Considerations Concerning the Proclamation of a Post-Fundamentalism Era and the Foundations for Paleo-Evangelicalism, Part Three

I believe that if Fundamentalists are being encouraged to accept certain men’s perspectives of Fundamentalism then we first need to know from what vantage point and through what lense they see.  Here is some of what I found about the men in question.  No doubt there is much more available, but there is enough here to arrive at a good conclusion about whether we should blindly trust their wisdom and judgment or decline their vision of historical Fundamentalism’s true foundations.

First, Dr. George M. Marsden has a fairly complete biographical sketch at http://www.nd.edu/~gmarsden/cv.html.  I have condensed some of that information down to these highlights.

1. He is the past Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.
2. In 2003 he was a visiting professor of church history at St. Mary’s College, University of St. Andrews.
3. His educational background includes degrees from Haverford College, Westminster Theological Seminary, and Yale University.
4. He has held positions at several colleges, universities, and seminaries such as Yale, Calvin College, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, University of California, Berkeley, and The Divinity School at Duke besides those previously listed.
5. He claims affiliation with the Christian Reform Church.
6. His book Fundamentalism and American Culture was published in 1980 in New York by Oxford University Press.
7. It was awarded ”Book of the Year” by Eternity magazine in 1981.
8. A survey in Christianity Today named it one of the 100 “Books of the Century.”
9. Prior to its publication, Dr. Marsden’s study ”Fundamentalism and American Culture” earned him the Younger Humanists Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Whether Dr. Marsden is a genuine born-again believer, I do not know.  What I know from what I read is that he is a man who regularly fails to practice Biblical separation from those that preach another Gospel.  Although he seems to forgo spiritual discernment, his great intellect is often praised.  Here are the thoughts of John McGreevy who was the chair of the history department at Notre Dame about Dr. Marsden,

Marsden has been a crucial part of the graduate program and the leading intellectual presence, says McGreevy [emphasis added]. 1

Dr. Marsden also thinks that intellectual ability is the real strength from which to aptly challenge dominating contemporary ideologies.  Here are some comments about that from Oxford University Press’ website concerning his book The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship.  It says,

Marsden insists that scholars have both a religious and an intellectual obligation not to leave their deeply held religious beliefs at the gate of the academy. Such beliefs, he contends, can make a significant difference in scholarship, in campus life, and in countless other ways. Perhaps most importantly, Christian scholars have both the responsibility and the intellectual ammunition to argue against some of the prevailing ideologies held uncritically by many in the academy, such as naturalistic reductionism or unthinking moral relativism [emphasis added]. 2

Secondly, concerning Dr. Ernest Sandeen we already discovered a brief synopsis of him by Dr. Thurman Wisdom as quoted in the first posting of this series.  According to that letter, Sandeen is widely regarded as a liberal by Fundamentalists.  Therefore, it will not be necessary to mention any more concerning him.

Lastly, there is Dr. Mark Noll.  He replaced Dr. Marsden at Notre Dame and so he also has a fairly complete biographical sketch at http://history.nd.edu/people/all/noll-mark/.

1. He is the current Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at Notre Dame.
2. His educational background includes degrees from Wheaton, Middlebury College, U. of Iowa, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and Vanderbilt.
3. He has held teaching positions at Trinity College and Wheaton besides now at UND.
4. He has taught as a visiting professor at Calvin College, Harvard Divinity, U. of Chicago Divinity School, Westminster, Regent College (BC), Juniata, and Trinity Evangelical.
5. He was a senior contributing editor of Christianity Today from 1991-93.
6. He is a member of South Bend Christian Reformed Church and teaches there.
7. He has written and co-authored many books and articles.
8. He has received several fellowships, awards, and honors from the likes of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Pew Charitable Trust.

Here are some excerpts from a few past entries found about Dr. Noll in the Calvary Contender edited by Jerry Huffman and published by Calvary Baptist Church in Huntsville, AL.

MARK NOLL: EVANGELICAL, OR ECUMENICAL LIBERAL?—Mark Noll, as a Wheaton College professor and contributing editor of Christianity Today, has solid new-evangelical ties. A three-page 6/88 Moody article praised him as an evangelical. But some of his statements sound rather ecumenical/liberal. He says: “If a card-carrying evangelical can take a new look at a Roman Catholic, then maybe an evangelical can take a new look at someone who works for the National Council of Churches.” (5/15/89 CC). And, “I’m just immensely encouraged whenever I study Thomas Aquinas or…Soren Kierkegaard, etc., who are not hindered by Christian allegiance but are liberated to their greatest work by Christian allegiance.” Carl F.H. Henry in critiquing Noll’s recent book says, “He sells inerrancy down the river.” (3/18 World). Noll says it’s a tragedy that modern evangelicals have failed as intellectuals (4/95 P.Helps). He confusingly says that evangelical scholarship has been damaged rather than helped by the investigations of Henry Morris and other creation scientists. Noll was one of the forty signers of the 1994 “Evangelicals and Catholics Together” document. 3

 

MARK NOLL’S CONFUSING BOOK– Wheaton College evangelical historian Mark Noll in his 1994 book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, says it is a tragedy that modern evangelicals have failed as intellectuals (see 5/1 CC). He wants Christians to apply Christian thinking to the whole spectrum of modern learning (arts, politics, economics)–to all areas of human endeavor. Mark Sidwell responds: “The question confronting the Christian evaluating such an approach is whether truth will be sacrificed in order to gain secular respectability.” (BJU’s 11/95 Biblical Viewpoint). He cautions: “Intellectually respectable orthodoxy must still remain orthodox.”  4 

These last three quotes are from an interview he gave in April of 2004 for a PBS feature.

