The Scandal of the Chinese Evangelical Mind

Noted historian Mark Noll’s The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind identified and discussed the problem of anti-intellectualism in American evangelicalism (Noll 1994). I argue there is similarly a scandal of the Chinese evangelical mind. Indeed, anti-intellectualism is so persuasive and deep-rooted in the Chinese Church that many Christians perceive faith and knowledge as unrelated or opposed to each other, to the extent that one’s level of piety is often seen as inversely proportional to their level of education. In recent years, scholars have begun to pay attention to this phenomenon, offering valuable insights on the subject (Shi 2009; Chiow 2011; Ling 2009; Chen 2015). Overall, however, a precise definition of anti-intellectualism in the context of Chinese Christianity has not been provided; nor have the key characteristics of anti-intellectualism been adequately explained. In this essay, I want to offer a working definition of anti-intellectualism in the Chinese Church and provide an analysis of its main characteristics. But first I will contend that anti-intellectualism can be regarded as an “original sin” in the Chinese Church.