EVANGELICALISM AND REFORMATION
Bravo to Alister McGrath, Mark Noll, Darrell Bock, and Richard Mouw for their continued attempt to get the populace of evangelicalism thinking [“The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind,” Aug. 14].
McGrath and others have begun to pick up on the element that Christian thinking has historically been at its strongest when Reformed theology has been the choice system of the academy. It is when Reformed thought was replaced by Enlightenment thought or mindless pietism that we saw a decline in the emphasis and respectability of the Christian mind in both the academy and among the populace. It is, therefore, not historically surprising that along with this renewed interest in Reformation thought there is also a renewed interest in the state of the Christian mind. McGrath is doing his job by consistently making the connection that the Protestant Reformation, and its heritage was and is the product of thinking.
John J. Fanella
Wheaton, Ill.
In Canada the “evangelical populace,” as Mark Noll would call it, is frequently put off by the sheer arrogance of the evangelical academy mind. Humility and grace, exhibited by great Christian minds over the past two thousand years are always attractive, are listened to, pondered, and provide genuine leadership. In this country, the academy mind is by conduct somewhat smaller than it thinks it is.
Gordon H. Johnson
Agincourt, Ont., Canada
I was very much encouraged by your forum on the evangelical mind. I have been teaching Sunday school for just under a year and am directly confronted with the problems of getting American evangelicals actually thinking about their faith. While I have been blessed with a wonderful class and church that actually wants to learn and know, I have been hard-pressed in how to feed their desires. The article showed me that scholars need not be sitting up in their “ivory towers,” but that they should be in the forefront of educating God’s people. Thank you so much for the encouragement to those that share your concerns!
Wesley T. Allen
Eastern College
St. Davids, Pa.
After reading your article, all I can say is, “Who cares?” Pardon us right-wing fundamentalist, anti-intellectual no-brainers, but is anyone interested in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Ultimately, what really matters? Is it all that important that my populist nonbrain is no match for the academics? I submit that the obvious lack of impact the church is having on our culture is a result of rampant division, lack of love, and pervasive pride. Imagine: the greatest mind that exists humbled himself and took on the form of a servant.
George Smith
College Station, Tex.
For Dr. Noll to equate literal six-day creationism with the decline of the evangelical mind (and thus anti-intellectualism) is absurd. I find it difficult to fathom how allowing a secular theory (and one currently in crisis) to dictate the interpretation of Scripture can be considered intellectual. Dr. Mouw has decried the loss of evangelical academic institutions to modernism. Is not the development of evolutionism a prime example of this modernism in full swing?
Mrs. Denise Hays
Davenport, Iowa
We Christians have to recognize that all truth is God’s truth, and the true humanism is Christian. The scandal of the evangelical mind is related to the general phenomenon of the closing of the American mind. The way to overcome this scandal is to teach the next generation to respect learning and to make sacrifices for them to enter a learned profession. As Christian parents, we can turn off the TV at home and take our children to the library. The scandal is a grassroots problem which requires a family solution.
Timothy Chen
Potomac, Md.
PILLS AND THE HOLY SPIRIT
“Can a pill do what the Holy Spirit could not?” This rather irreverent question posed by Barshinger, LaRowe, and Tapia in the August 14 issue [“The Gospel According to Prozac”] reveals much about popular conceptions of spirituality. Have we come to view the Holy Spirit, very God himself, as some type of medicine for life? Did he come to empower life or embellish it? Are our feelings a valid litmus test for our spirituality? Is God closer to some of us than others? Is his power limited in some areas? What do our feelings have to do with his work?
Sure, we apply medical science to physical problems. A release from the problem is a blessing. But it doesn’t change God at all. A person whose cataracts are removed cannot claim that the sky is now a deeper shade of blue. The surgery did not make the sky bluer or the patient more perceptive. It merely exposed the person to more of the truth that already existed.
Who of us can humbly desire to be crucified with Christ yet utter the popular mantra demanding personal rights? We betray Christ in linking him to our sense of well-being. We turn our eyes toward ourselves and away from eternal God and his eternal redemption of creation, which will never change no matter what kind of a day we might be having.
David J. Lindskoog
Boulder City, Nev.
Incredible! We now have Prozac for depression, marijuana for glaucoma, tranquilizers for tension, and steroids for strength. We have all the remedies; where does prayer fit in?
Dana L. Stringer
Louisville, Ky.
When aspirin came on the market to relieve pain and fever, I wonder if an article in the local Christian journal suggested its use was a poor substitute for faith. Or when antibiotics appeared: “Penicillin: Can a pill do what the Holy Spirit could not?” Most Christians today accept the beneficial use of a variety of drugs designed to help the body fight infection, relieve pain, or suppress fever. Perhaps it would help believers overcome the Christian cultural stigma of needing antidepressants by—instead of alleging lack of faith—helping them accept these drugs purely as medicines designed to help compensate for chemical imbalances which affect emotions. If in the process of stabilizing chemical imbalances we also discover benefits toward our own sanctification, the development of healthier relationships, and the healing of emotions, then God has indeed given us a great therapeutic tool, and a great blessing as well.
Pastor Bill Walthall
Redlands Bible Church
Redlands, Calif.
