Dr Neville Buch
Abstract
This essay examines Mark Noll’s retrospective judgment on the thirty-year legacy of his seminal work, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (1994), through the critical lens of Dr. Neville Buch’s research into evangelical historiography and the sociology of religion. While Noll observes a “brighter” picture in the sheer volume of Christian academic output in the twenty-first century, Buch identifies a deeper structural crisis he terms ”Evangelical a-Historicism”. By analysing the American Revivalist Tradition (ART) and its influence on both American and Australian Protestantism, Buch argues that the “scandal” persists not merely as a lack of intellectual effort, but as a “mechanization of faith” that functions as a ”theological mask” for partisan political agendas. The essay concludes that resolving this scandal requires a move toward ”philosophical compatibilism” and a ”spiral historiography” that transcends simplistic binaries of religion and secularity.[1]
The Scandal of the Mechanized Mind: Mark Noll and Neville Buch on the Evangelical Intellectual Crisis
Thirty years after the publication of The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, Mark Noll offers an assessment that is simultaneously optimistic regarding academic achievement and sobering regarding the state of the church.[2] In his 2026 retrospective, Noll suggests that the “picture is brighter than it was” three decades ago, citing the increased presence of Christian voices in mainstream academic disciplines and prestigious university presses. However, he identifies a profound disconnect between the academy and the pews, noting that “solid Christian reasoning… is not reaching the pews because pastors are not transmitting it”. In the judgment of Dr. Neville Buch, this disconnect is not a logistical failure of communication but a fundamental malady of cognition rooted in a-historical literalism and the pervasive influence of the American Revivalist Tradition (ART).[3]
The Persistence of the Scandal: ART and Anti-Intellectualism
Noll’s 1994 thesis famously began with the claim that the “scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind”. Buch’s research into the history and sociology of this movement confirms this by tracing the transition from British liberal evangelicalism to a dominant American Protestant culture after 1945. This shift introduced the American Revivalist Tradition, which Buch characterizes by three distinct traits: Biblicalism, Anti-intellectualism, and a Mechanization of the Christian faith.[4]
While Noll points to the success of individual scholars, Buch argues that the “scandal” has evolved into an ”immense regression”.[5] Within this tradition, “fools” often deflect from compassionate inquiry by holding to a simplistic literalism that cannot distinguish between ancient symbolic devices and modern fundamentalist facts. This cognitive state is what Buch defines as ”Evangelical a-Historicism”—a state of ”Historical Forgetfulness” where believers lose the context regarding the origins of their own beliefs, leaving them susceptible to “sociological propaganda” and “manufactured myths”.[6]
The “Theological Mask” and Political Co-option
A primary point of intersection between Noll and Buch is the role of populism and tribalism. Noll laments a world where “masters of social media tend to be partisan, populist, conspiracy mongers for whom scholarship… is a dirty word”.[7] Buch extends this sociologically, arguing that evangelical a-historicism allows religion to function as a ”theological mask” for partisan political dominance.[8]
In Buch’s judgment, this is most evident in the rise of Christian nationalism and the rhetoric of Trumpism, where religious culture is co-opted for specific political agendas. This process creates a “mirrored image” where the evangelical world becomes trapped in its own biases, valuing ”dogmatic purity” over the historical human person. Buch critiques this as ”institutional arrogance”, a state where loyalty to a church is transmuted into defensive literalism that shields the subject from disturbing historical evidence.[9]
The Path of Philosophical Compatibilism
If the “scandal” is a crisis of cognition and history, the solution, for Buch, lies in ”Spiral Historiography”. This methodological framework revisits past philosophical insights to address contemporary dilemmas with ”modern inclusivity”, recognizing cyclical patterns of truth and falsehood.
Buch proposes a state of ”philosophical compatibilism”, which asserts that a “person of faith is quite capable of being skeptical, rational, secular, and humanist”. This path requires the historian to act as a panseur—one who reinvents thinking as caring (panser) to tend to the wounds of social fragmentation and memory. By utilizing the POLICE model (Philosophically Ontology Logic Intersect Compatibility Education), believers and scholars alike can “police their own thoughts,” filtering out manufactured myths to restore the integrity of human authorship.
