This is the first time I have written an un-recommendation about a book. Before I got The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, I had heard good things about it. The topic – anti-intellectualism in the evangelical movement – is something I have a lot of interest in. The author is an evangelical himself, so he has the ability to criticize from the inside with legitimacy. I am afraid that I recommended this book to other people before I had a chance to start reading it. It is not good.
The book came in the mail only a couple of days ago, and I am only about 150 pages into it; but I do not think this book is worth buying. Every once in a while, the author will make a useful point or draw an interesting conclusion. The first obvious problem with this book is its very poor organization. The author lays out a deceptively coherent structure in the chapter headings, but the actual text frequently spirals into pointless rambles.
These are the author’s most piercing remark is the very first sentence: “the scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.” As page after page of the book go by, it becomes clear that the author is only seeking to document the lack of an evangelical mind from a dry historical context. He refuses to explore the reasons for or implications of anti-intellectualism in the evangelical movement. The book is not about minds at all; it is about old church leaders and movements.
Even if the author had presented and defended his argument well, he would only have proved that there is not very much evangelical intellectualism. That is utterly uninteresting. He says nothing about what causes this, what it means, or what can be done. I will probably finish it since I have made it this far, but save yourselves! Do not bother picking this book up if you haven’t already, and I apologize if I steered you in the wrong direction before.
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