c. 1998 Religion News Service
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. _ There’s David and Goliath and there’s Daniel in the lion’s den. And there’s evangelical historian Mark Noll, striding through the the liberal pasture of Harvard Yard, the university that gave the nation Unitarianism and whose divinity school is virtually synonymous with liberal religion.
But Noll _ evangelical, Presbyterian, historian _ is a Christian following his calling and that calling has brought him to Harvard where he is the inaugural holder of an newly endowed professorship in evangelical theological studies, a subject from which the university as historically shied away.
He’s also unique among evangelicals in being called to historical scholarship rather than the ordained ministry. After he finishes his stint at Harvard, Noll will return to Wheaton College, near Chicago, where he is a professor of history and Christian thought.”I think God made human institutions in such a way that records could be left. God made the human mind in such a way so that we understand some aspects of those records, and God made human curiosity, in other words, so that you want to find out what the records tell about the past human beings,”Noll said in explaining his passion for history during an interview in his office here.
Although instruction in evangelical studies might seem to be an expected part of any theological curriculum, it is a bold addition for Harvard, which has been associated with liberal religion since its founding.
After all, it was at Harvard in 1838 that transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson gave his famous”Divinity School Address,”in which he dismissed traditional Christian conceptions of God and humanity and became what historian Sydney Ahlstrom called America’s first”death-of-God”theologian.
But Ronald F. Thiemann, dean of the divinity school, while acknowledging the evangelical presence has been downplayed at Harvard, also insisted Harvard Divinity School graduates comprise a higher percentage of professors at evangelical seminaries than any other university divinity school in the country.”There is a strong (evangelical) tradition here, but it has not been lifted up symbolically,”said Thiemann in his remarks at a colloquium for the new Evangelical Theological Studies program. During his visiting professorship, part of a $1.5 million endowment by Harvard Business School graduate Alonzo L. McDonald, Noll will teach two courses _ a general lecture course,”Understanding Evangelical Christianity,”and a seminar course,”Origins of Evangelicalism.” Noll, who also directs the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals at Wheaton College, acknowledged he has his work cut out for him at Harvard.”It has been some years since Harvard made explicit room for an evangelical voice as provided by the McDonald Family Chair,”he said. Indeed, perhaps centuries, he said, describing what he called a”well-publicized spat”in the 1740s between prominent American evangelist George Whitefield and the professors at Harvard College. The Harvard professors attacked Whitefield, the father of the revival known as the First Great Awakening, for publishing a pamphlet accusing Harvard of being in spiritual”darkness.” Today, Noll sees his position at Harvard as a way to present evangelical Christian history as a valuable intellectual and spiritual framework through which political and moral issues can be conceived.”Here, as I take it, the assignment is to teach about, as well as provide encouragement in, (evangelical Christianity),”said Noll in his inaugural address.
Scholars and colleagues say Noll’s greatest contribution is his ability to combine his faith with his vocation while remaining critical, a task that at times has been historically difficult for evangelical Christians with a penchant for history based on unquestioning biblical literalism.”He has tried to take a critical reflective view of history as a Christian,”said James W. Skillen, executive director of the Center for Public Justice, an Annapolis-based civic education and policy research organization where Noll serves as an adviser.
Despite the Christian basis for his intellectual pursuits and personal politics, Noll said he is skeptical of political organizations like the Christian Coalition that exhibit what he called”political over-commitment.””Historically, when Christian movements are co-opted by political movements, they always suffer as Christian movements,”said Noll, the author nine books, including a number on the sensitive subject of religion and American political life.
Noll warned that the popular misconception that all evangelicals are politically conservative reduces the highly complex evangelical Christian tradition to”monolithic types.””Any unified assertion about evangelical this, evangelical that, is false,”he said. Instead of generalities he said,”you have to ask the quality question: Is this a good expression of Christian faith?” The Christian values that suffer most in political movements, according to Noll, are values associated with the Christian teaching to”love your enemy.””When two teams are fighting for control, in the democratic process, you create alliances in order to win, and the winning becomes the most important thing,”he said.”And for people of integrity, moral integrity _ Christian or anything else _ sometimes other things are more important than winning.”Even your political opponents are made by God,”he added.
Noll, who labels himself a”pietist confessional Protestant,”traces his view that even political or moral opponents have”God-given humanity”to Don Andersen, the pastor of the Baptist church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where Noll was raised.
Andersen”was a kind person, a loving person, somebody who cared for you and stood by you despite anything you might do,”Noll said. His upbringing in that church _ where Noll remembers that congregants never used labels like”evangelical”or”fundamentalist”_ led him to pursue Christian historical study in his undergraduate career at Wheaton College, and later to a master’s degree in literature at the University of Iowa and a doctorate at Vanderbilt University.
He called the influential figures in the church of his youth”nice fundamentalists,”meaning they taught him deep spiritual convictions, but also not to become”angry”at those who did not agree with their particular religious views. “There is a Christian teaching, or principle, or basis, that says that you have to respect that person’s expression because it’s the God you say you worship as a Christian who is responsible for that person’s response,”Noll said.”It might be wrong, and it might be harmful to the person, but even drawing those conclusions, you can’t be truly Christian and then deny that person’s God-given humanity,”he said.
DEA END LEBOWITZ
