Anti-Intellectualism
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Anti-Intellectualism in the Western World
Anti-intellectualism is a disposition to discount the importance of truth and the life of the mind.
—Os Guinness
We live in what may be the most anti-intellectual period in the history of Western civilization. . . . We must have passion—indeed hearts on fire for the things of God. But that passion must resist with intensity the anti-intellectual spirit of the world.
—R. C. Sproul
The result of all this is that Americans are the best entertained and quite likely the least well-informed people in the Western world.
—Neil Postman
Anti-Intellectualism in Evangelicalism
I must be frank with you: the greatest danger confronting American evangelical Christianity is the danger of anti-intellectualism. The mind in its greatest and deepest reaches is not cared for enough.
—Charles Malik, Former President of the United Nations General Assembly
The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.
—Mark Noll
We speak of “the modern mind” and of “the scientific mind,” using that word mind of a collectively accepted set of notions and attitudes. On the pattern of such usage I have positied a Christian Mind, chiefly for the purpose of showing it does not exist. . . . There is no Christian mind. . . . the Christian Mind has succumbed to the secular drift with a degree of weakness unmatched in Christian History.
—Harry Blamires
The contemporary Christian mind is starved, and as a result we have small, impoverished souls.
—J. P. Moreland
Anti-Intellectualism Is No Virtue
God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than of any other slackers.
—C. S. Lewis
At root, evangelical anti-intellectualism is both a scandal and a sin. It is a scandal in the sense of being an offense and a stumbling block that needlessly hinders serious people from considering the Christian faith and coming to Christ. It is a sin because it is a refusal, contrary to Jesus’ two great commandments, to love the Lord our God with our minds.
Anti-intellectualism is quite simply a sin. Evangelicals must address it as such, beyond all excuses, evasions, or rationalizations of false piety.
—Os Guinness
Anti-Intellectualism Is a Hindrance to the Gospel
False ideas are the greatest obstacles to the reception of the gospel.
—J. Gresham Machen
Towards a Solution to Anti-Intellectualism
The Christian religion flourishes not in the darkness but in the light. Intellectual slothfulness is but a quack remedy for unbelief; the true remedy is consecration of intellectual power to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ.
—J. Gresham Machen
Update: For a bibliography on anti-intellectualism, visit Timmy's blog.
Anti-intellectualism is a disposition to discount the importance of truth and the life of the mind.
—Os Guinness
We live in what may be the most anti-intellectual period in the history of Western civilization. . . . We must have passion—indeed hearts on fire for the things of God. But that passion must resist with intensity the anti-intellectual spirit of the world.
—R. C. Sproul
The result of all this is that Americans are the best entertained and quite likely the least well-informed people in the Western world.
—Neil Postman
Anti-Intellectualism in Evangelicalism
I must be frank with you: the greatest danger confronting American evangelical Christianity is the danger of anti-intellectualism. The mind in its greatest and deepest reaches is not cared for enough.
—Charles Malik, Former President of the United Nations General Assembly
The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.
—Mark Noll
We speak of “the modern mind” and of “the scientific mind,” using that word mind of a collectively accepted set of notions and attitudes. On the pattern of such usage I have positied a Christian Mind, chiefly for the purpose of showing it does not exist. . . . There is no Christian mind. . . . the Christian Mind has succumbed to the secular drift with a degree of weakness unmatched in Christian History.
—Harry Blamires
The contemporary Christian mind is starved, and as a result we have small, impoverished souls.
—J. P. Moreland
Anti-Intellectualism Is No Virtue
God is no fonder of intellectual slackers than of any other slackers.
—C. S. Lewis
At root, evangelical anti-intellectualism is both a scandal and a sin. It is a scandal in the sense of being an offense and a stumbling block that needlessly hinders serious people from considering the Christian faith and coming to Christ. It is a sin because it is a refusal, contrary to Jesus’ two great commandments, to love the Lord our God with our minds.
Anti-intellectualism is quite simply a sin. Evangelicals must address it as such, beyond all excuses, evasions, or rationalizations of false piety.
—Os Guinness
Anti-Intellectualism Is a Hindrance to the Gospel
False ideas are the greatest obstacles to the reception of the gospel.
—J. Gresham Machen
Towards a Solution to Anti-Intellectualism
The Christian religion flourishes not in the darkness but in the light. Intellectual slothfulness is but a quack remedy for unbelief; the true remedy is consecration of intellectual power to the service of the Lord Jesus Christ.
—J. Gresham Machen
Update: For a bibliography on anti-intellectualism, visit Timmy's blog.
posted by JT at Friday, October 06, 2006
6 Comments:
Right on!
e.g.,
Baloche & LeBlanc's
"Above All"
Like a rose, trampled on the ground,
You took the fall, And thought of me
Above all
At the crucifixion did Jesus really think of me above the glory of His Father???
Does intellectual sloth lead to heresy?
JT,
These last couple of posts on books have been fantastic. Also, anti-intellectualism is a grave threat, and we must realize it as that. A book I would like to mention and commend is Anti-Intellectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter, which by the way received the '64 Pulitzer Prize in Non-Fiction. Chapters 1-5 are worth the book in and of itself, but the rest is great as well.
Another book I found helpful, if I may mention, is John Stott's little piece called Your Mind Matters. This book is the content of his presidential lectures given at the 1972 InterVarsity Fellowship Annual Conference about the place of the mind in the Christian life. For a list of other works that one might want to peruse, here's a short bib I put together last year:
http://provocationsandpantings.blogspot.com/2005/11/bibliography-anti-intellectualism_07.html
Grateful for your blog--it definitely doesn't let readers get by without thinking.
Oh, and thanks for leading the speaker panels at DG. Many of the responses to your good questions were highlights of the conference for me.
We need to get you a hip Humble Orthodoxy t-shirt for when you hang out with other hip people like David Wells. =)
I wonder if anti-intellectualism also shows itself in an unwillingness to seriously engage views and beliefs that are different from ours (in Christianity not outside)? People often like to criticize and tear down certain views and beliefs that are different from theirs and call these views unorthodox or heretical or whatever, but then they never actually read the authors and proponents of these views. Instead they just read books against these views or book reviews that are naturally going to be biased against the view they're reviewing.
This seems like anti-intellectualism to me. What do you think?
Blessings,
Bryan
The elephant in the room is really anti-intellectualism in Middle Easter thinking, I find that there is plenty of intellectualism in Christianity, although the pew doesn't seem to have caught on.
I fear that we sometimes substitute intellectualism for faith. Faith sometimes doesn't have a ready explanation.
While we are fighting to determine how to pronounce our shibboleths, the anti-intellectualism of Islam is converting hordes by the sword. Try reasoning with a crazed zealot. It isn't very effective.
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