the ryan king

I just came across an interesting article at firstthings.com.

I’ve not read Noll’s book, but I think I understand what he’s talking about here. I think any intellectual who has signifcant experience with evangelicals will have experienced the almost psychotic dual-mindedness with which evangelicals approach scholarship.

As I learned in my Baptist History and Theology course, baptists in particular have always had an intellictual vs. anti-intellecual conflict, which is still very much alive today in baptist (SBC) churches and universities.

In my experience at a baptist university, I was at once encouraged and discouraged from being an intellectual. For the most part, the faculty was always encouraging (which is not entirely surprising), but there were always certain groups of students who were decidedly anti-intellectual. Why were they at a university then? I think they saw the university as more of a vocational training institution, rather than a place of scholarship and inquiry.

Technorati is doing an interesting experiment. Go ahead a click on that link.

By the way, I oppose Bush and I oppose Kerry. In case you were wondering.

I was just reminded by a friend of a poem one of my professors read to a class once. It was actually a hymn from the era of the Protestant reformation.

We are God’s elect
the rest be damned
There’s room enough in hell for you
We won’t have heaven crammed

For those unfamiliar with Calvinism, you can read about it at theopedia.com. Actually this sentiment is actually more along the lines of Hyper-Calvinism

In my opinion this poem displays the most selfish and egotistical side of christianity I’ve seen. Now, I don’t know a single person who would sing this hymn, but I’ve witnessed the same smugness and sense of entitlement which is displayed here.

I’ve found yet another way to wast me time: BlogShares.