Mark Noll: No One Ever Reads The Bible Alone

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This episode of We Are Vineyard is a continuation of our series on ordination! Jay and Caleb Maskell (Associate National Director of Theology and Education) talk to Mark Noll about cultivating the life of the mind in a way that is honoring to the Lord. Mark gives some of the historical background of American evangelicalism and describes the widening gap between the evangelical church and critical thinking about the world and theology. Mark shares about why we need to read the Bible in community and with insight from people throughout history and across a variety of cultures and gives his thoughts on the impulses of evangelicalism that are worth preserving.

Mark Noll is a historian who is retired after teaching at Wheaton College and the University of Notre Dame. His research has focused on earlier American history with books that include America’s God from Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln, A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada, and most recently America’s Book: The Rise and Decline of a Bible Civilization, 1794-1911. He has also tried to assess the recent transformations in Christianity around the world in books like The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith and (as co-author with Carolyn Nystrom) Clouds of Witnesses: Christian Voices from Africa and Asia.

Show Notes:

Read Mark’s Books: bit.ly/3CT2LMx

The Democratization of American Christianity by Nathan O. Hatch: bit.ly/46ttKMm

Religion and the American Revolution by Katherine Carté: amzn.to/46qQLPF

Broken Churches, Broken Nation by C.C. Goen: bit.ly/3Pxb7Rk

Mark’s article in Comment- “Spiritual Renewal and Social Transformation”: https://comment.org/spiritual-renewal-and-social-transformation/

Reading While Black by Esau McCaulley: bit.ly/3X6PuJi

2023 VUSA National Conference “Making All Things New”: https://conference.vineyardusa.org/