In 1994, historian Mark Noll published his slim but unsparing treatise Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Soon to be awarded the National Humanities Medal at the White House, Noll was already one of the preeminent evangelical minds of the late twentieth century. Yet his book expressed considerable ambivalence. He identified with evangelical tradition but worried that there was not much of an evangelical mind. His tradition mired in syrupy sentimentalism, holiness anti-intellectualism, and end-times hysteria, Noll contemplated whether it was â??simply impossible to be, with integrity, both an evangelical and an intellectual.â?
Twenty years later, Molly Worthenâ??s Apostles of Reason examines the historical context of what Noll refers to as his â??epistle from a wounded lover.â? In the postwar period, Christianity Today editor Carl Henry, Park Street Churchâ??s Harold Ockenga, cultural prophet Francis Schaeffer, and others sought to articulate a rational defense and efficient distribution of the gospel. Bible colleges became increasingly bureaucratic. Megachurches adopted rationalized marketing strategies, and seminaries used sociological analysis to spark church growth. Missionary agency executives implemented anthropological missions strategies. Even amateur theologians like Hal Lindsey took pains to apply an intellectual gloss to their apocalyptic predictions. American evangelicals undertook a strikingly rational practice of a supernatural faith.
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