The Problem of Christian Anti-intellectualism

[St. SteVen]

If you’re a believer seeking to serve God with your mind and attend and evangelical church in America, chances are you are on a solo mission and probably feel somewhat disconnected from your brothers and sisters in Christ. Transformation for the American Evangelical Church will not happen apart from a renewing of the mind. It’s time for repentance and reform.

In this episode Anthony Alberino begins a new series titled "Evangelical Anti-intellectualism." Part One in the series considers the problem. Too many believers in the evangelical community neglect the intellect as an essential component of Christian discipleship. Most evangelical believers are stuck in "intellectual neutral" and are letting their minds go to waste. Too many evangelical congregations prioritize the cultivation of an experience and dismiss the vital role the mind plays in the life of the church. Too many intellectually gifted Christians who feel called to scholarship are left to fend for themselves with little to no support from the church.

Three questions Christians need to ask:

1) Why is our impact on society and culture disproportionate to our numbers?

2) Why are ministers no longer viewed as the intellectual and cultural leaders in their communities?

3) How is it possible for a person to be an active church member for 20 to 30 years and
still know nothing about the history and theology of the Christian religion?

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[St. SteVen]

In Part Two of this series on Evangelical Anti-intellectualism, Anthony Alberino considers the disastrous fallout of the church's long neglect of the mind. Several crises now confront the church, at least in part, because of its deep-seated anti-intellectualism.

First, the church is losing its young people. between 70-75% of Christian raised youth walk away from the faith by their sophomore year in college and between 80-90% of youth leave the church after the age of 18. When asked why they've left, the most common reasons given are intellectual in nature. Young Christians are not being mentally equipped to know what they believe and to know why they believe it.

Second, the church is losing its thinkers. Many who are gifted intellectually within the evangelical church end up leaving it in frustration. Many of those who leave transfer to other Christian traditions, such as Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, that appreciate their gifting and that have long traditions of valuing the intellect and intellectual pursuit. The evangelical community is losing these critical soldiers at the very moment in our history when we need them the most. Third, the American Protestant Church has become too feminized.

Church services and ministries cater to the feminine personality and thus struggle to attract and retain men. Worship services focus on emotions, pastors are often strong in traditionally feminine traits, and sermons are commonly heavy on sentiment and light on doctrine. The feminization of the church is partially the result of the historical turn toward anti-intellectualism and it tends to perpetuate the problem today. Finally, Anthony turns to look at the devastating consequences that evangelical anti-intellectualism has had on American culture.

Because Christians have largely abandoned the arena of higher education and high culture, our society has been left undefended from and exposed to the onslaught of anti-Christian ideas that have poisoned our cultural environment. The plausibility structure that now dominates our society is making evangelism harder by the day. The church's mission is not unaffected by the condition of the culture in which it lives, and moves, and has its being. By continuing to neglect the mind we are contributing to the hardening of the spiritual soil of our nation.

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[St. SteVen]

Phew!

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[St. SteVen]

Charles Malik​

Lebanese politician (1906-1987)
Address to dedication of the Billy Graham Center in 1980.

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[JohnDB]

Ummmmm

Well,
We've had several discussions on this forum and have read some of your theologies....

And when your theologies have been challenged with exact scripture quotes you continue to dismiss the logic presented to you. Isn't that anti-intellectualism?

Hermeneutics is not a flat reading of the scriptures. It takes time and practice to understand the concepts and what is being said. It also takes a TON of science to comprehend what was said at a minimum of 2,000 years ago. The cultures and languages have changed a LOT since then.

Yes, there are those who have limited capabilities in arts and sciences...the basics of what is required to be a "Christian" aren't that difficult to comprehend. It's the "Goats" among the "sheep" that tend to lead people out of the correct path. (Herding reference...if you have done it or witnessed it firsthand you understand immediately that you have to keep the goats from wandering off when they are mixed together...the sheep are usually much easier to control)

No, most people can't/dont study as most people need the information regurgitated to them as their Hermeneutics skills are extremely limited especially when vetting resource materials. When was the last time you actually read the instructions in the preface of your study Bible that explains the notations and punctuations used as well as their translation methods? (And remembered them while reading)

Nowadays with the internet scripture references...that sort of thing is long since ignored. People never see it or even know they exist.

Then I also find people still don't even really read what is written. They gloss over it and put their own interpretation into the text thinking it says what they want it to say instead of what it actually says. But at the same time torture some words to death to prove some unbiblical point that is not relevant to the passage they are quoting. (Most discussed topic on this forum)

EVERY word, jot, and tittle is precious. They have been preserved by gallons of blood.

 

[St. SteVen]

And when your theologies have been challenged with exact scripture quotes you continue to dismiss the logic presented to you. Isn't that anti-intellectualism?

