line of reasoning draws her thinking? What is her conclusion? Is her reasoning sound? Is her conclusion valid? What is the conceptual framework within which the author is writing? What terms require further definition? What knowledge does the author assume the reader shares? And how does she assume that readers will respond? For whom does this conclusion have implication? What are the consequences of this line of thinking? Whom does the author claim should change or do something in response to this thinking? What is the author's own background? How does this impact or inform his thinking? Does he acknowledge his own biases? Does he admit the limitations of his reasoning or approach? And finally, we need to ask, how does the author intend to shape my own thinking through this text? These are the types of questions that help us discern the particularities that inform text, including the text that we create ourselves. So to conclude, Richard Paul and Linda Elder summarize what we've been discussing in their book, The Thinker's Guide to the Art of Socratic Questioning. In other words, critical thinking is the systematic monitoring of thought with the end goal of improvement. When we think critically, we realize that thinking must not be accepted at face value, but must be analyzed and assessed for its clarity, accuracy, relevance, depth, breadth, and logicalness. We recognize that all reasoning occurs within points of view and frames of reference, that all reasoning proceeds from some goals and objectives, and has an informational base, that all data, when used in reasoning, must be interpreted, that interpretation involves concepts, that concepts entail assumptions, and that all basic inferences in thought have implications. Because problems in thinking can occur in any of these dimensions, each dimension must be monitored. Critical thinking provides us with definitive and specific tools for questioning. Alright, so now you have permission to start being critical.