[Question:] And the difference between “evangelical” and “fundamentalist”?
[Answer:] Usually the terms “evangelical” and “fundamentalist” are used with distinctive meanings. Fundamentalist would be one variety of evangelical Christianity. Fundamentalists historically have been defined as those who are especially influenced by the revival traditions of the nineteenth century, especially influenced by the turn toward dispensational premillennialism as a theology in the late 19th century, and sometimes by their attitudes of separation and militancy toward the rest of the religious world and the rest of the world. Evangelical Christianity as a whole would include some fundamentalist tendencies, some fundamentalist groups, but probably most evangelicals would not want to be called fundamentalists themselves. 5

[Question:] You wrote an entire book called THE SCANDAL OF THE EVANGELICAL MIND about being both an intellectual and an evangelical Christian. To what extent have the issues that you brought up in that book been overcome?
[Answer:] Evangelicals do still have difficulties with the intellectual life. I myself do not think these are intrinsic to the Christian faith. There are scores of examples over the last two and 300 years of very solid artists, writers, intellectuals who have had no difficulty at all internalizing the realities of the Christian faith. For reasons that I have tried to explain, in books and articles that are fairly complex, the American situation is sometimes different. I happen to think that varieties of evangelical anti-intellectualism are as much a difficulty with evangelical appropriation of the Christian faith [as] they are with the Christian faith itself.
Evangelicals do sometimes show anti-intellectual traits, or traits that use the intellect in an unsatisfactory way. I see this as a problem not with the intrinsic character of Christianity, but with the history and development of this one strand of Christianity as religion. In other words, I see problems in the use of the intellectual life not as Christian problems, but as local, American, haphazard problems that have developed out of a particular history.6

His words speak for themself.  I do want to point out that his list of “especially influenced by” does not include fidelity to the Scriptures.  In my opinion he seems to be mesmerized by intellectualism like Dr. Marsden as his opinions are not strongly vested in the Scriptures.  Notice his response in the following:

[Question:] Are you involved in any of the debates on the same-sex marriage question? Where do you come down?
[Answer:] I haven’t been myself. Actually, it’s a little more complicated than I thought it was. You get educated by your children. We have children who have lived all over the world, East Coast and West Coast. So they’ve told me, “You don’t know. Slow down. Make sure you know what you’re talking about.” I would be certainly toward traditional views of marriage. I think my question would be to what extent the state should enforce traditional views for anyone. I think that’s an issue I’d like to explore a little more myself [emphasis added]. 7

I believe that the evidence reveals that the vantage point from which these men view things is not foremost the spiritual.  Furthermore, it is very apparent that they greatly admire the intellect of man.  Neither do they use the lense of Scripture as their preferred source to form their positions.  Where is a response to a crucial question about morality that with great boldness proclaims, “The Bible says . . .”?

It can be stated in no uncertain terms that neither a full knowledge of all humanly crafted history, nor a keen comprehension of all the musings by the world’s gilded thinkers, nor yet even personal life experiences broadened by interaction with all the cultures and religions of the world are complete or competent enough to give men a proper perspective capable of leading them to truth, wisdom, and understanding.  However, “The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple” (Psalm 19:7). 

1. Rob Moll, Christianity Today, “Mark Noll Leaving Wheaton for Notre Dame,” web edition, 9 February 2006.  Accessed on 12 March 2010 at http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/februaryweb-only/106-43.0.html.
2. Oxford University Press website, http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/ReligionTheology/American/?view=usa&ci=9780195122909.  Accessed 14 March 2010.
3. Calvary Contender, ed. Jerry Huffman, Calvary Baptist Church, Huntsville, AL, 1 May 1995.  Accessed on 12 March 2010 at http://home.hiwaay.net/~contendr/5-1-95.html.
4. Ibid., 1 January 1996, Accessed on 12 March 2010 at http://home.hiwaay.net/~contendr/1-1-96.html.
5. Mark Noll, “INTERVIEW: Mark Noll,” interview by Judy Valente, (Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, Episode no. 733, 16 April 2004).  Accessed on 12 March 2010 at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/week733/interview.html.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.

Read Considerations Concerning the Proclamation of a Post-Fundamentalism Era and the Foundations for Paleo-Evangelicalism, Part 4.

Read Considerations Concerning the Proclamation of a Post-Fundamentalism Era and the Foundations for Paleo-Evangelicalism, Part 2.