The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, by Mark Noll, is "an epistle from a wounded lover." Noll loves God and he loves academics, but he is wounded because many of his colleagues deny the possibility of maintaining the integrity of both loves. Noll's epistle is a memoir, a historical study, and a wide-ranging piece of cultural criticism that argues, "The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind." Noll considers the effects of evangelical intellectual atrophy on American politics, science, and the arts, and he ultimately offers wise and practical advice for readers who want to explore the full intellectual implications of the incarnation of Christ.


From Publishers Weekly
Claiming that "the scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind," historian Noll sets out to trace the reasons for what he sees as the great divorce between intellect and piety in North American Evangelical Christianity. In a breathtaking panorama of evangelical history from the Great Awakenings to the present, Noll shows that early Evangelicals like Jonathan Edwards embraced the use of reason as an expression of faith in the Creator of the natural world. The advent of Fundamentalism and Pentecostalism, Noll contends, with their emphases on dispensationalism and other-worldliness, fostered anti-intellectualism. Since politics and science, in the form of the religious right and creationism, have been the secular arenas in which the Evangelical mind has most publicly expressed itself, Noll focuses on them to explore ways in which the mindlessness "scandal" has created a lack of adequate Christian thinking about the world. Finally, Noll is hopeful that the work of contemporary Evangelical scholars will recover a respect for intellect. Required reading for those seeking to understand the often peculiar relationship between Evangelical religion and secular culture, this is a brilliant study by--yes--a first-rate Evangelical mind. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From School Library Journal
Noll (history, Wheaton Coll. A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada, LJ 11/1/92) castigates his fellow American conservative evangelicals for losing their intellectual credibility since Darwin. They have followed St. Paul's injunction to be "fools for Christ" to the point of being simply fools, instead of heeding Jesus' call to be "wise as serpents." Their scholarly pursuits include such dead-end propositions as "creation science," end-time apocalyptic prophecies, and biblical inerrancy instead of research and writings contributing positively to American intellectual life. What distresses Noll most is that evangelicals seem not to care. He provides extensive historical background showing how this was not always the case and indicates how Christian scholars might recapture lost ground. Passionately and brilliantly argued, this book is recommended for informed lay readers and specialists.Richard S. Watts, San Bernardino Cty. Lib., Cal.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
American Christian evangelicalism has neglected and disdained the life of the mind, Noll says, and that is scandalous. That anti-intellectualism is not inherent in evangelicalism Noll demonstrates by presenting evangelical intellectual history, primarily in the U.S., with scholarly thoroughness and journalistic accessibility. He argues that anti-intellectualism was a by-product of the fundamentalist ideas American evangelicals seized upon because they were so useful in effecting conversions. He considers the influences the fundamentalist doctrines of holiness, pentecostalism, and especially dispensationalism had upon evangelical political and scientific thought in particular; in neither case does he find much to praise, although he sees dispensationalist-inspired creation science as more damaging to science than any fundamentalist idea has been to politics. He concludes by outlining recent signs of evangelical intellectual revival in philosophy as well as politics and science and by locating the potential for the renaissance of the evangelical intellect in the doctrines of the Incarnation and the Atonement. Noll well exemplifies what he prays evangelicals generally will learn to value again: thinking like a Christian. Ray Olson


Publishers Weekly
A brilliant study by a first-rate Evangelical mind.


Book Description
“The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.” So begins this award-winning intellectual history and critique of the evangelical movement by one of evangelicalism’s most respected historians. Unsparing in his judgment, Mark Noll ask why the largest single group of religious Americans—who enjoy increasing wealth, status, and political influence—have contributed so little to rigorous intellectual scholarship in North America. In nourishing believers in the simple truths of the gospel, why have evangelicals failed at sustaining a serious intellectual life and abandoned the universities, the arts, and other realms of “high” culture? Noll is probing and forthright in his analysis of how this situation came about, but he doesn’t end there. Challenging the evangelical community, he sets out to find, within evangelicalism itself, resources for turning the situation around.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"The scandal of the evangelical mind," says historian Mark Noll, "is that there is not much of an evangelical mind." This critical yet constructive book explains the decline of evangelical thought in North America and seeks to find, within evangelicalism itself, resources for turning the situation around. According to Noll, evangelical Protestants make up the largest single group of religious Americans; they also enjoy increasing wealth, status political influence, and educational achievement. Yet, despite its size and considerable intellectual potential, evangelical Protestantism makes only a slight contribution to first-order public discourse in North America: it neither sponsors a single research university, nor supports a single periodical devoted to in-depth interaction with modern culture, nor cultivates attitudes that treat the worlds of science, the arts, politics, and social analysis with the seriousness that God intends. The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind explains how this situation developed by tracing the history of evangelical thinking in America. Noll's analysis shows how Protestants successfully aligned themselves with national ideals and with the particular expressions of an American Enlightenment in the decades before the Civil War; explains how fundamentalists at the start of the twentieth century preserved essential elements of the faith, but only by grievously damaging the life of the mind; gives specific attention to evangelical thought on politics and science; and discusses what some have called an "evangelical intellectual renaissance" in recent decades and shows why it is more apparent than real. Written to encourage reform as well as to inform, this book ends with an outline of some preliminary steps by which evangelicals might yet come to love the Lord more thoroughly with the mind.

FROM THE CRITICS

Crisis

"Mark Noll is the McManis Professor of Christian Thought at Wheaton College, and so has a vested interest in adding to the number of thinking evangelicals. That he had the capacity to do so is demonstrated by this learned, lucid book.... In any case, Noll's excellent book is likely to influence the development of the evangelical mind and deserves the widest discussion."

Publishers Weekly

Required reading for those seeking to understand the often peculiar relationship between Evangelical religion and secular culture, this is a brilliant study by—yes—a first-rate Evangelical mind.

Southwestern Journal of Theology

This is a must read book. Its being named the 1995 Christianity Today Book of the Year is not undeserved. It sets the agenda for a very interesting discussion.

Theology (U.K.)

A most impressive book, combining passionate engagement with careful and rational analysis.

Evangelical Studies Bulletin