Some thoughts on Christian intellectuals

Last updated on: August 18, 2016 at 12:24 am by Jacob Lupfer

Some thoughts on Christian intellectuals 2016-08-18T00:24:29-04:00 Jacob Lupfer

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Theological Hall in Strahov Monastery, Prague. Completed in 1679. (Image credit: Pixabay)

Baylor University professor Alan Jacobs wrote an essay for the September issue of Harper’s that has already circulated widely online.

This is not a response to his essay, but rather a quick stream-of-consciousness reflection on the subject. I may not have anything worthwhile to say about Christian intellectuals, especially since my life is turning out to not be very Christian (at least in any devotional, confessional sense) or intellectual (I’m on the forever path through a Ph.D. program and I find academia to be a garbage profession in many ways).

I didn’t even finish the Jacobs piece. I started reading it Saturday night and got called away to a pre-schooler’s bathtime, a toddler’s diaper change, and/or the children’s bedtime routine. And I didn’t get back to it. To my great embarrassment, Christianity Today editor Andy Crouch called me out on this fact while we were discussing the subject on Twitter.

@jlupf I don’t mean to be snarky, but did you read the essay? Because that’s one of Alan’s main lines of argument.

— Andy Crouch (@ahc) August 17, 2016

But this is the internet and everyone is allowed to broadcast their opinions into the abyss. I have spent most of my adult life studying the role of religion in public life. And I have thought off and on for years about the relationship between Christian faith and the life of the mind. So if you’re interested in hearing some half-baked thoughts from a nominal mainline Protestant with no ecclesial standing of any kind and who is only a third of the way through Jacobs’ essay, then read on…

Mainline Protestantism

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