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Bibliotheca Sacra 143 (
Oct
. 1986)
291-301
.Copyright © 1986 by Dallas Theological Seminary. Cited with permission.
Thinking like a ChristianPart 4:In but Not of the World
D. Bruce LockerbieAn emphasis on thinking, on loving the Lord with all one'smind, shows rising concern among some evangelicals. Such aresurgence may be dated from the publication of Frank E.Gaebelein's
Pattern of God's Truth
, in print since 1954; morerecently, Harry Blamires's
The Christian Mind 
and John Stott's
Your Mind Matters
may still be found in Christian bookstores.
1
 Other indicators of the flowering of evangelical scholarship are thesteady growth of periodicals such as
Christian Scholar's Review
 and Dallas Seminary's
 Bibliotheca Sacra
. A recent issue of Pub-lishers Weekly devotes four pages to a survey by Leslie R. Keylock of Moody Bible Institute and
Christianity Today
, naming the "out-standing evangelical Christian scholars" in fields such as Old Tes-tament, New Testament, theology, church history, philosophy, andothers. His roster, based on a nominating list of 539 names, isimpressive, headed by F F Bruce.
2
Also encouraging is the con-tinuing stream of books by Arthur F Holmes, Nicholas Wolterstorff,Alvin Plantinga, Ronald H. Nash, and others whose topic is areasonable faith.
3
Beyond these books, evangelical publishinghouses are to be commended for risking financial loss in producingpurely academic books.
Spiritual Immaturity
 Yet in spite of these notable causes for hope, the fact is thatevangelical Christianity remains possessed by pietistic fervor at291
 
292 Bibliotheca Sacra - October-December 1986the expense of intellectual rigor. This is known to be true of manycongregations; others would argue that it is also true of mostChristian schools, colleges, and seminaries. For example the influ-ence of so-called "contemporary Christian music" is evident in theevangelical subculture. Without arguing its legitimacy as music,its efficacy for evangelism, or its limitations on the nourishment of growing Christians, one may merely state that spiritual imma-turity prefers the familiar over the unfamiliar, the popular over theserious. Spiritual immaturity gravitates toward ease rather thanrigor. Spiritual immaturity has money to spend on entertainmentbut precious little in its coffers for challenge or conviction. Chris-tians put their treasure where their emotions reside, as Jesus said;thus when the Thomas F. Staley Foundation's "DistinguishedChristian Scholar" appears on a Christian college campus forseveral days of dawn-to-midnight pouring out—in lectures, class-room lessons, private interviews, faculty meetings, administrativecouncils, mealtime conversations, dormitory lounge discussions—he gives from his own learning and experience as a Christianhusband, father, teacher, coach, writer, speaker, scholar. He isgrateful for the honorarium paid, unless he bothers to think aboutthe fact that the following night in the same auditorium where hecalled for thinking Christians, a group of surly looking smartalecks or scruffy clowns called "Noah and the Animals" or "Pub-licans and Sinners" will be wailing into their microphones andinundating their lyrics with cacaphonous din. And the fee chargedto the college for this one-night stand would support true Christianscholarship ten times over.Why is this so? Because, as one of these joyful noisemakerstold this writer succinctly, "We give the people what they want."What too many young people from evangelical homes and churchesenrolled in evangelical schools and colleges seem to want is frothand syrup and cotton candy served up by musical lightweightsignorant themselves of the relationship between worship and thebeauty of holiness. As a consequence, the hymnody of thechurch—the legacy of Bernard of Clairvaux and Martin Luther, of Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley, Fanny Crosby and ReginaldHeber—not to mention Bach, Handel, Mendelssohn, Bruckner,and others—is in danger of disappearing altogether, to be replacedby often insipid songs.Furthermore in too many instances the Christian college islittle more than a holding pen where young adults can "find them-selves." What is shown in the advertisements for Christian colleges
 
In but Not of the World 293in evangelical periodicals? Students playing frisbee, studentshang-gliding, or relaxing on a campus lawn. Where are the pho-tographs of students in a physics laboratory or library? Why mustadmissions officers and public relations personnel appeal to poten-tial applicants as though their institution were a nine-monthyouth retreat where everyone sits around singing mellow songsabout Jesus?
The Paradox of the Christian Vocation
 No wonder Charles Malik so sternly judges evangelical collegesfor not having "yet attained the stature of the fifty or one hundredtop universities of the world, which set the pace and provide themodel for all other higher institutions of learning."
4
Malik alsoasks why
they cannot provide a single Nobel Prize winner in medicine orphysics or chemistry or biology or any of the sciences, who is at thesame time a firm and outspoken believer in the crucified and resur-rected Jesus whose glory is that he is now and forever at the veryright hand of God, and who therefore is Lord of lords and King of kings .... I mean a man who is recognized and quoted by the scien-tific community all over the world ... just as, for instance, the contri-butions of Maxwell or Einstein or Planck or Fermi arerecognized ... and will at the same time stand up in public and recitethe Nicene Creed and declare that he believes every word of it.
5
 Can Malik be right to indict Christians for their smugness,their complacency, and their disinterest with the result that, afterBilly Graham, scarcely another household name familiar in Chris-tianity's subculture would register the slightest flicker of recogni-tion in a Dallas restaurant? This self-containment is the pointrecently made by Nathan 0. Hatch. Describing the incongruitybetween "the sway of secularism" in the world-at-large and "a headyconfidence" one is likely to find on the campuses of evangelicalcolleges, Hatch writes that "the jarring disparity between these twoworlds testifies to how rarely the evangelical college serves as abridge to issues and audiences beyond the safe confines of theevangelical world."
6
Christian education, as represented by schools, colleges, andseminaries, remains in a puzzling posture, afraid to be sufficientlycommitted to living out the paradox of the believer's vocation: livingin yet not of the world. Too often these institutions swing towardone extreme or the other. The first extreme may be characterized asOf but not in the world. Claiming to offer a college-preparatory or
of 00

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