Prozac’s possibilities in therapy raise related issues, but they are hardly new. In the early 1970s, after years of struggling with phobic conditions, I landed in a psychiatric unit, where an earlier generation of antidepressants was in use. I was interested to find that some of my fellow patients were Christians, and most seemed to carry some burden of “good deeds in a naughty world.” One might have concluded pace Prozac that being a good neighbor prompted their illness, exhaustion being a staging post.
One unit doctor, a Christian, said mental illness was still stigmatized within the community (and the churches, where depression was often thought due to “lack of faith”). Thus, patients who would have benefited from a stay in the unit—and careful choice of drug therapy—did not take up the offer, because of the off-stage pressures from peers.
Prozac may have a similar dimension. Drug therapy of this kind is usually a short-term engagement, an opportunity for reorientation. The cure of souls lies elsewhere.
David Lazell
East Leake, Loughborough, England
Readers should be reminded that Charles Haddon Spurgeon, London’s renowned Baptist preacher of the last century, whose sermons Helmut Thielicke placed even above those of Martin Luther, suffered severe depression throughout his ministry. One can imagine how much Spurgeon would have appreciated the relief that now is obtainable. It would be an affront to his ministry to suggest that a poverty of the Holy Spirit was to blame for the affliction, or that he should not have availed himself of help had it been procurable then.
Charles Turner
Memphis, Tenn.
THE CHURCH COMMUNITY’S HALLMARK
Thank you for the recent dialogue with Lawrence Crabb [Conversations, Aug. 14]. I believe Crabb is a leader in the Christian community whose message is vitally needed. I do not believe he drives a wedge between the ministry offered by the local parish and the effective Christian therapist. It is equally my conviction that the church has for too long subrogated its responsibilities with respect to the individual to outside agencies. First Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 in particular make it explicitly clear that the ministry of the local church community is to be dedicated to service (deaconal) of its members. Gifted ministry to each other needs to be the hallmark of any church community.
Certainly Christian therapists and psychology can offer a specialized address to unique problems. However, it is my belief that even this specialized counseling should take place under the spiritual direction and discipleship of the local church. Subrogation is harmful enough; but for an individual to be loosed from the compassionate oversight of the Christian community under the ruse that help is being applied is forsaking the intent of Scripture.
Douglas J. McKay
Middletown, Del.
Larry Crabb’s article was troubling. As director of a Christian counseling center and a marriage and family therapist, I have seen a number of pastors and church leaders come for help. Many times the issue is one of poor boundaries. How can we assume that in a broken world, with broken people, that untrained people who have not dealt with their own issues can deal with the complicated issues people experience?
Dee Wacker Sioux Falls Psychological Services Sioux Falls, S. Dak.
Entrusting the church with the burden of counseling those with serious needs is impractical and dangerous. According to Crabb, “caring” is the most active agent in counseling, something the church is well equipped to provide. Unfortunately, for most Christians, caring is merely sympathetic listening with a tendency to do whatever makes everybody comfortable. For others, it is a simplistic search for demonic bondage that must be exorcised. These methods are usually ineffective at best and often disastrous. Inevitably, caring must include both compassion and a moment of confrontation born out of real insight.
Crabb complains that even the best psychologist cannot know “what’s really happening in people’s souls.” Yet, even knowing the range of possibilities available for explaining and exploring the “troubled human soul” is of great value. Christians without the necessary aptitudes, gifts, or professional commitment to the practice of counseling are not likely to take on the challenge. Further, I don’t believe it is right to expect that they should.
Rev. David S. Harvey
Crosslake Evangelical Free Church
Crosslake, Minn.
Christians are no more prepared to conduct therapy by being godly persons than they are prepared to build a boat by reading the story of Noah. I think in the ideal church, Christian therapists will enhance and support the awesomely greater responsibilities of “eldering” and shepherding the flock. They will not be seen as a threat, but as allies and a valued part of Christ’s body. Christians do not leave the Christian community when they enter the office of a Christian therapist’s private practice. They have just gone downtown.
Scott D. Conner
Marriage and Family Therapist
Yarmouth, Maine
DEATH PENALTY FOR WHOM?
Thank you for “A Matter of Life and Death” [News, Aug. 14]. Those who quote Old Testament laws to support the death penalty somehow don’t quote the parts that demand death for homosexuals (Lev. 20:13), disobedient children (Deut. 21:18–21), those who pick up sticks on the Sabbath (Num. 15:32–36). Also, by the way, anyone who argues with the preacher (Deut. 17:12)!
Felix Lorenz, Jr.
Northville, Mich.
The article accurately notes that capital punishment is just now being used again for the first time in decades, and in some cases, it’s been 30 years or more. Yet those who doubt its deterrent effect say crime has increased all the years of execution’s being legal. For it to be legal but not employed clearly provides no deterrent effect at all, but rather invites mockery. The criminals know the real odds, and the fact is they serve little time (even for murder) and have run virtually no risk of execution, whatever the law on the books. As evangelicals, we resort to the Bible and it says, in numerous cases in the O.T., that all Israel will hear (of an execution) and will be afraid to do such things in the future. The deterrent effect of punishment is fundamental human nature and basic common sense, but it depends, as Ecclesiastes 8:11 makes clear, on a high level of certainty that society will use it swiftly and aggressively. That has not been the case.
Tim Crater
NAE Office of Public Affairs
Washington, D.C.
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