10 Years After the Scandal
Ten years after publishing his classic book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, historian Mark Noll was in a reflective mood. This is the book that he is best known for, and whose famous first line that, “the scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind”[1], has been quoted innumerable times.
Published in 1994, this book gave voice to many faithful evangelical Christians who felt trapped by the strictures of the self-imposed limitations of their tradition within the United States. Specifically, Noll asks “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?”[2]
In The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, Noll writes what he calls an “epistle from a wounded lover.”[3] He is writing from inside the evangelical Christian world, a faith tradition that he loves and that nourished him, and yet, which has also disappointed him and even hurt him in many ways. Specifically, Noll tackles the reality of anti-intellectualism, fundamentalism, anti-science bias, among other ills.
In a Christianity Today article in 2004, Noll is quoted as saying, “I remain largely unrepentant about the book’s historical arguments, its assessment of evangelical strengths and weaknesses, and its indictment of evangelical intellectual efforts, though I have changed my mind on a few matters.”[4]
Indeed, this book was a kind of jeremiad, laying out a multitude of shortcomings and flaws in the intellectual lives of evangelical Christians. But, after ten years, Noll strikes a more hopeful tone. In an article for First Things, he writes, “that being said, it must also be noted that were I to attempt such a book as The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind today, it would have a different tone, more hopeful than despairing, more attuned to possibilities than to problems, more concerned with theological resources than theological deficiencies.”[5]
It is this kind of admission from the author that makes my ears perk up. As a pastor and preacher, it is always important to “plumb the depths” as we take seriously the problems of the world and the church as we find them. And at the same time, as the realities of broken places become clear, we also seek a redemptive word. Or a sign of hope. Or a promise of grace.
Mark Noll reflects that while the problems he raised in the book are tenacious and continuous realities for the evangelical Christian world, there are also reasons to hope.
As I reflect on my own tribe and tradition, of Reformed/Presbyterian theology and practice, this is what I want to focus on. We do not have the same struggles, especially when it comes to the life of the mind (“thinking the faith” is highly celebrated among Presbyterians). But my research area is about the pernicious way that racial/ethnic separation persists within Mainline churches and especially within the Presbyterian Church (USA).
To read Noll’s original diagnosis and then to delve further into his thoughts after 10 years, it is a reminder to me that my approach to my own research needs to be carefully and lovingly done. Indeed, there are hard realities to face and some hard conversations to have. In a parallel to what Noll is describing, I believe Presbyterians need to take much more seriously the problem of how we have remained more than a 90% White denomination, while all around us, our communities have changed complexion.
Noll writes, that even after much of the fundamentalist past of the evangelical church has been repudiated, that, “Fundamentalist intellectual habits, however, have been more resilient than fundamentalism itself.”[6] What he is saying, is that even when problems are identified and named, that the patterns surrounding those issues can remain.
The scandal of the racial divisions within the Mainline churches in America today is not an idea that is foreign or unknown. It has been named. It has been explored. It has been “called out”. And yet, those habits, that praxis, somehow remains.
As I seek to find ways for Presbyterian Churches to better reflect the make-up of their communities, Noll’s example is important. In 1994, he came out with a powerful book that laid bare the problem. And by 2004, he stood by his work, while also acknowledging that there was more reason to hope than he had previously indicated.
I want to hold both of these realities in my hands as I do my research and work. To challenge and push the church on this hard topic, while also and always bringing forward possibilities and practical suggestions as a way forward. This is important for authors and for preachers: to take seriously the fallen-ness and brokenness of our world, and yet, proclaiming the good news of what God has done and is doing still.
[1]Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 3.
[2]“Product Preview,” accessed February 21, 2019, https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/4180/the-scandal-of-the-evangelical-mind.aspx.
[3]Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), ix.
[4]Ted Olsen, “The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, 10 Years,” Christianity Today, October 1, 2004, https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/octoberweb-only/10-18-50.0.html.
[5]Mark Noll, “The Evangelical Mind Today,” First Things, October 2004, https://www.firstthings.com/article/2004/10/the-evangelical-mind-today.
[6]Mark Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 139.
About the Author
Dave Watermulder
17 responses to “10 Years After the Scandal”
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Hi Dave,
You stole my thunder, and I beat you up in my Blog because of it (grin). The ten year anniversary writing from Noll was so telling. Well done on finding that resource and breaking it down.
I love that the article by Noll was in Christianity Today, the very publication Noll said was helpful to advancing intellectualism, and he even gave kudos to Billy Graham for starting it…
Ha! Thanks, Jay!!
Dave, great post. I had a knowledge gap this week walking into the reading. I was really unaware of all this work and how long it had been around. You gave some good sdie hitory for me and brought up an excellent point of the posture of the author and his own mental growth over the 10 years after his book published. I think it models what a good dose of humility looks like even when we can be so knowledgeable about our own work.
Thank you, Kyle!
Dave,
I have to say that you are one of my heroes. 🙂 I’m not a pastor, but I know one when I see one, and you have that gift and are fulfilling your vocation well. (Watching you in action in Hong Kong doing your pastoral visits was what convinced me…). I love how you are holding the now and not yet tension, challenging your church and yet hopeful for a future that includes change towards a more integrated community.
Thank you, Mark! Gotta love the “now and not-yet”… so good!
Dave,
Yes, the PCUSA does need help in this matter and you have wisely picked up on some important ways to express that through Noll’s works. His message was difficult to hear for many but it also clearly came from a place of love and so could not be dismissed without consideration. My study is similar to yours and I hope that we are able to lovingly provide a way forward for our denomination to become more inclusive of people of color.
Thanks, Dan! We’ll see what we find together in Seattle…
Hey Dave I love how you draw out the importance of being hopeful and redemptive. Good stuff. And how you related it to your context and work on racial reconciliation. Do you wonder if the content of our western education which our tradition celebrates so well, may also be part of our inability to increase in diversity? Or do you think they’re unrelated?
Hey Chris,
Yea, I think there is some connection there. But that may be more around access to theological education and church leadership (where the system is set up for people coming from churches that are likely to be White, wealthy, well-resourced, etc). Anyways– a bigger, ongoing conversation!
Dave.
I too have seen more hope in even the last 10 years. There seems to be a greater move for depth in some circles. That focus on only the emotionalism of worship can be fleeting salve to our problems. There does seem to be a move to greater liturgy and understanding our past.
I think we are all challenged to find the balance between faith and ongoing questioning that brings study.
Greg– totally!
Hi Dave,
Great thoughts and a humble and realistic solution for your denomination to find its balance between academia and practicality. As someone I believe is very academic (you), how would you proceed to champion the intellectual cause if change wasn’t so painful for your denomination?
Hey Jean,
Well, I would say that I don’t think calling Presbyterians toward more of a life of the mind is my jam. A couple years ago, I spent a week reading Karl Barth with these pastors back at Princeton (I was the LOW man on the totem pole, I assure you). But– when it comes to getting our heads out of the books and beyond the beauty of systematic theological systems, and toward the goodness and diversity of the world– that’s where I want to be.
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