No. It is simple disagreement.
Would you be so arrogant as to claim that anyone who disagrees with you is intellectually dishonest? (seems so)
Intellectualism views the questions as being as important, if not MORE important than the answers.

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[St. SteVen]

Then I also find people still don't even really read what is written. They gloss over it and put their own interpretation into the text thinking it says what they want it to say instead of what it actually says.

That saw cuts both ways.

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[JohnDB]

No. It is simple disagreement.
Would you be so arrogant as to claim that anyone who disagrees with you is intellectually dishonest? (seems so)
Intellectualism views the questions as being as important, if not MORE important than the answers.

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Correct.
If you control the question then the answer is controlled as well.

 

[RedFan]

Perhaps because I was a Philosophy major in college, I tend to gravitate toward the logical and the theological as much as the Scriptural support for the positions I see on this site. But that approach is seldom front and center on these posts. Anthony Alberino is right to decry the demise of such approaches among Evangelicals. I'm not an Evangelical, but I welcome scholarship from any source.

 

[St. SteVen]

Correct.
If you control the question then the answer is controlled as well.

If you think that I have asked the wrong question (I see that all the time on the forum) then please ask the right one. Thanks.
If yours is the wrong question, I'll let you know. - LOL

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[JohnDB]

If you think that I have asked the wrong question (I see that all the time on the forum) then please ask the right one. Thanks.
If yours is the wrong question, I'll let you know. - LOL

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Which is why so many answers on this forum require lengthy answers....because usually the premise of the question is incorrect.

If the premise is correct and asked in genuine interest (so often not the case) Then I usually will answer....but likely in a backhand manner.

Because we tend to believe answers we discover for ourselves and not the spoon fed answers.

 

[Aunty Jane]

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Charles Malik​

Lebanese politician (1906-1987)
Address to dedication of the Billy Graham Center in 1980.

It is one thing to identify the problem, but another altogether to undo a mindset that was established many centuries ago. Strongly entrenched ideas are hard to shift, but not impossible with the right attitude.

I have to agree with the words of this gentleman who was born and raised in an era of enforced religious ignorance, cultivated by the church to keep its members from asking the wrong questions......but there is no such thing as the wrong questions. As education in the sciences increased, it created questions that the church could not answer, but rather than admitting its ignorance and finding a way to scripturally defend the findings of science in an intellectual way, it painted science as the enemy and rallied against an intellectual approach to faith.

The church had to yield to the influence of science as it overtook the religious mind to demand answers of the scientific kind. When no defence was forthcoming, the generation that was taught that science was a strong argument against God, saw the youngsters (and even older ones) leave the church in droves.

Since science is actually the study of what God created, there has to be a marriage of the two. Can they be reconciled without compromising scripture? The answer is YES! A careful Bible student will study the science and first of all identify the difference between true science (the kind that is irrefutable) and theoretical science (the kind based on supposition and suggestion without solid evidence to back it up)
Only then can a conversation about science begin on an equal footing.

Atheists will argue that we have no proof for our “belief” in an Intelligent Creator, whereas science has no defence to argue against one, when they see intelligent design in all aspects of the natural world. Evolution is also a “belief” for which there is no actual proof.

Intelligent design indicates an intelligent designer. As an example, take our home computers. We use them perhaps every day without much thought about how they work or how many components are needed to make the machinery as a whole, function as it was designed to. Every component in that computer was individually designed and manufactured to play a role in its working. Every component had to be installed in the correct order and once completed, it had to be connected to a power source, or it would have been a bunch of components intelligently sitting there with nothing to do.

Then in order for the World Wide Web to be accessed, another vital function had to be added.

Do we see a correlation between an invention of man, without whose intelligent direction, no part of that computer would have been designed or made to fit as part of a whole machine for use by other intelligent minds.....and without the power source, the machine would be useless.....and without the internet it may well have just entertained us at home with what we could access by way of external items to download and use for our education or entertainment. With what we have available via our computers now, there is no excuse for ignorance.

The human body is so much more sophisticated than any man made computer. The brain itself is a supercomputer and it governs every function as the control centre of the entire body...every function of every organ works in harmony to keep that body alive and doing what it was desired to do. It is a fascinating piece of incredibly well designed machinery. It takes years of study to understand all its functions.

I heard a good illustration once where science was challenged to show where in nature a simple mousetrap could be assembled by accident. If all the components of a mousetrap were to be available for thousands or even millions of years, could science ever see a fully functioning mousetrap put itself together so as to be useful in catching mice? If something as simple as a mousetrap could not design itself and put its very simple components together, what makes science think that a fully functioning human body could ever do so?....and add to that, the fact that a human body is designed to also reproduce its own kind. Every living thing on this planet has the means to reproduce its own kind, without cross breeding.....the very reason why there is male and female in all sentient creatures who seek only their own kind for reproduction.

