Mark A. Noll (born 1946) is a
historianAn historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all events in time...
specializing in the history of
Christianity in the United StatesChristianity is the largest religion in the United States, with 76% of the population identifying themselves as Christian. This is down from 86% in 1990. About 62% of the population are members of a church....
. He holds the position of Francis A. McAnaney Professor of
HistoryHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
at the
University of Notre DameThe University of Notre Dame du Lac is a private Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, Indiana, USA....
. Noll himself is a Reformed evangelical Christian, and in 2005 was named by
Time Magazine as one of the twenty-five most influential
evangelicalsEvangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s.Most adherents consider its key characteristics to be: a belief in the need for personal conversion ; some expression of the gospel in effort; a high regard for biblical authority; and an emphasis on the...
in America.
Noll is a prolific author and many of his books have earned considerable acclaim within the academic community.
Mark A. Noll (born 1946) is a
historianAn historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all events in time...
specializing in the history of
Christianity in the United StatesChristianity is the largest religion in the United States, with 76% of the population identifying themselves as Christian. This is down from 86% in 1990. About 62% of the population are members of a church....
. He holds the position of Francis A. McAnaney Professor of
HistoryHistory is the study of the human past, with special attention to the written record. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it often attempts to investigate objectively the patterns...
at the
University of Notre DameThe University of Notre Dame du Lac is a private Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, Indiana, USA....
. Noll himself is a Reformed evangelical Christian, and in 2005 was named by
Time Magazine as one of the twenty-five most influential
evangelicalsEvangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s.Most adherents consider its key characteristics to be: a belief in the need for personal conversion ; some expression of the gospel in effort; a high regard for biblical authority; and an emphasis on the...
in America.
Noll is a prolific author and many of his books have earned considerable acclaim within the academic community. In particular,
The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, a book about anti-intellectual tendencies within the American evangelical movement, was widely covered in both religious and secular publications. He was awarded a National Humanities Medal in the Oval Office by President George W. Bush in 2006.
Noll, along with other historians such as
George MarsdenGeorge Marsden is an historian who has written extensively on the interaction between Christianity and American culture, particularly on Christianity in American higher education and on American Evangelicalism....
,
Nathan O. HatchNathan O. Hatch is president of Wake Forest University, USA, having been officially installed on 2005-10-20.Born and raised in Columbia, South Carolina, Hatch graduated summa cum laude from Wheaton College and earned his master's and doctoral degrees from Washington University in St. Louis...
, and
David BebbingtonDavid W. Bebbington , , is professor of history at the University of Stirling in Scotland and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Dr. Bebbington joined the department of history at Stirling in 1976 and was appointed to a Personal Chair in 1999...
, has greatly contributed to the world's understanding of evangelical convictions and attitudes, past and present. He has caused many scholars and lay people to realize more deeply the complications inherent in the question, "Is America a Christian nation?"
Noll is a graduate of Wheaton College, Illinois (B.A, English),
Trinity Evangelical Divinity SchoolTrinity Evangelical Divinity School is an evangelical Christian seminary located in Deerfield, Illinois. TEDS is a part of Trinity International University, and is operated by the Evangelical Free Church of America....
(M.A., Theology), and
Vanderbilt UniversityVanderbilt University is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the South...
(Ph.D, History of Christianity). For 27 years he was on the faculty at Wheaton College, Illinois, where he taught in the departments of History and
TheologyThe term "theology" literally means the study of God, deriving from the Greek word theos, meaning 'God', and the suffix -ology from the Greek word logos meaning "discourse", "theory", or "reasoning"...
as McManis Professor of Christian Thought. While at Wheaton, Noll also co-founded and directed the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals.
In 1994, he co-signed
Evangelicals and Catholics TogetherEvangelicals and Catholics Together is a 1994 ecumenical document signed by leading Evangelical and Roman Catholic scholars in the United States. The co-signers of the document were Charles Colson and Richard John Neuhaus, representing each side of the discussions...
, an ecumenical document that expressed the need for greater cooperation between Evangelical and Catholic leaders in the United States.
Since the Fall of 2006, Noll has been a faculty member in Department of History at the
Notre DameThe University of Notre Dame du Lac is a private Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, Indiana, USA....
in South Bend, Indiana. He replaced the retiring George Marsden as Notre Dame's Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History. Noll stated that the move to Notre Dame has allowed him to concentrate on fewer subjects than his duties at Wheaton had allowed.
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