  What?!  Honestly, what?!  I can’t understand it when read by its meaning (scandal).  The cross was a disgrace against public morality?  In the sense that Jesus’ own people turned against him and hung him, tortured him, maybe so.  But it was in fact that exact action that saved humankind; it is the point that Jesus was the sacrifice.  
	Throughout the next few sections of the book Noll talked so much about the history of evangelicals and the church it made me sick.  It was so hard to get through and I felt like I was in a fight with the text.  “Push, push, and push through the words to get to the good part” I would tell myself.  Honestly, I had a hard time with this book.  It was a heavy language style for me.  One portion of the history I did enjoy reading about was the Puritans.  I had no idea that they were so intellectual.  I thought, from what I knew, about history, that they were overzealous and killed those who should not have been killed.  The fact that they tried to maintain a balance between “spirit and philosophy” (Noll, 41) says something of their culture of the time.  I also learned that when the church and state first had separated, some states still kept prayer in meetings, tested state office on religious subject, and gave tax to support ministers (Noll, 64).  That is amazing.  
Although I understood some things still yet other things I had to let go because I couldn’t grasp it.  And that is difficult for me to admit.  I consider myself smart, but when faced with the challenge of reading Noll I find myself inadequate.  But maybe that is exactly what Noll wants out of his readings.  After finishing the book perhaps Noll wants his readers to take a look at themselves and say, “hey, you, yes you, are you really using your mind?  Are you really as intellectual and smart as you think you are?”  And then they will ponder and find that they are extremely not what they thought they were.  And then that is when Christ can come in and say, “Yes, now then, let us work on your intellect.  Now that you know, it is me who enriches even your mind.  Give me your mind.”  I think that is Noll’s platform, “Evangelicals!  Give Christ your mind!”



	I was vaguely familiar with Gilgamesh from the time I studied it in high school.  I remember at that time we had an assignment: to act out a portion of the story with a group assigned in class.  I remember that my group chose to focus on how Enkidu became civilized, specifically, how the harlot civilized him.  We were just kids then, and now as I re-read the story instead I find it fascinating that there is a piece of literature that so closely resembles the biblical account of Noah and the flood, and yet Gilgamesh was written in a time before this biblical account. 