It’s time to present the questions that theoretical science cannot answer. Evolution is a theory not a proven fact...but you would never know from speaking with atheistic scientists.

The religious are not the only ones with erroneous and immovable mindsets. We need open minds and hearts or we become like the very ones we complain about.

 

[BlessedPeace]

It seems the intent of the OP and the alleged supporting evidence is to state, you cannot be intelligent or a critical thinker and also be Christian. Nor, Evangelical.

 

[St. SteVen]

It seems the intent of the OP and the alleged supporting evidence is to state, you cannot be intelligent or a critical thinker and also be Christian. Nor, Evangelical.

No, not quite. You should watch the first video. Even just the first bit. Thanks.
It is a call to recognize a loss in the church, especially Evangelicalism. And call us back to intelligent discourse and critical thinking.
We need leadership to take us back to the strong stand we used to have in the community at large.

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[RedFan]

It seems the intent of the OP and the alleged supporting evidence is to state, you cannot be intelligent or a critical thinker and also be Christian. Nor, Evangelical.

That's not how I understand the OP. I'd put it this way: In recent times Christians and especially Evangelicals seem to have abandoned the intellectual approach to understanding Christianity and theology in general, a trend which is diminishing their ranks among the educated. It's a trend which can and should be reversed.

 

[BlessedPeace]

No, not quite. You should watch the first video. Even just the first bit. Thanks.
It is a call to recognize a loss in the church, especially Evangelicalism. And call us back to intelligent discourse and critical thinking.
We need leadership to take us back to the strong stand we used to have in the community at large.

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I know the video and I know of Noll.

"... He (Noll) therefore assumes that most evangelical efforts to promote Christian thinking in the world will also be naive (p. 130). He comments that fundamentalism has failed to think in a Christian manner about society, arts, humanity and nature (p. 132). However, the mind boggles in trying to determine how Noll managed to forget all about Francis A. Schaeffer, who in fact wrote 22 books on this very subject! (Surprisingly, Schaeffer�s work and writings are largely ignored by Noll).

Noll rightly criticises the tendency for fundamentalists to give shallow answers, guidance and responses to the peoples questions about current events, and for instructing people by merely quoting proof texts. He notes that these issues are rarely looked at and studied in detail (p. 132). He then affirms that there has been NO fundamentalist philosophy, history, aesthetics, novels, poetry, literary criticism etc. This is surely an overstatement and again, Noll forgets the work of Francis and Edith Schaeffer as well as Norman Geisler."

Full article:

Mark Noll's Scandalous Criticisms of Creation Science

 

[Aunty Jane]

In recent times Christians and especially Evangelicals seem to have abandoned the intellectual approach to understanding Christianity and theology in general, a trend which is diminishing their ranks among the educated. It's a trend which can and should be reversed.

When Jesus said...“I publicly praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intellectual ones and have revealed them to young children.” (Matt 11:25)......Can we assume that “the wise and intellectual” ones are at a disadvantage in coming to Christ?

Why would God hide his truth from those who believe that their education gives them an advantage?

What was the attitude of the Pharisees? Upon hearing the testimony of the apostles regarding a man they had cured......
Acts 4:13...”Now when they saw the outspokenness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were astonished. And they began to realize that they had been with Jesus.”
The Pharisees looked down on Christ’s apostles because they were not educated in the recognised Rabbinical Schools, therefore not qualified to teach anyone anything about the scriptures.
Christendom has the same attitude. Unless you have a degree in theology, you have no authority to teach.

So its the source of the education that is the problem.....and the educator is the one who makes the difference.
With the right education God reveals many things hidden from those who think that because of their education, they have eliminated a need for him and his standards.
In Christendom, he has hidden things for the same reason he did not preach to the Pharisees, whom he called “blind guides”. Their degrees are meaningless if they are not teaching the truth of God’s word.

 

[St. SteVen]

I know the video and I know of Noll.

I don't think Noll has anything to do with this OP.

EDIT: I see now that Mark Noll is one of many that are being quoted.

To be clear, I don't agree with everything this YouTube content creator says.
But the general topic is worth considering.

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[RedFan]

When Jesus said...“I publicly praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intellectual ones and have revealed them to young children.” (Matt 11:25)......Can we assume that “the wise and intellectual” ones are at a disadvantage in coming to Christ?

I don't think so.

 

[St. SteVen]

Aunty Jane said:
When Jesus said...“I publicly praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intellectual ones and have revealed them to young children.” (Matt 11:25)......Can we assume that “the wise and intellectual” ones are at a disadvantage in coming to Christ?

I don't think so.

Obviously, Jesus was trying to make a point there.
How do you read it?

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