Evangelical Anti-intellectualism. Part Six: Hope?

In the final episode of this series on Evangelical Anti-intellectualism, Anthony Alberino considers some recent developments that are causes for hope that the American Church may be beginning to wake from its intellectual slumber. After decades of suppression, the question of the nature and existence of God became a live option once more for philosophers in Anglo-American universities in the late 1960s. This philosophical revival of theism at the academy was instigated primarily by the highly influential work of Alvin Plantinga, an evangelical Christian philosopher. Today the philosophical renaissance of theism advances throughout universities in the English-speaking West as Protestant Christian philosophers continue to publish widely in the field of the Philosophy of Religion and to hold professorships at many prestigious universities. The philosophical revival at the university laid the groundwork for the explosion of Christian apologetics in the 21st century. In response to the threat of the New Atheism, Christian intellectuals mounted a powerful defense of the faith. Today, the New Atheism lies in ruins while the apologetics movement continues to thrive. Ultimately, if we are going to cast off the shackles of anti-intellectualism and recover the Puritan ideal of a mind on fire for Christ, it's going to have to happen at the level of the local church. The fate of the American evangelical mind lies in the hands of our church leadership. Pastors, in particular, must lead the way by prioritizing the equipping of the intellect as part of Christian discipleship and by modeling what it looks like to love the Lord with their minds.