Evangelical Anti-intellectualism. Part Four: How Has it Come to This? A Sociological Analysis

In Part Four of this series on Evangelical Anti-intellectualism Anthony Alberino takes a look at the problem from a sociological perspective. In addition to a historical legacy which still influences the evangelical community today, there are societal conditions that are exacerbating and reinforcing anti-intellectual tendencies in the church. As many observers and critics of popular culture have noted, there has been a general demise in our ability to think critically. Some have even referred to ours as the “idiot culture.” There are two broad modern trends that are contributing to the stupefying of American culture, one trend that has taken place at the level of the university and the other at the level of popular culture. First is the specialization of knowledge in higher education. The second is the universalization of knowledge at the level of popular culture. Together, these trends have made specialized knowledge deeper but narrower, and common knowledge wider but shallower. In addition to this crisis of thinking, we are also facing a psychological crisis or a crisis of the soul. Psychologists have characterized American culture as the domain of the “empty self.” The term has been used to capture what has become the hollow, unreflective, intemperate disposition or temperament of the average person living in the modern world. Seven traits of the empty self that make it a danger to society and the church are briefly examined. We are living in the midst of an idiot culture populated by empty selves. This is a sociological context that only serves to reinforce the anti-intellectualist tendencies of the American evangelical church. Of course, as Christians we are called out from among the world in which we live; we are supposed to look different, to act different, to think different, to be different than the secular culture around us. We are first and foremost citizens of the Kingdom of God, and our lives are to be characterized according to that kingdom, not this one. We are called to a higher level of living, to a higher level of thinking. We cannot allow ourselves to be caught up in the cultural current that will drag us away from the cultivation of our minds. Today, there is a great opportunity for the church to stand out by displaying the depth and richness of the Christian mind in a society that has embraced an idiot culture; to shine by modeling a character of virtue and wisdom in a society of empty selves.