Fri, Aug 08 2008
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Published May 16, 2008 12:34 pm - For decades, Boston University sociologist Peter Berger says, American intellectuals have looked down on evangelicals. It’s time that attitude changed, he says. AP: Study examines America's 'evangelical intelligentsia' The Associated Press BOSTON — For decades, Boston University sociologist Peter Berger says, American intellectuals have looked down on evangelicals. Educated people have the notion that evangelicals are “barefoot people of Tobacco Road who, I don’t know, sleep with their sisters or something,” Berger says. It’s time that attitude changed, he says. “That was probably never correct, but it’s totally false now and I think the image should be corrected,” Berger said in a recent interview. Now, his university’s Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs is leading a two-year project that explores an “evangelical intelligentsia” which Berger says is growing and needs to be better understood, given the large numbers of evangelicals and their influence. “It’s not good if a prejudiced view of this community prevails in the elite circles of society,” said Berger, a self-described liberal Lutheran. “It’s bad for democracy and it’s wrong.” The study is being directed by Berger and Timothy Shah, an evangelical political scientist at the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. Shah is documenting the history of the evangelical movement, including its historical hostility to higher learning, a revival of scholarship, and the minds and ideas it has since produced. Some aren’t convinced evangelical scholars have made as much progress as they think. Boston College sociologist Alan Wolfe, who wrote an article in The Atlantic, “The Opening of the Evangelical Mind” in 2000, said despite the success of some evangelical scholars, many have retained an insularity and defensiveness that limits their effectiveness. “There isn’t enough mixing in the larger world of ideas,” he said. An estimated 75 million Americans are evangelicals, people who emphasize a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and commit to spreading the message of salvation though his redemptive death. Evangelicals say they often aren’t well-understood beyond their Bible-banging, evolution-hating caricature. Many equate evangelicals with fundamentalists, an evangelical subset that interprets the Bible literally — as in the six calendar days of creation — and is home to ardent evolution opponents. But Shah said most evangelical scientists believe in evolution guided by God. 
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