Storming the Intellectual Ramparts, Part 1

Spirituality Column #193
July 20, 2010
Current in Carmel - Current in Westfield - Current in Noblesville
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Storming the Intellectual Ramparts, Part 1
By Bob Walters

Some weeks back I mentioned Mark Noll’s classic book “Scandal of the Evangelical Mind,” promising to read it and get back to you.

OK … I have, and here we go.

Written in 1994, “Scandal” surveys Christian Evangelical intellectual development over the past few hundred years and the news, to say the least, is not great.

The dominant points I got from the thoroughly researched and citation-laden book are that 1. Jesus Christ plainly tells us in the Gospels to “Love the Lord your God” with all our heart, soul, strength and mind (Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27), and 2. (… ouch …) Evangelicalism so far has largely failed at the “mind” part.

Shocking as that may seem, Noll is in a position to make such an observation.

A prolific and noted author, Noll taught for 27 years at robustly biblical Wheaton College outside Chicago as Professor of Christian Thought. He was a Wheaton undergrad, has a Masters in Theology from Trinity Evangelical Seminary, and a PhD in Church History from Vanderbilt.

Noll received a National Humanities Medal in 2004 from President George W. Bush, and in 2005 was listed among Time Magazine’s 25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America. In 2006 Noll was named Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, a Catholic School.

Note the diversity of plaudits and affiliations; he’s respected in many camps.

Noll is renowned especially for his scholarship in the Christian religious history of the United States, and has written extensively addressing the complexity of the question of whether America is a Christian nation. Look him up if you want to know more.

"Scandal” is a worthy read in order to understand how Evangelical Christianity developed at first toward, and then away from, intellectual pursuits. One of my favorite statistics in the book is that in 1839, 51 of America’s 54 college presidents were clergymen, and mostly evangelicals. By the late 1800s, college attendance had exploded and college academics became focused on technology and science.

Theology, once the crown of the Academy (the educational establishment), by the 1900s steadily retreated from the main stage of America’s collegiate administrations and course offerings, becoming the purview mainly of Bible colleges and seminaries.

American scholarship took a track toward the materialistic, and the Bible became Evangelicalism’s intellectual ramparts.

There’s no better book on the planet than the Bible but, Noll asserts, Evangelical thought narrowed.

Walters (www.believerbob.blogspot.com, email rlwcom@aol.com) knows some of this is painful, but believes Noll speaks an important truth. More next week.