The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind

Such anti-intellectual obscurantism, of which [Mark] Noll said dispensationalism and six-day creationism were the most obvious manifestations, had made evangelicals a marginal group. Not in the broader culture, of course, .... but rather in those sections of society where ideas were the stock-in-trade, where mainstream intellectual engagement took place. ...

Fifteen years later, the intellectual and cultural poverty of American evangelicals would seem to continue, even as church attendance is holding up reasonably well in the US ... Without making a judgment for or against any of the following positions, I would add these common beliefs of evangelicals to dispensationalism and six-dayism as causes of the movement's social and intellectual marginality: biblical inerrancy, opposition to women's ordination and homosexuality and abortion, religious exclusivism, and rejection of the broad claims of evolutionary science. Commitment to any or all of these positions places one at the fringe of culture, at least of thoughtful, educated culture.

— Carl Trueman, The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. (Chicago, IL: Moody, 2011), 10-11

The New Evangelical historian Mark Noll, having accepted the culture's view of Christianity especially its interpretation of the 1925 Scopes Trial, attacked belief in Dispensationalism and 6 day creation as being anti-intellectual. While Dispensationalism is wrong, I do not think it is necessarily anti-intellectual, noting that Dispensationalism in the person of Lewis Sperry Chafer established a theological seminary (Dalls Theological Seminary), not just a mere bible school.

Carl Trueman in the introduction to his book The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind points his finger at the real problem with the New Evangelicalism. The real scandal is that there is no evangelical. In other words, Evangelicalism is a social movement that stands for nothing (doctrinally) actually. Mark Noll's accusation of anti-intellectualism and attack against Dispensationalism and 6-day creationism is merely his disapproval of those two views. In his opinion, the holding of those two views in his opinion is preventing the secular academy from taking his circle of Evangelical scholarship seriously. But as Trueman has pointed out, there are tons of other beliefs that are just as objectionable and offensive to the secular academy and society in general. In our time especially, holding to the historical and biblical view that homosexuality is sin is considered "anti-intellectual" and bigotry.

The problem with Mark Noll's analysis, and with the New Evangelicalism, is that they do not actually agree with Scripture when it says that fallen Man is fundamentally illogical and does not accept the wisdom of God. True Christianity will always be in the margins, except for short periods where the Spirit of God works mightily in most of society like during the Reformation. The Gospel and the entire Christian faith is the stumbling block. The problem is not intellectual, but moral and ethical. Apart from regeneration, no one will think that the Christian faith is true and wise; it is foolishness to them. It matters little whether religion scholars are smart, because the problem is NOT intellectual.

So if one wants to remove all that the secular academy is scandalized by, "evangelicals" should also jettison biblical inerrancy, opposition to women's ordination and homosexuality and abortion, religious exclusivism, and rejection of the broad claims of evolutionary science. Do this and gain the "respect of your peers." But then, don't call yourself Christian, for you would have just given up the faith.