In his new book, Before YouLeave: For College, Career, and Eternity, Todd von Helms focuses on faith, but also highlights a number of Christian leaders who have made a mark, telling readers "The list of influential Christians goes on and on."
Among them, of special interest to Arkansans, is Walter Hussman, the publisher of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
"Christian physicist John Polkinghorne of Cambridge and philosopher Richard Swinburne of Oxford are two of the most influential intellectuals of the past half century. Oxford mathematics professor John Lennox and widely respected historians George Marsden, Mark Noll, Grant Wacker, and Dana Robert have made indelible contributions through their respective academic positions," he writes.
"Intellectuals Vishal Mangalwadi, Alvin Plantinga, and Ravi Zacharias have gone toe to toe with foremost philosophers across the globe. Francis Collins leads the [National Institutes of Health]. Fred Brooks at the University of North Carolina is a world-class computer scientist and Nobel Laureate," he states.
"Newspaper magnate Walter Hussman has epitomized ethical journalism for decades. David Brooks and Ross Douthat are leading columnists for The New York Times. Peter Hitchens (brother of the late New Atheist, Christopher Hitchens) is a brilliant author and journalist. John Grisham, Eric Metaxas, and J.K. Rowling are but a few of the world's best-selling authors year after year."
While the list is long, von Helms suggests it isn't as long as it should be.
"... Christians must realize that one of the main reasons why their contributions go unnoticed is because too few are impacting the world beyond their concentric circles of like-minded Christians," he writes. "If Christians want to dispel the perception of being intellectually inferior and culturally irrelevant, they must produce excellent work that is deemed worthy of the highest standards."
Religion on 05/16/2020