Conclusion
Mark Noll’s judgment after thirty years suggests that while the evangelical “mind” has found a home in the elite academy, it remains homeless in its own pews.[10] Dr. Buch’s historiographical and sociological analysis reveals that the “scandal” is sustained by a mechanized, a-historical tradition that fears change and critical inquiry.[11] Ultimately, addressing Noll’s scandal requires more than academic publication; it demands a ”humanistic ascent” that unhooks the Gospel from restrictive political masks and embraces the “courage of truth” found in a reflective, inclusive history.[12]
APA Bibliography
Ackerman, J. M. (1991). Reading, writing, and knowing: The role of disciplinary knowledge in comprehension and composing. Research in the Teaching of English, 25(2), 133-178.
Bebbington, D. W. (1989). Evangelicalism in modern Britain: A history from the 1730s to the 1980s. London: Unwin Hyman.
Buch, N. (1995). American influence on Protestantism in Queensland since 1945 (Ph.D. Thesis). Department of History, University of Queensland.
Buch, N. (2021). Essay review of Australian Pentecostal and Charismatic movements. Journal for the Academic Study of Religion, 34(2), 234–237.
Buch, N. (2023). Evangelicals and nation-building: Radical and transformational criticism from across Christian traditions in Queensland history Part 1. Lucas, 3(1), 44-106.
Buch, N. (2025). Explaining evangelical a-historicism (Paper). TASA-AASR Symposium.
Buch, N. (2026). The possibility of liberal evangelical historiography: A reply to David Bebbington (Paper).
Buch, N. (2026). The theological mask: Evangelical a-historicism and political co-option (Paper).
Clary, I. H. (2015). Evangelical historiography: The debate over Christian history. Evangelical Quarterly, 87(3), 225-251.
Long, R. D., & Buch, N. (1996). The Americanisation of Christian education in Queensland. Australian Religion Studies Review, 9(2), 10-21.
Marsden, G. M. (1987). Reforming fundamentalism: Fuller Seminary and the new evangelicalism. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Noll, M. A. (1994). The scandal of the evangelical mind. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
Noll, M. A. (2026). The scandal of the evangelical mind: Then and now. Christian Scholar’s Review.
Endnotes
- Mark Noll (2026) highlights the increase in Christian scholars publishing in academic presses.
- Neville Buch (1995) defines the American Revivalist Tradition (ART) through its anti-intellectual roots.
- The “Kantian manoeuvre” in neo-orthodoxy separated phenomenal science from the noumenal Word.
- Buch (2026) argues that literalism serves as a political mask, particularly in Trumpism.
- Spiral Historiography is proposed as a method to overcome “Historical Forgetfulness”.
- Philosophical compatibilism allows for a person of faith to remain a skeptic and rationalist.
[1] Neville Buch. The Possibility of Liberal Evangelical Historiography: A Reply to David Bebbington, 22 February 2026 Page 4; Buch, Neville (2026). Notes. Karl Barth. Evangelical Theology.
[2] Mark Noll, (2026). The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Then and Now – Christian Scholar’s Review. https://christianscholars.com/the-scandal-of-the-evangelical-mind-then-and-now/
[3] Neville Buch. Evangelical a-Historicism Paper, 2025 TASA Conference.
[4] Neville Buch. American Influence on Protestantism, PhD., The University of Queensland, 1995 (Preamble, Chapters 1,12); Buch TASA Evangelical a-Historicism Paper.
[5] Neville Buch. The Possibility of Liberal Evangelical Historiography, unpublished paper submitted to Lucas, 2026.
[6] Neville Buch. TASA-AASR Evangelical a-Historicism Presentation, 2025; regarding SoFiA interpretation of Evangelical Historiography.
[7] Noll. The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Then and Now.
[8] Neville Buch. The Theological Mask, Management Institute for Contributory Economy, 2026.
[9] Buch. The Possibility of Liberal Evangelical Historiography.
[10] Noll. The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Then and Now.
[11] Buch. TASA Evangelical a-Historicism Paper.
[12] Buch. The Possibility of Liberal Evangelical Historiography.
Featured Image: Mark Noll
Neville Buch
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