We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

The Evangelical Mind

I Can't See You...

Peter via Compfight

As a follow-up to Rachel Held Evans’ thoughts yesterday on the Scandal of the Evangelical Heart, we thought we would post this reflection by Peter Enns about the Deeper Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. He claims that in the current environment when professors and pastors are constrained by the consequences of asking difficult question, they are not even free to really use their minds with integrity.

From the blog post:

Calling for Evangelical involvement in public academic discourse is useless if trained Evangelicals are legitimately afraid of what will happen to them if they do.

A more basic need is the creation of an Evangelical culture where the exercise of  the Evangelical mind is expected and encouraged. 

But, with few exceptions, that culture does not exist. The scandal of the Evangelical mind is that degrees, books, papers, and other marks of prestige are valued–provided you come to predetermined conclusions.

Related Reading

Loving God With All Of Your Mind

Rebecca-Lee via Compfight David D. Flowers posted this essay on loving God with your mind that reflects our stance on intellectual integrity as we approach Scripture. It even features a video clip of Greg talking about maintaining humility when we encounter ideas that are new to us and challenge our current understanding. It’s well worth…

Lighten Up: MEology

It might be a red flag if you’re only interested in theology that serves your interests.

Hellbound? in the Washington Post

Kevin Miller, the writer/director of “Hellbound?” was featured in the Washington Post in an article titled “Hell is a reality distortion field.” He challenges us to consider that what we believe about hell or anything else is partially conditioned by many things other than just the Bible. This reality distortion field prevents us from considering…

Peter Enns Doesn’t Believe in God

 R’eyes via Compfight Peter Enns is the master at creating blog titles that are both clever and provocative. The other day he wrote a post that he entitled Why I Don’t Believe in God Anymore. As usual, the title shouldn’t be taken at face value. Peter is actually writing about the challenge of going beyond belief…

Lighten Up: You Gotta Believe In Something, Man!

Two things here: 1) How does this philosopher not see that “not believing in believing” is itself a belief? 2) Is that a turtleneck or is that philosopher just really hairy?

When Jesus Questioned the Father

Though the sinless Son of God had perfect faith, we find him asking God the Father to alter the plan to redeem the world through his sacrifice—if it is “possible” (Matt. 26:42). As the nightmare of experiencing the sin and God-forsakenness of the world was encroaching upon him, Jesus was obviously, and understandably struggling. So,…