Our staff is currently working on our ACSI accreditation and as part of that we are required to read a number of books dealing with Christian education. The first book my group read is Love Your God With All Your Mind by J.P. Moreland.
This book spends a great deal of time addressing evangelicalism as an anti-intellectual movement. This certainly isn’t a new idea, but is definitely something that I, as a Christian educator need to be wary of.
Moreland pegs the anti-intellectual trend in American Christianity to revivals including the Great Awakening. These revivals focused on making people feel their need for God, but spent very little effort educating new converts in the essential tenants of their faith. This led to a generation of Christians who, instead of responding to intellectual criticism with an educated response, retreated into the safety of faith. There was no explanation for faith, you simply had to trust that what the Bible says is true.
This line of thinking led to a false dichotomy between faith and reason and an unhealthy skepticism of anything intellectual. Philosophy became a bad word in Christian circles and it didn’t take long for Christians to become a laughing stock amongst any sort of thinking people. The extent of the anti-intellectual movement in American Christianity was perhaps best exhibited during the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925.
Even today evangelicals are very much affected by this non-thinking approach to Christianity. Many sermons in the church address only felt needs and are often emotionally manipulating. Congregations are made to feel guilty instead of being reasoned with. Pastors rely more on rhetoric than sound Biblical teaching. Christianity is put in a box of personal experience, and beyond being a travesty, this is unbiblical. The truth of Christianity is not limited to the experiences of the individual believers.
Jesus often challenges his listeners and disciples with parables that engage the intellect and Paul is often charged to make a philosophical or intellectual case for the truth of Christianity. Unfortunately there are fewer and fewer Christians who are able to intellectually engage their culture because they are not taught how to do so.
The church does a great disservice to Christ and His message to neglect the intellectual development of its congregants. We are told by Jesus himself to love the Lord with all our mind, so why is the church so hesitant to educate those whom it is responsible to equip?
This is not meant to say that emotion has no role in Christianity, but to more to point out that it has been elevated too highly in many evangelical circles. For instance, how should one witness to those who do not “feel” like they need God? If Christianity is truth, then we should be able to reason with people about it.
There is a bumper sticker that sums up the anti-intellectualism rampant in evangelical churches today: God said it, I believe it, that settles it. If Christians wish to have a meaningful impact on the world they must do better than this. We must be able to reason with those whom we wish to evangelize to. The Truth is not true merely because I believe it.