“I am an evangelical Christian, so it was nice to hear a lecture about evangelicalism that was not related to contemporary politics.” This was our intern Annie Thorn‘s response to Bruce Hindmarsh’s lecture “John Wesley, Early Evangelicalism, and Science.” Hindmarsh,...
evangelical intellectual life
The Best Christian Bookstore in America
I had some last minute Christmas shopping to do on December 24, 2018 so I drove down to Dallastown, Pennsylvania (about a 40-minute drive) to visit Byron and Beth Borger at Hearts & Minds Bookstore. Beth was not around on...
Help Bring John Wilson to *Englewood Review of Books*
I am really glad to hear that Englewood Review of Books is growing and making a concerted effort to bring John Wilson aboard full-time. Here is a letter from editor Christopher Smith and several other scholars, including historian Mark Noll: As you...
Are There Any Evangelical Intellectuals Who Support Donald Trump?
First, a quick comment about the title of this post. I am operating under the assumption that “evangelical intellectual” is not an oxymoron. Can anyone name an evangelical intellectual who currently supports the administration of Donald Trump? I am not...
When Evangelicals Tried to Start a Research University
Some of you may be familiar with Carl F.H. Henry, a 20th-century evangelical theologian who tried to lead evangelicalism away from fundamentalism and toward a more intellectual robust brand of conservative Protestantism. (I took a course with Henry while he...
Rod Dreher Interviews Alan Jacobs on *How to Think*
Here is a taste from Dreher’s blog: I initially thought How To Think would be a basic primer of informal logic. It’s not that at all, but something more interesting. What’s the book about, and why did you write it? Last year,...
Is There an Evangelical “Faculty Lounge?”
The “Faculty Lounge.” This is what Fred Clark, aka “Slacktivist,” calls the “Books & Culture crowd” or the “evangelical clergy, academics, and educated laypeople who read Mark Noll’s Scandal of the Evangelical Mind and nodded in sad agreement.” Check out his post...
The State of the Evangelical Mind: Opening Plenary
The organizers of “The State of the Evangelical Mind” conference in Indianapolis chose to open the festivities with a session titled “The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind: A Tripartite Review.” Jay Green, Eric Miller, and yours truly served as the warm-up act...
Is There an “Evangelical Mind?”
After a weekend of conference-going and watching one of the greatest NCAA Division III volleyball rivalries in history (Hope College vs. Calvin College), I am easing my way back into the blogging life. As regular readers know, I spent part...
Getting the Band Back Together To Discuss the State of the Evangelical Mind
I am happy to announce that in September I will be participating in a conference in Indianapolis titled “The State of the Evangelical Mind: Reflections upon the Past, Prospects for the Future.” Here is a description from the conference website:...
Solitude and the Christian Historian
Over at The Pietist Schoolman, Chris Gehrz riffs on my piece on intellectual loneliness by suggesting that loneliness, and even solitude, may be a good thing for Christians. Here are a few snippets from his post “The Loneliness (and Solitude)...
Quote of the Day
The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind. An extraordinary range of virtues is found among the sprawling throngs of evangelical Protestants in North America, including great sacrifice in spreading the message...
The Intellectual Life–Part 3
Recently I reread the A.G. Sertillanges’s classic work on the life of the mind: The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods. Sertillanges (1863-1948) was a Catholic writer and a member of the Dominican Order. He published The Intellectual Life in 1934. Read...
What Happens to Evangelical Intellectual Life After "Books & Culture?"
I started graduate school in 1994. That was the same year that Mark Noll’s The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind was published. One year later, Christianity Today Inc. began publishing Books & Culture: A Christian Review with John Wilson as editor. I subscribed...
Were the Neo-Evangelicals Public Intellectuals?
No. But Owen Strachan want them to be. Strachan, who teaches at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, wants to turn post-fundamentalist evangelicals such as Carl Henry, E.J. Carnell, and John Harold Ockenga into mid-twentieth century public intellectuals. His...
My Aeon Piece on Evangelicals and Secularism
Some of you may have seen the piece I wrote recently for Aeon, a relative new online magazine. I wrote the article in an attempt to get intellectuals and other thoughtful observers to understand the mindset of some American evangelicals. I understand,...
Tim Lacy Weighs-In On Mark Noll’s *Scandal of the Evangelical Mind*
Tim Lacy, one of the catalysts behind the revival of American intellectual history in the United States, has finally had a chance to read The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, Mark Noll’s love letter to his fellow evangelicals urging them...