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THE MIND UNDER FIRE __________________ A Paper Presented toDr. David P BertchThe College at Southwestern __________________ In Partial Fulfillmentof the Requirements for HIS 4203-A __________________  byWes TerryApril 1, 2009
 
THE MIND UNDER FIREThe American mind is under attack and its citizens are at war. Authors,throughout the last century, have sought to make that fact known in order to bring about aresurgence of critical thinking. Sadly, there has been no lasting change. More troubling isthe role of the Christian mind in the American dilemma. Pulitzer Prize winner RichardHofstadter attributed much of the problem of anti-intellectualism to the Christiancommunity.
1
Writing in the same year, Harry Blamires addressed the Christiancommunity directly by saying that the Christian mind has joined in on the secular drift of non-thinking with a “degree of weakness and nervelessness unmatched in Christianhistory.”
2
In 1994, Mark Noll described the condition of the Evangelical mind as ascandal because there is “not much of an evangelical mind.”
3
Revivalism, the loss of theeternal perspective, and a reckless devotion to technology have helped to weaken theChristian mind and the following, using those categories, will illustrate that although theChristian mind is part of the problem, only the Christian mind is uniquely equipped to bring about the solution. The first area to be explored will be the aftermath of revivalism.
The Rise of Non-Thinking
Before evaluating the negative effects brought about by the revivalistmovements in the nineteenth century, it needs to be said that such efforts did a
1
Richard Hofstadter,
 Anti-Intellectualism in American Life
(New York: VintageBooks, 1963), 85.
2
Harry Blamires,
The Christian Mind: How should a Christian Think?
(Vancouver: Regent College Publishing, 1963), 3.
3
Mark A. Noll,
The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind 
(Grand Rapids: WilliamB. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994), 3.2
 
3tremendous amount of good for churches across America. The criticisms that follow arenot meant to devalue or dismiss the work that was done in any way. However, there is asense in which the general tone of the revivalist spirit was one of subjectivism. Manyenthusiasts considered intellectual pursuits of knowing God as “at best intrusions and atworst barriers to the pure and direct actions of the heart.”
4
That mentality grew among thelaity and eventually spread to the clergy. There was a rise in pragmatic philosophy byevangelists and a commonly held belief that since conversion was the end goal of  preaching, the means of achieving that goal were insignificant.
5
 Over time, the revivalist focus on one’s subjective experience planted seeds of individualism and immediatism. Church history and tradition were soon distrusted andirrelevant. As Noll describes it, “They [the revivalists] insisted that what had gone on inthe churches through the centuries was irrelevant to what must be done with respect tothe faith
now
.”
6
This shift had a profound effect on Christian thinking because itharvested a culture that had no use for the intellectual masterpieces of the great Christianminds of old. Such literature was far too dated to add any value to the currentenvironment. The mind was no longer needed to follow Jesus.Lastly, it should be pointed out that the intellectual flabbiness that resultedfrom the revivalist movement also paved the way for what Mark Noll calls afundamentalist filter.
7
The general distrust in one’s reason and intellect led Evangelicalsto isolate themselves from the academic community and, in their reaction to modernism,
4
Richard Hofstadter,
 Anti-Intellectualism in American Life
(New York: VintageBooks, 1963), 85.
5
Ibid.
6
Mark A. Noll,
The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind 
(Grand Rapids: WilliamB. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994), 63.
7
Mark A. Noll,
The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind 
(Grand Rapids: WilliamB. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994), 211.
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