Spirituality, Hard Thinking, and Theology (time for a good quote)

“Our folk evangelicalism too often denigrates the life of the mind and especially critical thinking. Even to raise an honest question about a popularly believed evangelegend (religious urban legend) is enough to provoke prayers on your behalf for your spiritual renewal. We do God no favors by being gullible, credulous, irrational, or uncritical. No special spiritual aura accompanies stupidity or ignorance. All too often, however, contemporary popular Christianity leads people to think that spirituality and hard thinking stand in conflict with each other. God gave us minds and expects us to use them.” (Roger Olson, Questions to All Your Answers: The Journey from Folk Religion to Examined Faith)

Questions:

1.  How have you seen Evangelicalism denigrate the life of the mind?

2.  In his book In Two MInds (later republished under the title Doubt), Os Guinness says that doubt is not necessarily a bad thing.  Doubt can lead either to a deeper faith commitment or to ungodly unbelief.  Have we misunderstood doubt in our churches, do you think?  Why or why not?