This week I read Chapter 1 Mark Noll’s “The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind”, which makes the argument that the “scandal” of the evangelical mind is that there really isn’t one. Noll claims that evangelical (specifically in America) have had very little influence in intellectual spheres, and sadly, I think he’s right. Sure, there are a lot of people that I know or know of that are both evangelical and intellectual, but when was the last time that you heard one of these people cited as a major and respectable voice in their field (besides Theology)? Fields like science, math, and art: When has the Christian, evangelical position been a strong voice in culture? And more than that, when was the last time that evangelicals themselves actually thoughtfully, deliberately, and skillfully sought out what a different their faith can make in such fields? Or in politics? Or economics? Or media? When was the last time that 1.) Evangelicals put effort into defining and living out their views on these subjects with thoughtful consideration and intellectual study, and 2.) became an actual force in these fields – a voice that people actually listened to. Well? Yeah, it’s been a while….
I think there are several reasons for this: One is that the world in general (ok, maybe just America. I can’t speak for places I don’t know) has become VERY anti-intellectual. Yes, we celebrate from intellectual celebrities, but really, since when has the world supported study for the sake of study? We study in order to make MONEY and be HAPPY. That is what the world values. No one cares how smart you are if you are not successful.
The second is that the church itself, for much different – or not so different – reasons has ALSO become anti-intellectual. This started a long time ago, in fact you might say that evangelicals have always been this way. The very word “evangelical” conjures in my mind an image of a people so fully devoted to winning others for Christ that they sometimes forget that they need to continue their edification of these people AFTER they have been won. Evangelicals have a mind-set of “The most important things are spreading the good news and helping the poor, why would you waste your time doing anything else? Go be a missionary in Africa!”. This needs to stop. Be belittling the “life of the mind” the church is belittling a huge part of the Christian faith: that of reason (faith makes sense), beauty (The world is worth studying), and cultural influence. Influencing people through evangelizing is one thing – changing culture is another. To change one person’s life is an amazing feat, but to change the consumption of an entire culture is simply astounding. For this both reason and beauty are needed. Reason is needed because people ARE smart (or they can be). They are not looking for watered-down answers. Reasonable people need reasonable answers. There are people out there are are dedicated to their study, and they expect us to be dedicated to it as well, ready to answer them in their own fashion. Also, by belittling the intellectual we belittle the intellectuals – real people with souls that can be turned away if we reject their legitimate values. With leads to beauty: The world has legitimate values that a LOT of people have already seen and would agree with, and intellection is one of those. Embracing intellection would show the world that those values ARE Biblical and that the Christian view CAN and SHOULD affect them.
Anti-intellection-ism, in short, gains us little to nothing, while it loses for us an entire realm of influence. And it is a very powerful influence at that – one we cannot afford to lose. My previous post is about the intrinsic value of the life of the mind, this one is the other side: the practical, world-changing value.
Once upon a time there were Champions of Science who were Christians, there were Masters of Literature who were Christians, there were Political Leaders, Teachers, Doctors, Mathematicians, Artists, Film-Makers, Musicians, Psychologists, Philosophers, ALL KINDS of intellectual people who had GREAT influence in our world – who were Christian. Where have they all gone? Has our golden age of cultural significance vanished forever? Do we even know how it is possible that these people applied their faith to their learning? Let me tell you: It is. We just don’t like to, because no one else is doing it; because our history, especially recent history, is so lacking. But if no one rises up to fulfill this, than these figures will become even more scarce in the history books and we will drift further away; it will become harder and harder to come back to where we were.
We could have so much power – so much influence. It will take hard work, but we have God on our side. But we’ve allowed the enemy to deceive us: to tell us it’s not important and that we could never have influence; to tell us that the world is to far-gone to save. But perhaps it’s only far-gone because we haven’t been trying to save it. Perhaps we should try.
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