Not the Anti-Intellectual
Jesus told His followers in Matthew 22:37-38: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.” The cultural elites in our country find pleasure in portraying Christians as intellectual light-weights, superstitious, and ignorant. Back in 1962, Richard Hofstadter wrote a book entitled Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1964. In that book, Hofstadter argued that ignorance is inherent within Christianity.
In America’s Blessings: How Religion Benefits Everyone, Including Atheists, Dr. Rodney Stark examines that widely held stereotype of Christians. Part of the problem with this stereotype is that too many Christians do not study rational defenses of the Christian faith so as to give a coherent defense of the faith that is within them (cf. 1 Peter 3:15). They simply say, “It’s true because I believe it.” Or, putting their hand over their heart, piously proclaim, “It’s true because I feel it in my heart.” Both those statements are irrational. But, that does not prove that the Christian faith is irrational nor that Christians are intellectual lightweights.
Now, Dr. Stark, the sociologist, comments that there is no research on whether Christians as a group are anti-intellectuals. The data is available but no one has ever made use of it to scientifically answer the question. On the other hand, he does present evidence from the Arts and Religion Survey provided by Robert Wuthnow.
Are Christians lacking in “high culture”? While we do not love the world, neither the things of the world (cf. 1 John 2:15-17), does that mean that Christians do not think on non-spiritual matters that are yet “lovely and of good repute” (Phil. 4:8)?
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Well, what about the content of that reading? Do Christians simply read superficial writings? Do they keep up with the news? Particularly relevant to a Christian’s relationship with “high culture,” do Christians read poetry? What is the research? Forty-nine percent of weekly worshipers read the daily newspaper. Thirty-five percent of “nevers” read the daily paper. Poetry? 37% (weekly) versus 24% (nevers). Fiction? 78% versus 70%. Novels? 53% versus 45%. Christians do, in fact, read. They read more than non-Christians.
How about music and the arts? Weekly worshipers are more likely to enjoy classical music (53%) than those who do not worship (37%). They are more likely to have attended a classical music or opera performance in the previous year (23% versus 17%). They are also more likely to have attended a live performance of a nonmusical stage play (31% versus 23%). On the flip side, they are less likely to enjoy contemporary music (42% versus 67%) which tends to be vulgar, pointless, demeaning, and incoherent.
Finally, how important do Christians believe “the arts” are to their lives? Forty-nine percent of weekly attenders believe they are “very important,” while 42% of “never” attenders feel that way. When it comes to religious history (79% versus 42%), world religions (55%, 30%), U. S. religion (47%, 30%), and religious art (41%, 20), those who worship weekly express more interest and are more likely to see the importance of these subjects than those who never worship.
It comes as no surprise to see that the cultural elite, once again, have it wrong and their beliefs go against both research and common sense. Christians do feed the life of the mind.
–Paul Holland
