What became of the Christian intellectuals?
Half a century ago, such figures existed in America: serious Christian intellectuals who occupied a prominent place on the national stage. They are gone now. It would be worth our time to inquire why they disappeared, where they went, and whether — should such a thing be thought desirable — they might return.
There can be no doubt that the intellectual culture of the West has been increasingly hostile to theism in general, and Christianity in particular, since at least the nineteenth century. That hostility has only accelerated in the last half-century in the United States. But the real opposition has been directed, not to religion in a generic and harmless representation, but to orthodox Christian belief.
Discussion
NewPart of the issue..
Take a look at the church pedigrees of those mentioned—for example, Lewis and Sayers were Anglicans/Episcopalians. More or less, the public intellectuals of the past worked at a time when the mainline churches would tolerate an evangelical witness like the same—but in the past 30-40 years, the liberal theologians have more or less driven such thought out of their seminaries. So what we need to do is bring back this thinking from scratch and find forii where it will be heard—a challenge Lewis et al never had to face.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.