Thoughts on a Scandal (of the Evangelical Mind, that is)

This is a great book, written by an accomplished academic but accessible to anyone who is concerned about thinking, education, and the faith.  His famous first line:  The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is no mind” is often quoted.  The problem is that evangelicals are not excelling in academia and related area; the cause is that we have not life of the mind; the root is the doctrines of dispensationalism and to a lesser extent, creationism,  and that evangelicalism sold out to the American system in the early days of our republic. 

Now, saying this is a great book does not mean I buy it hook, line, and sinker, to use that old cliché shamelessly.  I do share his concern (in Noll’s case, it really is much deeper, almost a hatred) for dispensationalism and premillenialism.   I do agree that evangelicalism is too tied into American exceptionalism, and I have studied this connection quite a bit; however, I don’t know if that causes the anti-intellectualism.  I think some of that is more related to social class issues than we want to admit, and to the inherent activism of evangelical Christianity.  We aren't , and have never been, comtemplatives.  We are not Jesuits.  And I don’t know what the alternative is to a general (as opposed to six-day, literalist) belief in the creation account.  If that is a slide into accepting evolution just because it is the prevailing view, it is disturbing. 

At times I felt as if Noll was a little more concerned for our reputations than the reproach that we are going to have to go through.  On the other hand, I work in an academic environment and understand a lot of his feelings.  Academics are often exceedingly prideful people, and also very competitive.  There is no appeasing them if they decide, a priori, that they are smarter than a Christian just because they are not Christians.  Tomorrow perhaps I will post a quote by Henri Nouwen on this matter.