The Christian intellectual tradition is alive and well

With the caveat that this a rather different topic than the one I wrote my essay on, my response is that I want to agree with this but am not sure I altogether can. Reasons for doubt:
  1. Lupfer speaks of “the Christian intellectual tradition,” but there are several such traditions and not all of them are equally robust. Some distinctions here would help.
  2. There may be no strong correlation between the ones that are more robust and the ones that are more influential, inside and Church and outside.
  3. I’d feel better about Lupfer’s claims if I could point to scholarly fields where Christians are doing work that is clearly superior to what their secular colleagues are doing, or at least where Christians are blazing distinctive new ground.
  4. Lupfer commends “Christians with intellectual gifts [who are] helping their brothers and sisters think through the great questions and challenges of their lives,” and amen to that, but if we’re not also helping people who are not yet our brothers and sisters, then I fear we’re not doing the whole of our job.